Follow Me

The problem with me is that I want the adventure of living by faith but I am not always so thrilled about the risk.  Recently we made a decision that was really a step of faith.  After seeking the Lord we felt certain it was what He wanted us to do.  The problem is that after the fact a situation arose that caused us to question if we had missed Him.  I stayed unsettled for too long as far as I am concerned until the Lord showed me what was wrong.  He told me you want to come out on the limb with Me but at the same time you want Me to promise you I won’t saw it off. If you are going to trust me to get out on the limb then you must trust what I chose to do once you are there.  You see once I find a level of uncertainty I am comfortable with Jesus always comes along and says go further. 

 

When my relationship with Him becomes obscured it is often because I am not walking in agreement with where He has me at a given point in time. Maybe you can relate.  I am always amazed at how simple it is yet why I could not see it before I do not know.  It’s like yes I want to follow you but ….. How many examples are given in the word of those who wanted to follow but with conditions attached? In one instance Jesus said, "He who puts His hand to the plow and looks back is not worthy of the kingdom". We don't like to think about that much, but Jesus just has a way of cutting to the chase as they say. Obedience takes faith, period.  You can walk by faith or walk by sight but you can't do both.

 

Following Him must always be about who we are following and never about the outcome. Because we have lived in the world so long sometimes we are deceived into thinking this is reality when that is a lie, and so are all the ways of this worlds system we use to justify our disobedience. To be sure our loyalty to Jesus will be put to the test in a number of ways because He wants to know what is more important to us, our relationship with Him or a false sense of security.

 

More often than not I have found the thing Jesus is after in me is getting me to be still and trust and not think that I have to do something. Waiting can be so hard sometimes. I have yet to meet anyone who finds it enjoyable.  Doing nothing can be hard because that is not the way of the culture in which I grew up.  Again, there is that dying to self thing.  Geez, it never goes away.

 

An Appointed Time

     When you were a child do you remember being told by your parents about a place they were taking you and the excitement that filled your heart? Do you remember thinking that they were taking you there at the time they told you and you hurried to get yourself dressed only to realize they didn’t mean right that minute?

     As a child it can be difficult to grasp the concept of going somewhere tomorrow or next week rather than today. Even as adults who walk with God as His children we can find ourselves in the exact same place. This is where I have found myself. God has spoken to me about some places He is taking me, but just like a child I too find it difficult sometimes to wait thinking the fact that He has told me means we are going right then, only to find I was ahead of schedule.

     I have found timing is everything when it comes to walking with the Lord. Maybe you're not like me but I like to get to where I am going and get there fast, but as I have learned and the hard way at that, Jesus is not in a hurry. I want to go by plane or car, it seems He, on the other hand, likes to walk everywhere He goes.

     Sometimes I feel like the child in the back seat constantly asking, “are we there yet”, and it isn’t even time to leave. Part of me has sensed I was getting ahead of God, but being afraid of not being a good steward of what He has given me I believe has caused me to move ahead too fast. The operative word there is ‘afraid’ God does not use fear to get us to do anything, the devil does. I thought I knew that but  I forgot because I am just so exited about where He is taking me. I have been waiting a very long time for Him to tell me where we are going and now that He has given me some very good hints, I am ready to get there yesterday, but He knows exactly when we need to leave and how fast we need to travel because He has an appointed time for our arrival.

     You know you can’t even show up for a doctor’s appointment until it’s your time and just as God had an ‘appointed time’ for the birth of Jesus, so He has an ‘appointed time’ for whatever it is He desires to birth through us from the spirit, and it is essential the delivery comes in His time not ours, so that whatever we bring forth will have all that is necessary to sustain its life.  

Waiting On God

Waiting may seem like an easy thing to do, but it is a discipline that a Christian soldier does not learn without years of training.  Marching and drills are much easier for God’s warriors than standing still.

There are times of indecision and confusion; when even the most willing person, who eagerly desires to serve the Lord, does not know what direction to take. (this is so me right now).   So what should you do when you find yourself in this situation?  Should you allow yourself to be overcome with despair?  Should you turn back in cowardice or in fear or rush ahead in ignorance?

You should simply wait….but wait in prayer, wait in faith, and wait in quiet patience. Never complain about what you believe to be the cause of your problem, as the children of Israel did against Moses.  Accept your situation exactly as it is and then simply place it with your whole heart into the hand of your covenant God.  And while removing any self will, say to Him, “Lord, Not my will, but yours be done”. I do not know what to do and I am in great need.  But I will wait until you divide the flood before me or drive back my enemies. (Condensed excerpt from ‘Streams In The Dessert’)

     Recently the above devotional was such a comfort to my heart as I find myself in this very place of indecision and confusion yet more willing than ever to serve the Lord whose feet I have been sitting at. Yes, waiting is hard sometimes, no, not sometimes but all the time, unless we believe that the Lord is in control of the situation that is causing us to wait in the first place.  Most of the time a place of waiting is a wilderness place where you feel like you’re just walking around in circles and not getting anywhere, think of the Israelites in the desert for 40 years on a journey that should have taken 11 days. That’s because we measure progress by the amount of ground we cover, God measures progress by the amount of trust and faith we exhibit when it looks to us like He doesn’t have a clue where He is going. Let’s face it, we all know He always knows where He is going, but in that moment of time in the wilderness the feeling we have that He doesn’t is all part of the test.

     Part of the ability to wait in quiet patience comes from realizing that the wilderness isn’t a place of punishment but preparation.  That is the part I seem to have a hard time remembering. It is because of where the Lord is taking us that the preparation is necessary.  He wants to teach us to worship in the wilderness instead of whine. What we worship we will serve. 

      Worship in the wilderness comes out of a place of absolute trust in His nature and character no matter what the physical circumstances are. Our problem is we are uncomfortable with  being totally dependent on Him to supply what we need but it is our surrender to Him in that place that births our worship.  We want to have a plan 'B' just in case His plan seems to be going awry, (which at some point it will look that way to us) but if we want Him then we have to obey Him, period.  It easy to obey when the instructions suit us, but in the wilderness they usually appear to be in complete contradiction to the circumstances we find ourselves in at the time. Part of what we learn in the wilderness is that Gods provision is in obeying what He says, not what we see.