Scripture Focus:
Acts 16:6–7 (NIV) — “Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to.”
You’re moving toward something you believe God wants for you, and you keep hitting resistance. The door to the opportunity you thought you had closes, plans fall apart, and you’re left with these hard questions: Is God redirecting me here—or is this the enemy pushing back? Am I supposed to press on or go a completely different way?
This is one of the hardest things to figure out in the Christian life. In the moment, the two kinds of resistance can look exactly the same. We see these two different situations in Paul’s life. In Acts 16, the Holy Spirit blocks him from going into Asia—a closed door from God Himself. But in another letter, Paul says the enemy stopped him from coming to the Thessalonians (1 Thessalonians 2:18). Same kind of obstacle. Two completely different sources.
So, how do we tell them apart?
The goal isn’t to become an expert at reading circumstances; the goal is to stay close enough to Jesus to know His voice in the middle of them. Notice what Paul did—he kept moving with God and listening to His voice. In that nearness, the next direction became clear. The clarity didn’t come from analyzing the obstacle; it came from walking closely with the One who was leading.
So, start here: stay close to Him. But what about the moments when staying close still doesn’t make the way obvious—when you’ve prayed, you’ve waited, and the door is still half-open? That’s the messier ground we’ll step into next week: how to keep following Jesus when the path stays unclear, and how to know when He’s saying press on and when He’s saying let go.