I am at one of those junctures in life at which circumstances oblige me to decide where, and to some degree how, I may spend my next few years, always assuming I have them to spend. As I often do, I am talking up the various possibilities with other Christians, from whom I have occasionally picked up a useful insight or two.
In the course of doing so, as you might expect, I am hearing a fair bit about the will of God, the call of God and the leading of God. “Well, if the Lord leads,” said one friend, “perhaps you’ll end up here.”
Perhaps. But even apostles and prophets don’t always know with certainty what their future holds.
To Rome in Chains
At the end of his letter to the church in Rome around AD57, the apostle Paul wrote these words: “I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while.”
Lovely sentiment. He got to Rome two years later, but it took an appeal to Caesar and a significant amount of time under house arrest to make it happen. How much of it he spent in the company of those he had written to in the Roman church is an open question. Extra-biblical sources suggest he may have made the trip to Spain as well, possibly leaving for the Iberian Peninsula from the Roman harbor of Ostia after his release. The scripture itself offers us no satisfactory answer to our speculations.
Back in AD55, at the end of 1 Corinthians, he wrote, “I will visit you after passing through Macedonia, for I intend to pass through Macedonia, and perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter, so that you may help me on my journey, wherever I go. For I do not want to see you now just in passing. I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits.” The apostle is conscious the Lord may have a knowable will concerning these matters, but he can’t yet be sure what it is.
Paul did make a second visit to Corinth, perhaps later the same year, but one or more aspects of his original plans evidently did not materialize, giving rise to nine verses at the beginning of 2 Corinthians in which the apostle defends himself from the potential accusation of making frivolous promises he didn’t mean to keep. He felt the need to explain some disconnect between what he had intended and what actually occurred. His concern that he might be misunderstood didn’t stop him, however, from promising yet another visit at the end of that second letter. “Here for a third time I am ready to come to you.” Did he make that trip? Possibly. Acts 20 mentions two passes through Macedonia, though no specific reference to Corinth. At least we can say he was in the general area.
Bithynia No-Go
During Paul’s second missionary journey, Luke records that Paul, Silas and Timothy “attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them”. What’s that about? A vision or prophetic word? A brick wall across the highway? Bandits in the neighborhood? A sudden illness? Lack of funds? We don’t know how they recognized that whole “did not allow” thing, but they ended up in Macedonia instead. It’s hard to say how commonly Paul’s original plans might have required heavenly adjustment during his missionary journeys, but in this case the Holy Spirit weighed in with a hard “No”, and Paul and friends heard it in whatever form it took.
With his friend Philemon, Paul was even more explicit about his intentions in a personal letter around AD61: “Prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping that through your prayers I will be graciously given to you.” What do you think? Did he make it? Possibly, but if the extra-biblical sources for his visit to Spain are accurate, not when he expected to. He certainly didn’t go straight there from Rome; even an apostle can’t be two places at the same time. However, later letters to Timothy and Titus suggest Paul ministered in this area again before his death, so we can’t discount the possibility he dropped in on Philemon along the way.
Still, that bedding at Philemon’s place was probably changed dozens of times between the time Paul wrote and any eventual realization of his prayers.
Loose Ends
What we can say is that the Holy Spirit did not feel the need to tie up all the loose ends left by Paul’s expressions of hope, anticipation and desire in his letters and in the Acts narrative. It is clear that some things Paul really wanted to do were never done. Others happened in times and places he did not anticipate. Still others may have actually worked out precisely as planned, but we aren’t privy to many of those.
You and I may be able to relate. I have often said that if I were required to speculate what the next five years of my life might hold during various points in it, I would have gotten it wrong every single time. Prior to an uncharacteristic 26-year stint at my second-last job, I had never put in more than four years with the same employer in my entire life. The whole time I worked there, I thoroughly expected a layoff just around the corner. My tenure went on long past any reasonable expectation, even to the point that I was praying for the Lord to send me something else, which he eventually did, though certainly not in my anticipated timeframe. I’m sure there was a reason for that, but I can’t tell you what it was, even in hindsight.
I remember being single and in my twenties, telling friends I expected to be on the mission field by my early thirties. Never happened, and it certainly doesn’t trouble me today; my gifts and experience turned out to be useful in other ways and places, none of them obvious to a young man looking for divine direction.
Morals and Circumstances
In moral matters, the will of God is well known and not open to debate, notwithstanding the frivolous efforts of some modern interpreters to rewrite 2,000 years of well-understood texts. We can (and should) distinguish what the Lord likes from what he doesn’t, and his preferences from the things he merely tolerates, knowing good from bad and better from best. This is what the scripture teaches us, and most mature Christians are able to come to some kind of consensus about the main moral emphases of the New Testament.
The will of God as to our circumstances in any given situation, assuming of course that he has one in every instance, is a much more nebulous matter. Bithynia or Macedonia: who knows until the Spirit directs in some unanticipated way?
This is why Christian workers speak often of opening and closing doors. We do not generally have mystical experiences to direct us along the way (and I am exceedingly suspicious of those who say they have), so we learn to rely on a combination of common sense, careful research, regular prayer and opting for what appears possible when our fond notions about how things might shake out for us are abruptly extinguished. Sometimes, yes, we even rely on feelings, though we are well aware these are not always the most reliable indicators. Unlikely occurrences are often interesting, but not conclusive.
Proving the Will of God
It has often been said that we prove the will of God with respect to our circumstances and our service over time, as opposed to knowing it miraculously or instinctively at the outset. Give me twenty years to examine the outcome of any particular Christian effort, and I may be able to tell you whether it might have been the will of God or something we may reasonably and safely attribute to the Holy Spirit’s leading, without presumption or the use of religious clichés. All the way my Savior leads me. It doesn’t necessarily follow that I have the slightest idea where I’m going most of the time.
I will eventually try something on for size, and we will see if it’s a fit. Lord willing, it may be. All prayers appreciated.
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