From Saul to Paul: A Journey of Transformation

SPEAKER 01 : 0:09

Welcome to Call to Freedom with Barbara Carmack. This is Jimmy Lakey, and I’m delighted that you are joining us for this half hour. You can reach Call to Freedom at Box 370367, Denver, Colorado, 80237, or by going to the website at www.freedomstreet.org. If you want to leave a message or order a Word Power Daily Reading Bible Guide or a Freedom Street Express newsletter, you can call us toll free at 1-877-917-7256 and leave your name and address, including your zip code. If you want to talk to Barbara right now, she is expecting your call. You may call that same toll-free number, 1-877-917-7256 to speak to her. And now, let’s join Barbara in the studio.

SPEAKER 04 : 1:03

Oh, and on this cold and windy day in Denver, Colorado, I hope where you are is a lot calmer. But thank you. Thank you, Lord. And welcome to Call to Freedom. We have to get into a mood of being flexible. with every kind of weather situation there is and all situations in our lives. They come and go. Challenges come and go. Oh, my goodness. But I’m believing that you know that you are thanking the Lord. You are thanking the Lord for the way he’s blessed your life and shown you how to be a blessing to others. And sometimes that is very difficult. Some of you are in situations where it’s difficult to praise the Lord where you are. But I know that as you begin to praise him, he inhabits your praises. And the way gets smoother and smoother, my friend. It really does. So let our hearts be a continual harvest of kindness and generosity and joy and love. Because the kingdom of God, and this is in Romans 14, verse 17, the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking. I know. After the program today, I probably will go get something to eat. But the kingdom of God is not all eating and drinking, but it’s righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. And I pray that we will exalt him, exalt our Lord Jesus and exalt Father God for what they have done in our lives. Oh, praise the Lord. You are blessed to dispense for in him you live and move and have your being and you can donate to Call to Freedom when you go to freedomstreet.org. You can listen to radio programs in the last two months if you want to go there. And if you like the songs, Monday and Tuesday songs are usually recorded. I love songs. and then Kimberly comes on Wednesdays and mostly Thursdays. So go to the radio shows, listen to them. Also, Darren Sessions are all of the CD series that we had, and it’s now been converted to MP3. Thank you so much, Chris, for doing that hard work. Many hours, yes. But now you can listen to the Angels series. You can listen to the Forgiveness series. You can just go down the list and pick one that you really feel like you need, that may be a challenge in your life. You can do that. You can also go to the Bible Guide. Download that. You can also go to the newsletters. And November newsletter is so good. And just go on and check it all out because there’s a lot of listening there. And there’s a lot of wonderful anointed teaching. I mean, over 30 years of teaching that Darren has done. And then Darren and I did for almost 15 years. So it’s just a wonderful source of being able to edify and honor. also to learn. We’re learning. We’re students always learning, aren’t we? Let me just give you the memory verse for this week is John 17, 17. And in the message translation, it starts in the 16th verse, John 17, 16 and 17. I’m not asking that you take them out of the world. This is Jesus talking to his father. I’m not asking that you take them out of the world, but that you guard them from the evil one. Remember, his angels are surrounding you. You have an angel. Every day your angel sees the face of the Father. So remember that. That’s Matthew 18, verse 10. I’m not asking you that you take them out of the world, but you guard them from the evil one. They are no more defined by the world than I am defined by the world, says Jesus. Make them holy, consecrated, sanctified with the truth. Your word is concentrated truth. In the same way you gave me a mission in this world, I give them a mission in this world. And friend, as you’re listening today, God has given you a mission. It may be to your family, but that is a mission. And we put down the the missions that we have because we don’t think they’re big enough. I don’t think that I’ve got a ministry like so-and-so and pastor so-and-so. No, you don’t. Your ministry is so different than anybody else’s. So I praise God and I thank God. And Kimberly, I think you’re finally on. I am. I’m here. Oh, praise God.

SPEAKER 02 : 5:40

I know you’re busy. I know you’re busy, too. You’re talking about missions, you know, and having a mission to your family and to the people that you’ve been surrounded by. God plants us right where he wants us. That’s right. And I love that you’re reminding all of us. that we have a mission, so often we might decide we don’t like our mission. We might move away from it, or we’ll quit our job and we’ll try to find a new job, or we’ll quit on our spouse, try to find a new spouse. It happens all the time as human beings. And Jesus came to show us that he was willing to accept every mission. He was willing to accept the road, the path that led him to a cross. And I was thinking about Paul also, who was Saul at first, and then he was changed and became Paul. And as Saul, when you think of him, he definitely had an agenda. Yes. Yes, he did. And you know what? Yeah, he had such an agenda. I just want to take a moment now and just pray. Heavenly Father… We thank you for the missions that you have given us, and we thank you that you have given us free will. Help us give you our free will so that it becomes very much in line with your mission for us, that we will not fight it, we will not resist, but we will be listeners, that we will be the kind of sheep that hear your voice, and are guided by you and you alone. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Amen. I just felt really prompted to pray that as we’re talking about Saul, and his agendas looked so good because they were all surrounded or centered on what his perspective of religion was, what his perspective of the scriptures and what the scriptures taught was, and following the law, and that was his idea, his perspective. We do the same thing. We’re human. Just like Saul, we have that human opinion that thinks we know. We think we know that we’re in the wrong place. We’re with the wrong people. We’re in the wrong mission. And so because we decide that, then we take matters into our own hands and we start looking. in every direction for another mission, for something we like better.

SPEAKER 04 : 8:24

That’s so good. We like better. Yes. Kimberly, that is so rich because we want to be comfortable. We want to be familiar with what’s going on. And sometimes those missions we have, it’s just difficult. It’s challenging. We’ve never been there before. And how can I get through this day, Father God? And so you’re right. Our mission is, should be something that is very challenging and yet rewarding, because everything we do for Jesus is so rewarding. That’s right.

SPEAKER 02 : 8:57

And the whole point, the whole purpose is to create someone who looks like him. We want to have humble and gentle hearts. We want to be more like sheep. Yesterday we were talking about becoming like sheep, because sheep do not put a lot of responsibility on their own shoulders. They need help with everything in life. So they are not responsible creatures. They can’t fend for themselves. And we as humans, we’ve got to work hard to lay down our independent thinking and our independent ways and become like a sheep who needs help, who wants help from their good shepherd. So when we’re looking at Saul and the way that he works, The way that he was traveling down that road to Damascus, he had an agenda. He’s got a schedule. He has people with him. He knows exactly where he’s going and what he wants to do when he gets there. And it involves imprisonment of Christians. It involves murder of those who follow the way and who follow Jesus because he believed that he was cleaning up a sect that was infiltrating and causing damage to the scriptures and to the law.

SPEAKER 04 : 10:16

Yes. And Jewish customs. That’s right. And he had a following, Kimberly. Remember when they drug Stephen out of the town and he was stoned and a whole group of men were with Saul. When he sat there with all their clothes and their garments as they were stoning this precious prophet of God. So he had a following. And not every, you know, even in this world that we live in, we love to follow popular people and people that have a following and thousands and thousands of followers. But that’s not always the best thing. It really isn’t. It’s not always God’s will.

SPEAKER 02 : 10:55

Well, we’re not supposed to go along with those in the world, and sometimes the people in the world, we don’t even realize that they’re part of our church congregations. Yes, yes. They are not showing true love, and true love is what our Heavenly Father and what Jesus came to show us. That is our whole mission in life, is to be obedient to love one another. And what I really want to point out about Saul becoming Paul, on that road to Damascus, Saul was not praying and fasting that he would become more obedient. We don’t have any record of him praying that he would see God, that he would have more revelation of the Lord himself. He wasn’t praying that. And it was very suddenly that the Lord interrupted his path And that’s kind of how I feel about, you know, yesterday and today we’ve had a little bit of technical difficulties. And it could be on my end I’m realizing, well, maybe it’s some of the hardware that I’m using and I just need to update some things. But regardless of whatever it is or wherever it’s coming from, my prayer for the last few days since Monday has been, Lord, please interrupt my days. mmm interrupt my agendas interrupt my schedule yes interrupt my routine interrupt me because I want to know you more so whatever you need to do to interrupt I will accept it and as these little technical dick difficulties were happening He reminded me, you’ve been praying that I would interrupt. Yes, I have. And I just want to say thank you for that. Can I just say thank you? Thank you, God, for interrupting. Because your ways are higher than our ways. And see what he does with Saul on the road to Damascus. He interrupts him. And Saul wasn’t even really seeking him. He wasn’t even praying that same prayer that I was praying, interrupt me. Saul knew exactly what he wanted to do. And he was sure of it. But God interrupted that. And by his grace, I want to read from Galatians 1, starting in verse 13. It says, by now, this is Paul, Paul writing to the Galatians. He says, By now you have heard stories of how severely I harassed and persecuted Christians and did my best to systematically destroy God’s church, all because of my radical devotion to the Jewish religion. My zeal and passion for the doctrines of Judaism distinguished me among my people. For I was far more advanced in my religious instruction than others my age. But God, it’s just, it’s my favorite interruption. That’s right. God called me by his grace and in love. He chose me from my birth to be his. God knew exactly when to enter in on the scene. and say, okay, it’s time. It’s time. Let me reveal my grace. Let me reveal my love. And that is our mission in life, is to know his grace more and know his love more.

SPEAKER 04 : 14:32

Yes, and it was such a drastic incident that he was thrown off of his horse, and then he was blinded. He had to go into the city and have Ananias pray over him. So then he knew… that his new life was so different. He went away. He went into Arabia. He didn’t even consult with anybody because he knew his life was so different now that he was going to have to really dig into that word, dig into just being with God, being intimate with him, because it was a God he never knew. He never knew this God.

SPEAKER 02 : 15:13

Right. I believe the Lord led him away so that he would learn to listen and obey. Because we hold so tightly to our schedules, to our ideas of how we want to make life work, to our routines. I keep saying agenda. I want other words, and maybe some of you can write in and give me more words. If you feel the need to do that, I’m Kimberly at FreedomStreet.org, and I love hearing from you. Love, love it. But this is how we see that Paul was not being changed by his own responsibility to make those right decisions. We all feel such a heavy responsibility to direct our path and make right decisions. But this passage in Galatians 1, 13 through 15, is telling us that we’re not rewarded by how well we react or make decisions in the situations of life. We are called by his grace and chosen by his love alone, not our work. Yes.

SPEAKER 04 : 16:20

Yes.

SPEAKER 02 : 16:20

And so this is the place that we want to find ourselves really leaning on the Lord for direction, letting him guide our path. This morning, early, early, I took someone to the hospital. She had a surgery scheduled, and I told her I would be her ride because I don’t mind getting up. at 4 o’clock in the morning. I’m not a time being, and so it doesn’t matter what time it is. I want to be able to be available. And so she needed a ride very early, and I took her. And, you know, when we got there and the doctors and nurses started asking questions, do you have this? Do you have that? Do you have a stool for your shower? Do you have a walker at home? Do you have a cane? They were asking all these questions, and her answer was, Oh, no, I don’t have that. No, I don’t have that. It was no to everything. And, you know, some would maybe look and say, well, you weren’t very responsible to put all those things in place that you’re going to need when you get home. But you know what happened? I was walking toward the exits. after my part was finished, and I’m walking toward the exit of the hospital trying to find my way out, and it’s a huge hospital. I got lost. I got turned around. And I was giggling to myself down the hallways and going, oh, I’m going to have to ask somebody. It’s okay. I’ll find the right person. And somebody from my church was walking in, and she works at that hospital. Oh, wow. She actually led me in the right direction, and I told her why I was there. And she turned to me and she said, you need to call Margie. Margie is going to know exactly what our friend needs up there. And so I made the phone call. You know what? It was such a God-ordained morning. I couldn’t have planned that. I could not have planned how to really help my friend going through the surgery. Mm-hmm. I wouldn’t know how to get a hold of the right people, the right machines, the right equipment to help her in her recovery time, because I had never been through that. But God, He was the one directing every step of my path, letting me get lost in the hospital so I would talk to the right person and be prompted by Him to follow His path. It’s these little things. We want to be able to let go. of our idea of how our day needs to go. And we’re planning to get to work at this time, and we’re planning to get to the store at that time, and we’re planning, right? We’re constantly planning. But why don’t we just let God interrupt it and show us how to love people around us as he does it? And be so filled with joy. Do you know I have more joy today because of those interruptions. Because I got lost. Because my friend didn’t have all of the equipment that she needed. I could feel anxiety about that. But I very immediately watched our Heavenly Father provide. Yes. That’s fun. That is a more fun way to live than planning it all out and scheduling it all out for yourself.

SPEAKER 1 : 19:43

That’s right.

SPEAKER 02 : 19:43

Letting God do it. And we need to not be afraid of that. So Hebrews 13, 20, I read it yesterday, but I want to read it again today because it says now. And that means today. If you hear his voice today, now the God of peace. And this is the image we were made in. We were made in his image of peace. So now the God of peace who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep. All right, we need to hear that. The great shepherd of the sheep. We’re the sheep. The great shepherd came as a sheep in this world, and he allowed himself to be led by our father down paths that most of us would resist all the way to death. Oh, a cruel beating and death. So here’s the great shepherd, and he allows himself to go even to death, knowing that Who would bring him up from the dead? Because death has no sting anymore. Because death is not the end. This is the best news ever. This is not just good news. This is the best news ever. And we need to know that whatever we have planned, if we would let go of those plans, even let go of whatever situation you might be struggling with, It was a few weeks ago that our friend Linda was struggling with a contract that she was being sued over, and she just decided, I’m going to let this go. She went ahead and gave over the title of this trailer that she owned in order to make up for the differences. of what she was being sued for. Let go of it. She made her last payment on it and let go of it. Let go. Amen. When we let go and let God bless us, he does it in ways that gives us so much more joy than we could ever have from our own plans coming together for us. His plans are just much greater.

SPEAKER 04 : 21:57

They are. We think of life as responsibilities. We learn that when we’re really tiny, wanting to be responsible to God. And you’re speaking, Kimberly, about being responding. to him, having a respondable heart, being humble and teachable. Boy, that flies in the face of the world instruction and the world teaching. It really does. So we’ve got to go through a dramatic change, just like Saul of Tarsus did when God threw him off his horse. And some of us have to be thrown off our way of doing things and get into the thing that he’s doing for us. So, oh, this is so good.

SPEAKER 02 : 22:41

Yes. You know, and Paul did not have any fear. He learned to be fearless as he was just led down every path. He no longer made his plans. In fact, he would write in his letters, I hope to come to you. But he didn’t know for sure that he was going to come to him. And he had the same faith that Jesus had before. that death is no rival for God. So it doesn’t matter how many times Paul was going to be whipped and stoned and in shipwrecks. He was persecuted in so many ways, but he knew death is no rival for God, and he just kept following that path. And Hebrews 13, 20 goes on to say that it’s through the eternal covenant. God’s promise to you as you’re listening today, his covenant with you is unbreakable and unstoppable. And we want to know that we know that, that we are equipped. Jesus, our Lord, has equipped us in every good thing to do his will. And the Passion Translation says that he’s giving you all that you need. to fulfill your destiny. You don’t have to plan it out for yourself. He’s doing it. He’s the good shepherd doing that for his sheep. So what is it that we need? Well, Hebrews, if we stay in Hebrews and look at Hebrews 10, 36, it says that we have the need of endurance. So that when we have done the will of God, we may receive what was promised.

SPEAKER 03 : 24:20

Yes.

SPEAKER 02 : 24:21

You know, it does take some endurance to follow his voice and to not be so planned out with our days and with our lives, with our careers, with our relationships. Not plan them, but to endure what happens on a path that seems a little, maybe not so And James 1 tells us that the testing of our faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. This is what the good shepherd wants for his sheep. He wants them to be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. And they will have endurance just knowing that wherever they’re led… It’s no rival. If it’s down to a river that is just cascading in a waterfall down it, that’s no rival for their good shepherd. He’s got that handled. He can guide them and protect them better than they can protect themselves.

SPEAKER 04 : 25:28

Amen. So good, Kimberly. God gave us as we give to him and yield to him. He’s given us a teachable heart to perceive all the secrets, the hidden mysteries of God’s kingdom. And I pray all of you listening today that you will have that pliable heart, that humble and teachable heart that God has given to you through Jesus Christ so that you don’t have a hard heart, something that won’t be teachable anymore. And Kimberly, thank you so much for doing this. I know it’s been difficult getting you online today, but I think the enemy wants to keep you from speaking these wonderful truths, but we won’t allow him to do that. We cast him out of this. So thank you.

SPEAKER 02 : 26:16

And maybe it’s really just our Heavenly Father answering my prayer and interrupting. I love that. I love him so much. We continue to trust him as listeners. as his people, as his sheep, we continue to trust him in everything that he does and give him all the glory at all times.

SPEAKER 04 : 26:35

Oh, thank you so much. Oh, and we thank you for listening. We thank you for donating to Call to Freedom. We thank you for being a viable person in the kingdom of God. God bless you and keep you and take joy.

SPEAKER 1 : 26:59

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SPEAKER 01 : 27:19

Call to Freedom is a listener-supported radio ministry. Barbara and her power partners invite you to come on board with us and become a network of hands holding up Call to Freedom ministry. Power partners support Call to Freedom with prayer and monthly financial support. You will be blessed supernaturally. We invite you to visit Call to Freedom’s website, www.freedomstreet.org, where you can hear Barbara’s daily radio broadcast 24 hours a day or order materials. You may share your praise reports and heart cries by mailing them to Call to Freedom, Box 370-367, Denver, Colorado, 80237. Or you may email us at barbracarmack at freedomstreet.org. Until next time, remember, Jesus loves you, Barbara loves you, and take joy.

SPEAKER 1 : 28:36

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