By Kevin Harris, pastor of the Illawarra Community Baptist Church in Wollongong, NSW
And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
Acts 9:6
This is the moment that changed everything.
Saul has recently been causing ‘havoc of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women commit[ing] them to prison’ (Acts 8:3). The word havoc expresses the fury of a wild boar, trampling, crushing, and uprooting. The persecution was ferocious. The word haling refers to dragging by violence. He went as far as ‘breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord’ (Acts 9:1).
But then the Lord Jesus Christ knocked him to the ground, blinded his eyes, and spoke directly to him. That got his attention!
Saul instantly realises that he has been fighting the very God he thought he was serving. He had unwittingly fulfilled the Master’s prophecy in John 16:2: ‘They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.’
And now Saul is transformed.
The killer has been tamed.
Now he wants to know what are his Lord’s orders when he asks, ‘Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?’ He makes himself available for God to use.
And this persecutor named Saul becomes the mighty preacher Paul, not to mention the human penman for the Holy Spirit to use to write much of the New Testament.
This incident shows the great grace of God, to Whom no difficulty is impossible. He is able to make a ‘new creature’ (2 Corinthians 5:17) out of the most unlikely of people.
He has repeated this miracle time and time again since then. Unlikely candidates for Christ have been enlisted in God’s service.
We must ask Him to do it again with those we care about.
Father, I praise You for setting Saul free from his delusion and transforming him into a useful apostle. I take encouragement from Your ability to save those I would doubt would ever be saved. What a gracious God You are! Do it again, Lord. Please get the attention of these many who are on our prayer lists, whom we ask You to convince of their need to be saved. I ask this in the Name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.
This article was written by Kevin Harris Dapto pastor of Illawarra Community Baptist Church.