February 20

Acts 27:10 (NIV)
10 “Men, I can see that our voyage is going to be disastrous and bring great loss to ship and cargo, and to our own lives also.”

Acts 27:21-22 (NIV)
21 After the men had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said: “Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete; then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss. 22 But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed.

Thank God for these men that Paul was on board the ship! Before anything happened, Paul knew that something would happen. That is because the Spirit of God that Paul relied on.

John 16:13 (NIV)
13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

We often forget about this wonderful benefit of having the Holy Spirit inside us to guide us and tell us the future. We are NOT fortune tellers, that is not of God, but we do have insight into the future at times, and for Paul this was one of those times. In fact, Paul again, after reminding them that he warned them (a powerful argument for listening to him the second time) he tells them how to overcome their present situation brought on by their disobedience. The Spirit again tells Paul of the future within the remedy of the current situation.

In 2002 I went on my first missionary journey to Argentina. I was super nervous about going and honestly I was afraid that I would not return alive. I found myself thinking about not going because I was afraid. My brother-in-law encouraged me to ask God about it, so I did. God gave me a guarantee that I would be back and He showed me what I was going to be doing in the future. From that time forward, I had great confidence and no fear.