{"id":14488,"date":"2025-09-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/?p=14488"},"modified":"2025-09-17T23:59:02","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T15:59:02","slug":"a-plea-for-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/2025\/09\/17\/a-plea-for-help\/","title":{"rendered":"A Plea for Help"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Acts 16:6-10 <em><sup>6<\/sup>And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been hindered by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. <sup>7<\/sup>And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them. <sup>8<\/sup>So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. <sup>9<\/sup>And a vision at night appeared to Paul, a certain man of Macedonia was standing and urging him and saying, \u201cComing over to Macedonia, help us.\u201d <sup>10<\/sup>And 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.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The group worked their way westward, in the northern regions of Asia-minor. There were not many major cities in that area. Their mission was frustrating, and Luke states that this was because the Holy Spirit was preventing the team from preaching the gospel. The participle <em>hindered<\/em>\u00a0(<em>k\u014dlythentes<\/em>) can be interpreted as a strong word meaning to keep something from happening, or even forbidding something. Sometimes ministry is frustrating and slow become it follows a path that is not God&#8217;s will. In the case of Paul, Silas, and Timothy, they were prevented from having a successful ministry because the Holy Spirit was hindering them. How the Spirit did this is not given, whether it was through closed doors or some spiritual insight or sense. This is the only place in the New Testament where the phrase <em>Spirit of Jesus<\/em> occurs. The Holy Spirit represents both Father and Son (Romans 8:9-10). The reference here may emphasize that the mission Paul was on was from Jesus and directed by Jesus.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The team came to Troas, on the western shore of the province of Asia. Troas was an important port city in that area and would have made a good stopping place for a while. Strategically, it would make sense to head south to cities like Ephesus. Paul spent time in Troas at some time, as indicated by 2 Corinthians 2:12\u201313 and 2 Timothy 4:13. God had other plans.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">While in Troas, Paul had a dream or vision that he interpreted as God&#8217;s direction for ministry. Dreams were significant in the Bible and often taken as God&#8217;s revelation and direction. The image Paul saw was of a man from Macedonia with a simple plea to come and help them. The plea for\u00a0<em>help\u00a0<\/em>or aid (<em>bo<\/em><em>\u0113th\u0113son<\/em>) had the sense of spiritual rescue. The Macedonians needed what Paul had to offer. The subject in verse 10 shifts to the first-person plural <em>we<\/em>. Since Luke wrote Acts, this first person is taken to include him. It is possible that Luke joined Paul in Troas, suggesting that Luke may have been from Troas or some part of Asia. If this were the case, Paul&#8217;s travels through the area were not wasted, even though they may have been frustrating. One of the great fruits of their labor was that Luke joined the team. Luke would go on to write 25% of the New Testament and, as a result, have a significant impact on Christianity.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Acts 16:6-10 6And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been hindered by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them. 8So, passing by Mysia, they went down [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotions","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14488"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14496,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14488\/revisions\/14496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}