Lord, What Wilt Thou Have Me Do?

As Paul journeyed on the road to Damascus, “suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.” I love the response that he gave. Luke recounted, “And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” Paul would spend the rest of his life asking that question and boldly following whatever the answer was. He started by immediately being baptized as soon as he could: “And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized.” Once he was baptized he dedicated the rest of his life to serve the Lord by fulfilling the mission that the Lord had in store for him as declared to Ananias: “He is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake” (Acts 9:3-6, 15-18). He indeed bore witness of the Savior to the children of Israel, to the Gentiles, and even before kings, not afraid to suffer great things in the process as He did what the Lord required of him. He fiercely sought to do whatever the Savior wanted of him, no matter what the cost. For example, when some believers suggested that he not go to Jerusalem at one point because of the persecution that awaited him there, he replied, “What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” Luke recorded, “And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be done” (Acts 21:13-14). Paul always sought to ensure that indeed the will of the Lord be done no matter what the cost to him.  

                We might think that it was perfectly natural for Paul to become so devoted after so great a vision, but of course we know that it was because of his faith and diligence in following the Savior afterwards that made the difference. The experience of Laman and Lemuel gives an interesting contrast to what happened to Paul. Like Paul they were persecuting the believers—namely their younger brothers—and they also had a great heavenly manifestation: “And it came to pass as they smote us with a rod, behold, an angel of the Lord came and stood before them, and he spake unto them, saying: Why do ye smite your younger brother with a rod? Know ye not that the Lord hath chosen him to be a ruler over you, and this because of your iniquities? Behold ye shall go up to Jerusalem again, and the Lord will deliver Laban into your hands.” But they did not believe and humbly turn to the Lord; instead they remained incredulous and said simply, “How is it possible that the Lord will deliver Laban into our hands? Behold, he is a mighty man, and he can command fifty, yea, even he can slay fifty; then why not us?” (1 Nephi 3:29-31) The heavenly manifestation in the end did not change them because they were never willing to ask the question, “Lord, what wilt thou have me do?” They murmured and ultimately disbelieved the very vision they had experienced, later complaining of Nephi: “Now, he says that the Lord has talked with him, and also that angels have ministered unto him. But behold, we know that he lies unto us; and he tells us these things, and he worketh many things by his cunning arts, that he may deceive our eyes, thinking, perhaps, that he may lead us away into some strange wilderness” (1 Nephi 16:38). Like the Nephites of a much later generation, “they began to be hard in their hearts, and blind in their minds, and began to disbelieve all which they had heard and seen—Imagining up some vain thing in their hearts, that it was wrought by men and by the power of the devil” (3 Nephi 2:1-2). And so, we know that signs and angels and heavenly manifestations do not necessarily convert and change us; conversion comes in the asking and following through with Paul’s key question: “Lord, what wilt thou have me do?”