Devotional # 30
"And finding disciples, we tarried there seven days: who said to Paul through the Spirit, that he should not go up Jerusalem" Acts 21:4. "And … Thus saith the Holy Ghost, so shall the Jews of the Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles" Acts 21:11.
After taking leave from the Ephesus church elders at Miletus, Paul left for Jerusalem. After passing through the ports of Coos, Rhodes, and Patara, they changed the ship and sailed to Syria and landed at Tyre. Paul and company found some disciples in Tyre and stayed there for seven days. The disciples at Tyre prophesied through the Spirit that Paul should not go to Jerusalem.
It does not appear that apostle Paul had asked the disciples at Tyre to find the will of God about his going to Jerusalem. Even though these disciples lived in different locations, geographically separated, they all received the same message from the Spirit. The same Spirit dwelt in each one and guided them all.
Paul was an apostle, but the ones who told Paul not to go to Jerusalem were ordinary disciples. But their rank did not matter in prophesying what the Spirit guided them to do. When the disciples’ hearts are honest with the Lord and carry a burden with love towards others equally, whether ordinary brethren or great apostles, He grants us a great privilege to know His mind concerning them. So often, our clouded hearts and opinionated minds are hindrances to knowing God’s clear will and guidance through the Spirit.
It is the second time during Paul’s and others’ ministry that the Spirit tells them what not to do. The first time it happened was when we read, “… and forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia” Acts 16:6. The Holy Ghost is the Guide that tells us what to do. He leads us in the direction that the Lord desires. It is very seldom that we notice the Spirit giving prohibitory instructions in the scripture. When the Spirit gives such guidance, we must be careful and attentive.
The Omniscient God knows what would happen when we pursue ways other than those guided by the Spirit. We need to nurture the habit of listening to the gentle, inner voice of the Lord to perceive the guidance of the Spirit that would prevent missteps in our journey, to serve the Lord.
Paul and company moved from Tyre to Caesarea and entered the house of Philip the Evangelist. While they stayed there for a few days, a prophet named Agabus came from Judea. The prophet Agabus prophesied that the Jews at Jerusalem would bind Paul and deliver him to Gentiles. Agabus was not from Caesarea. He arrived there from Judea.
When the Lord bestows the gift of prophesying on disciples through the Holy Spirit, they move from place to place wherever the Spirit guides them. Thus the Spirit records an incident in Acts 11:27-28, where the prophets came from Judea to Antioch, and Agabus, one of them, prophesied that there would be famine in Judea. The instruction from the Spirit in Tyre (Acts 21: 4) told Paul not to go to Jerusalem. The prophecy by Agabus at Caesarea (Acts 21:11) told Paul what would happen to him if he went to Jerusalem.
When received, the gift of prophecy does not confine to edifying a local assembly but across all places where the believers allow freedom for the Lord and Spirit to work. It is a blessed truth to inspire us from the first-century church. We should covet the gift to prophesy and allow the Spirit the freedom to use it where needed.
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