CHECKMATED BUT WINNING
Acts 16:7 tells us that Paul turned to go to Bithynia but the Spirit of God stopped him--wouldn't allow it!
How did the Spirit do that? Via a dream? Did a prophet speak a word to him? Did he become ill? More than one of these? All of them together? I mention this because Paul didn't enjoy being contradicted or thwarted or hindered and he didn't mind saying that when he was hindered it was Satan at work in the matter [see 1Thessalonians 2:18].
In Acts 21:10-14 a prophet warns Paul what would happen to him if he insisted on going to Jerusalem. The disciples begged Paul not to go there [how many "good reasons" did they give to win him over?] but in the end we're told he could not be persuaded. Again, I mention this to make the point that when the Spirit stopped Paul in Acts 16 the message must have been loud and clear and definitive because the only thing this man really cared for was that he be faithful to the task God had given him and that was to preach the gospel [Acts 20:24].
As God's story unfolds in Acts we learn that God's eternal purpose is greater than Paul, greater than Paul's faithful and driven heart. Paul was marvelous but God is more marvelous. Paul was committed but God is more committed. But it was because Paul had one thing in his heart, had one joy in his life that the Spirit said a definitive "no" to him. The Story was to go West!
Paul was never so wisely guided, said G.H. Morrison, than that time when he was thwarted, baffled more than once [Acts 16:6-7}. Paul said "yes" and God said "no". Incidents like this leave us with many questions and generate many others but they are questions for another time. Here on this occasion Paul dreamed a dream about a man in the West pleading for help and he concluded [16:10] that God was calling him Westward.
[Was God not making a "pet" out of the West? Hmmm. Was he not making a "servant" out of the West whether or not the West has refused or refuses to be? Has privilege no implied mission?]
God will not be domesticated! He will have what he will have and what he will haveexpresses his heart's desire to bless the entire human family. This means he will, when it suits his wise and loving purpose, say "no" even to his devoted servants! This means he will not always speak in such a way that he cannot be misunderstood--there will be times when the devoted servants will have to trust to their loving hearts' best construal. But it will be such people that God will trust himself to. As if he said, "They will work it out--they love me!"
In this person, Paul, the Spirit's "no" and his "yes" was rightly understood because he was so in tune with the Spirit, so driven to proclaim the gospel of God as it has come to us in the blessed Lord Jesus that he tried every door and when he found one left unlocked he hurled himself through it. If God checkmated him it was because he knew the heart of Paul--knew that he would think himself a "winner" despite the loss [compare 2 Corinthians 12:1-10 for the same spirit in Paul].
Paul would have seen himself a winner because he was free now to preach THE GOSPEL to the Western world. Had he gone east he would have turned his back on Athens and on the world's center of power, Rome. In truth, Paul was not beaten. If he was free to preach, if God had opened a door or shut one it made no difference to Paul. It was GOD who was God. It was GOD'S gospel about GOD'S Son and Paul was his willing servant. You can't beat such a man by helping him better to do his job. He'll turn and thank you for it!
But let Paul through a door and it's THE GOSPEL he'll preach! It's GOD he'll talk about! He won't educate, he won't inform, he won't entertain, he won't enthrall, he won't delight, he won't moralize, he won't impress or amaze--he will PREACH! He will preach the GOSPEL! He will go to many places and find himself in many differing situations and he will shape his presentation accordingly But he willl PREACH and he will preach one thing--THE GOSPEL.
God doesn't take the trouble to say "no" to Reader's Digest "preachers". God doesn't bother himself to shut and open doors to the clever "information pedlars". He marks well the journeys of PREACHERS who preach one thing--THE GOSPEL.
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.
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