Do you remember a 2008 movie called Vantage Point? The movie, starring many famous actors, told the story of an assassination attempt. Instead of sharing that story from one point of view, the director told the same story several times, each time from the vantage point of a different character in the story. Though it was not my favorite way of telling a story, the movie revealed an important truth: each person adds to the story a unique perspective. This reminded me that you have a point of view, I have a point of view, and God? God has the view! He sees it all.
When Luke told us about Ananias praying, obeying God, and restoring Paul’s sight, he showed us the story from one vantage point. Now Luke tells us what Paul said in the presence of the lynch mob in the temple. He told the crowd about Ananias’s faithfulness to the law. Again, we see that Ananias restored Paul’s sight. But Luke tells us what Paul heard that day: “God has chosen you to know, to see and to hear . . .” Then Ananias commissioned him with prayer: “You will be his witness.” Finally, a command: “Get up, be baptized and wash away your sins by calling on his name.” From this second telling, we know more about what happened at Paul’s conversion and commissioning.
Two things strike me as I read this part of Paul’s speech. First, testimonies are powerful. Paul’s testimony revealed irrefutable evidence that God has called him to be a Christian and a missionary. Likely the people in the crowd who were from Damascus would have heard of Ananias. Paul’s story is true. Jesus has changed his life. One of my friends who is winning a victory over cancer prays daily, “God give me a testimony.” God is doing just that. You, too, have a testimony. Second, prayer is powerful. Ananias’s prayerful commissioning of Paul served as an ordination of sorts. When I was eighteen years old, pastors in western Montana prayed for me and commissioned me as a pastor to go to Texas as their missionary. Within a few weeks, Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Falls County, Texas called me as their pastor. That night in Montana, Pastor Louis Belcher began his prayer for me with these words, “You are a great God and a mighty Savior.” I have never forgotten who sent me. Wednesday night our R. A. Leaders and the multitude of boys who attend that ministry gathered around me and prayed for me. I have been ordained by pastors and Royal Ambassadors. All of us possess the power to pray over others and to envision a bright future for them. Tell your testimony and pray for people. Watch God work and join him in it!
