God's voice - have you heard it?

Christine DiGiacomo
1 minute ago
4 min read

podcast: https://www.pastorwoman.net/podcast/episode/1acc9501/gods-voice-have-you-heard-it-no-41-acts

"God told me..."

Wait, what? You heard God's voice? Oh, come on.

"Yes, God told me I should go a different direction on my job."

Seriously, you expect me to believe that God talked to you? huh...

Funny thing. It was not long ago on a cross country flight, that I turned to the man next to me and asked, "Hey, does God ever speak to you?" You might be surprised to know that he did not ring for the flight attendant or ask to be moved, he answered my question, and we ended up having a very lively, interesting conversation . . . one that continues to this day.

Does God talk to us? Like, does He actually lead us, individually?

Hmmm.

Let's look at how he 'spoke' to Paul. As we peer over the apostle's shoulder, we see him set off on his second missionary journey--this time with Silas as his mate. Our text is Acts chapter 16: https://biblehub.com/niv/acts/16.htm. [reading the whole chapter takes just a couple minutes and sets the following remarks in their proper context; however, it is easy to get lost in the names of unknown places, bogged down in what appear to be unimportant details recorded by the historian Luke...but are there ever unimportant details in Scripture?]

First, I must blurt out that I love this chapter!

And I hope my enthusiasm entices you to step a little closer.

Pictured above is excavated Philippi, where most of this chapter is set. I took the picture last April, beautiful Spring poppies in the foreground. Another pic below.

There are three different storylines in Acts 16:

vs. 1 - 12-> How God speaks to Paul, leads him

vs. 13-15-> the first European convert

vs. 16-40-> Jailbreak, God-style

Early on, Luke records that Silas and Paul were impressed by a young Timothy, so they took him along with them. Interesting thought - how did they know where to go on this journey? The Holy Spirit directed them--clearly saying 'no' to two different cities, and yes to another: "During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”1

Did Paul heed the direction he got from this vision? He did. Also noteworthy: look at this detail (unimportant?)--verse 8 states they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas....in verse 10, the pronoun changes to we, saying, "After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called usto preach the gospel to them.2 So at this point, Luke, our author joins Paul, Silas and Timothy as they sail to Macedonia, the first time the gospel will be preached in Europe.

Hold on just a moment here. Have you ever been heading a particular direction, your life going a certain way, and you had the action plan, but all of a sudden, you got a course correction? It is oft times hard to accept, difficult to understand. Same for Paul - he must have thought 'why wouldn't God want me to teach those people about himself?! Why not go there?' We do not know if he questioned God, but either way, Paul obeyed the leading of the Holy Spirit, and headed to Troas. And it appears that Luke joined the band of missionaries there, maybe even becoming Paul’s personal doctor.3 Because God said “no” to Paul those two times, we have a gospel and a book of Acts written by Doctor Luke. God had a plan in telling Paul "no".

Take. a. moment. with. that.

It brings to mind these words from Isaiah, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."4 And I think of David's words,

"As for God, his ways are perfect."5

At times, we may not understand God's ways, but we can count on the fact that his heart toward us is always good. We may not understand his 'no' or his 'wait' or 'not yet', but we can trust that in answer to our prayers, he is always at work. We know this because Paul would later write that God works all things together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose.6

And yes, as he spoke to Paul, so God speaks to the Christ follower. How does God make himself known to us? Several ways: He speaks through Scripture and in the still, small voice. God speaks through other believers, visions-when we are awake, dreams-when we are asleep. Our Father speaks through circumstances--what we often call opened or closed doors. He also communicates through a 'knowing' in our innermost being.

-->>>Do you ever give God some quiet in which to speak?

Listen! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yrwpO6oRMc&list=RD6yrwpO6oRMc&start_radio=1

God will lead you. Ask him...then listen.

Christine