Quite often in my Christian experience, I’ve found that being cautious is the de facto position. We are cautious to believe people in the veracity of their conversion experience stories, particularly if they include things we consider to be miraculous. We are cautious to allow people into positions of leadership, authority or teaching, particularly if we can’t first have sight or give ear to what they’re going to say, to ensure that it fits with our “programme” or our “platform”. Often this is for good reason. Those of us who are called to lead have a responsibility before God to lead and shepherd the flock we have had entrusted to us to the best of the abilities we have, and in the provision of God. Sometimes though, as in the case of Saul/Paul, the bubbling over of the Spirit cannot be quenched. It has to come out. Jesus has to be proclaimed.
How do we harbour this? The balance between the need for discipleship, first and foremost, followed by education and training on the one hand, and the desire to follow the leading of the Spirit in to spontaneous, unmediated opportunities for ministry on the other? I think like most things, it is a “both-and” situation rather than an “either-or”. Even in this story, the disciples are justifiably cautious – they know Saul’s reputation and it could easily have been an elaborate ruse to infiltrate the group and crush them from within. However, with the seal and mark of the Spirit comes the authenticity of faith – the proof of the pudding as it were, is the fruit of the ministry Paul undertakes in the synagogues of Damascus.
If you have a sense of vocation or calling, don’t wait, start to act on it. Be wise in seeking and gaining instruction and wisdom, but let’s be a Church of vitality and risk, rather than a stale Church marked by our caution and conservatism.