Led by the Spirit, Not by Strategy I'm going to start in Acts 16:5. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in number daily. Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. Do you see that? That's from the text of scripture. Somebody got a good idea: let's go to Asia. There are so many people who need the gospel there. No doubt it was a good idea. No doubt great good could be done. But there was a dependency on the Holy Spirit in these early believers in Christ — Paul and his associates and others, right from the day of Acts chapter 2. They were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them. Thank God. I thank God with all my heart that when I try to do something and it's not from God, he'll bring a stop to it. He'll slam the door, and you can push all you want — you can't open a door that God has closed. Thank God he doesn't let us go through the doors we're not supposed to go through, even though the door might seem like a good idea. What's wrong with going to Bithynia? Obviously there was a reason. There might have been some report of the need there. But folks, we're not supposed to be driven by need. We're supposed to be led by the Spirit as the church of Jesus Christ. Everything that is not born of the Spirit — I always ask God, please don't let me embark on anything that is not of you. I did that in the early years of my life in ministry. I got the t-shirt. I never want to go there again. I just want to do what God wants me to do. Nothing more, nothing less. So passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." Now after he had seen the vision, immediately they sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called them to preach the gospel to them. So — forbidden by the Spirit, stopped by the Spirit, and then suddenly Paul is praying and there's a vision. Someone in Macedonia is saying, "Please come and help us." Whatever God initiates, he empowers. What he doesn't initiate, he doesn't empower. All the plans of man — I often liken it to a dead horse in a parade. You have to carry it, you have to point it, you have to talk about how great and majestic and strong and noble it is. But the thing is dead — you have to carry it. Everything coming out of the minds of men trying to promote the kingdom of God is like a dead horse in a parade. It has no power. It can go nowhere. It is not empowered by the Spirit of God. What God Initiates, God Empowers You and I know the story: Paul and his companions go into the area of Macedonia. They see a church founded in the home of a woman called Lydia. They see a girl who had a spirit of divination delivered. And then Paul and Silas are thrust into prison on this particular journey that God sends them on. Remember — what God initiates, God empowers. Don't forget that. If I am being led by the Spirit, the power of God is going with me, because the Holy Spirit within me is guiding me to do something that he wants to do through my life. That's why the power of God goes with it. In Romans 8, Paul the Apostle said that the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings that cannot be uttered, and he intercedes for us according to the will of God. According to God's will, the Holy Spirit within you right now is interceding for you — with groanings that cannot be uttered. It's not that the Holy Spirit can't utter these groanings. It's that we have a hard time bringing ourselves in line with what the Spirit of God within us wants to do. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead, and he lives inside our physical bodies. He has a plan. It's not our plan. We're not called to promote the kingdom of God. We're called to allow God from within us to promote himself — to do what only God can do, to lead us and guide us to where he wants us to go and what he wants us to do. Stop Traveling I was leaving the Bible school a little over a year ago, in May, coming to the gates of the school. The gates were starting to slowly open, and I uttered a prayer out loud. I said, "Lord, what do you want me to do?" As clearly as I'm speaking to you right now, the Holy Spirit said, Stop traveling. I had been doing a lot of traveling that year. That's all he said: stop traveling. Remember Paul on the Damascus road? "What would you have me to do?" The Holy Spirit said, go into the city. That's all he said. He didn't give me reasons why — he just said, stop traveling. The irony of it all is that the very next week, I got an invitation to go to India to speak to 6,000 pastors in the daytime and 400,000 people at night. Pastor Tim said, "I need to see that invitation." I sent it to him and he said, "Wow, it's true. Those are the numbers they give you." 6,000 pastors in the daytime, 400,000 people at night. If I had gone, most likely I would be dead today. I didn't know my heart was failing. I didn't know that there were two valves in my heart that were no longer working and that the bottom part of my heart was completely blocked. I was on the edge of a massive heart attack. If I had gone to India and preached probably 12 times in 100-degree heat, I most likely wouldn't be here today. You see, it can be life and death to obey the Holy Spirit. The week after that, I got an invitation to go to Israel with another organization to do a documentary. I had to say no. People don't understand that. When you say the Lord has told you not to travel, people look at you like you've got three eyes on your forehead. Why is that odd? Why is it considered odd today that God still leads his people — that the Holy Spirit still speaks? Where are we that that's considered almost a foreign or strange thing? People ask, "Why would God tell you that?" I have to say, I have no idea. I just know he told me to stop traveling. Two months later, I found out I was on the edge of eternity. The Power That Accompanies Obedience Now in the book of Acts, Paul and his companion Silas were thrust into prison. It was at midnight that they sang. Remember — what God initiates, he empowers. I think if they had gone to Asia, they would have been preaching and teaching and probably some good would have been done. If they had gone to Bithynia, no doubt there would have been some good done. But God came with them into Macedonia. God went with them into the prison. When Paul and Silas sang at midnight, the presence and power of God came down and shook that prison. The doors were opened. Everyone's chains were loosed. The jailer got saved. His family was baptized that night. The miracles of God start to accompany us when we're walking according to the plan and leading of God's Holy Spirit. Now, hearing the voice of God is not a spooky thing. I've met people who get weird about it. But hearing the voice of God is not a weird thing. It just means that I am yielding my body, recognizing that God — the third person of the Godhead — lives inside this earthly body. That's not conjecture. That's a fact. Remember in the Old Testament, whenever God would meet somebody and want to do something significant, he would tell them to take their shoes off. "Take off your shoes, Moses — you're standing on holy ground." "Take off your shoes, Joshua." In other words: I don't need your strength. I don't want your plans. I don't need your ideas. I just want you to obey me, because I'm going to do something that only God can do. Hearing the voice of God doesn't necessarily come as an audible voice, but as a deep inner prompting — because I have laid down my own agenda. And in laying down my own agenda, my only desire is the agenda of God. So I am now open to what God wan...
