Bible Talk With Sister Deb. Ananias And The Courage To Obey

What if the next brave step you take becomes the turning point in someone else’s story? We open Acts 9 to explore the unlikely partnership between a fearful church, a furious persecutor named Saul, and a quiet disciple called Ananias. While Saul’s blinding encounter on the Damascus Road grabs the headlines, the heartbeat of this conversation is the everyday courage of a believer who listens, pushes past hesitation, and moves toward a person everyone feared. That simple yes restores sight, confirms a calling, and ripples out into ministry that reshapes the world.

We talk candidly about why God’s commands often defy our comfort and logic—think Noah’s ark far from the sea, Moses striking a rock in a desert, and Israel circling Jericho instead of storming it. Through that lens, Ananias becomes a model for modern discipleship: a learner who keeps saying “Here I am,” a listener who trusts the next step more than a full plan, a servant who acts even when the risk feels personal. Along the way we share real stories from homes, clinics, and sidewalks where small acts—praying with a neighbor, offering a simple gift, speaking hope out loud—become moments of unexpected healing and grace.

If you’ve ever felt God nudge you toward something awkward, hard, or uncertain, this conversation will give you language, courage, and practical handles to move forward. You’ll hear why obedience is better than sacrifice, how excuses waste time we could spend loving people, and how the impact of a single faithful moment can stretch far beyond what we see. Ready to find your Straight Street and take the next step? Press play, share this episode with a friend who needs a nudge, and leave a review to tell us where God is calling you to say, “Here I am.” Subscribe for more Bible-centered conversations that strengthen your walk.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Ways To Listen
• 1:34 Setting The Scene In Acts 9
• 3:40 Saul’s Persecution And Conversion
• 6:15 Meet Ananias: A Listening Disciple
• 10:20 Wrestling With God’s Unlikely Commands
• 14:45 Modern Examples Of Costly Obedience
• 20:05 Obedience Over Excuses
• 23:40 When Obedience Multiplies Impact
• 26:30 A Roadside Sermon And A Hidden Listener

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:32

Hey, you're listening to Bible Talk with Sister Deba Osborne. Bible Talk will be airing on WTUK 105.1 FM every Sunday at 4 p.m. If you missed the show, you can listen to it on the 421 Podcast. Stream it on Apple or Spotify. You go to the website at H O R 421 Show.buzzsprout.com. And I'd like to give thanks to all the listeners and supporters. And always keep us in prayers as we spread the gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. If you'd like to contact Sister Dave, you can email her at Osborne Deborah K at gmail.com. That's O-S-B-O-R-N-E.com. And if you'd like to support the show, you can support it through PayPal slash H O R 421. Or you go through the website at H O R 421 Show.buzzsprout.com. Now I give you your host, Sister Dick.

SPEAKER_01: 1:24

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Hello, everybody. Awesome, awesome to be here today to talk about the Word of God. That should be uh all of our our uh wants is to talk about the Word of God. So welcome to Bible Talk. Uh today I am going to be in the ninth chapter of Acts. I love the book of Acts. And I love the the teachings. And and this what I'm gonna talk about today is there's a few little things that we could learn in what I'm gonna talk about today. I hope I can get it all in. It it was quite a bit, but anyway, so I'm in Acts chapter nine. And so so when you go reading all this, you there's a lot to it if you back up to seven and eight. But so some big, great, big, huge things are happening in in this little church in Jerusalem at this time. People are getting saved, and God is blessing them with miracles. And that's the bright side. That's the bright side of it, because there is a dark side. And the dark side of it was there was a man named Saul, and this is an awesome story. The story of Saul is an awesome story, but now I'm going just a little bit off from that. I'm gonna tell you a little bit about Saul because he he was a man who was wrecking a lot of havoc havoc in the church. He was traveling from place to place, persecuting the early Christians. Uh he was even arresting them and and participating in and putting them to death, right? And so Saul was a Pharisee, right? And he, you know, Pharisees didn't believe in Jesus. They didn't believe in his teachings and his authority threatened their social and religious uh standing, you know. Uh Jesus didn't flip fit their political uh expectation, I guess if you will. Uh they thought that must that the Messiah that was going to come was supposed to be uh a powerful king that was gonna overthrow the Romans. And so they clashed with Jesus, uh, especially on issues of the observance of the Sabbath and and associating with sinners and especially with when Jesus stepped up and said, you know, he can forgive sins. So these Pharisees and Saul was a big one, and he he clashed, right? And so he would he he didn't want the teachings and and he was against it. So he was going and all these early Christians, he was going from place to place and town to town and actually going to their homes and taking them to prison and even putting them to death. And this is all in Acts 8 and 9. Summa Acts 7. But now in the midst of all of this, Saul was on his way on the Damascus Road to arrest more Christian believers. And, you know, his his conversion on this road was really m a miraculous. I mean, you really ought to read this story. The Lord himself came and spoke to Saul directly and calling him, you know, to give his life to the Lord. And, you know, and Acts 9, verses 8 and 9 tells us that after Saul saw the brightness of the Lord, he was left blinded. So he gave his life to the Lord, he became blinded, and then there were three guys with him that that led him into on into Damascus. All right. And so um, so you know, God hadn't intended for Saul to stay blinded, you know, in Damascus. He he saved Saul for a purpose. He had he had a purpose for him. And I have an awesome podcast on Saul. But anyway, so God spoke to a man named Ananias. The Bible says that Ananias was a disciple to the Lord. A disciple, a certain disciple, actually is what the Bible says. And so that's who I want to talk about today. Uh uh so the Lord spoke to Ananias in a dream, and he told Ananias to go to Saul that he might receive his sight. And the Lord tells him, You go to a street called straight, inquire at the house of Judas for one man named Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he prayeth, is how the Lord put it. And the Lord had even let uh had even let uh Saul see in in a vision that a man named Ananias was coming and was going to put his hand on him, that he was gonna receive his sight. But then, you know, uh when you read on this, when when you read Acts 9, verses 10, it says a few things about Ananias. For one thing, it says he was a certain disciple. And if you look up the word disciple, it means a learner, a pupil. He was following a teacher. So that tells us that uh that he was, you know, he was saved and he was growing in the Lord. He was he was learning, so he he was growing in the Lord, in his word. And friends, today that is exactly the kind of person that Jesus chooses to use. You know, when when God uses saved vessels that have are cleansed by his word, and those those people that he that are growing in him that has that that that stuff in their heart to learn. And if you want the Lord to use you in your life, then you need to grow in the Lord. You need to get in his word and grow. Okay, and so this also tells us that Ananias was really listening to the Lord. Because, you know, he Ananias said, Behold, Lord, I'm here. You know. When the Lord, you know, when the Lord told Ananias, you know, I I I gave him this dream, and he said, Hey, I behold, I'm here, Lord. And this tells us that Ananias was a good listener. He was listening for the Lord. He was listening to for the word of God. He wanted the voice of the Lord to show him the steps he wanted him to take. And this should also be a lesson to us that you know what, people, uh, we always have to be ready to say, Behold, Lord, I'm here. I'm here, Lord. Use me, send me. Amen. So oftentimes we don't hear the voice of God when he speaks to us because we tend to be off somewhere doing other things when he calls us. But see, people, we need to we need to have our our vision tuned in on listening to the Lord, our our vision and our hearing in on what the Lord's gonna tell us, because you know what, the only right place to be right now is here. We need to be here, just like Ananias. I'm here, Lord, to be here, to be present and ready for when he calls. You know, friends, we can't be old AWA with this. We we we can't have it both ways. We can't have the Lord in our life but not listen to him. You know what I'm saying? We have to be there. You know, we can't claim Jesus as our Savior and and use him as a get out of jail free card, if you will, you know. We can't run our own lives as we want and uh, you know, and then just holler and talk to Jesus whenever we want to. It doesn't work that way. And see, God in this in this story, God has a special mission for Ananias. And he wants to use Ananias to reach out to Saul, who had just turned to God, who had just gave his life to God, you know. Now, Ananias, when the Lord told him, you know, I I need you to go touch this man and and and heal him, Ananias is kind of skeptical. He's like, you know, and I'm of course I'm paraphrasing the Lord, you know, and I'm paraphrasing Ananias. He was like, you know, well now, Lord, I I've I've heard a lot about this man, and he's he's not a very good person. He's actually been persecuting the the saints and um you know, and but the Lord says, you know what, go. He's a chosen vessel, he's gonna bear my name to the Gentiles and kings, to the children of Israel. Uh he's gonna suffer great things. And of course, you know what that ended up. But anyway, my point is is Ananias. You know, um, you know, to this, to this, at this point in time, God, Ananias didn't think that this command from God didn't make much sense, you know. But Ananias, all he kept thinking, all he wondered there for a while was, hey, why are you telling me to go and touch this man? Not only is he uh, you know, is he mean, he's a murderer, and you're telling me to go along and touch him. And, you know, Ananias was really, was really thinking about it, and and the Lord told him, I I need you to go. And I need you to go and do this. Um, you know, when God tells Ananias to go, Ananias goes. He might be thinking, Well, you know, really God, but he goes. And sometimes, sometimes we may think quite often that the commands of the Lord, maybe they don't make sense. Maybe they don't make sense. Uh if you think about it, it didn't make sense, really, if you think about it and and and outweigh the story. It didn't make sense for Noah to build a big old boat in the middle of dry land either, but you know what? That's what God told him to do. It didn't make sense for Moses to strike a rock to get water out of it in the desert, but it happened. It didn't make sense for uh them to march around Jericho seven times for seven days in order to defeat and get the city. But that was God's command. You know? And that was God's commandment in each time, and maybe it didn't make sense. You know what I'm saying? Maybe it didn't make sense, maybe not to us anyway. But people, I'm telling you today, it didn't have to make sense to us. It does not have to make sense at all to us when God tells us to do something. You know what? God's commands when he tells us to get up and do things, maybe they s maybe they take us out of our comfort zone, uh, but they don't always have to make sense. But they're always right. And that's the thing. You know, whether we understand it or not, we uh should do what God tells us to do. And and if you go on, the Bible says in 1 Samuel 15 and 22 uh that obedience is better than sacrifice. And you know, people when Ananias hears what God tells him to do, he balks at it, right? He balks at it. And he tells the Lord, you know, you I've heard a lot about this man. I you know, he just didn't want to do it. He tries to reason with God and to find out a way out of it. He was probably scared about you know how what was gonna happen. Um But see, Ananias had to do it. Why did why did he have because God told him to do it. That's the question. Why do we have to do things? People, because God tells us to do it. And we shouldn't question him, you know, what what uh you know, what why God, why do we, you know, and I can tell you a little story about myself. I uh my mom, she's one of my moms. I have to have two ladies that raise me. She lives across about 30, 30 steps, probably from my front door to hers. And I'm I'm I love her to death. She's raised me, but you know, she can be mean and and she says what she's on her mind. She's hurt my feelings a few times. And the Lord, she had cancer, she had lung cancer a few years ago, and the Lord put it up on my heart to go pray for. She had been in the bed, I think, a few days, had been sick. She had, like I said, she had lung cancer. And the Lord put it on my heart to go pray for her, and and the Lord was telling me, go pray for her, going on, go pray for her. And I questioned, Lord, really? She's going to hurt my feelings, what I'm thinking. She's going to hurt my feelings, I know it. And and so, you know, I even was talking to her brother, Donnie, on the phone, and that was my he was my spiritual father. And I told Donnie, I said, Well, the Lord's have is telling me to step out of my comfort zone. And he's like, Well, what's he telling you to do? I said, Well, he's telling me to go across the the hallway and go across the yard and and pray for for her over there. And he laughed because he's like, You better do it. And I said, I'm going to. But he knew, he knew what I was facing, because he that's his sister. And so I got ready, I got my little prayer cloth and my oil, and I walked from my door to her doors, probably maybe 30 steps. But I'm gonna tell you what, brother, that was the longest 30 steps probably in my life. I so dreaded it. I I didn't, it's not that I didn't want to go, I just dreaded. So I walked over there, and her sister is in the house, and I said, Well, I'm gonna go in here and pray for her. And she kind of looked at me with these sad, well, you know, Lord help you look. But anyway, so I went in there and I sat down on the edge of her bed, and this is what she said. What do you want, Deb? Oh, you know, crumpy, and I said, Well, can I pray for you? And and she was like, Well, yeah, oh, nicely, and handed me her hand, and I'm trying to fidget and get the oil open so I can, you know, put it on her hand before she changed her mind. And I prayed for her out loud. I'm not, I don't care to pray out loud for people. Man, I'll pray in Walmart, I pray in a goodwill, and I prayed out loud for her, and I got done, I went back in the living room and I sat down, and she hadn't been up for I don't think she had been out of bed in a couple days. And people about 15 minutes later, here she comes. She got up and out of bed, and she was feeling better. So see, had I not minded but obeyed the Lord, had I not obeyed the Lord, you know, uh He tells us to do things, and yeah, they they we hee he calls us out of our comfort zone, you know. But but we have to if we don't obey and do what he says to do, then somebody's gonna miss out on their blessing. We'll probably even miss out on our own, you know. Um I'm gonna tell you, uh, one more little thing and I'll move on. Uh uh not too long ago, maybe a month or so ago, I was in Daniel Bun Clinic waiting to go in and and see the doctor. And this lady comes in, her and her husband, he goes to the desk and she sets down a few few steps over from me. And I I knew I had to go pray for her because I couldn't take my eyes off her, and that's how the Lord sends somebody, sends me some places. And so I got up and I got her one of the little Jesuses I've been giving out, and I walked over and I said, ma'am, can I give you something? And she said, sure. And I handed it to her. I say, you know, everybody needs a little Jesus, something like that. And I said, Do you mind if I pray for you? And she said, No, man, not at all. And so I got my oil out and was getting ready to anoint her. She said, Honey, let me ask you something. I said, Okay. And she said, while you're praying, I didn't know who this lady was. She said, while you're praying, will you pray for my eyesight? Because I'm not seeing too good today. Now, see, had I have not minded and obeyed the Lord, she wouldn't have got prayer for her eyesight that day. So, people, what I'm saying is, we all are guilty from time to time of telling the Lord we're here, we want to do it, we want to serve the Lord, we want to do what he's asking us to do, even though we might think it's unpleasant, but we all sometimes come up with reasons why we can't do it. And and you know, today I think about God may be asking us to forgive someone that's maybe hurt us. He may be telling us to witness to a neighbor uh that we've had disagreements with, and there's thousands of other situations, but people, uh there are and will be times when God's gonna ask us to do something that we just don't want to do. And my advice is we have to do it. Just do it. We should go ahead and just do it, do what the Lord wants us to do. You know, when He calls us to do something unpleasant or hard or, you know, He doesn't tell us what's gonna how it's gonna turn out or what's gonna happen, but down the road we'll probably see it, you know. We'll see it, and and it's not just for blessing someone else's people, it's gonna be our blessing too. You know? Maybe sometimes we seem like Ananias that we we forget that God knows a whole lot more than we know. And God plans our lives out the way he wants it to go, and our sole destiny is to follow his plan. Amen. You see, when God tells us to do something, people, he has a plan. Now, he, if you read this, he had to explain to Ananias about Saul and how he's going to play a very important part in the kingdom work. And he shouldn't have had to explain that, but he did. And so the thing about it is, in other words, Ananias, as well as us, we will be participating with God in his work. Praise the Lord. When the Lord tells us to go pray for somebody or anoint somebody or help somebody in in certain ways, we are helping God do his kingdom work. Doesn't that make you feel awesome to know that the big creator is having us to help him with it with his kingdom work? I think it's awesome. You know? And if we look in Acts 9, verse 17, the word of God tells us that Ananias went his way. And Ananias went his way. He went on, he he got up, he went his way, he went busy doing what the Lord told him to do. He was obedient, he did it. Maybe he didn't, you know, he went about his father's business, maybe he didn't want to do it or hesitant, but he did it. And friends, today that's how that's how we all ought to respond to God. Even though we don't know how it's gonna turn out, even though we know it's maybe setting up getting us out of our comfort zone, maybe even when the path that God's led us down maybe seems challenging or scary or even, you know, painful. But if we learn to humble ourselves, people, and be obedient to his call, that's what we gotta do. You know? And see, reading here about Ananias, that that should teach us uh the kind of reaction that we should have when the Lord commands us to do things. Get straight up, yeah, he had a little problem with it, but he got straight up and he went about his father's business. Now he could have refused to go. I don't he could have went grudgingly, but he didn't. He went in the spirit of the Lord and he made a difference in Saul's life. And friends, here today, somebody needs to know that this is exactly what uh being a disciple of Jesus Christ is all about. It's about God using us to make a difference in the lives of those people around us. That's what it's about. And you know, because Ananias obeyed the Lord, Saul was healed of blindness, filled with the Holy Ghost, and went on and was used greatly by God. And Saul ended up being the Apostle Paul, who wrote a biggest portion of the Bible, you know. So you see, friends, you never know what your simple acts of obedience will do for the kingdom of God. You never know, you know. Think about this. When Noah obeyed, the world was saved. I mean, you know. When Moses obeyed, the Israelites were set free, you know. When David obeyed, I'm sure he didn't want to stand before Goliath, but he did, and Goliath was beaten. And friends, think about this. When Jesus Christ obeyed what his father wanted him to do, salvation became possible for each and every one of us. You see, you never know what your obedience to the will of God will accomplish. You never know. You know? And I'm gonna tell you one more little story before I shut this down. I read a little story while I was doing my research on this. I I read a little story, and it's it said this preacher was saying that he was driving down the road a few years ago and said he was in a mountain little mountain place and riding along the road. He said the Lord told him to stop and get out and preach. And he said he's in the mountains. He's on a little mountain road, and there's nobody around. He's looking all around, but the Lord said, Get out and preach salvation. And so he said he didn't see nobody around, but it said, you know, he got out and he did what the Lord told him. He parked, went over to the side of the road, parked. He got out and he said he preached to the trees and the forest creatures is how he put it. He preached salvation to the creatures, to the trees. He said, the trees and the forest creatures is how he put it. And so he said, you know, then he got in his car and left. And he said, a few weeks later he was walking around in the town there and said this this this gentleman came up to him and stopped him on the street and said this man looked really rough and ended up, he was a former moonshiner. But he said, this man told the the said this this man told him, he said, you know, uh, I saw I was walking here uh a couple of weeks ago or last week or something, and he said, I saw you coming down the road in your car. He said, and I knew you were a preacher and I didn't want to be preached to, so I jumped over in the ditch and I laid down till you got by. He said, and then all of a sudden I heard you preaching. And I'm laying in the ditch listening. He said, and because I as I lay there, this gentleman said, the preacher said that the gentleman told him the Holy Spirit messed messed with his heart, and he gave his life to Jesus Christ right there in in that ditch. So friends, won't he do it? Won't he tell you to do things that maybe you might think is crazy? But had that preacher not stopped and got out and preached that salvation message, uh, just right there with the trees and the little forest creatures listening, he had no way of knowing that this this man was over in the st ditch. See, the dude thought he was gonna get away from it. But the Lord knew, and the Lord laid it on this man's heart. And this preacher got out, he preached the word of God, and because he preached the word of God, this gentleman laying in the ditch there listening, gave his life to the Lord. I mean, wow. You know, wow. So as I close today, I want people to understand and ask yourself, uh, can we honestly say, me and you, me too, that we are servants that God can use because we listen to him? Can we say that we're quick to obey? Or do we like to talk God out of things he tells us to do? But now remember Moses tried that in Exodus 3 and 4. Uh, I think Moses came up with maybe five different excuses to not do what the Lord told him to do. And the Lord was telling him to go tell Pharaoh, talk to Pharaoh, blah, blah. Moses didn't want to. Uh, he tried to talk God out of it, came up with all kinds of excuses, and really probably all he'd done was make God angry because he still had to go do what God told him to do. So, friends, just ask yourself today, is God telling you to do something maybe you're not wild about doing? Maybe you feel out of your comfort zone, or you feel people's gonna laugh at you, or people's gonna say something to you. You know what? My advice is just to do it. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what they say about you, it doesn't matter how they look at you. I I was was down here in front of one of the stores here in in town a few months ago, probably back in the summer, and there was a little old lady pushing a cart down there, and uh I felt I needed to go pray for her, and I got out and I told my sister I'll be right back, and I got out and I walked up to her and I'm I'm like, ma'am, can I pray for you? And she turned her cart around and flew down the street. But the point is that God laid it on my heart and I did. I tried. You know, so you you are you always gonna get a a good reaction? Maybe not. But the thing about it is, people, is doing what God says to do. Because you never know how your obedience is going to change the lives of somebody around you. And you're gonna get a blessing too. You're you're gonna reap a blessing from uh you know being obedient to the Lord. Because, like I said earlier, the Bible says obedience is better than sacrifice. You know, just open up your heart and your mind and listen to the Lord. Listen to the things that He has to tell you. And when He tells you to go do something, it's it's always for the good of somebody else, and most of the time your own good too. So I hope you guys have enjoyed this version of Bible talk. Uh I hope that it has blessed you as much as it's blessed me to bring it to you. I feel like it's been for some reason a while since I've been here. Um anyway, I'm going to end this with a prayer. So, our Father God in heaven, I ask you, Lord, uh, we thank you for these words and for this word of God and these these words in this Bible that helps us and inspires us. We thank you, Lord, for everything that you've given us. And I ask you today, Lord, to let this message go, Lord, to the ears of the people that need to hear it. Give these people the understanding, Lord, that all they got to do is open up their ears and listen and obey. Lord, that you're there and you're just telling them to do the things that's going to help bless others for the furtherment of your kingdom. And that we will we will get a blessing. It's everything is for our blessings too. But Lord, I ask you to bless these people that's listening to this today. Let them understand it, let them get let it go to the hearts and the ears of the ones that need to hear it. But we ask you to go with us and lead us and guide us. We thank you, we praise you, and we honor you. We ask you to forgive us for all of our sins, and we thank you again for this message today. For we ask these and all things in Jesus' holy name. Amen and amen.

SPEAKER_02: 26:18

Woke up this morning with my mama. Woke up this morning with my mind.