Divine Guidance
H. R. Haweis, M. A. Acts 16:6-10 Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia,… You want to know what to do, how to act, where to go. There is one safe and sure method — and only one. It is Paul's. He thought, he used his natural reason; his instinct was to travel on, his inclination was to visit Asia, then Bithynia. Having done his best to choose, he submits his choice to a higher guidance. He carries the question in prayer to God, then he feels he is not to go — knows not where to go, obeys this intuition which happens to be opposed to his own wishes, waits, but waits not long. The vision and the voice follow speedily. It is at length from these that he "assuredly gathers" — infers truly his next step. It is even so. Use your faculties, submit your judgment to the highest, be true to what seems to you the highest leading, and the Divine message will grow clearer and clearer — the intuition, the vision, the voice — but, mark you, clearer only for the next step. The whole of Paul's journey was not mapped out. He could not see far, but he was not left in doubt. He "assuredly gathered" the next move. Perhaps he thought he was now bound for Rome — Rome attracted him far more powerfully than Athens. Yet he was not to go to Rome that time, nor could he have guessed, when he started for Philippi, that he was going to Athens and preach there to the scoffing, subtle Greeks. (H. R. Haweis, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, WEB: When they had gone through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.