Is worship and fasting a part of this church's routine practice, or is it a special seeking of guidance? The purpose of fasting can be to withdraw as far as possible from the influence of the world and make oneself receptive to commands from heaven (Ex 34:28; compare Lk 2:37); this combined the emphatic Greek de in the Spirit's directive, which may indicate an evaluation of a proposal (Williams 1985:210), probably indicates a quest for particular guidance. Are the participants just the leaders (Bruce 1988:245) or the whole church (Marshall 1980:215)? In view of the mutually interactive decision-making process of Acts 6:1-7 (see comment there) and the fact that Paul and Barnabas report back to the entire church (14:27), it is best to say the leaders in the presence of the entire church take this action.

Whether by internal prompting in the entire church (Stott 1990:217) or external directive through one of the believers (Longenecker 1981:417) or more particularly one of the prophets (Haenchen 1971:396), the Spirit communicates that now is the time for deployment. The church is to set apart Barnabas and Saul for the evangelization of Jew and Gentile (compare Rom 1:1; Gal 1:15). God had previously personally called Saul and Barnabas, a call that was still in effect (so the perfect tense; compare 9:15-16; 26:16-18).

In this simple command we meet God's basic answer to the question, Who sends the missionary? God sends the missionary through two essential and complementary means: the personal, inward call to the individual and the outward confirmation through the church.