Yielding To God's Vision-Part 3

Verse 10 “And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them.”

Many Christians have hurt themselves and others because they saw in visions or prophetic utterances what they want to see rather than what God may be trying to communicate. There should always be confirmations before acting on any vision, especially if it comes from someone else. You need to know it is from God.

Verse 13 “And on the Sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither.”

Paul’s vision of a man from Macedonia must have left him excited about what he was going to find. He expected men who were just waiting to hear the Gospel when they arrived on the scene, perhaps even a synagogue of men whose hearts were all prepared for the truth of God. He was anticipating a quick and full response by hungry men that would stir the city and the planting of a large Church.

The reality is Paul that when he and Silas arrived there were only women by the river conducting a prayer meeting. There weren’t even 10 Jewish men to constitute a synagogue, 10 being the minimum to have one. Paul’s vision didn’t match the reality that he found there. Instead of the man from Macedonia Paul finds a Gentile woman from Asia by the name of Lydia, who was from Thyatira. They weren’t crying out for help either as Paul had seen in his vision.

Paul had actually been there several days with no results according to Verse 12b.

So far the vision Paul had was hardly anything like the reality he encountered. At this point many Christians would have condemned the trip saying that Paul must not be living right or that the vision was false. Even a couple similarities would have been nice but there are almost none.

 So what’s a prophet to do?

 Paul accepts the reality as the fulfillment to God’s vision.

Verse 14 “And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.”

They stay and work with what they got, which is a bunch of women who opened their hearts to the Gospel. Imagine if Paul had given up on the vision because he got a Gentile woman named Lydia as a convert instead of a Man from Macedonia? If Paul had rejected the circumstances as not being the fulfillment of the vision there might never have been a Church planted in Philippi. The Philippian church became one of the strongest and healthiest churches in the New Testament.