By Art Katz
The apostolic realities that pertain to God’s glory can only find fulfillment in a people who are utterly abandoned to God. If we embrace only the vocabulary of apostolicity, we engage the cruelest of all deceptions. It is possible to be saved, and yet not be converted in the sense of an utterness toward God that apostolic reality requires. Something foundational to our relationship with God must first be brought into being, a radical crossing from the one reality to the other.
In the book of Acts, there are three records of Paul’s conversion.[1] Paul’s apostolic life following that conversion was altogether proportionate to the kind of beginning that it had. Many of us need that same beginning, which, if it is not made, will condemn us to a certain stagnant level of Christian life, beneath what the Lord intensely desires.
There is a parallel between where God’s people stand today and where Israel stood on the banks of the Jordan, being required to make that great crossing over with Joshua and Caleb. Jordan means “a descent into death,” and there is surely a Jordan before most of us. The Israelites had stumbled about in the religious wasteland for forty years. With the exception of Caleb and Joshua, an entire generation died in the desert because they did not have a heart to participate in the taking of the land of promise. We stand at this kind of crossroad today; it is time to cross over.
Not every tribe of Israel crossed over. Manasseh, Reuben and a portion of Gad chose to remain where they were because the ground was fertile and the grasses high. They were cattle breeders who focused solely on things of immediate value. They were unwilling for the risk of what might be found on the other side. They pleaded with Moses, got what they wanted, and have been subsequently lost to the history of Israel.
The Gadarenes are mentioned in the New Testament, a melancholy reminder of the tribe of Gad. They raised pigs, and were unwilling to receive the Messiah of Israel, preferring to sustain their herds, rather than welcome Him who cast those same herds into the sea! The unwillingness to cross over has tragic consequences. The reason is always the same—it is not conducive to the “flesh.” We prefer the assurance of things that pertain to “herds,” to our immediate self-interest and gratification.
Saul’s Conversion—A Crossing Over
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.
As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”[2]
Saul’s conversion was a “crossing over.” It begins with the phrase: “As he was traveling.” There is more hope for an enemy of God journeying in full sincerity, even in his error, than for those who purport to be the friends of God, who have long since ceased journeying, who are just treading water, and occupying a much safer place. There is more hope to convert an enemy in motion, however grievous his error, than there is for those of us who are safely installed in correct doctrines, but who are not moving forward at all. Would there have been a conversion if Saul had been satisfied with the conventional categories of religious orthodoxy and the spiritual status quo of his life? But as he was traveling, suddenly there came a light from heaven. When the Lord saw that questing, a willingness to be traveling on the way, He sent His light from heaven.
Saul fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” Our every error is putting our “you” before, over and above, God’s “Me.” In other words, “why do you put your self-interest, however religious and sanctified you think it to be, before Me?” We are not truly converted until God’s “Me” is before our “you” in our every consideration. If that does not take place, we will find ourselves persecuting God in one form or the other. We will find ourselves opposing God even while we purport to be serving His interests. Saul is not some deliberate atheist, indifferent to God, but a man zealous for God. The error that led to the persecution of God’s own people, and God Himself in His people, was committed by a religious man in error, whose “you” was yet before God’s “Me.”
If that basic and fatal error is possible for a man of religious zeal and intention who thought to serve God by seeking opportunity to round up “heretics” in order to bring them back to Jerusalem, how much more, then, are we capable of committing exactly the same error? There is a stubborn, egocentric attitude in us, in whatever form it is expressed, which can only be dislodged by a true conversion.
There is a way in which we filter the word of God through the prism of our own subjectivity, and fit it into the existing framework of our life and categories. We find a way to make the word agreeable to our view of ourselves and our spirituality. We consciously or unconsciously are habituated to pick and choose what we will hear and apply; what we like or dislike. By so doing, we unknowingly elevate ourselves above the word, determining how it is to be fitted comfortably into the categories that we approve. Instead of allowing the word to devastate and demolish our categories, we stand or sit above it as judges, acknowledging and celebrating it as the word of God, applauding the speaker for having brought it, and think that by doing so we have done God a service!
This egocentrism is unspeakably deep, especially in the religious realm. What greater disrespect to God, what greater expression of putting our “you” before His “Me,” than the way in which we hear and receive the word? He will not share the holy realities of the apostolic faith with those who try to fit them into their existing mindsets. By so doing, we somehow find a way to exalt what the word intends to devastate. We set ourselves above His word, determining to what degree we allow it credence and acceptance.
This may well be the essential malaise of the church and the reason why it is not going from faith to faith and from glory to glory. Our services are abounding with “sermons” rather than the sent word of God, which, by its very nature, demands response and change in those who hear it. We should be receiving the word in an open and naked way, letting it have its full work.
Mary’s Conversion—Death to Self
Are we willing to say with Mary: “May it be done to me according to your word”[3]? Until we come to this place, the word of God can no longer perform the work of God. Mary’s posture before the word of God was consequential for her future. For her, it meant nothing less than receiving a pregnancy that could not be explained. On top of that, she was living at a time when unexplained pregnancies received the punishment of death by stoning on the doorstep of the father’s house. When Mary said, “May it be done to me according to your word,” she meant, “I am willing to bear the full consequence of receiving this word, even if it shall mean my death in disgrace, although I am a virgin in Israel.” When God finds a heart like that, there is no limit to the extent of the divine work that can be accomplished.
The consequences of receiving the word of God will inevitably lead you to the place of true “death to self.” That is how you know that you have received the word. And once you have made that reckoning, it will make no difference in what form that death comes. It might be stoning at the doorstep of your father’s house, it might be suffering the misunderstanding, the rejection and the reproach of men toward yourself; it might mean physical hazards of all kinds.
[1] Acts 9:1-16; Acts 22:5-11; Acts 26:10-18
[2] Acts 9:1-4
[3] Luke 1:38b
This article is adapted from the book, Apostolic Foundations, by Art Katz. The Kindle Version is available for purchase and immediate download by clicking/tapping on the link below.
For nearly forty years before his death in 2007, Art Katz was a prophetic voice crying out from the wilderness for radical revolution and reformation in the mission and methods of the church as well as the lives of believers. Born of Jewish parents in 1929 and reared during the austerity of the Great Depression and turbulence of the World War II eras, his life-philosophy was shaped by two diverse educational sources—the merchant marines and a liberal university academia in a time when such ideological heterodoxies of Marxism and Existentialism were vogue and prevalent among rogue intellectuals. These strong influences produced in Katz vehement atheism, staunch anti-Christianism, and a strident intellectual elitism he sought to propagate through the aegis of the public education system. When, as a high school teacher, he realized his reservoir of knowledge was woefully inadequate to provide cogent answers concerning the issues of life and the perplexities of history to inquiring students, he took a leave of absence to embark on a hitch-hiking odyssey through Europe and the Middle East in quest of the intellectual knowledge and sagacity of the “master sages” of antiquity in their native lands. His journey culminated significantly and symbolically in the city of Jerusalem, where he had a Damascus Road-like life-transforming personal encounter with the true Master Sage and Messiah, Jesus Christ! For the next four decades, Art Katz’s life and ministry were reflective of a true prophet and forerunner who prepared the way for the coming of the Lord into the hearts and lives of those he touched in this nation and nations around the globe. Many of his writings and audio sermons are available on his website at: http://artkatzministries.org.
Thanks for reading this article! If you enjoy the spiritually enriching articles on Spirit Life Magazine, please sign up to receive new articles via email immediately when they are posted simply by entering your email address in the "Articles Via Email" widget located on this page toward the top of the right-sidebar. Just below that widget is another widget—"Newsletter Sign-up"—you can use to subscribe to our newsletter we send out periodically to inform you of all our new articles and occasionally other information as well. Please know that we do not bombard your inbox with emails, and we hate SPAM just as much as you do, thus we will never sell/share your contact info with anyone else—rest assured it's safe with us! We hope you will subscribe to both lists because it's by far the easiest, fastest, and surest way to notify you of new posts. Thank you!
Spirit Life Magazine does not necessarily agree with the totality of the opinions, beliefs or philosophies of the authors of articles posted on the website, nor does the posting of articles represent an endorsement of authors other than our own authors/editors. Spirit Life Magazine is a publication of Real Truth Publications.
If you enjoyed this or any of the articles on Spirit Life Magazine, please click on the PayPal® Donate Button below to make a donation to help us with the costs of maintaining this online magazine. A PayPal® account is not required to use the PayPal® gateway, you can pay with debit/credit card or an e-Check from your bank. It's fast and secure! Thank you!
We depend on the gracious and generous donations of our readers. Won't you help? No amount too small or large! Donations to SLM Inc are tax-deductible. 
