By: Tania Harris
Leadership experts tell us that strategic planning is crucial to the success of any endeavour.
A good plan involves thinking through how to reach our goals. If our goals are the destination, the strategic plan is the navigation system that gets us there.
So I wonder how it felt to be one of the early church leaders – they’d been given the commission to go into all the world with the good news of Jesus (Matthew 28:18-20). They knew the destination, but how were they going to get there? Jesus had established the foundational basis for the mission, but he had spent most of his time in Judea among the Jews. Now the Gospel was to go beyond Judea, up to Samaria, across to Rome and even to the ends of the earth! What’s more, Jesus had left them! How were they to know what to do?!
Here we see why the Holy Spirit was such a gift to the church. The Holy Spirit worked with the apostles as the great strategic planner. In their story, we see the brilliant strategising of the Spirit and learn how God longs to guide our planning too.
Holy Spirit says “West” not “East”
The strategic genius of the Spirit is highlighted in a particular incident in the life of the Apostle Paul. Paul was on his second missionary trip, contemplating where to go next. Most of the time, he made his plans based on need and common-sense – he travelled where he felt it best to go. But on this occasion, it didn’t seem to work.
Paul had planned to lead his team east to Bithynia in Asia Minor. The problem was he felt wrong about it… the Spirit didn’t “allow them” to enter Asia (Acts 16:6-7).
Instead, Holy Spirit told him to go west to Macedonia through a dream of a Macedonian man beckoning for help (Acts 16:9).
Yet, two years later, Paul felt free to return east to Asia Minor where he had an effective ministry.
Why did God say “no” at first and then later, “yes”?
The Master Planner
While the Scriptural account doesn’t give us the full reason, we do know that the Holy Spirit had a purpose and a strategy beyond what Paul could see. Paul had his dream of the Macedonian man while in the town of Troas. As the crossing point between Asia and Europe, Troas was a place of enormous geographic significance. It was known as a strategic location for communications in the ancient world.
Troas also had historical significance. Four hundred years earlier, Troas was the point at which Alexander the Great had crossed from Macedonia in the West to the lands of the Persian empire in the East. Where once Alexander had crossed here to invade Asia in his quest for human dominion, God was now calling Paul in the opposite direction to bring the Gospel to the West in his quest for God’s dominion. It was a strategic invasion of the Spirit!
We also see that after Paul had ministered in Macedonia (the land of the Greeks), he later returned to the East where had great success “among the Greeks” (Acts 19:10,20). Perhaps his success was because he had learnt more about the Greek culture on their own turf. Paul was now familiar with their ways and could minister to them effectively. God’s strategic direction and planning always involves preparing us thoroughly for what he calls us to do.
We’ve Got Jesus; We Need the Holy Spirit Too
In Paul’s God conversation, we see why we need Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Before he left the earth, Jesus said, it would be for our good that he leaves (John 16:7). It’s difficult to fully appreciate his words – how could anything be as good as having a face-to-face conversation with Jesus?! Jesus’ response was to tell us about the role of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit would first “remind us” of the truths Jesus taught us (John 14:26).
These truths are now recorded for us as Scripture. But Jesus had so much more to say! So, the Spirit would also speak about what was “yet to come” (John 16:13). In other words, Jesus gave us general principles, but Holy Spirit gives us specific strategies. Jesus laid the foundation, but Holy Spirit builds on it. So while Jesus said, “go into all the world and preach the gospel”, Holy Spirit says “west not east.” That means Holy Spirit messages are always consistent with the life and teachings of Jesus, but they are applied to our lives in specific, contextual ways…
This dynamic highlights the unique role of the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit applies the truth of Jesus to our homes, families and workplaces in ingenious and strategic ways. Sometimes Holy Spirit says “west” not “east” and sometimes the reverse. The strategic direction isn’t always the same – but the endgame is. Holy Spirit will always speak strategies that will glorify God and extend his kingdom.
Article supplied with thanks to God Conversations.
About the Author: Tania Harris is a pastor, speaker, author and the founder of God Conversations.
Feature image: Photo by Emma Frances Logan on Unsplash