Read Acts 16-18
Acts 16-18 contains numerous stories of how God worked through the apostle Paul and his team to touch hurting and searching people with God’s love. It speaks of Lydia’s conversion, and Paul and Silas witnessing to those in prison and being released by an earthquake. They preached in synagogues, reasoned with philosophers in the streets and told the story of the living Jesus…they proved from the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.
What is so remarkable about the story, is that where they ended up to do all of their mission work, was not the place they had planned to go. In Acts 16:6 and following, their plans were to go into Bithynia, but as they traveled up north to share the good news, the Holy Spirit kept them from preaching. They persisted, but to no avail…the door was shut! That night, Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia, to the west, standing and begging him to come over to Macedonia and help them. Paul and his team left at once concluding that God had called them to preach the gospel to them. This was not their plan, it was God’s plan…and what a marvelous outcome!
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to make the application. We make our plans, but God orders our footsteps. Paul planned to go north to touch others with God’s love, but God directed them west and it was there that Paul and Silas had the whole direction of their ministry redirected. Why, for God in His Sovereignty knew that this was where the “fields were white unto harvest”! The power of these verses is that Paul did not sit around in his living room waiting for a plan from God. He started moving in the direction that seemed best and God intervened to get him where he needed to be.
The moral of the story is that there are certainly times when we need to wait upon the Lord, but most of the time we need to pray, seek Godly counsel, and then take the steps in the direction that seems best and trust that God will, in His timing, get us where He wants us to be. A parked car is hard to steer, but one that is already moving is easy to direct. May God give us the wisdom to keep moving forward and one day we will look back and see the faithfulness of God in getting us through the wilderness and into the promised land.
- Bryce Jessup is President Emeritus of William Jessup University and serves as an MPW (Ministry of Word & Prayer) at Adventure Church
