Verses 6-9 “Now when they had gone throughout
Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to
preach the word in Asia,
After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into
Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not. And they
passing by Mysia came down to Troas. And a vision
appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him,
saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us.”
Paul was planning on traveling east to take
the Gospel message but was being kept from doing so by the Holy Spirit. We are
not told how, but either by prophetic utterance or by circumstances they were
kept from going.
It is important that they knew this was
from God and not just an obstacle created by something else. There may have been problems with travel,
weather, or some other difficulty beyond their control that made it impossible
for them to go, yet they saw this as a sign from God. No doubt had it been simply a logistics problem
Paul would have pushed ahead anyway, but knowing God was preventing their going
made him respond with acceptance.
We need to know when God says “no” that it
is time to persevere and trust Him. We also need to have our life in such a
relationship to God that we can know when it is God changing our vision and
when it is simply a distraction that we should fight.
When Christians have too many voices and
demands calling for them all at once the danger is that we can miss the voice
of God in all the distractions.
Verse 9 “And a vision appeared to Paul in the
night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into
Macedonia, and help us.”
Paul takes these events into consideration
that God is redirecting his path.
-He has a vision by God.
-He is blocked from traveling east, possibly
a prophetic utterance,
-He adjusts his vision to preaching to the
west.
In his vision he sees and hears a man from
Macedonia (the West) calling to them for help. Paul interprets the vision to
mean that God wanted them to go to Macedonia and preach the Gospel, so instead
of going east they are now to travel west. Paul no doubt creates in his mind an idea of
how this vision will pan out. They will go to Macedonia and find a man who will
be the link to them planting the Gospel in the west. But Paul was in for a
surprise, for the vision was going to be a little different from reality when
they get there.
When God has spoken to us that He is going
to do something in our life we often stamp such a strong idea in our mind of
what our visions mean that we may miss out on what God had in mind from the
beginning. That’s why our vision must be flexible in
God’s master plan.
I read
a story the other day about a farmer who for many years desired to be a Pastor.
One day while taking a rest in his field from plowing he looked up in the sky
and saw 2 clouds that formed the letters “P” and “C”. Immediately he jumped up,
sold his farm, and went out to obey this vision which he took to mean preach
Christ. Unfortunately, he turned out to be a horrible preacher and after one
sermon a neighbor came forward and asked him why he thought God had called him
to preach Christ. After telling him about seeing the “P” and the “C” in the
sky, the neighbor said, “Maybe the Lord wasn’t telling you to “preach Christ”
but to plant corn.”
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