“Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem…. Now for several days he was with the disciples who were at Damascus, and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, ‘He is the Son of God'” (Acts 9:1-2, 19-20).

Ironically, Saul’s desire to visit the synagogues in Damascus came to fruition, but clearly not for the reasons he had originally intended. Rather than delivering threatening letters from the high priest, he delivered powerful sermons that Jesus is the Son of God. Let us be encouraged by the fact that Satan never misses an opportunity to shoot himself in the foot.

All his greatest efforts to stop the spread of the gospel have always resulted in more disciples of Jesus, not less.

“All those hearing him continued to be amazed, and were saying, ‘Is this not he who in Jerusalem destroyed those who called on this name, and who had come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?’ … So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up; and going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase” (Acts 9:21, 31).