Spirit-Led [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. This sounds strange, but he can close a door even using the sin of other people.

Even though they're doing something wrong, it might be that God gets us where we're supposed to go anyway. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series Unlimited as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I'm going to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries.

As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org. Or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Now, more on this later in the program. But right now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. I don't know what happened with Paul and Timothy and the traveling companions as they tried to go towards Asia. I don't know what happened as they're moving towards Ephesus and it says the Holy Spirit had forbidden them.

I don't know what happened when they went to Bethany and it says the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to. What was going on? Was it just a closed door? It could have been. It was just what we mean by God closed the door. And when we say God closed the door, what we mean by that is I tried really hard to do it and it just wouldn't work. You know what this could have been? This could have been the Apostle Paul.

Let's be real about this. It could have been the Apostle Paul has just picked up the phone and called the local rabbi over at loud to see you and said, hey, listen, we're going to be traveling in your area, me and my guys. And you know, we've been having some great meetings, people getting real good turnouts for these meetings and we're getting people saved and healed and miraculous things are happening in the name of Jesus. And the local rabbi said, I'm sorry, Wednesday night, we've got two bar mitzvahs. And then on Thursday, that slot's not open either.

We have a rousing choir concert that night. No, no, no availability here. It could have been that, that they're just trying to get in and just can't, or maybe it's not impossible that what it meant, let's be real. This is sometimes the way it happens is that they went and began to try to minister and it just was bearing no fruit.

Nothing was happening. That could be part of the case. It just, or it could be that it was one of those hockey check type things where, you know, it wasn't, wasn't just like, oh, we had a little check in our spirit. It might've been, they went, who knows, it could have been this. They went and it was already an angry crowd waiting on them. You know, we've seen throughout the book of Acts, there were times in which it's just not time for Peter to die.

It's just not time for Paul to die. And so angry mob tries to kill them and they have to slip out and they have to escape and, and, uh, and they go to another place because they're, they're, they're not foolish. They don't just needlessly stand around. Could be that they came to, came to town and there's already an angry mob waiting on them, ready to throw the rotten tomatoes at them, uh, persecute them. And maybe they just had literally couldn't go because the crowd was there. I don't know. Or maybe, maybe, maybe they, they just, they just couldn't find a way to get any important connections there.

Who knows? But the fact of the matter is that a closed door is a closed door and God can close doors in a lot of different ways, including even, this sounds strange, but he can close a door even using the sin of other people, even though they're doing something wrong. It might be that God gets us where we're supposed to go anyway. Go back and look at the story of Joseph whose brother sold him into slavery. That was evil.

And he was unjustly accused and falsely accused and unjustly imprisoned. That was evil. But through all of that, Joseph said, what you meant for harm, God meant for good. So Paul and they came back and they just said, well, we, we tried, but the Holy Spirit didn't allow us. And we think that maybe this was some really spiritual thing, but it could have been, it was much more practical. I don't know. But the fact of the matter is closed doors, let's be honest about it.

Christians, they're not fun at all. I mean, I asked someone who has been looking for a job for a year, interview after interview, it doesn't really help. Does it to say, well, whenever God closes a door, he always opens a window. And I'd like to know what these apostles were actually feeling.

Wouldn't you? We're not giving any information about that, but it was frustrating. They, they must've felt the frustrations of it. I wonder what they were all saying to one another.

Who knows? But closed doors do not feel good when you bump up against it. So one of the great closed door stories of this church and really of my life, some of you have heard before, we like to tell some of the stories again and again, because they are part of the history of God's goodness to us. And years and years ago we had a desire amongst the leadership to be able to secure a piece of property that was at that time in the middle of our other property at the village campus. This historic original campus of Rinaldo church had a house. It was owned by Mr. and Mrs. Harper. The Harper house was, was right in the middle and we had property on the other side and on, on the side of the main church buildings. And we really would like to get this house.

Well, Mr. and Mrs. Harper didn't have any intention of selling it. In fact, I don't know over the years there had been even good relations there, but we began as leaders praying about it. And I tried to get to know Mr. and Mrs. Harper and eventually indicated we would be interested in buying it. And at some point they said they were open to it. And we did that sort of conversation where we realized that it was going to take a pretty big price to get it. And we actually went and offered them what I thought was the amount that was needed to purchase that house. It was a lot of money. And Mr. Harper was very cordial that day and he said, well, thank you, but that's not going to do it. And we left, the elders and I, and were just baffled because we thought he had said we were going to be able to purchase the house for this price. And we didn't know what was going on. Within a day or two, we found out that Summit School, the neighbor to the church at the Village Campus, had bought the house at a higher price than what we'd offered.

And we had great friendships and relationship with the leadership at Summit School. And so at first I was just completely undone by this. And I remember talking to one of the elders, Bob Roach, he said, don't fall on your sword yet, young man.

He said, you never know what the Lord's going to do. But everything within me wanted to just go, because that's what closed doors feel like, don't they? They feel like I was going in this direction. It seemed the right thing to do.

And all of a sudden the opportunity has been shut off. Well, long story short, part of the folklore of our church is that the reason that Summit School bought it is they wanted to work out a land swap with the church. We did work out a land swap that enabled them to get some land. They needed to create a new parking area and a new drop off area and land that we didn't need nearly so much as the Harper House. And so we worked out a trade and we had offered originally $450,000, I think it was for that house, which was a lot of money at any time. And it certainly was way back then. And instead we got the house for free and the trade and it became our office complex at the village campus.

And it's still our office complex still to this very day. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Unlock the power of blessing your life. Discover God's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for Alan Wright's free daily blessing. If you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement, get Alan Wright's daily blessing.

It's free and just a click away at pastoralan.org. God's always been there. In every moment you narrowly escaped from danger. In every moment you were surprised by a blessing.

In every moment you just knew the direction to take. God was there. Your life is defined by countless moments of God's grace. Perhaps they've been covered by the sands of time or have just gone unnoticed in the rush of life, but your life is full of God moments. When you make a gift today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's heart-stirring book, God Moments, that will lead you on a spiritual treasure hunt to uncover your God moments. It's Alan Wright's timeless book, God Moments.

Discover your God moments in the past and be filled with fresh faith today. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support.

When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org.

Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. It was one of the first instances where I felt like, oh God, you just let us down. I thought we were getting this property only to find out later that the closed door ended up meaning that we were going to be given something that we would have paid a lot of money for.

Closed doors do not feel good, but God uses them for His glory and our good. So they are wondering what to do. And verse 18, verse 8 of chapter 16, so passing by Messia, they went down to Troas.

And I just want you to see what's happened here. They've had this vital, vital ministry. And then they try to go west and somehow they're forbade. They try to go north, the Spirit of Jesus doesn't let them. And so they're just kind of wandering over to Messia and they wound up at the coastal town of Troas. And they really at this point don't know what they're going to do.

They're just there. And we've all had times like that, right? Where these are the most godly people on the face of the earth, people like Paul who hear from God and have seen so many signs and wonders and they're literally not knowing what to do. And then here's what we read in verse 9. A vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia, we don't know what kind of man or what the figure was, people speculate about it, was standing there urging him and saying, come over to Macedonia and help us. So he had a dream. He had a vision. He had something that was more than just an impression. He saw something in the Spirit.

And what happened at verse 10, when Paul had seen the vision immediately, we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. That there was a need. And that's all they knew. And they knew that we tried this and that. And then in a dream, he gets a word.

Sometimes the directional Lord comes simply by waiting on the Lord. Well, it's a fascinating story, isn't it? And it's just chock full of good news. I love this.

I just love this story. I think about it often over the years when I'm thinking about discerning the mind of Christ. And here's the first piece of good news, and that is to say, God is still speaking to us. Some people have made an argument that God doesn't speak outside of the Bible out of concern that they've seen that there can be excess and there can be people that claim to be hearing from God and people follow them.

Cult leaders have emerged that way and all kinds of errors. The Bible is God's word given in writing, overseen, we believe, by the Holy Spirit into a closed canon, we call it. So there's no more Bible being written. And it is the only authoritative, infallible rule of faith and practice for life. It is the word of God containing to us everything we need to know for our salvation. And one of the great statements of faith says, it's all you need for life and godliness. But it just isn't accurate to say that all that you need to know is in the Bible. The Bible is the whole of my life. I love the word of God.

I spend all my days just thinking about the word of God and proclaiming the truths that I see there and the endless riches of God's grace that point to Jesus and his saving purposes. I love the Bible, but the Bible doesn't tell you who you ought to marry. Although the Bible tells you a whole lot about recognizing good fruit and people and how to recognize good character.

So there's a lot there to learn about the kind of person that you should marry. But the Bible doesn't tell you who to marry. I dated a wonderful girl for many years through high school and college that I didn't end up marrying. And it was a difficult, difficult breakup because she was a wonderful Christian girl. But the Lord wanted me to marry my wife. And I can't even imagine if I hadn't fallen in love with my wife and married her.

I can't even imagine life. I'm just so thankful to God. I couldn't figure that out by reading the Bible. There are so many ways that God leads and guides us, never in conflict with the scripture. But he certainly speaks to us.

Some say that God spoke to the Christians in the first century with visions and prophecies, but he doesn't speak to us today anymore directly. Well, I think that's kind of a cruel thing to even say. I mean, imagine this. Imagine if after raising our son Bennett for his first 18 years of life, if we drove him out to Baylor and Waco, Texas to take him to college. Imagine me moving stuff into his dormitory room and then getting ready to leave and saying, Bennett, I'm here. I've prepared a book for you and in it are all kinds of instructions. And so I've enjoyed speaking to you over this 18-year period while you've been growing. But now I'm just going to give you a book and I won't be speaking to you directly anymore.

You just consult this book if you have any questions about direction, but I won't be actually helping you with any direction or counsel or guidance about leading you as you move forward. Well, that's just ridiculous. I didn't give him an instruction manual. I gave him a phone. I said, call me anytime, son. I said, we're going to stay in touch all the time. We're texting each other every day.

Any way I can help you, any way I can help guide you, I want to help you. That's because fathers love their children and they therefore want to help lead them. This is what Paul said in Romans 8 14, for all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption of sons by whom we cry Abba, father. He's saying you've received the position as if you were a firstborn son. This isn't about gender.

This is referring male or female. You're like a firstborn son who is the heir of the whole estate, the one that the father has so much affection for that he wants to lead and guide and help grow up and go in the right direction. God's a father. James said in James 1 5, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him. Ask God, ask him because that's what God loves.

It's an honor. I tell you, any parent can tell you this, that it's a tremendous honor actually. If your child trusts you enough to ask for wisdom, then I don't know of any decent parent that doesn't feel honored by that and say, well, for whatever wisdom I do have, let me share with you. Ask God. He's a loving father.

He's the perfect father. The other reason you can be assured that God is still speaking to us and he wants to lead you is that when you become a Christian, you have the Holy Spirit himself. We have the spirit of Jesus himself. John 14 verse 25, these things I've spoken to you while I'm still with you, but the helper, the Holy Spirit whom the father will send in my name, he'll teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I've said to you. Also in 16 13, John 16 13, when the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak and he'll declare to you the things that are to come. The promise to every Christian, every Christian, not the spiritually elite or some who have found some special process of hearing from God, the inheritance, the promise to every Christian is in the first place, you're a child of God and you have a father and that father loves you and wants to guide you. But it's the even greater promise because Jesus said, he'll send you my own spirit.

The helper will come. And so the Holy Spirit, the third person, the triune God lives mystically in the heart of the believer. So you have the actual presence of God in your life. God leads you by his own dear presence in your own life, communing with your own spirit, spirit under spirit, deep under deep.

You have the Holy Spirit. And you have this assurance also that God is a protector and a one who loves to guide and lead in the right way. And Jesus compared this to being a shepherd in John 10. John 10 verse 2, he who enters by the doors, the shepherd of the sheep, the sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he's brought out all of his own, he goes before them and the sheep follow him for they know his voice. He's using a very common image in the mid East because the sheep that people see following shepherds around, they know the shepherd's voice. He knows him. He calls them by name and he's saying, that's the way it is to be in relationship with God.

We're the sheep of his pasture. So the first piece of good news here is God is still speaking. Paul loved the scripture. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees, but there wasn't anywhere in the Torah. There wasn't in the Hebrew scriptures that would tell him where to go minister next. He needed the Lord to lead him and God wanted to do that.

And I think the other thing I love about this story is that it just feels like such good news to me to see how messy the whole story is. It means if you feel like you don't know which way to turn and you're struggling with a decision right now and you wonder if there's just something wrong with you because you haven't you haven't yet received a vision from God or you don't know for sure if this is the way you're supposed to be going. You feel like I'm headed towards Ephesus.

Now I'm going towards Bithynia. I thought I was gonna go if you feel like that then you're a good company the same thing happened to Paul and to Timothy. In fact the whole story of Acts if you've been following along with this is on the one hand so supernatural but on the other hand so earthy and real because these are real human beings. Allen Wright our good news message today Spirit led. It's in the series Unlimited and stay with us Pastor Alan is joining me in the studio sharing his part in good news thought for the day in just a moment. Unlock the power of blessing your life. Discover God's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for Allen Wright's free daily blessing. If you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement get Allen Wright's daily blessing.

It's free and just a click away at pastorallen.org. God's always been there in every moment you narrowly escape from danger in every moment you were surprised by a blessing in every moment you just knew the direction to take. God was there. Your life is defined by countless moments of God's grace. Perhaps they've been covered by the sands of time or have just gone unnoticed in the rush of life but your life is full of God moments. When you make a gift today we'll send you Pastor Alan's heart-stirring book God moments that will lead you on a spiritual treasure hunt to uncover your God moments. It's Allen Wright's timeless book God moments.

Discover your God moments in the past and be filled with fresh faith today. The gospel is shared when you give to Allen Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support.

When you give today we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Allen Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastorallen.org. Back here now with Pastor Alan and the parting good news thought for the day. There's a difference between new revelation and being spirit led. Is that active communication from the Lord? Yeah so the Lord is still speaking to us and leading us and guiding us. Now he never does in in any way that's contradictory to the scripture and it's not to say that there's any sense in which Christians should be seeking a voice that could in some way displace or replace scripture. We love the scripture but as a Christian a child of God you can know this God loves you. He is utterly committed to leading you and he can speak to you in a thousand different ways and so be assured you're not on your own and he's not going to let you wander off and he is guiding actively and bringing to pass all kinds of circumstances and ways to nudge you or even open wide or close shut a door so that he can lead you and get you. God cares more Daniel about his children getting where he wants us to go than even we do and so he's still speaking to us. Thanks for listening today. Visit us online at pastorallen.org or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. If you only caught part of today's teaching not only can you listen again online but also get a daily email devotional that matches today's teaching delivered right to your email inbox free. Find out more about these and other resources at pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.