“Lord, what do You want me to do?” Acts 9:6
This is a remarkable question for the Pharisee Saul to have asked. Only moments before, he thought he knew exactly what God wanted him to do. Saul was convinced he was serving God by helping stamp out this new religious movement of people who believed in, and followed a Man called Jesus. And so, “Still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord” (Acts 9:1), Saul was on his way to Damascus with letters from the high priest in order to arrest any members of the “Way” for punishment back in Jerusalem.
Earlier, Jesus had warned His disciples saying, “the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me” (John 16:2-3). Thus Saul, who thought he knew God and was serving Him, actually knew nothing of God the Father, or of God the Son who reveals the Father. Self-righteous, confident and proud, Saul was arrogantly going on his way to Damascus, supposedly in the service of God, but was in reality ignorantly going on his way in sin.
But what a change would suddenly occur to Saul. The Lord appeared to him and said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:4). Saul asked, “Who are you Lord?” (verse 5). And now the humbled Saul, fallen to the ground, came to see Jesus as God himself and yet One whom he had never really known before. In a moment, all that Saul had valued and knew regarding his religion was turned upside down. He would later write to the Philippians, “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith” (3:7-9). No longer self-willed, Saul’s will became subservient to the will of Jesus Christ and “he, trembling and astonished, said, ‘Lord, what do You want me to do?’” (Acts 9:6).
Isn’t that the essence of not only born again, but being “transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2)? Instead of arrogantly marching forward to serve God under some preconceived notions of His will, doesn’t true transformation result in the bowing of the knee before Christ, believing Him and asking, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” O how many there are in churches today who profess to be Christians and yet don’t even know God the Father because they don’t know God the Son. They presume to be doing God’s will and yet are really stiff-necked to all of Christ’s offers of “Come to Me”. Instead of serving God, they like Saul before his conversion, serve only themselves. Their efforts are therefore in vain and they continue on the road to eternal ruin.
What about you? Are you trying to serve God under your own imagined power and understanding? Do you even know God through His Son, Jesus Christ? Has the Holy Spirit revealed Christ to you through the Bible and shown you the excellency, worth and sufficiency of His Person and work as it applies to you? Have you come to see the moral bankruptcy in yourself and your own works? Do you see that you are a sinner and in need of a Savior dying in your place, who lived the life of all righteousness that you haven’t and couldn’t ever live? Don’t delay. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Put your trust in Him for salvation both in this life and that which is to come.
How different was the thinking of Jesus in His earthly ministry. Fully God, and yet as fully Man, He would obediently learn to become a Servant to His Father with a Servant’s mindset praying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39). Indeed, His mindset would be that which the Psalmist wrote concerning Jesus, “I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within My heart” (Psalm 40:8). Jesus himself would declare, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work” (John 4:34).
Christian, do you have that same mindset of a priestly servant consecrated to God? If you do know Christ and trust Him, are you really and fully offering to God “your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1)? No true believer is called to stand on the sidelines. Work in Christ’s church is not just given to a few devoted believers. To each one grace has been given, “a measure of faith” (verse 3), for ministering in the church and to the fallen world around you. Today, think soberly regarding yourself in the church and prayerfully ask, “Lord, what do You want me to do?”
And when God answers and directs you, may you by God’s grace go and do it!
This is a remarkable question for the Pharisee Saul to have asked. Only moments before, he thought he knew exactly what God wanted him to do. Saul was convinced he was serving God by helping stamp out this new religious movement of people who believed in, and followed a Man called Jesus. And so, “Still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord” (Acts 9:1), Saul was on his way to Damascus with letters from the high priest in order to arrest any members of the “Way” for punishment back in Jerusalem.
Earlier, Jesus had warned His disciples saying, “the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me” (John 16:2-3). Thus Saul, who thought he knew God and was serving Him, actually knew nothing of God the Father, or of God the Son who reveals the Father. Self-righteous, confident and proud, Saul was arrogantly going on his way to Damascus, supposedly in the service of God, but was in reality ignorantly going on his way in sin.
But what a change would suddenly occur to Saul. The Lord appeared to him and said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:4). Saul asked, “Who are you Lord?” (verse 5). And now the humbled Saul, fallen to the ground, came to see Jesus as God himself and yet One whom he had never really known before. In a moment, all that Saul had valued and knew regarding his religion was turned upside down. He would later write to the Philippians, “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith” (3:7-9). No longer self-willed, Saul’s will became subservient to the will of Jesus Christ and “he, trembling and astonished, said, ‘Lord, what do You want me to do?’” (Acts 9:6).
Isn’t that the essence of not only born again, but being “transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2)? Instead of arrogantly marching forward to serve God under some preconceived notions of His will, doesn’t true transformation result in the bowing of the knee before Christ, believing Him and asking, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” O how many there are in churches today who profess to be Christians and yet don’t even know God the Father because they don’t know God the Son. They presume to be doing God’s will and yet are really stiff-necked to all of Christ’s offers of “Come to Me”. Instead of serving God, they like Saul before his conversion, serve only themselves. Their efforts are therefore in vain and they continue on the road to eternal ruin.
What about you? Are you trying to serve God under your own imagined power and understanding? Do you even know God through His Son, Jesus Christ? Has the Holy Spirit revealed Christ to you through the Bible and shown you the excellency, worth and sufficiency of His Person and work as it applies to you? Have you come to see the moral bankruptcy in yourself and your own works? Do you see that you are a sinner and in need of a Savior dying in your place, who lived the life of all righteousness that you haven’t and couldn’t ever live? Don’t delay. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Put your trust in Him for salvation both in this life and that which is to come.
How different was the thinking of Jesus in His earthly ministry. Fully God, and yet as fully Man, He would obediently learn to become a Servant to His Father with a Servant’s mindset praying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39). Indeed, His mindset would be that which the Psalmist wrote concerning Jesus, “I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within My heart” (Psalm 40:8). Jesus himself would declare, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work” (John 4:34).
Christian, do you have that same mindset of a priestly servant consecrated to God? If you do know Christ and trust Him, are you really and fully offering to God “your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1)? No true believer is called to stand on the sidelines. Work in Christ’s church is not just given to a few devoted believers. To each one grace has been given, “a measure of faith” (verse 3), for ministering in the church and to the fallen world around you. Today, think soberly regarding yourself in the church and prayerfully ask, “Lord, what do You want me to do?”
And when God answers and directs you, may you by God’s grace go and do it!