Acts 16:4 -7 - The Spirit would not let them

16:4,5

The decisions reached in Jerusalem were relevant for all the churches, not just the one at Antioch. For most churches had a mixture of Jews and Gentiles, and later Judaisers would cause trouble in many places. So Paul wanted to make sure that they knew what had been decided, and were not listening to any “fake news”. So the people were strengthened in their faith and the number grew daily”. The issue had been contentious and difficult, but difficult issues dealt with in a godly manner can strengthen the church.

16:6,7

We see here the Holy Spirit guiding them, in this instance to stop them going into Asia. Also we are not told how He stopped them. It may be that events stopped them and they put this down to the Holy Spirit. We might wonder why the Spirit did not want them to go there, but we are not told, at least not directly. Later we are told that God specifically wanted them to go to Macedonia, so probably going to Asia would have prevented them from doing this. The Holy Spirit is in control. It also significant that verse 6 refers to the Holy Spirit, then verse 7 to the Spirit of Christ The Holy Spirit was the Spirit of God, so equating Him with the Spirit of Christ is equating Christ with God. Furthermore, we see that the Spirit is a person, not a force, for He is guiding the church. So in these two verse there is quite a bit of incidental trinitarian theology!