Pray the word with David Platt is a resource from Radical.net.

Acts chapter 9 verses 15 and 16. The Lord said to him,

go, for he has a chosen instrument of mind to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings

and the children of Israel. Where I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.

If you're familiar with Acts chapter 9, this is the story of Saul,

slash Paul's conversion of when Jesus met Saul on the road to Damascus and confronted him

about his persecution of Christians and not just his persecution of Christians. If you remember,

Acts chapter 9 verse 4, Jesus says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It's a powerful

picture of Jesus identifying with his people, saying to Saul, when you mess with my people,

you're messing with me. And Jesus meets him and calls him to himself, blinds him. And then,

if you remember the story, God speaks to Ananias in a vision and tells Ananias to go and to

meet Paul. This one who's persecuting Christians and Ananias is saying, I don't know about that.

I've heard about this man. How much evil he's done and all the havoc he's wreaking across the

church, and God looks at him and says, he is a chosen instrument to carry my name before the

Gentiles, which is so significant. This has been progressing now since the end of Acts chapter 7,

Stoning of Stephen, Acts chapter 8, the gospel begins to spread from the Jews to the Samaritans,

then by the end of Acts chapter 8, you have an Ethiopian, unique, and African who comes to know

Jesus. And now we see God saying, I am taking this gospel to nations, and I am saving the most

unlikely Jewish man. Saul, the persecutor of Christians, as my chosen instrument to take the

gospel to the nations to be an apostle to the Gentiles. And then, verse 16, God tells Ananias,

I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name and thus begins a whole new chapter

in the story of the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth led by the Apostle Paul,

...