Episode 1. Change of Plan - Holy Spirit
I don’t know about you but if there’s one thing I hate, it’s when someone comes along and upsets my apple cart. I have this plan to do this to achieve this and someone comes along …
I don’t know about you but if there’s one thing I hate, it’s when someone comes along and upsets my apple cart. I have this plan to do this to achieve this and someone comes along and forces a change in my plans, ooh how I hate that.
So what do you have planned for today, for tomorrow, the next day, the next week, the next month? We all have hopes and dreams and plans, how we see the future, what we have to look forward to plays a really important part in how much we enjoy our lives today doesn’t it?
This morning I got up and I looked at my diary, for a change things were pretty clear, normally I have a lot of things in my diary, the reason is that I had planned ahead. So preparing radio programs I normally have several solid blocks of time blocked out in my diary during the week to do that. Time in the studio, meetings, admin stuff at the office, perhaps the odd catch up with a friend, men’s group Friday mornings but this morning it was pretty clear.
So after a time with the Lord I sat down to start putting some thoughts together for another radio program but yesterday, yesterday I had a list of twenty-seven items to get through. Got through about half of them which is not bad but in the middle of some really important stuff off goes Skype on my desktop. It was one of our team calling from Africa.
Now I hadn’t spoken with Joseph for a couple of weeks and I really wanted to talk to him but part of me was well, not now, I got annoyed or agitated because I had all these things planned for today and yet now I was being interrupted and it was going to cost me a half an hour to an hour of my time.
Of course I chatted with him and it was great but it’s that reaction of having your plans interrupted that’s the really interesting bit. I’m sure you’ve experienced it too, really good plans and then someone comes along and interrupts them. It happens in the small day-to-day things and it happens too in the bigger things of life.
The plan to get married, to have children, to find somewhere to live, perhaps to buy a house. The plan we have in our minds for our finances and for our careers and for our retirement and for our children, for our families. Time and time and time again those plans get turned on their head as other things, other people demand that they be changed. How do you react to that when that happens, huh?
We’ve been chatting over the last week about the idea of following Jesus with confidence. There are plenty of things that come along and shake our confidence in Him day-to-day and one of those things is when our good and Godly and well-meaning plans are turned upside down on their heads.
We kind of react with shock, hang on, what’s going on? I had things all planned out and now this, really? That can’t be right. Maybe I was heading in the wrong direction in the first place. And then that sense of ‘Maybe I had it wrong’ shakes your confidence a bit. Would it surprise you to know that you’re not the only one who’s been in that place, have a listen to this, it comes out of the Book of Acts in the New Testament, chapter 16, verse 6, the Book of Acts, it’s about the Apostle Paul’s ministry journey:
They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. When they had come opposite Mysia they attempted to go into Bithynia but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So passing by Mysia they went down to Troas.
During the night Paul had a vision, there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ When he had seen the vision we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.
Now did you notice in there twice, not once but twice we’re told that God Himself stopped Paul and his team from following their plans? Now listen, I’m sure they sat down, they’d thought about it, they’d prayed about it, they planned, they were strategic, they were convinced to go and proclaim the Good News of Jesus in Asia and yet they couldn’t because they’d been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the Word in Asia.
We don’t find out how that happened, perhaps Paul had another really sharp dream in the night or perhaps one of their team with the spiritual gift of prophecy stood up and said so. Perhaps they had been praying together and all of a sudden a few of them just got that really sharp check in the spirit about going to Asia or maybe there was some physical blockage stopping them from going. Whatever it was the Holy Spirit forbade them to go there contrary to their initial plans.
And the second time they tried to go to Bithynia but the Spirit of Jesus this time did not allow them to go. Was there some physical obstacle? Was it a sense of spiritual discernment? Again we’re not told but again the Holy Spirit blocked their way.
I was reading a great blog post Finding My Keys by a guy called Luke Collings where he writes this:
The role of the Holy Spirit in the life of a Christian is often portrayed as overwhelmingly positive, that is the Spirit enables the Christian to live in a manner of which they are incapable while they were still under sin. They can be obedient by the Spirit, Romans 8:4, they can understand the things of God, 1 Corinthians 2:12, they can overcome the desires of the body, Galatians 5:16, I could go on and on. The contemporary word to describe the Spirits effect on the Christian life is ’empowerment’.
Well put. In our contemporary social context of individualism and self it’s easy to get only half of the view of the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Almost as though the Spirit is there to serve us rather than the other way around. Of course God is our helper but He’s also our King. Of course Jesus is our Saviour but He’s also our Lord and it’s that second part of the equation that we miss at our peril.
Luke Collings goes on to say this:
What we see instead is the Holy Spirit is more than just ministry rocket fuel, the Spirit is the one who opens and closes doors for the Gospel to spread. The Spirit just doesn’t empower but He directs and He enables mission. Those engaged in preaching of Jesus learn from Acts chapter 16 that they are not the captain and the navigator of their own course. Those jobs are firmly in God’s hands.
So the next time God slams a door shut in your face this wouldn’t be a bad thing to remember. At the end of the day it’s not my plan or your plan that’s important, it’s God’s plan because He sees the whole picture.
Notice with Paul both times God slammed the door shut, God lead them to a different direction. The direction that He would have them go was to speak the Gospel to the people that He would have them speak to. As well as the no’s there was a strong positive yes as during the night Paul had that vision:
There stood a man from Macedonia pleading with him saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’
When he’d seen that vision they immediately crossed over to Macedonia being convinced that God had called them to proclaim the Good News over there. See God leads us in all sorts of different ways, sometimes by closing this door and then a little while later flinging open some other door that you and I would never have even dreamed of knocking on.
That change of plan, sure our natural reaction sometimes is to wonder why, our natural reaction is to have our confidence shaken but the whole point of what we’re talking about today on the program is learning to follow Jesus with confidence. The next time a door slams unexpectedly shut in your face may the Holy Spirit dust this little chat of ours off and bring it back into your recollection.
A change of plans doesn’t mean something has gone wrong. A change of plans doesn’t mean you’ve done something wrong because God is still on the throne and He really does know what He’s doing.
Comments
Shyteria Graham
Regarding the Slave Mentality blog:
I loved everything that was said and how you referenced scriptures as your factual proof. You are absolutely correct, we are free in Christ and can not operate freely if we still allow our sins to keep us enslaved. All glory goes to God! I was truly blessed by this post.
Be blessed.