Book 4 of Musings Kicking Against the Goads

When Saul of Tarsus was apprehended by the Lord, the Lord asked him why he was kicking against the prodding of the Spirit (or perhaps of his conscience.

How often do we push past the checks of the Spirit because we are not listening carefully each moment for the guidance of the Spirit

Have you ever had the experience of what we call "running through the checks of the Lord"? This means when you were in the middle of an action you felt a prompting that something was wrong. But instead of stopping and going to prayer, you went ahead driven forward by your fleshly motivations.

I don't think this is a good idea, especially in the coming days in America. I believe there will be various dangers, and if we are not alert in prayer at all times we or a member of our family may be seriously harmed.

Sometimes people will move from one part of the country to another they believe to be less dangerous. Such a move is not always wise, unless the Lord directs you to do this. You may actually put yourself in a place of even greater danger.

There are times when the Lord tells us to flee. But these are rare. Usually the Lord will take care of us right where we are.

On some occasions we feel we ought to move for our children's sake, because there is too much sinning going on where we are living. I think this would be a good idea in many instances. But again, we ought to get the mind of the Lord before we do anything.

It seems to me the Lord through the Holy Spirit is far more anxious to guide us than we are to be guided-especially in America where we live in such a frenzy of activity. It is difficult for us to slow down enough to be always in a position to hear and obey the Lord. But it is absolutely necessary we do so.

I do not know what goads were prodding Saul of Tarsus as he was on the way to Damascus. He was behaving violently against the Jews who had been converted to the Lord Jesus. Either his conscience told him it was not right to harm people whose only crime was to take a religious position. Or it may have been true that the Holy Spirit had been "checking" him, and he knew there was something wrong but was not slowing down so he could hear from God.

C. S. Lewis tells how the Lord began speaking to him, how he held off and then was surprised by joy. Has it ever been true of you that you knew Christ was trying to get through to you, and you were resisting because you were afraid of what you thought you might hear?

You know something! In order to live as a victorious saint you have to tell the Lord you will obey Him in all matters, great and small. Then you have to remain alert for His guidance in response to your declaration of total obedience. As soon as you sense that He is speaking, you must go to prayer and be ready for anything.

If you are not ready for anything, if there is some idol in your life that you are afraid will be damaged or removed, then you do not trust God's love and good intentions toward you. In this case Satan will always be able to defeat you by bringing up th issue that is so frightening to you.

In order to overcome the Accuser you have to love not your life to the point of death. This means no matter what God requires, you will obey as cheerfully as you can.

I wonder what Abraham thought when it began to dawn on him that God was asking him to offer Isaac as a burnt offering. He became a dead man at that moment but he plowed forward relentlessly without telling Sarah, apparently.

Abraham passed the test. Are you and I that willing to hear what the Spirit is saying to us?

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." (Acts 26:14)