<p>21:4- see on Acts 20:23.</p><p><i>And having found the disciples, we stayed there seven days; and these said to Paul through the Spirit</i>- It's not clear whether the Spirit directly said that Paul should not go to Jerusalem, or whether this was their interpretation of what was revealed to them. Reading the text as it stands, Paul's going to Jerusalem would have been rank disobedience. But it seems to me that he was being told of the consequences of his plan, and yet he continued in it, and the Lord worked with him in that choice. We encounter the same conundrum today when we are told 'The Bible says that...'. There's a need to make a differentiation between the specific text of the Bible, and human interpretation of it. It was 'they' who told Paul not to go to Jerusalem- not the Spirit directly.</p><p><em>That he should not set foot in Jerusalem</em>- Paul was clearly told by the Spirit that he &ldquo;should not go up to Jerusalem&rdquo; (Acts 21:4 AV). Yet Paul chose to go up to Jerusalem, with the Holy Spirit warning him against it in every city he passed through (Acts 20:23; 21:11). What are we to make of this? Was a spiritual man like Paul simply out of step with the Spirit on this point? Maybe- in the light of all we've seen above. It&rsquo;s possible to get fixated on a certain project and ignore God&rsquo;s clear testimony. Or it could be that Paul knew the Lord well enough to realize that although God was telling him what would happen, he could still exercise his own love for his brethren to the maximum extent. For it was for love of his brethren and his dream of unity between Jew and Gentile that he personally took the offerings of the Gentiles to the poor saints in Jerusalem.</p><p>In Rom. 15:31 Paul asks the Romans to pray concerning his visit to Jerusalem &quot;that I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe&quot;. He was in struggle with God, wrestling God as Jacob did. On one hand, Spirit guidance was clear; but he believed that through prayer and human effort, a different outcome to that stated by the Spirit might be possible.</p>