Acts 26:19

Acts 26:19 says, Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.  Paul recognized that this was God speaking to him, and he knew he must obey the will of God.  If we are ever called upon to answer to anyone about our relationship to God and to our obedience to Him, may we say as Paul did that, we were not disobedient to the heavenly vision, or simple call in most cases.  We spend a lot of time discussing how bad the world is and not enough time proclaiming how great God is.  There is nothing sadder than the world ignoring Christianity.  Paul could not and would not be ignored.  It seems to me that we are more concerned with material blessings from God than we are with being a blessing to God.  Paul was under arrest with people wanting to kill him to stop him from witnessing for Christ, but he would not stop.  The first question we should ask individually and as the church is what does God want from us.  When the first question is can we afford it we are living by sight.  At the risk of meddling, we nearly always find a way to get the things we want, but too often we cannot find any way to do what God wants us to do.  God blesses us so we can help others.  Paul supported himself on his journeys.  I am not saying we should not support missionaries and preachers.  I am saying that if we know that God wants us to do something for Him, we should simply begin to do it in faith, believing that God will provide a way for us to continue.  Faith means that we, like Peter, must get out of the boat.  Then, once we are out, we must keep our eyes on Jesus in faith.  We, like Peter, often begin to sink because we look at the waves and not the Master of the waves. Then, we say we knew we should have waited until conditions were better.  Again, this is not the just living by faith, but the weak in faith living by sight.