Living Outloud: When God Changes Your Plan

We zoom in on Acts 16 and wrestle with what it means when the Holy Spirit blocks a plan, even a plan that seems undeniably good. We share personal stories and practical frameworks so you can face closed doors with trust, discernment, and a loose grip on your own timeline. 
• treating Acts as more than history and asking what obedience looks like now 
• Paul’s blocked route to Asia and the confusion of spiritual resistance 
• a real-life “no” that later looks like protection during a medical crisis 
• the Macedonia vision that leads to Lydia and the church in Philippi 
• why changed plans can be God’s protection from harm or from “not best” 
• why making plans is still wise and helps us recognize God’s redirection 
• stepping-stone yeses that build momentum toward a bigger calling 
• the perennial vs annual metaphor for seasons that are meant to end 
• detours that increase intimacy with God and with co-laborers 

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If Outloud Bible has been a valuable part of your understanding of the Bible, please consider supporting the ministry by visiting outloudbible.com.

Transcript

Why Acts Should Change Us

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Hey Mike and Kelsey here with another episode of Living Out Loud. This is a time in the Out Loud Bible Podcast where we take a look at what we read earlier this week and talk about what do we actually do about this? How can we apply this to what we're going through? I mean, we'll share some stories about things we've gone through, but I hope that you can see these things and and look at your own life through the lens of what we've read here in the scripture and just sense God nudging you a little bit. Like if if we say something that makes you go, ooh, yeah, that that that hits. I mean, praise God. That's not that's not us crafting the right words. That's the Holy Spirit giving you a nudge, saying, Hey, uh, this is let's lean more into what the Bible's saying here and and do that thing that God's been putting on your heart to do.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

And I think you've been reading in Acts, and I think that sometimes we can read these very narrative passages, very narrative books of the Bible, like Acts, and be like, oh wow, yep, that happened to them. That's a cool story. That's something that they did back then, and we can look at it as at as it is the establishment of the church, the establishment of God's covenant with Gentiles being expanding from Jews to include Gentiles. It's it's all really good stories, but but God doesn't tell us all this just so we can read history. It also should impact us and change us and how we uh uh show up in the world and how we follow Christ and how we obey Christ should be changed and influenced by the uh the stories we read in Acts. So let's look at some of these narratives and see what we should be doing.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

I mean, that's a good point. I wish I had said that earlier back at like Acts chapter one, but here we are, 16 chapters in, and just getting to the point is like, yeah, we're talking about history, we're talking about narrative, but uh that does not mean that we can't pull out something practical and applicable to our lives in any given story here. So that's good. Thanks for bringing attention to that.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

You're welcome, Mike.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

So today uh we're we're gonna have one of those conversations that zooms in on something. I know last week we talked about kind of uh a number of chapters and finding a theme. Today we're gonna drill down

Paul Gets Blocked By The Spirit

SPEAKER_01 2:19

on one particular story in Acts chapter 16, where Paul has uh a change of plans. He he was trying to go with his ministry team. Uh Luke is there. Uh he's kind of writing all these stories down as he travels with Paul. A couple other Tilus is named, I think Barnabas is around, right? So it's a group of companions. They're they're on a mission trip together. They're gonna go to the province of Asia, which which is like Turkey. Uh, but they just we don't have the details, but the Holy Spirit stops them. He says we were blocked by the spirit. I don't know what that looks like. Uh but uh it's worth just pausing on. Have you felt that way? Have you felt like blocked by the spirit? Again, we don't know exactly what that looked like in Paul's case, but have you felt like I I've experienced just it feels like a lack of favor, like God's favor. I was like, why is this so difficult? Like even things I've done before, but like now it's just not working, or I don't know, or it could be like in my spirit, I just feel like this isn't right. I don't know why not. It's not like a a wrong, bad thing. I just feel I don't know, I just feel wrong about this. Or there's like closed doors and nose that you're like, what's everyone's problem? Yeah, like have you felt like that?

SPEAKER_00 3:39

So you just feel like your heart is hard against something, like yeah, even like you don't want to do something, and you're like, I don't know why I don't want to do this. I Again, I don't know what that looked like for Paul and his team. I don't know what that that experience was in that moment. We don't have any details. This it just reminds me of as you're describing what this might feel like for someone, it reminds me of last December. I was turning 40 and I was like, Mike, I want to have a huge birthday party. And you were like, eh,

A Birthday Plan God Stopped

SPEAKER_00 4:06

like you weren't into it, like you just didn't want to.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

It was so weird because it's like what you want, I just I just want so much for you to have it.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

Like I know. Like if you stole it.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

I will go to the store and get ice cream, I will go out and buy flowers for your gardening.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

So it was just so bizarre that I wanted a party so much, and you were just like not into it.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

I cannot bring myself to want to do this.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

And we I remember even talking at the time and you being like, I don't know, I feel like my heart's just hardened against it, and I can't explain why. And it was, I was getting really mad, whatever. But by the time when we would have scheduled that birthday party to came around, that date came around, I was flat on my back and couldn't leave the house because I had a ruptured herniated disc. And I didn't know that was coming, but God did. And God knew that if we had put a down payment on a venue and we had paid for catering, invited all these people. Invited all these people, it would have been devastating for me to have to cancel a party that I had planned. But I am other things, also God just knew that he had a lot to teach me during that season of being still and being um at the hands of another person caring for me and taking care of my needs. Um, God just had bigger plans. It was a big change of plans. God had God had different ideas for how my 40th year would kick off than I did. I had a good idea, he had a better idea. And so he he, I believe the Holy Spirit worked in you as my husband, as my partner and my teammate, to be like, no, we're not doing that because I have a better plan that you don't know is gonna unfold yet. It's weird to say that having a ruptured herniated disc was a better plan, but it was. I can say that on this the side of it, that uh the way God grew me through that trial was better than if I had just had a great big party for my 40th birthday. So that that that just reminded me of it.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

Yeah, there so there are some different ways that that we can see the the spirit just blocking you. Yeah. Or blocking your plans. And it's a lot of people.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

The Holy Spirit prevented us from going there is And it's confusing, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:11

Because it's like I why? I don't I don't know. And and you don't know. And so now what? Well, as the story goes on, uh Paul gets a vision from uh a man that he knows from this vision is from Macedonia in Europe, and he's like, Come,

The Vision That Redirects Paul

SPEAKER_01 6:28

I and I I need you to to speak with me. He's like, Okay, and so Paul goes to his friends and says, Hey, I I got this vision. Uh I I guess maybe this is why we're not able to go into Asia. I think we've got mission work to do in Macedonia. And they pray about it, like, all right, yeah, let's do it. Praise God, let's go. So they go on their way to Macedonia, but then they find out that on their way to Macedonia, Macedonia wasn't even the goal. As far as we know in the scripture here, they didn't go to Macedonia on this trip anyway. What uh they were led to was an encounter in Philippi with Lydia, she was from Thyatira, and they encountered her in the city of Philippi, and she gave her life to Christ, got saved, and started the church in Philippians. We have a letter to Philippians, that's this church. We have Paul has an amazing relationship with the church of Philippi, they're super generous, super great church. Uh Paul's so blessed by them, and all of that just a pivotal moment in the history of our church is what Paul encountered in Philippi on his way to do what was already a change of plans. So let's just talk about why God might change our plans. Because it's one of those things.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

There are people, and there have been times in my life where I'm like,

Why We Resist Plan Changes

SPEAKER_00 7:48

I don't want my plans to change. I like my plans. I'm at a point now where I'm like, I love changed plans. When plans change, I'm just like, okay, God, what are you gonna do? Like, I just get really excited about it. I recognize that there's some people who are like, please do not change my plans. Like, I have my plan, I know what I'm doing, please do not change. Um, but either way, I think it's it's wise of us to look at why God might change our plans and let our hearts be aligned with his in being loose, having loose grip on our plans for our life or our day or even this hour.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

I was all about changes of plans. I was like, yeah, I love changes of plans. I wrote a book about changes of plans when God changes your plans. I wrote a book called Thrown Off Script. I think I've read it before on this podcast before at some point. Uh love it. And then in that particular case, COVID came and completely took away my job in my ministry and my life as I knew it. And then I didn't like changes of plans so much. And I had to go read this book that I had just written. And uh and God had to work on me. And now, yeah, I think I've come back around to like to recognize like, okay, when God changes plans, it's good. It's tough to recognize in the moment. It just feels like no's or ouches or or whys, you know, when you're in it. But but learning how God shows up in these changes of plans uh just through experience, I think you can recognize to that we can appreciate some of these, but we don't and a quick note on making plans in the first place.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

Some people will listen to this conversation or read this story and be like, see, you shouldn't make plans, you should just follow the Holy Spirit and just go along with wherever he carries you. But I'm gonna push back on that and say plans are

Why Making Plans Still Matters

SPEAKER_00 9:24

a good thing. And there's plenty of plans that Paul made that actually came true, like actually happened and he followed through on. Plans are not bad. In in contrast, I think plans can be very good. You can pre-plan with the Holy Spirit. He is not only a spur-the-moment spirit, he he can work through your plans and through your preparations.

SPEAKER_01 9:48

And we know plans are good when we look at Joseph and he made just elaborate plans.

SPEAKER_00 9:52

Oh, yeah, for 14 years.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

We see yeah, we see Moses had God gave plans to build a tabernacle, to build an ark for Noah. We see David and Solomon working together to make plans for this temple. God was not so precise about what those plans should be, they just let them do it. We see Nehemiah had he had great, uh, well-organized plans to build the wall.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

So plans are good. Plans are can be of God. You can pre-plan and pre-pair with the Holy Spirit and be doing God's work through your plans, the plans that he puts on your heart and guides you in. However, I also think it's fun when we make a plan, even when we believe that God led us on that plan, and then he changes it up. The change of plans brought on by the Holy Spirit, God guiding you and changing your direction actually hones you into his work in your life. Even starting out, the the way the what we were took a couple moments to unpack was this idea of the Holy Spirit preventing them from going there. They wouldn't have known the Holy Spirit prevented them from going if they hadn't planned on going. So making plans actually sets up a structure that when the Holy Spirit shows up and changes those plans, you recognize it as the Holy Spirit. You recognize that God's moving in a different direction because you had a direction to go and he told you to change and go somewhere else. If you're just out here floating, being like, I'm just gonna go wherever God takes me, you're in a dangerous position to be taken about by any wind of change, as as as the writers warn about, as Paul writes, I think, warns about, like me not being just taken about. Maybe it was in James. Anyway, you're you're just at risk without any plans of just floating along and and not recognizing actually when God wants you to change direction because you're not really going anywhere to begin with.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

Well, I think of my daughter, like I don't want her to just sit on the couch waiting for me to tell her what to do. I would like her to take some initiative and go like do something. Do like do what you want to do. Like think of a project you want to work on or make a craft or do something and go do it. And and look, if if I if I can think of something that what might be better or something more important at the time, like I'll let you know. And then I would hope that you would you know drop your plans at least temporarily and and come do what I'm leading you to do. But I don't want you to just sit around saying, Oh, I'm just I'm just here to do whatever whatever you want to want me to do. I'm not gonna be doing anything. Like I appreciate the trust in the relationship, but I w I created you to do something, you know. That's that's that's how I want you to exist. So why might God change some change our plans? We've even kind of even touched on some alluding to some reasons, but by way of of some bullet points to to chew on here. Uh closed

Closed Doors As Protection

SPEAKER_01 12:51

doors, if we're talking about no's, changes of plans often look like a no and it look might be a closed door. But we see that closed doors are often God protecting us. There's that quippy little thing that people say that uh man's rejection is often God's protection or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

Uh you know, if someone says no to you, it might just be God protecting you from something. And and I we see that to be true. I mean, we we even know like Garth Brooks has a country song about thank God for unanswered prayers. Uh that recognizing, you know what, if if I got everything I prayed for or everything I wanted to do, uh it would it would it could get pretty messy because we don't know the big picture, and God does, and he will sometimes just say no or or redirect, change the plans to go away from that.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

The movie Bruce Almighty explores that where Bruce is given the uh ability to answer prayers, and so he just says yes to everybody, and it is not good. Like everybody getting a yes to every prayer they pray is not good for them or society, uh and and they they bring that to light, and it's funny in the movie, but it's for real. Like we should not God should not say yes to everything we ask of him, and so our changed plans at times, the things we think we're gonna go do, and God says no, he closes a door on that thing. It might just be because behind that door, if you had kept going that way, it would not have ended well for you. And so, even though you think it's a great idea, even though you think it's a somewhere you really want to go, um, he might just close the door because it's not good. It will not end well. And he's saving you from a lot of heartache and a lot of destruction if you were to keep going that way.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

But it's not always about something bad happening that he's protecting you from. Sometimes he's just protecting you from something that's not the best. It might be a good thing, and I think that's what we would see here in Paul's story.

SPEAKER_00 14:49

They're just trying to go find places to preach the gospel. They're gonna go on a motion trip. It's like wild that the Bible says the spirit of Jesus Christ would not permit us to preach the word there. I'm paraphrasing because I just lost my spot in the scripture.

SPEAKER_01 15:03

But uh Yeah, but why would Jesus say no to us wanting to go preach?

SPEAKER_00 15:07

The Holy Spirit prevented them from preaching the word of God in the province of Asia at that time. And then again, the spirit of Jesus did not allow them to go there. Like it's to preach the word. What's wrong with that? That's only a that's only ever a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

Well, there's nothing wrong with that. That's the thing. It's like there's nothing wrong with that, but God, again, his his ways are higher than ours, his plans are greater than ours, and so yeah, maybe he has something better in mind. Can you imagine? And so that's what can be exciting about changes of plans, where it's like, I had in mind this really good thing. And the fact that God's not letting it happen, I I instead of getting mad about it, we can thank God as like, wow, so there's something better? Because God's not gonna change your plans and give you something worse. Like God, like God doesn't do that. I I know that even in it's this applies to relationships where it's like, why didn't that relationship work out? Like someone who who wants to desperately get married, right? And like, and you you date this person, and it's like, honestly, they were so good. Like I and you want to paint this story if it doesn't work out, it'd be like, well, maybe I don't know, maybe they had some secret bad thing that maybe God was sparing me from. I don't know, maybe not, but maybe can you imagine God wants to bless you even better with someone that's better? Oh, I can't imagine anyone being better, or I can't imagine a a better job than that one that that I didn't get. I can't imagine anything else better than than what I just lost. I'm like, well, okay, yeah, you can't, but God can. And do you believe that God wants to bless you and like he wants to give you not just good things, but like the best things?

SPEAKER_00 16:47

I remember this happening with us, Mike, when we when our daughter was born, we were living in Birmingham, Alabama, and we were a part of a church there that was the most beautiful community of believers I had ever been a part of. We loved that church. We could not imagine anything better than that church. And we were we weren't thinking we would live there the rest of our days, and we would just raise our daughter in Alabama and be part of this church forever because we loved it so so much, and then God changed our plans and God said, No, you're gonna move back to New Hampshire. And we were we were convinced, we knew that God was leading us to New Hampshire, but I kind of gave up the hope of ever loving a church again. Like, I was like, no church is ever gonna compare to Christ City Church in Birmingham, Alabama. If anyone from Christ City Church listens to this podcast, I love you guys, so grateful for you. Um, but I genuinely thought nothing would ever compare. And so I was like, well, we'll just like not love our church from here on out. Like it sounds dumb to say, but I just I truly believed we would be settling for church for the rest of our lives. Um but the Lord has blessed us with wonderful churches here, wonderful church communities and pastors and people that we've gotten to know. And um, there's been pain in those too, and we've shared some of those as well, but but it's all been better. Like God, not that one church is better than Christ City Church, but just that for us, the the direction God was leading us and the way he wanted us to grow, he had something for us that required a change of our plan of what we thought we were gonna end up doing for the rest of our lives. He had to shift our plans. And it wasn't to, he wasn't saying no to that good thing so that we could never have a good thing again. He said no to that good thing because there was another better thing for us in the future.

SPEAKER_01 18:33

So closed doors are often God protecting you maybe from something wrong or bad, or maybe from something that's just not the best. God can also change your plans because here's here's another idea. God can get you moving with a yes. He'll know, like, you'll say yes to this. But it doesn't necessarily

Small Yeses And Stepping Stones

SPEAKER_01 18:52

lead to the ultimate destination, it was just a stepping stone. And I think that's something we do see here in this story where Macedonia wasn't even the destination. Now, was Paul not gonna go to Macedonia if God had told him in the first place? Nah, I'm sure he would have. But but I I know that God has often invited us to something that was something like, okay, I can do that. All right. I my I think I have enough, I don't have much faith, but I got enough faith to do that. And he's like, okay, great, then do that. And then I'm like, I'm here, okay, great. And then he's like, okay, well, yeah, but don't get too comfortable because now I'm calling you over here. Wait, that has nothing to do with that. I know that was this was just to get you out of that comfort zone in the first place.

SPEAKER_00 19:34

I was just getting you a little closer to my ultimate plan by letting you say yes to smaller things along the way, but that wasn't the end of the goal in the first place. I I look at this story um and and thinking that the ultimate plan, if God had just laid it out for Paul, like, hey, I'm gonna have you go find a woman uh in Philippi and plant a church through her there. Like, I'm not I don't know if Paul would have done that because of the cultural relationships around women at the time.

SPEAKER_01 20:07

Like, I don't know that he wouldn't have, so I don't want to put that on Paul, but I just it's a little harder for him to believe, probably, than than to think that well, the all the ministry in Asia is gonna be great.

SPEAKER_00 20:18

Right. And so so God didn't give him the full vision right up front, right? That is true. God did not give him the full vision of what was gonna happen right on the outset. God drew him in little steps along the way, gave him this vision of a man from Macedonia, not a woman, a man from Macedonia, and so Paul was like, all right, well, all right, we'll go there instead and minister to men and all to just get Paul down by the river to meet Lydia eventually. And so it just it strikes me that there are times in our lives where if God laid out the full vision of what he was going to do, we wouldn't wouldn't step into it. It would be too big or too scary or too too unknown, or we would question whether it was from God because it's so out of the box and we might not be brave enough to step into it. And so he he guides us in one direction until he's like, All right, far enough there. Now we need to turn right because my actual destination for you is this way. And you start going that way, and he's like, All right, and now take another left because where I'm actually headed is this way.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

And um I've seen in our own lives and I've seen in in our friends' lives it often looking like someone who needs to leave their job. Let's take this. Yeah, someone who needs to leave their job. And God knows it, they they even know it. Uh, and it's a big step, it's a scary step, but God says, Okay, why don't you apply for this other job? Quit that job. I'm gonna give you another job, and they're like, Oh, and that job looks pretty good. Yeah, it looks pretty good. Why don't you take it? Okay, so they quit their job and they get into this new job that is better. But then maybe they get fired, maybe the Holy Spirit puts on their heart to to leave that job and start a business now. It's like wait, what? Uh you but you gave me this job and I like this job. Like, why why did it only last nine months? Mm-hmm. And starting a business, that's gonna be scary, but I guess uh what else am I gonna do now?

SPEAKER_00 22:18

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 22:19

Okay. Yeah, that middle job was just a stepping stone where it was the thing you would say yes to. It's the thing that you could have said yes to because if God God knows your limits, and if he had come to you when you were in the depths of your soul-sucking job that you've been doing for 20 years and you can't think of you don't like it, but you don't want to do anything else. Or maybe you did love it. Maybe you do love it so much for 20 years. I can't imagine doing anything. Uh if he had said, all right, quit that job and go start a business, well that would that would that's that's scary. I don't know if I I don't know if I'm ready for that. I don't think I can do that. I don't I don't that's not secure enough for me. Well, then God knows that, and so he's gonna give you a stepping stone and say here, why don't you say yes to this? I'm gonna open a door for this, uh for you to be able to do this, and I know you can do it. Okay, I do it. And then then we'll keep going. It's about momentum, it's about this inertia. He we he knows we tend to just stay where we are. And so a little step here in a right direction can build some momentum to go further uh and the way that he he ultimately wants us to go. So I I think some changes of plans are more like stepping stones and uh and uh provide an explanation for why something didn't go the way exactly we thought. But also I think someone of the problems that we run into with God and the changes of plans or why something comes to a close earlier than we thought is I'm gonna say the kind of poetic explanation, then I'll explain it. Because I I've we've used this in our own life. Maybe you were planning on growing a perennial when God was planting an annual. And if you're into flowers

When A Season Is Meant To End

SPEAKER_01 24:04

and gardening, maybe you know what I'm talking about. But the a perennial flower is one that comes up every year. You just plant it once, and you know what? As long as it has what it needs, it's gonna keep coming back every year. And it's kind of like this an evergreen almost, you know? Um and then annual flowers are the little pops of color that are bright and fun, but you plant them in the ground at the end of the season, they'll die. They're not gonna come back next year, they're dead. But they were really pretty while they lasted. And it's easy to think that the last direction God gave you is your ongoing mission and direction that you have to stick with. And and I get it, like you want to follow the last direction you got from the Lord. You don't want to abandon that, you want to be faithful with it, you want to be like, well, I want to be faithful, I'm gonna be a faithful steward and and and stick with this, and that's good. But if if you have a tendency to want to take something, you want to grow it, you want to steward it, you want to expand it, then it's really easy to take what God gives you as something that that it's like okay, well, I'm all in, I'll I'll do this, and miss when God wants to bring that chapter to a close. Kind of reminds me of like Noah's Ark. Like that was clearly Noah's mission. Like you like God God gave him this mission, you're gonna build this, and and it's gonna be great, it's for a great purpose, and he worked on it for a hundred years, and then it clearly was God's plan to save humanity, and and amazing, right? But then God said, It's time to get off the ark, time to go out, build yourself houses, go cultivate the land, get out of the ark. Oh and God opened the door and said, get out. And we feel like that sometimes. It's like, but this has been our home. Like, how how ridiculous would it have been for Noah to be like, uh, well, no, I honestly I don't know, we're just it's a kind of scary world out there. I kind of like this. We gotten used to how life works here. That that wasn't the purpose of the ark. It was not meant to be a permanent thing, it was meant to be a temporary mission. And if you get so in love with your project, you're gonna miss God's plan when the plan involves just being a temporary little annual flower that's really great and beautiful and does its job well for a season. And if you expected it to be some perennial that keeps coming back, you're gonna pour way too much time and effort and energy and resources and stress and worry into something that God never intended for you to keep alive that long. So maybe there's a change of plans. The last point here of why God might change plans. Kelsey, you came up with this one.

SPEAKER_00 26:57

Yeah, I I think that what we can see from the text is God changing plans to increase intimacy, intimacy with

Detours That Build Intimacy

SPEAKER_00 27:06

him and intimacy with co-laborers in ministry. Here's here's where I'm pulling that out of verse uh nine and ten. That night Paul had a vision. It's the man from Macedonia in northern Greece was standing there pleading with him, come over to Macedonia and help us. But verse 10 says, So we decided to leave from Macedonia at once, having concluded that God was calling us to preach the good news there. So Paul is the only one who received the vision. Paul is it, Paul is the only one who received a vision. And in receiving that vision, Paul's intimacy with the Holy Spirit is deepened because he's in communication with the Holy Spirit, he's listening, he's receiving visions, he's responding.

SPEAKER_01 27:46

It's always great to hear from God.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

His intimacy with God is deepened by receiving that vision of a change of plans. But then it's clear that Paul went to his traveling companions, shared his vision with them. It seems that they all prayed together and they all came to the conclusion because the language is we decided to leave, having concluded that God was calling us to preach the good news somewhere else. So they concluded together, they increased their intimacy as a group and as a team. Now, imagine if Paul, if they had set out for this missionary journey and Paul was like, here's the itinerary, and everybody was like, okay, we'll just go with it. And they woke up every morning and they just did what they were had planned to do. Um, now, if that's the way God aligned the trip, then great. But what this opportunity gave them was the opportunity to, for Paul to listen to the Holy Spirit, for those with him to listen to Paul's vision, for them to gain more insight into how God speaks, how God works, for them to grow in intimacy as they prayed together about what to do next, for them to grow in intimacy with the Holy Spirit as individuals and as a team, as they they concluded. It says we we just uh we have concluded that God was calling us. So they concluded together. And it I can imagine having been on mission trips with teams, like when you're working together for a common purpose to serve God, you're growing in intimacy. You can get really close with people really quickly uh when you're working together towards the the purposes of God for your team and for your time together. And so I think that this is the primary reason God changes our plans, so that we don't catch the ball and just run down the field with it and leave him and others behind. I think it increases our intimacy with the Holy Spirit because it requires that we're listening to him and we're responding and we're praying and we're talking with him all along the path so that when he changes our plans, we know where he's going. But it also increases the intimacy that we have with those around us who are also serving the same mission together. And I think that that's one of the most beautiful reasons for God to change plans. Mike, I think that you and I have gotten closer as a mission team of a married couple. We've our intimacy has increased, our relational intimacy has increased because of the ways that God has changed our plans throughout our lives. We are on a, you and I feel like we are on a unified mission, more so than we've ever been. And every time the plan changes and you and I have to come together and pray about it and seek the Lord and and then make a decision together to move on, we increase our intimacy as a team and as a married couple. And and every time I have to change my plans and I'm praying to God, my intimacy increases with him. And so I really believe that this is a primary and beautiful reason God could be changing your plans right now is because he's calling you to intimacy with him and with others around you.

SPEAKER_01 30:48

Every change of plans is a touch point with God, with others. Amen. And so I hope that this conversation has opened your eyes to what God's purposes might be behind his changes of plans. And I get it. It doesn't always feel good.

Reflection Questions And How To Respond

SPEAKER_01 31:04

It's easy to feel mad or confused or frustrated. And if you feel that way, okay, just take that to God. He he's he's a big boy. He can he can he can handle your complaints and he can walk you through what he wants you to see and learn through it. But what plans have you experienced lately that have changed? How has your reaction been? And how can you lean into this testimony of Paul and how we got to see the the whole process of plans being frustrated and changed and then fulfilled in this story to recognize what God might be doing in yours? Thanks for joining us here in this conversation. I'm excited to hear about how God changes your plans. Let me know. Uh send us a message uh through the website at outlaudbible.com or in the episode description of this podcast, you can click that link and send us a message. We'd love to hear uh how God has used this conversation to inform your next step. Thanks for joining us here on the Outloud Bible Podcast. We'll see you next time.