This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "Get Out of Your Head" by Jennie Allen. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
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What happened during the conversion of St Paul? What inspired his spiritual transformation? What can we learn from this story?
The biblical story of the conversion of St Paul chronicles the transformation of Paul the Apostle from persecutor and heretic to a devout follower of Jesus. The conversion of St Paul was set off after an encounter with the risen Christ on the famous road to Damascus, leading to the realization that his doubt of the messiah was misplaced.
Here’s what happened during the conversion of St Paul.
The Conversion of St Paul: What Happened?
The conversion of Paul shows how someone can win the spiritual war in their mind.
Fasting and trapped in blindness after his traumatic Damascus Road encounter with the risen Christ, Paul recognized, with the help of Ananias, the lie that had ensnared him: that Jesus was not the messiah, and even more, that it was his (Paul’s) God-given duty to persecute Jesus’s followers and stamp out this new faith. This realization led to the conversion of St Paul from a heretic to a devout follower of Jesus.
Formerly a persecutor of Jesus’s followers, Paul now recognized Jesus as the messiah and experienced a total spiritual transformation that changed the course of his life. His post-conversion life centered on a new reality. He felt himself to be a totally different person (Philippians 1:21, Ephesians 4:24, Colossians 3:10, and more). He was no longer a slave to thoughts, emotions, or circumstances. He chose to live in awareness of Christ’s power working in him through the Holy Spirit. He made the Christian believer’s power to destroy strongholds, arguments, and opinions that oppose God, and to “take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:3-6), one of the keynotes of his preaching and teaching. In this way, the conversion of St Paul can teach us how to choose a new reality for ourselves.
The Conversion of St Paul: What You Can Learn
The conversion of St Paul can teach us a few key lessons:
Choose the Mind of Christ
In Philippians, Paul observed that because God has recreated us in Christ, we have the Holy Spirit’s power and the ability (and responsibility) to choose whether to live for the Spirit or for “the flesh” (our old, fallen self-nature with its sinful desire). The ability to change our heart-minds is built into us as Christians.
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Here's what you'll find in our full Get Out of Your Head summary :
- Satan’s master plan for poisoning your mind with toxic thoughts
- How to replace ungodly lies with scriptural truths
- How to “put on the mind of Christ” and fulfill God’s plan for you
