Having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia; and later they were trying to go into another place, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them.

 Good morning. They passed through the region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia; and later they were trying to go into another place, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them. Why does it say Holy Spirit one moment, and the Spirit of Jesus in the next? I know that a lot of people would say that it was just for variety in writing; but I think that there was actually a distinction in what happened. When it says they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia, I think it meant that there was an out loud verbal communication – “Thus saith the Lord”. When it says the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them, I believe it meant that within them they felt this uneasiness about going into that region. We have all been this way at times – conflicted within and without. They come to Troas. Finally, a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, come over to Macedonia and help us. What would we do if after not being able to find out what God wanted us to do, we saw a vision? - probably the same thing they did. Immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. Notice that it now says we – this is probably where Paul and Silas met Luke. They proceeded to go to Philippi (refer back to the events that follow when reading the book of Philippians), which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia, a Roman colony; and we were staying in the city for several days. And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer; and we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled. It doesn’t say that they had a “Thus saith the Lord“ directing them to go there – God expects us to use our common sense. Father help us to keep our minds on the important things and to not let the little things distract us. Show us the way that we should go.

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