Ever feel like you’re doing everything right—praying, planning, stepping out in faith—only to hit a wall?
You’re not alone. Even the apostle Paul ran into what seemed like dead ends.
Bible teacher Derek Prince, in one of his sermons unpacks a story from Acts 16 that reminds us how vital it is to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, especially when His answer is “no.”
Prince starts by pointing out something that might surprise you. “They were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia.” Imagine that. The same Spirit who had told the disciples to go into all the world suddenly says: not here, not now.
“Isn’t that an astonishing statement?” Prince asks. “Sometimes people tell me God doesn’t answer my prayers. I say you need to bear in mind No is an answer as well as Yes.”
How many of us actually accept that? Or do we keep pushing our own way, assuming that if something is good, it must be God’s will?
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Paul and his team didn’t. When the door to Asia was closed, they tried to go into Bithynia. “But the Spirit did not permit them.” They were being squeezed in a direction they didn’t expect—toward Troas, and eventually, Europe.
At that moment, they didn’t know why. But then Paul had a vision: “A man from Macedonia stood, and pleaded with him, saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’” And here’s where Prince highlights something beautiful: “Paul was a real leader. He had the vision. But it doesn’t say he concluded, it says we concluded.” Leadership, he said, is “not ‘I make all the decisions and tell you what to do.’ ‘I hear from God, and we together decide what God wants to do’.”
The result? The gospel entered Europe for the first time. And according to Prince, “In the light of 19 subsequent centuries, that was one of the most decisive movements in the early church.” He notes how Europe preserved Christianity through the Dark Ages and eventually became the launching pad for modern missions. Paul didn’t know that. But the Holy Spirit did.
Then Satan got angry. After delivering a slave girl from a spirit of divination, Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown into prison. “That was totally illogical,” Prince said. “It was absolutely without any real basis in reason. What was the cause of it? Satan was very angry because his territory was being invaded.”
That’s something we often forget—when we’re obeying God, opposition can actually be a sign that we’re right where we’re supposed to be.
But God doesn’t leave His people stuck. “He sent an earthquake, shook the prison, opened the doors, set the prisoners free. See, this was really high level strategy. Both God and Satan were intensely interested in what happened in Philippi.”
The same is true today. We might not see the full picture, but when we trust God’s timing, the results can be greater than we imagine. Paul was later allowed to preach in Asia—in Ephesus, no less—where he saw some of his greatest ministry results. “Had he gone there early I think it would have spoiled everything. The ground wasn’t ready,” Prince said.
He even shared a personal example: “God spoke to Ruth and me… ‘I will lead you to the places where the soil has been prepared.’… We went to some places I wouldn’t have chosen but we saw some rather amazing results.”
Here’s the takeaway for us today: When God says “no,” don’t assume He’s not listening. He may just be getting ready to say “yes” to something bigger, something that could change lives in ways you never expected.
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James Lasher is staff writer for Charisma Media.
