Close Encounters Of The GOD Kind

Part 1
Dis-Ability is His-ability
Encounter: to come upon or experience
especially unexpectedly, a meeting that is not
planned
Intimacy with God is our highest calling.
This intimacy is based on a Biblical Theology
called prevenient grace.
This is how before we ever went after God, He
came after us! Amazing Grace!
The disciples did not come to Jesus until He came
unto them.
The woman at the well did not recognize Him, but
He recognized her.
The woman taken in adultery did not run to
Jesus, He came seeking her.
This does not mean God is not expecting us to go
after Him, it just means once He initiates the
pursuit, His hope is you will turn toward Him and
seek Him.
The enemy, knowing the power of intimacy, tries
to use our weaknesses as disabilities.
To disable you from going after God making you
feel unworthy and unable, thus hiding:
We looked last at the encounter Moses had
with God in the wilderness and the burning
bush.
He turned aside to seeand he saw the Lord!
Today we look at a New Testament encounter
with God that not only changed a man but
changed the world!
It is the man we know as Paul, the Apostle.
We know a little of his life from his writings:
circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of
the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews;
concerning the law, a Pharisee Ph.3:5
I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but
brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, taught
according to the strictness of our fathers law Acts
22:3
Paul then tells of his encounter with the Lord:
Now it happened, as I journeyed and came near
Damascus at about noon, suddenly a great light
from heaven shone around me. And I fell to the
ground and heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul,
why are you persecuting Me? So I answered,
Who are You, Lord? And He said to me, I am
Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.
Paul is:
Chosena special vessel unto me Acts 9:15
Convertedand he received Acts 9:17
Connectedhe spent days with the disciples19

He immediately proclaimed that Jesus is the Christ!
20-21

Ananias ministers to Saul as a convert. He heals him
CLARITY comes as scales (film or scar tissue) falls from
Saul's eyes. He instructs Saul, confirming that the Jesus
whom Saul saw on the road is indeed the Lord. He
comforts Saul, addressing him as a Christian brother.
He baptizes Saul, formally incorporating him into the
body of Christ. Finally Saul knows full restoration as he
takes nourishment. In all, Ananias's ministry models for
us the supportive, restorative role the church is to play
in the lives of new converts.