My Dear Friend,

When he first met Jesus, Paul's name was "Saul," meaning "asked for, sought after." Since biblical names often reflect character, Saul's name implies he was considered important. Or, in our parlance, a big man!

PAUL'S LARGENESS

Indeed, the superbly educated young man Jesus appeared to on the Damascus Road, though small in physical stature, was a big Jew, a rising theological star in the ministerial galaxy of first century Pharisaic Judaism.

Saul was well known. An avid learner and excellent scholar, he was favored by his rabbinic seniors, especially his prime teacher, Gamaliel. This high favor made him the envy of his peers. All the younger Jewish scholars wanted to be like Saul.

And when the important assignments came up, Saul's was the first name considered for the appointment. Therefore, when the prestigious mission of persecuting the heretical sect of Jews known as "The Way" was being planned, Saul was quickly appointed to defend the faith by harassing the heretics! Yes, from every perspective, Saul was primed and ready for a long, productive life of lasting influence among the Jews, and he knew it. True to his name, he was "asked for," "sought after," a big man. But this big man had no power with God.

PAUL'S SMALLNESS

Years later, after being emptied of his vaunted religious reputation and prideful self-esteem, Saul became another man. A very different man. A God-changed man. A man who had fully surrendered to the Holy Spirit's internal work and completely submitted himself to God's humility process during a long season of humble labors while hidden away in his hometown of Tarsus (Acts 9:29; Philippians 2:5-8 and 3:4-11).

Officially, we meet this new, humbled man on a mission stop in Paphos, being confronted by a Jewish false prophet (Acts 13:6-13). But now he has power with God. Specifically, he is "filled with the Holy Spirit" and the Spirit's amazing miracle-working power. Now, speaking in Christ's authority, he releases a powerful divine judgment upon the impenitent, occult opponent of the gospel, Elymas, who was attempting to keep the local Roman proconsul, Sergius Paulus, from hearing the gospel and being saved (Acts 13:9-11). His words release God's almighty "hand," blinding Elymas to stop him from stopping the consul's conversion.

Who is this new ministerial dynamo, this explosively empowered apostle, this super-extraordinary Christian? The text informs us.

For the first time it calls him "Paul," which, oddly, means "little." The apostle Paul, little? Placed alongside his former name, his new name begins to make more sense. It implies he is now not "asked for" or "sought after." Now he is in no way considered big and important in men's eyes and, most importantly, his own! Apparently, Paul's sending church, the new, rapidly growing assembly of Gentile believers in Antioch, also considered Paul little. Luke lists him last among the five presiding elders on Antioch's ministerial staff (Acts 13:1). But something was changing now. God was about to make the last first. Luke also picks up on this by describing Paul, only a few verses later, as the mission's new leader: "Paul and his company loosed from Paphos..." (Acts 13:13). What's the lesson here?

PAUL: A PARABLE FOR US

Simply this: Paul's experience is a parable teaching us what God wants to do in us. When we are big and important in our own eyes, quietly but regularly thinking we are, or are sure to be, Saul types, "asked for, sought after," we are in that very moment and condition just the opposite: small, useless, and powerless in the eyes of Christ - who humbled Himself by total obedience to the Father's will, even to the horribly low, utterly shameful, criminal's death of crucifixion!

On the other hand, when we submit to a Spirit-led season of humility training, die entirely to our religious pride, stop envying others with larger ministries, and finally come to understand just how "little" we really are - apart from what Christ puts in us and His Spirit does through us - we are ready to become big for Christ and His kingdom plan. We are ready to speak, pray, and command in the power of the Spirit, releasing God's hand and shutting down Satan's works. In short, we are ready to be a big, Paul-like blessing to God's people.

Indeed, we are ready for power ministry! Jesus began His power ministry at Cana where, after 30 years of obedience and humility training in Nazareth, He began to manifest the saving, miraculous spiritual power the Father desired for Him to use to bless both Jews and Gentiles (John 2:1-11). At our "Cana," or our "Paphos," we too begin to operate in the power of God. That power may take one of many forms.

For instance, we speak, and our words change lives. We write, and our messages open eyes and turn hearts. We preach, and our sermons open ears, embed God's truth in hearts, and grip souls with life-changing repentance. We pray, and answers appear on earth, straight from heaven's gates. We suffer terribly, and yet, as we renew our strength in God's presence and Word morning by morning, we are able to endure and move steadily forward in God's will and work with a strength not our own, running but not being weary, walking but not fainting (Isaiah 40:31). We are cruelly wronged, yet are able to release our offenders, forget their offenses, and move on with Christ as if nothing happened - spiritually unmoved, unharmed in soul, not embittered in spirit, undiminished in power, and undeterred in our ministry. That's power. Supernatural power. God's power.

And as we stay close to Christ, it grows. Every day, God's power powers us on our way ever more powerfully. And that's not all. His power - the deep, flowing, current of the heavenly river of God that brings life wherever it flows (Ezekiel 47:1-12) - flows not only in but also out, steadily drawing others into His saving life, righteousness, and power. Why is this power flowing now?

We have a radically changed self-view. We do not see ourselves as "Sauls," up-and-coming, impressive Christians or ministers others should recognize and ask for. Why is this? We have been to God's cleaners. We have been ground under His millstones of injustice. We have walked closely with Him through His fiery furnaces of hot conflict. We have passed through raging rivers of opposition hand in hand with Him. We have ridden out overwhelming floods of trouble in an ark made, not of tar and timber but God's Word and prayer. And we have emerged new men and women of God. We are "Pauls" now. Little in our own eyes. Little in others' eyes. Yet big in Jesus' eyes, and filled with new power with which to influence others for Him.

MOSES' SMALLNESS

Moses went through this pride-reduction process. The great Egyptian ruler that arrived on scene in Midian with a flourish and nobly delivered Jethro's daughters from abusive shepherds was still a big man. Very big. So big he still did not realize just how utterly dependent he was on his father's God. For life. For breath. For wisdom. For grace. For words. For divine gifts. For the Spirit's perfect guidance. For God's protective covering. For leadership ability. For success. For everything!

But 40 years later, Moses was small. Very small. So insignificant, self-emptied, and unworthy of divine attention in his own eyes that, when God suddenly renewed the great call on his life, he drew back in fear. He feverishly asked God to send someone else, anyone, but not him! He was too small for God to empower and use. He was not wise enough. He could not speak well enough. He had no power. All he had was a few dirty sheep to care for, an old rod, a well-worn staff, and a distant memory of a day, long ago and far away, when he had felt worthy of and equal to God's mission.

After God's rebuke, however, and strong discipline in the inn by the way (Exodus 4:24-26), Moses changed his tune. Now he realized that, as a small man standing on the shoulders of a big God, why, yes, he could fulfill the purpose of his creation. In the power of God, with the favor of God, the wisdom of God, and the support of God's assigned helper, Aaron, why, yes, he could deliver the people of God. And he would!

And he did! God's power flowed through Moses in a way never since equaled: frequent divine visitations, the Glory visibly living among the people, the wise and just law, the pattern for Israel's tabernacle, its divinely designed plan of worship, the earth-shaking signs, wonders, and miracles of Egypt's plagues, the Red Sea opening and closing again, manna and quails from heaven, water from the rock, caverns swallowing God's enemies, and on and on! All because Moses was now a small man. Little in his eyes, and others'. No longer sought after by Egypt's court - or even by the lowly Bedouin chiefs he lived among on the backside of Midian's lonely desert. Only God's eyes were on him now. But now, for the first time, he realized, that's all that mattered. And the rest is, pardon the cliche, history.

A CALL TO BE SMALL

Friend, let us allow God to make us small. To humble us through complete obedience. To finish purging us of all pride, especially religious pride. To heal us of all ministerial envy, so we are glad, not sad, we are grateful, not angry when other churches and ministries are growing more than ours and God is using other ministers more than us. To free our minds of even the slightest imagination that we are superior to someone, anyone. Why?

A new thing is at hand. New, large, Antioch-like churches will soon be founded. Unprecedented, dynamic, apostolic, last-days missions are about to be launched. And another awesome, massive Exodus is coming: the sudden departure of the bride of Christ to heaven! Bride Christians will be thoroughly sanctified, unified, well-taught, self-emptied, and trained to walk humbly with Christ through great tests now in this church age. They will then make their grand exit, or exodus, not to evade testing, but because they have already endured it (Revelation 3:10). In consistent, humble trust and obedience!

To accomplish this great work, God's great power must flow again in these last days. As it did in Antioch, on Paul's apostolic missions, and in Israel's mighty Exodus. But God's saving power will only flow through Christians and ministers who are little in their own eyes. Very little. The littler the better. Indeed, as with Paul and Moses, the littler the minister, the greater the power!

So, let's get little, my friend. So little God may use us in a big way! "I must decrease" (John 3:30).

Getting little, very little,

Dr. Greg Hinnant
GREG HINNANT MINISTRIES