I know a man...

miknik: "If he wasn't meant to go, THE SPIRIT would have prevented him just like THE SPIRIT had at another times mentioned."

You are contradicting what the Word of God says in Acts 21:4. Paul isn't just told what will happen to him if he continues his journey to Jerusalem; he is directly told by the Spirit NOT to go there! Luke is telling us that in this case Paul disobeyed the Holy Spirit's instructions! We have free will, and God will allow us to reap the consequences of our poor decisions.

Deadworm said:

You raise the question of Paul's errors or mistakes as an apostle. Let's look at an example. Consider Paul's final trip to Jerusalem, as a result of which he was arrested and eventually martyred by Nero. Notice what Dr. Luke reports about this fateful journey to Jerusalem: "Through the Spirit they [the disciples] told Paul, "Don't go to Jerusalem (Acts 20:4)!" Paul, of course, is willing to die, if need be for his faith, but the point is that he defied the Holy Spirit's message by continuing his journey and paid the ultimate price for this disobedience! In my view, this disobedient act explains why Luke deliberately excludes the story of Paul's execution from the Book of Acts.

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It is interesting to note that when I re-read the book of Acts and the letters of Paul, despite being warned by the Holy Spirit through many people that troubles awaited him in Jerusalem, Paul firmly believed that he was being led by the Holy Spirit to go there. Whether he was or wasn't (and there are many times that we believe that we are being led by the Holy Spirit when that could be debatable), he believed it and believed that his imprisonment was in the will of God for him. As a result, he was able to give his testimony to Agrippa, Felix and Festus (both important Roman governors) and possibly the Emperor himself. The Holy Spirit had told him that he would be testifying to kings, and that is what actually happened as the result of his imprisonment, when if he was still free he might not have had those opportunities. So, I might have to back track in my view that Paul might have been disobedient. Either he was, and the Holy Spirit went into Plan B, or that he wasn't and this was God's plan for him all along. The jury is still out on this matter.

miknik5 said:

Here's something that Paul understood. If I live it is to the lord. If I die it is to the lord

Not only that
If he wasn't meant to go, THE SPIRIT would have prevented him just like THE SPIRIT had at another times mentioned

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I can go along with that.

miknik5 said:

2 Corinthians 12

Who is this man?

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I had wondered if it could have been Paul himself, perhaps after he was stoned and APPEARED dead at Lystra?

I wondered if it could have been Lazarus..... who many people wanted to kill... but didn't.