0124 神无敌的心意
你起来站着，我特意向你显现，要派你作执事，作见证，将你所看见的事和我将要指示你的事证明出来。《使徒行传 26:16》
保罗往大马士革路上看到的异象，并不是一时的情感经历，而是对他非常清晰和强调的指导异象。保罗说：「我故此没有违背那从天上来的异象。」（使徒行传26:19）。我们的主实际上是对保罗说：「你整个生命都要被我制服或征服；你没有终点、没有目标、没有目的，而只有我的。」主也对我们说：「不是你们拣选了我，乃是我拣选了你们，并且派你们去…」（约翰福音15:16）
当我们重生时，如果我们真是属灵的，我们就有耶稣要我们所是的异象。学会不「违背天上的异象」是非常重要的——不要怀疑它是否可以实现的。仅仅在心智上赞同神救赎了世界是不够的，甚至知道圣灵可以使耶稣所做的一切在我生命中成为真实，这也是不够的；我必须与祂有个人关系的基础。保罗并非被赋予一个要宣讲的信息或教义。他被带到与耶稣基督的活泼、个人、无可抵挡的关系。使徒行传 26:16是非常引人注目的经文：「…派作执事，作见证。」如果没有个人的关系，那就什么都不是。保罗是委身于一个人，而不是一个事业；他绝对是属于耶稣基督，他别无所见，也不为别的而活。「因为我曾定了主意，在你们中间不知道别的，只知道耶稣基督并祂钉十字架。」（哥林多前书 2:2）
来自章伯斯的智慧
自然地说，没有什么比衰败更能让我们迅速丧失信心了——身体美丽的衰退、自然生命的衰退、友谊的衰退、关系的衰退，所有这些都使人心灰意冷；但保罗说，当我们信靠耶稣基督时，这些事情就不会令我们沮丧，光明会透过它们而来。《帮助之地》
0124 God’s Overpowering Purpose
I have appeared to you for this purpose… —Acts 26:16
The vision Paul had on the road to Damascus was not a passing emotional experience, but a vision that had very clear and emphatic directions for him. And Paul stated, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision” (Acts 26:19). Our Lord said to Paul, in effect, “Your whole life is to be overpowered or subdued by Me; you are to have no end, no aim, and no purpose but Mine.” And the Lord also says to us, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go…” (John 15:16).
When we are born again, if we are spiritual at all, we have visions of what Jesus wants us to be. It is important that I learn not to be “disobedient to the heavenly vision” — not to doubt that it can be attained. It is not enough to give mental assent to the fact that God has redeemed the world, nor even to know that the Holy Spirit can make all that Jesus did a reality in my life. I must have the foundation of a personal relationship with Him. Paul was not given a message or a doctrine to proclaim. He was brought into a vivid, personal, overpowering relationship with Jesus Christ. Acts 26:16 is tremendously compelling “…to make you a minister and a witness….” There would be nothing there without a personal relationship. Paul was devoted to a Person, not to a cause. He was absolutely Jesus Christ’s. He saw nothing else and he lived for nothing else. “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
There is nothing, naturally speaking, that makes us lose heart quicker than decay—the decay of bodily beauty, of natural life, of friendship, of associations, all these things make a man lose heart; but Paul says when we are trusting in Jesus Christ these things do not find us discouraged, light comes through them. –The Place of Help