When the police apprehend someone, they are arrested or taken into custody. Perhaps the person is a robber, such is disarmed and becomes harmless in custody. Paul in Philippians three described his conversion with the word apprehended.
Philippian 3:12
Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Paul’s first use of the word apprehend speaks of Paul’s conversion on the way to Damascus (Acts 9). Paul’s mission was to arrest and kill believers of Christ. Before he got to Damascus, Jesus Christ apprehended him on the way. Only for the course of his life to change permanently. When the Lord Apprehends a man, such a man will have only one desire: to please him who apprehended him forever, Moses was Apprehended by God when he saw the burning bush, and the entire story of Moses became that of a man who could not do anything without God. A man apprehended does nothing without God.
Acts 17:28
For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
An apprehended soul does not have his own will, but he usually follows the will of God. However, being apprehended is not the end of the journey because God has a plan for the one he has apprehended. This is the second aspect of the situation, as the journey of the one God has apprehended does not end at being apprehended. Instead, God wants the apprehended person to understand the purpose for which Christ Jesus apprehended him.
that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
About thirteen years after Paul’s conversion, a prayer meeting was reported in Acts 13. In the prayer meeting, God instructed that Paul and Barnabas be separated for a work God intends to do through them among the Gentiles. This was the major “that for which” Christ apprehended Paul. Paul spent his entire life executing this that for which “that for which”.
Galatian 2:8
For the same God who worked through Peter as the apostle to the Jews also worked through me as the apostle to the Gentiles.
This scripture reveals that the “that for which” for Peter is to preach to the Jews, while Paul’s that for which was to preach to the Gentiles. Neither of them had their preferences, but God’s determinate counsel determined their assignment. Paul met more rulers of Gentiles than any other apostle, and none of these meetings was used for his personal gain but to preach the gospel. Paul had apprehended the reason he had been apprehended.
The salvation experience represents the first Apprehended while locating our place of assignment, and all that God intends to do is the second Apprehended. We are not Apprehended to sit down and claim prophecies in churches and sow seeds. God apprehends us to advance his kingdom.
Have you found out your own that for which Christ Apprehended you?
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