SCRIPTURE READING:
Acts 16
THE LORD WANTS TO LEAD YOU AND USE YOU IN THE PROCESS
Acts 16 records a story of two main characters, Paul and Silas. They were travelling around the then known world bringing the Good News of Jesus Christ to people of different groupings. They would go from place to place as the Holy Spirit led and guided them. Wherever they went people’s lives were touched and changed. As a result Christianity spread and grew. v5 ‘So the church grew daily in faith and numbers.’ These were just ordinary people making a great difference in the world. God wants to use you and I in much the same way to touch the lives of others and in the process change and influence the world around us. Like these disciples, we are meant to be agents of change in the world in which we live. God can use us as we follow what He leads us to do. Sometimes in the business of life His leading can be drowned out by the urgent and pressing things we face. But if we take the time and if we will endeavor to hear what He tells us and take action on that, He will use us and our lives will be filled with purpose and meaning.
GOD CAN LEAD US IN MANY WAYS
We must never limit the way in which God can lead and guide us. There are many ways in which God can and will lead us. Sometimes it is through the inner sense or witness, as the Bible calls it. It is a sense of knowing deep within ourselves. Sometimes He can lead us through His Word, the Bible. Often times His Holy Spirit will come and lead and prompt us in a certain direction. But there are also other ways in which God can lead us. He could use other people to bring His instructions to us. He could speak to us through circumstances and challenges we may be facing. Here God spoke through a vision. v9 ‘That night Paul had a vision. In his dream he saw a man over in Macedonia, Greece, pleading with him, ‘Come over here and help us.’ Most versions of the Bible refer to it as a vision, but most versions also refer to it as a vision in the night. Night visions are often referred to as dreams, so there is a good possibility that Paul saw this in a dream. In various places throughout the Bible God uses dreams to speak to people. I remember one day visiting a certain Pastor in another country. We had discussed certain challenges that I had been facing and before going to sleep he prayed and asked God to speak to me even while I slept and through dreams. I sometimes pray this over my own children when, on occasion, I pray with them before going to sleep. The issue is that God wants to lead us and He uses different ways to do so. Our responsibility is to be sensitive to His leading and then to take action.
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