Acts 9:5

(5) And he said, "Who are You, Lord?" Then the Lord said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads."

Acts 26:14

(14) And when we all had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me and saying in the Hebrew language, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads." 

Saul was an intelligent and extremely well educated man, well versed in the Scriptures. The Bible tells us he even studied at the feet of the great rabbi Gamaliel. Saul possessed much knowledge and knew of all the prophecies that came to be while Jesus walked amongst the Jews but he still could not bring himself to see Jesus for who He was on his own. Saul was an incisive man full of conviction but he was directing his zeal wrongly.

Our carnal minds teach us to reject the truth that the Bible imbibes to us, as was evident with saul's attitude prior to Christ appearing to him on his journey to Demascus. Only when we are able to go against the grain of our misguided instincts and ingrain GOD's word into our hearts through faith, can we truly be satisfied as Christians. How we hear GOD's word is important. We acnnot expect to benefit if we hear the Word with indifference, skepticism, cynicism or questioningly in any form. We must listen and truly hear the Word and it takes effort.

Jesus mildly rebukes Saul by saying, "It is hard for you to kick against the goads.", which means to go against what your carnal instincts tells you. Most likely Jesus won't appear to us as He did to Saul so we have an even tougher time of truly hearing GOD's word but isn't this the essence of faith? Have faith and believe and "Then will you know the  truth and the truth will set you free." John 8:32