Lord, What Would You Have Me To Do?
by Rita Langeland
© 2004 Hidden With Christ Ministries
Trembling and astonished he asked, “Lord, what do You desire me to do?” The Lord said to him, “But arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” (Acts 9:6 Amplified Bible)
Saul was a very religious man who sincerely desired to serve and please God. As a result, he spent years studying at the feet of Gamaliel, one of the leading teachers of the Hebrew law at that time. He became so zealous for his faith that he began to persecute anyone who did not follow the Jewish religious traditions as he had learned them. But though he was sincere, he was sincerely deceived in his understanding of the truth and of what was pleasing to God. But God saw his heart’s desire for the truth and revealed Himself to Saul. On the road to Damascus, Saul had an encounter with God that changed his life forever. A blinding light shown from heaven and Saul heard the voice of God speak to him. The Lord told him that he was kicking against the ways of God by persecuting Jesus Christ (the one that Saul thought was a false prophet) and not pleasing God as Saul thought. Once Saul understood this, Saul immediately asked God the most important question of his life: “Lord, what would You have me to do?”
Saul (who later became known as Paul the apostle) began his Christian life with the singular desire to know and to do the will of God. When Saul arrived in Damascus, the Lord sent a man named Ananias to speak to him, and Ananias told him: “The God of our fathers has chosen you that you should know His will….” (Acts 22:14) God’s plan for Saul and for every one of us is that we know the will of God and do it.
Andrew Murray, the famed Scottish preacher and writer from the late 1800’s said: “Christian conversion is nothing less than the complete abandonment of one’s will to do the will of God and of Christ. True conversion is such a complete yielding of my will that never again under any circumstances will I seek it, but I will always, with all the strength I have, seek only to know and to do God’s will.”
Many people are like Saul before his Damascus road experience. They assume that they already know and are doing God’s will in their lives. They proceed along in life under a false assumption and feel very content in it. But like Saul, they are deceived. The key that changed Saul’s life was that he had a desire to know the truth and to do God’s will and God responded to that. Hebrews 11:6 tells us: But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He (God) is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. (KJV)
God rewards and responds to the person who diligently seeks after Him and His will. If you truly want to know God’s will for your life and you seek Him for it, He will reveal it to you. If the preceding statement is true, then why do so many people (even in Christian churches) claim that they do not know God’s will for their lives?
One reason that many people do not discover God’s will for their lives is rooted in fear and selfishness. I have met Christians that are afraid to seek God for a revelation of His perfect will for their lives because they fear that God will ask them to do something that they do not want to do. So they prefer to plead ignorance (“I don’t know what God wants me to do so I am just doing the best I can…”) rather than to search out God’s plan for their lives. This is a sinful attitude and it will rob you of God’s best for your life.
The devil would tell you that if you discover and pursue God’s will for your life, you will be miserable. The truth is that in the center of God’s will is “fulness of joy.” (Psalm 16:11) I have found this to be true in a most marvelous way. Years ago, I never would have dreamed of going to Africa to minister on a regular basis. I had no desire for it nor could I imagine myself enjoying a place that is known for intense heat, a multitude of insects and endless dirt. I didn’t like camping because of those three natural things that went with the territory. But my reasoning was purely selfish and had to do with my own carnal desire to be “comfortable.” Yet once I recognized that going to Africa was God’s will for my life and I yielded myself to it wholeheartedly, I found a joy in it that I could never have imagined. Ministering in Africa has truly given me a “fulness of joy” that I had never experienced before. Now, rather than resisting the very idea, I find myself weeping when I must leave Africa to return to the U.S. Yielding to God’s perfect will for your life will bring you a “fulness of joy” that will amaze you.
A second and somewhat similar reason that people fail to discover God’s will is that they are willing to follow God’s plan for their lives only under certain conditions. They want to be the one who sets the specifications for their obedience to God’s will. They will say, “I will serve God if He allows me do this or that OR as long as He does not ask me to go here or go there.” But God is looking for people who are dedicated to HIS WAYS and are willing to surrender their own ways. Andrew Murray put it this way: “Jesus cannot reveal Himself fully to us until we are entirely given up to Him. Would you spend thousands of dollars on building a house on a piece of land without knowing for certain that the land belonged to you?”
Kathryn Kuhlman once stated, “It is the easiest thing in the world to find the will of God once you have no will of your own.” One hundred percent surrender of your own desires and your own will is the key to receiving a revelation of God’s will for your life.
A third reason that people have a hard time discerning God’s will for their lives, is that they failed to obey God the last time He gave them a directive. (And God is still waiting for them to obey Him!) If years ago you felt God prompting you to do a certain thing or go to a certain place and you did not obey, why would God give you a new directive when you have not obeyed the last one He gave you? If this is the case with you, the first thing you need to do is to repent and ask God’s forgiveness for your disobedience. Then ask the Lord the same question Saul asked, “What would You have me to do?” Genuine repentance places you in a position to return to the center of God’s will for your life, and He is fully able to redeem the years that were wasted in disobedience.
The Bible gives us a very vivid example of someone who obeyed God’s will but did so with a wrong heart attitude. Jonah was given an assignment from God to go to a certain city called Ninevah, and preach a message of repentance. Initially, Jonah ran in the opposite direction because he did not want to obey God. Then after three nights in the belly of the whale, Jonah reluctantly agreed to obey God’s will. But the last chapter in the book of Jonah clearly reveals that even though Jonah obeyed, his heart was not in it, and God rebuked him for his attitude. Isaiah 1:19 says: If you are willing and obedient you will eat the good of the land. God is looking for people who are not only obedient to God’s will but have a willing heart as well.
You can ask God to change your heart if you are obeying His will but you don’t have a desire for it. God is happy to answer that prayer. I found this out when I recently was preparing to go to minister in a certain country in West Africa. I had been there only once before and had spent more time in East Africa and loved the people there so much. The Lord spoke to me before the trip and said, “You don’t have My heart for the people in West Africa, in fact you favor the East Africans.” I protested and said, “What do you mean...Lord I am obeying you by going to minister there.” (But I knew deep down that I did not have the same enthusiasm for traveling there that I did for East Africa.)
The Lord reiterated, “You don’t have My heart for them. You are obedient to Me in this matter but reluctantly so.” So I repented and asked God to give me His heart for the people. That trip turned out to be one of the most outstanding times of ministry I had ever had on the African continent. I found a sudden overwhelming love for the people that I had not possessed before. And I knew that God had answered that prayer to change my heart attitude. When you do God’s will with God’s heart, there is tremendous blessing released. You will literally “eat the good of the land.”
God wants us to be like King David with regard to the will of God. David wrote in Psalm 40:8: I delight to do thy will, O my God. It was written about David in First Samuel 13:14: I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, which will fulfill all my will… David both delighted to do God’s will and fulfilled God’s will. He was both willing and obedient. If you want to be like David, pray this way: Lord, I want to be a man after Your own heart. Give me Your heart for whatever it is that You will for my life. Give me grace to obey and to have joy in Your will. Show me what You would have me to do. Amen.
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