A Guiding Presence, Part 2
Acts 16: 1-10
One thing is very clear in Scripture: God guides his people. In fact, as you read through the Scriptures, particularly the Book of Acts, it seems that guidance from God through the Holy Spirit is a normal and regular part of following Jesus. But sometimes we become so absorbed in our lives and so inundated by the noise around us (TV, radio, texting, email and a lack of margin), that we fail to hear when God speaks. So it helps to know how God can speak to us and that the amount of guidance we receive from God is dependent on how available we make ourselves to him. Spiritual guidance comes, not only for our own good but for the good of others, but ultimately for the good of God and His purposes. As we walk in God’s will, we are blessed but more importantly, the people around us are blessed as is God. When you pray for and seek God’s guidance, you acknowledge that God has the right to direct your life. God is sovereign, not only over all creation and history, but over you. The King of kings and Lord of Lords has every right to govern you because of who he is. But God never forces us us. Rather we must first submit to God and His will for our lives.
So how can God guide us? Last week, we learn about three means: first is through what John Wesley called reason. God has given us a mind to be used for his purposes. This is why we’re called to have the “mind of Christ” (1 Cor 2:16). Paul tells us in Romans 8:5-6, the Spirit of God can guide our thinking/ Second is through daily and systematic reading of Scripture. Third is through other people as they speak, minister and provide counsel to us.
Today, we’re going to look at four other means through which God guides us. First is through visions. Joel 2:28 says, “I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.” In fact, visions are so important that Proverbs 19:18 says, “Without a vision, the people perish.” Throughout Scripture, God communicates with his people through visions. In Gen. 15, the Lord speaks to Abraham in a vision reminding him that he was to be a father of many nations. (Gen 15:1). As a young boy, Samuel received a vision that God’s judgment was coming on Samuel’s mentor, Eli. (1 Samuel) In the New Testament, Zechariah had a vision that he was about to give birth to an important son, John the Baptist. In Acts 9, Annanias had a vision which sent him to minister to and care for Saul after Saul was blinded. In Acts 10, Peter had a vision that expanded the Gospel to Gentiles.
If we were to think that things like this happened only for biblical times, the promise of Joel would be wrong. God still speaks in visions today. I was driving home one Sunday from Trinity of Gentilly, where I was serving. I was on Napolean headed toward the river and had just passed Pascale Manales when I saw Covenant Presbyterian Church at the corner of St. Charles Ave. I then had a vision of younger families in the Uptown and Garden District area streaming into that church singing God’s praises. It was so powerful that I had to pull over by the old K&B there and stop the car. The following week, I made an appointment to speak with the DS and then the pastor of Rayne. Little did I know the elderly members of Covenant Presbyterian were discussing selling the church and relocating to Metairie. The DS didn’t respond to my vision by acting on it, reminding me that God’s people don’t always say yes to God. Today, there is the powerful ministry of Watson Memorial filling that church and transforming lives.
Second, God speaks through circumstances. In Acts 16, the Apostle Paul and Silas were in Philippi, where they shared the good news of Jesus with a man and his family (Acts 16:16-34). The whole household believed the message and all members were immediately baptized. How did Paul and Silas get to the home of this man and his family? Through circumstances, and rather odd circumstances at that. The man was a jailer who had been assigned to guard Paul and Silas. Around midnight, when they should have been bemoaning their fate, Paul and Silas were praying and praising God. All of a sudden, a great earthquake shook the prison, knocking the chains off the prisoners and opening the door to the jail cell. The poor jailer saw the open door and supposing that his prisoners had escaped was about to fall on his sword when Paul shouted: “Don’t do it! We are all here!” In that moment, Paul and Silas led this man to faith. He then took them to his home, where they proceeded to convert this jailer’s entire family. Given the whole tenor of the Book of Acts, we are surely meant to believe that their arrest was no mere coincidence and that the Holy Spirit was directing these circumstances. The Bible is full of stories in which God’s guidance comes, not by word or vision, but through circumstances. Even today, the Holy Spirit is speaking through circumstances to do His will.
Pastor Mark Roberts tells the story of being a sophomore in college and wanting to share his faith with others. But, as an introverted person, he wasn’t likely to walk up to a stranger or even a friend and get into a conversation about God. So he decided to pray and ask God to help him. One brisk Saturday evening, he decided to go to Harvard Square in Boston–which was always bustling with people–and see if he could share his faith with somebody. He wandered around for a while, all the while praying, “Lord, please bring me somebody who wants to learn about you.” Nothing happened. After a half hour or so, he began to feel both discouraged and silly. Just then, two young women approached him and asked for directions to a party whose address was about 10 minutes from Harvard Square. So he figured this would be plenty of time to engage these women in a conversation about God on the walk there. He kept bringing up subjects that he felt sure would lead to a productive dialogue about the Christian faith but they didn’t. All these girls wanted to do that night was party. When they arrived, he walked them to the door. They thanked me and left quickly, leaving Mark feeling like a complete idiot. He decided to head home and just then passed a student who was an acquaintance and said, “Hi.” And the young man said, “I’ve been wanting to talk to you,” “Me?” he asked incredulously. “Yes, you!” Matt asserted. “Why me?” “Because I hear you’re a Christian. I need to talk to you about God.” And they ended up talking well into the night. That conversation turned into a weekly Bible study, as they studied the Gospels together.
Was that a coincidence, an accident or God using rather strange circumstances of that evening to guide Mark to Matt –so that God’s work would be done in his life? Even today, God can use the guidance of the Holy Spirit through the circumstances of our lives. But there is a downside to this kind of guidance. Spiritual guidance through circumstances is great, but it’s usually ambiguous. What will help us sort out the circumstances of our lives so as to discern God’s guidance with confidence? Scripture, prayer, listening and the counsel of others.
Third, God speaks through impressions. Many of the major decisions in my life have been made because God gave me an impression. When I had my call to ministry, I didn’t hear God speak but rather it was through a strong impression on my heart and mind that this was God’s will for my life. This is what the Bible calls the whisper of God. In the wake of Elijah’s victory over the prophets of Baal, Queen Jezebel sought Elijah’s life, forcing him to flee to the wilderness. Several weeks later, he found himself cowering in a cave in the desert, crying out to God for help. Then God instructed Elijah to stand outside of the cave and watch. And as he stood there, a mighty windstorm hit the mountain, but the Lord was not in the wind. Then there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, there was a roaring fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. But then came the sound of a “gentle whisper.” (1 Kgs 19:11-12) The God who controls the awesome power of wind, earthquake and fire, chose to speak to Elijah through a quiet whisper,” what the KJV calls “a still, small voice.” The Holy Spirit sometimes speaks in a gentle whisper that brushes our hearts like a soft spring breeze.
Fourth is through dreams, which is one of the more common ways God speaks in the Bible. There are 21 dreams recorded in Scripture and several more referred to. Job 33:14-17 (LB) “God speaks again and again, in dreams, in visions of the night… as they lie on their beds. He opens their ears…..and gives them wisdom and instruction...” Dreams were considered by the Jews to be the language of God through which God most often speaks to us and guides us. Dreams can change your life and even change the world! George W. Bush decided to run for president because of a dream. Ben Franklin encouraged the other founding fathers to push for independence for the colonies after he had a dream. George Frederic Handel heard the last movement of his cantata, “The Messiah” in a dream. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech was inspired from an actual dream. It is in our dreams that God not only speaks to us but where he reveals his purpose and will.
God still speaks in dreams today. In the second year of serving at Gretna, I had a dream that the 2 acres next door where a pediatrician’s office was located was going to be sold and become townhouses. The owner Dr. Jerry Fortino attended the WestBank Rotary Club which met at the church every Tuesday. So after the next meeting, I went up to the Jerry and asked if I could make an appointment with him to talk about his property. He excitedly said, “Do you want to buy it?” Shocked and wanting to downplay things, I said, “Well, I would just like to sit down with you and talk about it.” And he said, “Well, you know I just got it appraised last week to get ready to sell it.” We ended up buying it because it was the only contiguous property which was every going to become available to us. You see, the church is surrounded by Westlawn Cemetery. Those townhouses? They were going to become mausoleums as the cemetery offered us the next month $50,000 over what we paid. God still speaks through dreams.
Now is every dream from God, though. Many of our dreams are strange and crazy, right? They have no spiritual significance at all. If you know anything about REM sleep you know that it’s just your brain reorganizing all the information of the day, sometimes in pretty wild ways. We’ve all had crazy dreams. That’s why you have to test and confirm them but God can speak to us through our dreams. God is speaking, the only questions is, “Are we listening?” Amen.
