What We’re Waiting For

Bognor Vineyard has spent over two months in this ‘stopping place,’ and it’s important that we restate what this means because there’s so much that hasn’t stopped! We continue to meet together on Sundays and in small groups during the week to worship together and explore the Word of God together. We continue to invite God to speak to us, heal us, and answer our prayers. We continue to serve our community, including our friends on Tuesdays and Fridays and (more recently) Ukrainian refugees. YOB Camp is coming up! Each of us should continue showing God’s compassion to friends, family, neighbours, and strangers. But we also believe God is asking us to expect more from him! We believe he desires for us to have a greater impact on our community so that more lives are transformed by his love, but we need to wait and seek his heart before we invest any more of our time or resources.

I’ve been re-reading sections of Acts this past week to better understand how the early church followed the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The disciples didn’t act out of anxiety or striving, nor did they try to make anything happen. They simply responded to the amazing things God was doing when they went about their lives, and the world was transformed. But I was also struck by one passage describing how the Spirit led Paul and his companions. 

Paul and his companions travelled 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. So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them (Acts 16:6-10).

They were operating in the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and they clearly weren’t afraid, so why didn’t they enter Asia or Bithynia? It would have been disobedience because the Spirit wouldn’t allow them. We have no idea how long they stayed in Troas before Paul received the vision, but once he did they got ready to leave for Macedonia at once.

We believe that God continues to prepare us to receive his blessing by responding to the six invitations. But like the early disciples, we don’t believe we need to do anything out of anxiety or striving, or try to make anything happen. We’re not waiting for his permission to do anything we want to do, because we believe his plans for us will far exceed our expectations. God’s intervention was abundantly clear to those who witnessed it, so we invite you to be ready to respond ‘at once’ when his guidance becomes clear to us. We’re excited about what he has planned!