BULLETIN ARTICLE – 12 August 2018
TRUST & OBEY
Nowadays, with all the social media focus around us, we are inundated with information and data. Vance Havner commented that at such times all we have added to life is noise. We suffer from selective deafness, hearing only what we want to hear. We also suffer from spiritual deafness because of the din of noise in this world. We live in a world that is crying out for the Gospel of Jesus. Their voices come in many different languages and dialects. Sadly, too often they go unheard and hence unheeded.
We need to be awakened to God’s voice as he calls us to a world desperately needing him. Today, six times more people have never heard of Jesus than were alive when Jesus gave the disciples the Great Commission. 1.7 billion people still do not have access to the Gospel of Jesus. Consider this in perspective: if you could share with one person every second, it would take 54 years to share Jesus’ name with everyone. We live in the greatest age of opportunity to share the Gospel of Jesus and yet our world has never been spiritually so dark.
How did the Apostle Paul know when it was time for his team to move to another city to share the Good News? One way to know if God is preventing us from going in a direction is by letting us have an uncomfortable feeling in our heart. This uncomfortable feeling causes us to pray. After seeking God for guidance and we still have no peace in our hearts, it could be God saying no to what we are planning to do or to wait. God’s ways are not our ways – our agenda must always be flexible and submit to God’s agenda.
Why would the Holy Spirit say no to missionaries strengthening the churches? We do not really know and we sometimes wonder why certain things or events take place in our lives! Dr Luke in Acts does not specify why or what the Holy Spirit did to prevent them from entering or going to a city. Later, in his third missionary trip, Paul went to these regions and planted churches, but for now, it was not his time. God led the missionary team to Troas, a coastal port city. From this port, one can set sail for Greece, Macedonia, Philippi (Europe). God’s plans are always greater and he leads his missionaries in seemingly strange ways. He prevents them sharing the gospel message, he prevents them from going into Mysia and he leads them to Troas to take them across the sea. One key point that kept Paul’s missionary team on the same page as God’s was simply to trust and obey God. They firmly trusted and obeyed the sovereign God who was leading them.
When events in our lives take us in different directions to our well-organised plans, let us always learn to see God’s leading hand. Oftentimes God places the very event that takes us to a different direction beyond our understanding for his ultimate purpose and glory. In all situations in our lives – always trust and obey God!
