Few (if any) of our readers would disagree with the fact that we (humankind) are created in God’s Image. (Genesis 1:26 … And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.)
And that God is Triune, “Three in One!” (Notice even the three plural personal pronouns above, underlined: “us” and “our” twice!) Early “hints” at least of God’s Tri-Unity … of the Godhead (using Paul’s later word). Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
I am trying to say that (thus) man is created as a triune being. He (or she) consisting of body and soul and spirit, that is a tripartitebeing! (Read 1 Thessalonians 5:23 here … “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Proof!
Now we go to Paul, to Acts 20:22, and to that Sermon delivered (hurriedly) to those Ephesian Church elders, leaders.
Bidding his friends goodbye (in a hurry to go to Jerusalem to observe some kind of Jewish ritual – one involving a vow and shaving his head) Paul observed: “Now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there.” (Recall that the Lord had earlier commanded Paul to leave Jerusalem! (Acts 22:18 … “Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem: for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me.” Pretty clear! Then verse 21 confirms it: “And he said unto me, Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles.”)
Paul is going to Jerusalem … no matter what … “bound in the spirit.” Spirit being in this case Paul’s spirit … Paul’s human spirit. (At least that is clearly what the King James Translators felt, believed, analyzed.)
And so very soon Paul is “on his way,” going back to the Town he was supposed to leave. But the journey (of course) taking days and days, this happened: “And finding disciples, we tarried there (in the city of Tyre) seven days: who said to Paul through the Spirit, that he should not go up to Jerusalem.” Luke being with the party, Acts 21:4, being an eye-witness.
Notice the word Spirit here, capitalized! This identifies the Holy Spirit of God, again so believed the King James Translators who were merely expressing the pronoun Luke chose!
Paul’s (human) spirit wants to go!
The Holy Spirit says do NOT go!
And herein is the point of today’s Lesson.
It is possible for a Christian to follow “his own understanding,” obeying his spirit. But each of us should look deeper when making decisions … seeking the Will of the Holy Spirit!
Paul (I say reverently) missed it here!
Or disobeyed willingly, his love for the Jews being so great?
Either way, he resolutely proceeds to Town, is promptly arrested and held there for years … and looses years of active travel preaching the Word of God to the Gentiles, his precise calling from the Lord!
Acts 22:21 again … God to Paul … “Depart (from Jerusalem): for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles.”
The human spirit … NOT the best guide if one is filled with the Holy Spirit! And Paul certainly was!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
Caution: learn in your heart (in your human spirit) to commune with the Holy Spirit of God and always obey His Voice!
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