Spirit Guidance

Introduction

No one can read through the Acts of the Apostles without being impressed with the fact that the Christians of the early church were a guided people.

Having been saved by the grace of God they were not left to grope in the darkness, but rather were encouraged to walk in the light.

The Holy Spirit who indwelt them was the same Holy Spirit who guided them daily in all areas of their life.

Their confidence in God’s direction is superbly summed up in the text that we have before us— “We endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them.”

In other words, they spoke with certainty on this matter of direction and guidance.

The secret, of course, was that they knew the Spirit of Guidance.

I. The Context in Which the Holy Spirit Guides

“Assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us” (16:10).

Behind these words lay a number of circumstances which enabled Paul and his colleagues come to a conclusion about how to proceed.

The more we study not only the immediate context but the whole range of Scripture, the clearer becomes the fact that the child of God can know guidance only within a certain context.

When analyzed, this context represents a threefold framework: