Friday 24th February - Acts 16

Today’s chapter is Acts 16

Tom writes:

If you and I can learn to make decisions like Paul did, we will do well. Twice he aborts his travel plans simply because Holy Spirit told him not to go. We don’t know how Paul received this guidance but I suspect it was a strong feeling or significant lack of peace. After these two cancellations Paul makes new plans to go to Macedonia because of a vision in the night. So three times Paul changes his itinerary because of relatively subjective pieces of guidance. I suspect this intense responsiveness to Holy Spirit was something Paul cultivated through experience; he got better at reading Holy Spirit like a horse rider gradually learns the leans and licks of his steed. But Paul was not just a super-spiritual savant. He decides where to preach based on regular common sense; he goes to where the interested people are likely to be. And then he stays at Lydia’s house because she asks him. And he performs the exorcism of the girl because he gets greatly annoyed. He goes to jail because they make him and he sings because he wants to.

He stays in the jail because he sniffs an evangelistic opportunity and then he has a little dig at the police because… well I’m still not quite sure I understand that one. In all of these latter decisions Paul seems to be “rolling with it” as he pursues the missionary instructions of Jesus from Matthew 10. He has set out on a course to proclaim the Kingdom, to cast out demons, to forge relationships with people of peace, to suck up personal sacrifice and (as per Mt 28) to give others the chance to get baptised. So we see that Paul has made one big decision that sets the context for all his smaller decisions - he has decided to follow Jesus’ call on his life. The pace and place of pursuit of this calling is then something Paul changes and adapts under the guidance of Holy Spirit and the natural instincts that he feels. Paul forges a prolific partnership with Holy Spirit through his obedience to Scripture, his ability to pick up and “read” specific guidance and then his general instinct to just get on with his calling. We would do so well to make decisions in the same way.

Question for reflection

What decisions have you changed due to guidance from the Holy Spirit?