My Daily Med. November 28, 2020

Galatians 1:10-17–10)For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. 11)But I make known to you, bretheren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. 12)For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. 13)For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it. 14)And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers. 15)But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, 16)to reveal His Son inme, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, 17)nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.

After Paul’s conversion, he disappeared for three years, during which time the Holy Spirit instructed him in the ways of God. This was a critical time in his growth as a believer.

The Lord speaks so we can comprehend and communicate the truth. What happened during Paul’s desert years was only the beginning. God renewed the apostle’s mind and worked on conforming him to the image of Christ. For Paul, that change meant applying his knowledge as a Pharisee to the revelation that Jesus Christ was the Son of God.

Here was a man who knew Scripture thoroughly, but the truth that Jesus was the promised Messiah made him reconsider the foundation he’d been trusting. Everything Paul knew about God had to be reevaluated in light of this new information. The apostle’s spirit was being shaped according to the Father’s will. And long after Paul began his ministry, the Lord kept working on him. Every person who reads his letters is a witness to this process.

Like Paul, you are the Holy Spirit’s student, and the knowledge you reap from Scripture can change your life. If you let yourself be transformed by the Word of God, you will share it with others and make disciples.