“When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to.”
-Acts 16:7

This was not the first “No” Paul received on this missionary journey. A verse earlier, we read that Paul and Timopthy had also been denied entry to preach in Asia- a destination Paul so highly hoped to visit so he could bring it the Gospel.

But, there was that “No”- and Paul received not just one no, but two no’s in a row.

Talk about a bummer.

Paul could have mindtricked his way around the no’s. I mean, after all, there was no specific physical person actually stopping them from preaching in Asia and Mysia- just unfortunate denying experiences that seemed to hold them out of the provinces. Paul could have thought to himself, I just need to will myself more and stronger to get in there and do this work.

The whole reason they were going to Asia and Mysia was to serve God, after all. The call itself was a sacrificial mission for them, and certainly the opposition they met was natural for this sort of work.

But then came the no’s.

And in this case, the no’s were profound and heeded by Paul because… the Holy Spirit gave them to him.

A difficult detour in their faithful lives of being disciples.

But that is the significant point about these two experiences of Paul’s.

When he understood the hardships they were facing trying to enter the regions were from God, the heart of the disciple understood. He could hear the Spirit saying “No” to them because their plan was not God’s plan for them. He did not have to question it too hardly, or get angry, or get down.

Because Paul and Timothy were living going where the Spirit led them, and not just where they wanted to go.

And in verse 9, two versus later, their new mission is revealed to Paul in a dream. Their ministry is needed instead in Macedonia.

What we see here is a reminder that living a life a life of faith- living out a life trying to hear and follow the Spirit- means we will be subject to detours. Life events will come up that keep us from our goals, or that push us away from where we wanted be, and sometimes, just sometimes, God giv4s us divine detours.

But the catch is, we have to be listening to the Spirit to make sense of them, to handle them rightly, to handle them gracefully.

Because sometimes God needs us to go out of our way to help share His way to someone who needs it.

Our receptivity to divine detours says something about our understanding of Him and His ways, and about our own attitudes and interests related to Him.

When we delight in Him and truly seek the guiding of His Spirit, His redirections are new opportunities for our growth with Him.

But the deal is, we also have to expect them, divine detours.

If we say we are His and are listening to His leading, we will be called out of our comfortable routines, even though sustaining those routines leads us to think we are doing His will.

Paul was 100% on board about doing God’s work, and he had a sense of what he thought God was guiding Him to in service, and even he was rerouted.

How we handle the inconvenience of divine detours is a good reflection of where we are with Him in a given moment.

Our consequential mood reflects out spiritual mode when we are given a divine detour.