Focal Passage: Acts 16:4-15
God has a myriad of ways of getting us to where He wants us to go. As God He has all the resources at His disposal needed to accomplish His divine purposes in our lives. What appear to us as interruptions are actually turning points designed by God to lead us down the path He has purposed for us to go for His glory, our good, and the advancement of the kingdom of God.
Along the way God may say NO to us. For example, Paul wanted to go to a variety of places. But God wanted Paul in Macedonia, especially in the city of Philippi where a church would be planted with the aid of a very wealthy woman named Lydia. How did God, through a series of perceived interruptions, cause Paul to arrive in Philippi? And how does He do the same in us?
HOW GOD WORKS (Acts 16:4-7) — Before we see God at work, we must know how God works in the first place. Acts 16:4-5 describes how God worked in the life of Paul and his companions: (1) they went through cities, they were on the move with a message, (2) they delivered the message of the gospel the Apostles had confirmed at the Jerusalem council in Acts 15, (3) they strengthened the work and spirit of God’s people, and (4) they saw an increasing number of people come to faith in Christ. This is God’s normal way of ministry.
Kevin Shrum
Into this normal pattern of ministry methodology God sometimes throws interruption after interruption. Acts 16:6 states that Paul was forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. Again, “the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them” to go into the region of Bithyna (Acts 16:7). So, God works in normal patterns, with periodic interruptions, curves, and stoppages.
HOW GOD SPEAKS (Acts 16:8-10) — So, how did God cause Paul to end up where he needed him to be in order to plant a church in Philippi? God used a dream, a vision in the night (Acts 16:9) to call him to go to Macedonia. After this vision Paul concluded in Acts 16:10, “that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.” In brief, God said NO twice (Acts 16:6-7) so that He could say YES the one time that mattered. God may lead us through a series of YESes and NOs in order to get us to where He wants us to be.
WHEN GOD ORGANIZED A PRAYER MEETING (Acts 16:11-15) — Paul finally arrives to God’s pre-determined destination — Philippi and to a prayer meeting down by the riverside, led by a God-fearing woman named Lydia. And God did an amazing thing. Acts 16:14 states, “The Lord opened her heart to respond to what Paul was saying.” God saved Lydia. The reason for all the interruptions was to get to one place to save one woman so that a church would be planted in a city filled with people who needed the gospel.
Two things happened when Lydia was saved. First, she was baptized, identifying her with other believers and picturing the very message of salvation — the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Rom. 6:1-4). Second, as God opened her heart she opened her life and her home for Paul and what would become a new church.
Where do you need to be? Where does God want you to go? You may be in what appear to be a series of interruptions, in the midst of God saying NO repeatedly to what you want to do. Yet, if we will be faithful to God, hear His voice in the Word of God, and obey even when it doesn’t make sense, God will eventually enable us to arrive at His (our) appointed destination. B&R
