The Guidance of the Holy Spirit! - Acts 16

Acts 16 Paul’s Vision of the Man of Macedonia

6 Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. 7 When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. 8 So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. 9 During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

This is the remarkable story about the power of the Holy Spirit and Paul's obedience to the Spirit's guidance.  What can we learn for it as we seek to be LED by the Spirit in our lives?

  1. The Holy Spirit is a person of the Trinity.  Most people have a hard time relating to the Holy Spirit as a person.  We can identify with God the Father, Jesus the Son, but the Holy Spirit seems elusive to us.  Here we see the Holy Spirit kept Paul from entering Asia (modern day Turkey).  The Holy Spirit communicated clearly to Paul and his companions. 
  2. Paul didn't know why the Holy Spirit re-directed their journey.  Paul certainly a noble intention to continue to preach the gospel in the cities where they were headed, but the Spirit had a different plan.  So often we have plans to do something and often we don't wait on the Spirit's confirmation of our plans. We get ahead of God's plan albeit with good motives.  Possibly there was danger awaiting Paul, or the Spirit knew the gospel needed to move to a different location. 
  3. The Holy Spirit worked through a vision Paul had.  Paul specifically saw what he called the "Macedonia man" asking him for help. Macedonia was the province in which Philippi was located.  It was also the location of modern day Northern Greece.  Later we will read the huge harvest for the gospel that came with Paul's obedience to the vision Paul received from this man.  Notice the man was "begging" Paul to come over.  One commentator has said this about the type of help the man was asking for ...
"The greatest help we can bring anyone is the life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ. It is good for us to bring other help along with the gospel, but without the gospel, little real help is given." (Guzik)

Do you ever think of the Holy Spirit as a person, who communicates to you God's will? Would you be willing to adjust your plans, if you sensed the Holy Spirit was re-directing you?  Think about how obedient Paul was to the vision he received and the great fruit which was borne out of his obedience.  Let's pray that we can be as faithful to the Holy Spirit's guidance as Paul was!


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