How God sees 1.7 billion people

Just a quick post today from a passage in Acts 16:6-10

And they went throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bythnia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on to Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

Paul and his crew, which included Luke the author of Acts, were desperately looking for somewhere to carry the good news of Jesus Christ.

God wouldn't let them go to Asia or Bythnia. They seemed to be a missionary team without a mission or at least missionaries without a field to work.

Until God spoke to Paul in the form of a vision. The gospel had yet to go to Macedonia. The people there had not heard the message of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

And yet in the vision Paul received a Macedonian man pleaded with him to come over to Macedonia and help us.

But why would a lost man, who has never even heard the gospel, think to ask a missionary for help? He wouldn't.

What the vision illustrated was God's heart for the Macedonian people. The people weren't asking Paul to go and share the message with them God was asking for them. God knew their spiritual state and that eternity that waited for them.

But God didn't come to Paul with a vision of thunder and lightening saying, "Go to Macedonia or you will be sorry..." He came to him in the form of a lost man begging for the gospel.

Why? The answer is because that is how God sees lost humanity. He sees them begging and pleading for a truth they don't even know to ask for. He isn't listening to their words. He is listening to the cry of their souls. The cries that the people themselves don't hear.

And so we sit on a planet with 1.7 billion people who have no access to the gospel of Jesus Christ and God sees them the same way.

He sees Muslims in Saudi Arabia saying, "Please come over to Saudi Arabia and help us."

He sees Hindus in India saying, "Please come over to India and help us."

He sees Communists in China saying, "Please come over to China and help us."

He sees tribesman in Africa saying, "Please come over to Africa and help us."

Sure, he may not have given us a vision to go like he did with Paul. But he has given us Acts 16 as an indication of his heart for lost people who have no access to the gospel.

Maybe instead of waiting for a "Come over to __________ and help us" vision you and I should be asking for one.

I know I am.