As I was reading today's passage, one section jumped out at me - 16:6-10 which discussed where Paul tried to go in his missionary journey and how the Spirit kept stopping him until finally directing him to Macedonia. It wasn't exactly an obviously "spiritual" passage, but I was intrigued and decided to do a little geeky digging. Lo and behold, I found some very interesting tidbits from John MacArthur in his sermon Evangelism the Right Way. Not only did he have some great information to share about the historical specifics, but he also had an excellent application for us today...
I left the map up because I want to show you something that is so exciting. Now look at verse 6. "Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia" now notice they've gone through Sallitia through the Sallitian gates. They just kind of slid right in here. Here's Derbe, Iconium, Antioch and Listra, this little section in here. You perhaps can't read it all. This is all part of Galatia. Galatia was a whole large area. The red line represents the Roman Empire, the blue the water areas, but here in this great section here, Galatia was a large province. Now they had gone all in this area preaching and confirming and strengthening the saints and now it was time to move west, see? So Paul thought wow, you know what's next? Asia. Asia Minor, this area right here. You know what the cities were in Asia Minor? Ephesus, Smyrna, Philadelphia, Laodicea, Collosae, Sardis, Pergamus, Thyatira. Wow. Just think of it! "Lord, we're going to Asia Minor", and they start to move "and God drops a concrete wall" verse 6. They were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the Word in Asia. They started to go west and whammo, so what happened? The Holy Spirit slid them up and the trail must've been like this. See? He slid them up and they thought well, maybe north. Maybe the Holy Spirit is telling us north.
You know something? They never stopped. They never stopped. Just because this was closed they didn't stop. They just slid around it. They thought, "Well we'll go north." Look at verse 7. "They came to Mycea." Mycea is a little region right up here between Asia and Bithynia. It's actually in a part of Asia but the very north part and they couldn't preach, and in verse 7, "They attempted to go to Bithynia and maybe God wants us to go north." They can't go east, they've been there, and in the south is water. So north, Bithynia, but you know what? It says in verse 7, "The Spirit allowed them not. You cannot go to Bithynia." Well what are you gonna do? You can't go south, you can't go north. Here they are walking a thin line. You say all the doors are closed. South is water, east we've been, north we can't go, west we can't go. We might as well fold up and go home. But you don't know Paul.
He still had a corridor here, and so he just wiggled between Bithynia and Asia and he kept going and going and going. Finally he got a little place over here. You know what the name of it is? Troas. You know why he stopped there? Because the next step was the Aegean Sea. He couldn't take another step. He stopped. He got all the way to the water, "Well, Lord, you forced us into this little channel and we've been wiggling along between these two deals. Here we are at Troas" verse 8, "They passing by Mycea came to Troas."
You know, beloved, one of the great ways to know the will of God in your life? Just keep moving. You'll sit around, "I don't know what to do. God hasn't shown me." Just get up and do anything! Just do anything in His service and He'll move you where He wants you to be. Read my book on the will of God. It's all in there. Verse 9, "And a vision appeared to Paul in the night and there stood a man of Macedonia." Macedonia was across the Aegean Sea. You know what great cities were there? Philippi, _____, Corinth and Athens. Oh, and this was pure Europe. No longer was Christianity going to be an Asian cult. It was going to reach Europe. Fabulous. And a man of Macedonia vision says, "Come over to Macedonia." You want to know something? God wanted them in Macedonia but he never told them until they couldn't take one more step. You want to know how to live by faith? That's how. Just keep pushing and pushing and pushing until you finally hit a dead end and then God will open the door so wide you won't know what hit you, and you think Paul hesitated? Verse 10, "After he had seen the vision immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us to preach the Gospel to them."
Friends, a great way to know you where God wants you to work, just start going any old direction and watch Him close doors and just keep pressing on until you find an open one. (emphasis mine)
Sitting around doing nothing is going to accomplish exactly that. Nothing.
Doing something is better than doing nothing. Do something, anything, pressing on in faith that God will direct your path....and He will - in His timing!
Tomorrow's passage: Acts 17:16-18:3, 1 Thessalonians 1-5:11
3 comments:
I love that! Great stuff. We always want to know ahead of time where we're going or what we're doing, rather than just rolling up our sleeves and starting somewhere. It's like cleaning the house. You can either sit around thinking you should do this or that, or get discouraged thinking of how much there is to do... or you can roll up your sleeves and start somewhere, and sometimes it's amazing how much more you get done than you thought you could.
Great analogy, Miriam!! Something I can definitely identify with! ;)
Maybe I should've said "put on your apron and start somewhere..." ha ha.
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