Start Walking

Acts 26:12 “On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. 13 About noon, O king, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. 14 We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ 15 Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. 16 ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you. 17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them 18 to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’”
 
WHAT did Jesus mean when he said, “Saul, Saul, it is hard for you to kick against the goads.” As he often did during his teaching ministry, Jesus used an agricultural term to make his point. The goad was a means to control oxen pulling a plow or heavy load. It was a long, sharp-pointed pole, or the goad was a board with sharp nails hung behind the oxen’s back feet. When they kicked against the goad, the nails pierced their legs. The oxen quickly learned it was useless to kick against the farmer’s commands.
   Jesus drew the line with Paul on that fateful day on the road to Damascus. He told Paul, “Stop rejecting me! Believe and follow my commands!”
   Some believe there was a battle in Paul’s conscience. As he was persecuting Christians to their death, Paul may have begun to understand he was kicking against the goad of God’s moral laws. Perhaps his heart was also fighting the truth that the law he knew so well pointed directly to Jesus of Nazareth.
   “Why do you kick against the goads?” could have been Jesus’ gracious question to essentially say to Paul, “You know what is true. You know I am the Christ. It’s time to submit to the Spirit’s stirring in your heart and begin to live for me.”
   When God stirs our hearts to reject our desires, our nature is to kick against his truth. Is Jesus now in you? Then be thankful that one day the Spirit changed your kicking against Jesus to walking with your Lord and Savior.
   That’s what happened to Paul. Jesus commissioned this gifted man to be on mission for the gospel, so they would be forgiven and stand with Jesus and the redeemed forever.
   This is Jesus’ mission for all who confess he is Lord. Are you kicking against him or walking with him?