Lessons from Paul

Recently we had a training on avoiding overload.  The gist of it was that it is better to learn a few things well, then to know a little about a lot of things but nothing you can truly hold unto with any certainty. We can learn a lot from Paul who said in Philippians, “But this one thing I do…”  And in I Corinthians 2:1,2 he said, And I when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.  So today I want to address a few things that Paul taught us that can be very valuable lessons. 

Vance Havner the old-time preacher from down south who had such a way with words that were so homespun and yet so profound; said the following; “Some know so much doctrine that an encyclopedia could not hold it, but what they know by experience could be put in a pocket notebook.” We are afflicted with rocking chair religion and shade tree theology. We are like a man whose suitcase is covered with foreign hotel labels but who has never been out of his home state.  Paul knew a few solid things by experience that he has shared with us in Scripture that we need to learn and lean on.

The first experience that he had which we need to experience as well is that he had a confrontation with Christ.  Paul asked on the road to Damascus, “Who are you Lord?” and once that was revealed to him it was settled. Then the question “What do you want me to do?” and when he was told he went out to do it.  Leonard Ravenhill talks about the time when D. L. Moody who was the Billy Graham of his day, heard his Sunday School teacher say, “The world has yet to see what God can do through the life of a man who is totally surrendered to Christ.” Moody’s response was, “By the grace of God I will be that man.” And he did, however, as Ravenhill went on to state, “He was not the first man because Paul was certainly that man.” He had a confrontation with Christ and that was it, he was sold out.

The second was that he had a crisis with the Spirit. He would say in Romans 8:1-4: There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

And finally, Paul had a settled peace in the simple things.  He said in Philippians 4 that he had learned in whatever situation he was in to be content.  “I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound in any and every circumstance.  I have learned the secret of facing plenty a hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

A man who has an encounter with Christ, who has a crisis of the Spirit and who has learned to be content is a man or woman who has settled the important things and can avoid overload in their life. 

©2026 David W. Drake, President, Renewed Hope, Inc.