Being filled with the Holy Spirit, Paul confronted the son of the devil who was intending to distract the Proconsul from the way of salvation. He was bold, honest, and fearless, as he battled for the soul of one of God's elect. May we, too, be so Spirit filled and bold in our battles for souls.

To prepare for suffering as evangelistic Christians we must first get in the fight. We must understand God's purposes for suffering. And we must then accept, even welcome the reality that those who lift up the name of Jesus will also suffer persecution for doing so.

I commend to you the life of a little-known open-air preacher of 1860's Dundee, Scotland, by the name of Robert Annan-an open-air preacher, street evangelist, letter writer, dock worker and mason, husband and father, and man of God by the name of Robert Annan.----Annan was one of those rare men who could say, -Follow me as I follow Christ.- He could say it with humility. He could say it with sincerity. He could say it and expect those who heard to take him seriously.----Annan's Christian life resembled that of meteor entering the earth's atmosphere. It was intense, bright, and short-lived. Again, just seven years from conversion to final glorification. Yet he amassed a body of evangelistic work and Christian living in seven short years that likely dwarfs the lives of most modern-day, American Christians who have been in Christ much longer.

The Lord has told us how we are to pray. Let us pray thusly.

Barnabas and Saul were clearly under the authority of both the triune God and men. Even as God had called Saul many years earlier to take the gospel to the gentiles, Saul waited until the Spirit worked through the Church to fulfill His calling. Do you consider the local Church the kind of authority in your life that Saul did-

Despite what any man or government may try to do to oppose it, the gospel will advance. God has promised that it will go to the ends of the earth and that every last one of those whose name is written in the Lamb's book of life will be saved. Do not fear. It is those who oppose it who ought to fear.