⁴Now while they were passing through the cities, they were delivering the decrees which had been decided upon by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem, for them to observe. ⁵So the churches were being strengthened in the faith, and were increasing in number daily. ⁶They passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia; ⁷and after they came to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them; ⁸and passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas.

While delivering the letter from the apostles and elders in Jerusalem to the Galatian and Phrygian churches, Paul and Silas encouraged the believers to abide by the guidelines in the letter. Remember, these were fledgling churches planted on Paul’s first mission tour, and so were only one to two years old. But they were experiencing meteoric growth. Daily conversion was the norm! What exciting times those were. This was not only numerical growth, but a solidifying of the believers’ faith by Paul and Silas’ ministry. How much of a role Timothy played at this point is unknown, but he was probably functioning as an apprentice in training for ministry.

As mentioned before, some have called the book of Acts a chronicle of the acts of the Holy Spirit. Here we see the Spirit explicitly guiding the apostle and his team. They were “forbidden by the Holy Spirit” from moving into Asia. This would be the Roman province on the western coast of Asia Minor, east of the Aegean Sea, the area west from Galatia and Phrygia. Interestingly, some people from this area were part of the Pentecost experience in Jerusalem (see Acts 2:9) and possibly they had returned to Asia. The Spirit was apparently directing Paul to areas still unreached with the gospel, and thus not to Asia. So heading north, the team attempted to preach in Mysia and Bithynia, but again the Spirit (this time referred to as “the Spirit of Jesus”) prevented them.

Paul is like bumper car, running into obstacles; we don’t know how the Spirit prevented his plans, but simply that He did. This epitomizes the idea conceptualized in the saying, “If you want to steer a car, you must first get it moving and then you can turn it in the direction you want to go.” At times the Spirit led Paul to move, as he did at the inauguration of his first mission tour (Acts 13:2–4); but at other times Paul simply got moving, and the Spirit then turned him in the way he should go. That is what we are seeing here. Paul was driven by the desire to preach the gospel, and the Spirit was directing his forward motion. As believers, there are times when the Spirit guides us to get moving, and at other times, we are to get moving and trust that He will guide us.

Lord, give me wisdom to know when to move and when to change directions.