Will

We are coming to the end of Paul’s third missionary journey ... currently in Caesarea. There is a link in the “sites” section of the blog that will allow you to interactively track his journey.


Acts 21
10 Several days later a man named Agabus, who also had the gift of prophecy, arrived from Judea. 11 He came over, took Paul’s belt, and bound his own feet and hands with it. Then he said, “The Holy Spirit declares, ‘So shall the owner of this belt be bound by the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem and turned over to the Gentiles.’” 12 When we heard this, we and the local believers all begged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. 13 But he said, “Why all this weeping? You are breaking my heart! I am ready not only to be jailed at Jerusalem but even to die for the sake of the Lord Jesus.” 14 When it was clear that we couldn’t persuade him, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.” 15 After this we packed our things and left for Jerusalem. 16 Some believers from Caesarea accompanied us, and they took us to the home of Mnason, a man originally from Cyprus and one of the early believers.


Will. This part of the story has always been difficult for me to process. On one hand, you have a Godly man (Agabus) who feels compelled by the Holy Spirit to warn Paul about going to Jerusalem. On the other hand, you have a Godly man (Paul) who feels compelled by the Holy Spirit to go to Jerusalem despite the warning. Would God, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, ever lead you into a dangerous situation? In other words, is it ever God’s will that we walk through a difficult (even dangerous) season of life? In a word, yes (check out 1 Samuel 17 and Esther 4-5 and Daniel 3 and especially Matthew 26). The reality is, our will (agenda) is to accumulate good things ... good job, good house, good car, good marriage, good kids, etc. God’s will (agenda) is to restore the brokenness of humanity by restoring a broken relationship with humanity. Obviously, those wills don’t always match up. That is when we have to answer the question of which will we will follow.