Ask the Pastor
March 5, 2010 by Pastor Jerry McQuay
One of my personal intercessors asks, “I have a question for you from Acts 21:4, when Paul was sailing to Jerusalem they landed in Tyre for a week. While there they stayed with some believers and those disciples prophesied through the Holy Spirit that Paul should not go on to Jerusalem. But Paul was led by the Holy Spirit to go on to Jerusalem, Acts 20:22. Why would the Holy Spirit tell Paul to do one thing and tell others to try and dissuade Paul from doing what he heard the Holy Spirit telling him to do? In this case which should we listen to, what we hear the Holy Spirit saying or what others hear the Holy Spirit saying?”
Great questions. I only wish I had as good an answer to them!
My thought on the first question is simply that these believers were concerned (rightfully so) by what they sensed prophetically would happen if Paul went to Jerusalem, but that didn’t change the fact that he felt compelled by the Spirit to go anyway. (Although I can’t really say ‘why’ the Spirit would speak to them to warn Paul, even though he was acting on what the Spirit was telling him)
As to the second, and perhaps more important question, I personally think that hearing from the Holy Spirit is almost always a subjective thing. By that I mean it’s always possible for me to be mistaken and think I’ve heard from the Holy Spirit when perhaps it’s only my own spirit (or in rare situations, even the enemy who is speaking to me). That’s why it’s so important for each of us to have trusted leaders in our life, as Proverbs indicates (Proverbs 11:14 and Proverbs 24:6). If I think the Holy Spirit has spoken to me, and my trusted advisors disagree with what I’ve heard, I would likely follow their counsel – unless after more prayer & soul-searching I concluded that this was one of those times when “I ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).
So I can’t really give you a definitive answer, but I can tell you that in my experience, there is safety in the multitude of counselors.
Hope that helps a little.
Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?
Great questions. Great answers.
That helps a lot. I thank God that we belong to a church that has Godly leaders and counselors.
Pastor Jerry, I realize I’m responding late, but I got backed up on my e-mails. I read the question of an intercessor to you concerning the Apostle Paul’s following of the Holy Spirit and receiving instructions to do otherwise.
I would like to point out something that was not mentioned from text the intercessor referred to. In Acts 20:22, AMP version, reads,
“And now, you see, I am going to Jerusalem, bound by the Holy Spirit and obligated and compelled by the [convictions of own] spirit, not knowing what will befall me there-“then continuing, since that sentence has a dash, indicating a break or pause to note an exception, it reads “Except that the Holy Spirit clearly and emphatically affirms to me in city after city that imprisonment and suffering await me.”
I think the phrase “bound by the Holy Spirit” means that his work or call was out this bond or commitment to obey the Holy Spirit.
Paul was speaking to the elders of the church at Ephesus, Acts 20:16-18. His conviction of being “bound by the Spirit” is coupled with his own obligation and conviction to do what God called him to do knowing that the Hoy Spirit also informed him that city after city, he would have imprisonment and suffering. But the scripture does NOT SAY THAT THE Holy Spirit told him since this would be his hardship, he should just stop going to the world fulfilling his call, vs. 24.
Regarding Acts 21:4, Paul has come unto Tyre, vs. 3, and connects with or looks up some disciples which he decides to stay with for seven days; who told Paul that by the Holy Spirit, he should not go to Jerusalem vs. 4. The scripture does not indicate a reason through them at all. So, as you said Pastor Jerry, sometimes we can say we have something by the Holy Spirit when it can be just our own spirit. Or, what’s more likely is that they are a novice, yet accurate prophetic group of disciples, and was moved to tell Paul what they were discerning by the Spirit. But it doesn’t say what Paul’s response to them was, or what his company’s response was.
Pastor, my question to you is; why do you think they had no response of urgency?
A couple of days later after leaving Tyre, Paul and his company came to Caesarea and stayed with Philip the evangelist, who had four daughters who prophesied. After they tarried there many days, a certain prophet named Agabus came down from Judaea. He spoke what the Holy Ghost told him to Paul, that the Jews in Jerusalem will bind him up and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. This alarmed Paul’s company and the people in the house, and they begged Paul not to go. Paul seemed to be taken by surprise and could feel them pulling on his emotions, breaking his heart, vs. 13. Now, even though I know I’ve read this passage at least a few times over, this “Ask the Pastor” question provoked me to clarify scripture for myself. But it intrigues me to ask why Paul’s company responded with alarm this time.
Pastor; why do you think they responded this time with urgency, after hearing this same information two times before?
Jo Anna Wilson