The Macedonian Call

By David Hobbs

Acts 16:9—During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

I just returned from a road trip to some of the rural areas of Calif., handing out copies of my book Out of the Fire to fire stations, trying to get it placed in bookstores, and as is my custom, praying over churches in the towns I visit. There is usually nobody at the churches, but I pray and try to sense the leading of the Holy Spirit. At this one particular church, I really wanted to make contact with the pastor and I felt like tarrying on the premises until God sent someone.
After praying and singing in worship for about 45 min., sure enough a nice lady drove up--a member of the church. I told her about my book, why I was there, and my burden for the rural churches to experience revival and the moving of the Spirit like many churches in the cities were. She informed me that the pastor I was seeking was no longer there, and that the church had no pastor at present. She went on to tell me that many of the churches in town had no permanent pastor. (There was a denominational church where the denomination had decided not even to place a permanent pastor there anymore, but a pastor from a neighboring church would come and preach every week.) Furthermore, the attendance at all the churches (except the Catholic Church) was way down—her church had a weekly attendance of 35 average.
I felt such a burden for the dying churches in the town. I told her this was not God’s will; that He wanted to revive the churches and reach the lost through them. I felt like volunteering to take over a pastorless church and tell the people, “Come on, let’s pray-in revival!”
This morning I was back home pondering the situation and praying, “Lord how can I help these people?”
I felt the ever-gentle Holy Spirit remind me of the story from Acts that we refer to as the Macedonian Call. “You can’t do anything until there’s a Macedonian Call.”
I remembered a church in another rural town a year and a half ago. I had felt in my spirit like I needed to make a road trip to this town; I sensed there was someone praying, asking for help. When I got there with my son Daniel, the Lord led me right to a church where this pastor had just been praying to God, asking Him why he didn’t have anyone to help him in this difficult area, asking Him if anybody cared . . . basically throwing a spiritual pity party, but still crying out to God. That very morning we showed up saying we wanted to pray for him and his church. We spent a couple of hours in his office, praying for him and over him, prophesying over him (some of the same prophetic words he had gotten in seminary years ago) and encouraging him. At one point he was literally in tears because of the goodness and sovereignty of God sending us there in response to his cries.
But now the Holy Spirit was telling me, “Where’s the Macedonian call for help from this town? Yes the situation is critical, but who is burdened about it enough to cry out to Me for assistance? I can’t send you or anybody else until someone prays My burden back to Me for aid.”
I remembered the story of Moses being sent to deliver Egypt. It didn’t work until the people “groaned in their slavery and cried out.” Then “their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God.” After that, “God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham . . . . and was concerned about them.” [Exodus 2:23-24] The very next passage is God appearing to Moses in the burning bush and commissioning him to return to Egypt to deliver Israel.
God has all the resources we could possibly need. But in many cases He is waiting for us to partner with Him and pray them in.
Are we willing to humble ourselves and pray? Are we willing to seek God until the burden of the Holy Spirit falls on us and we can pray it back to God?