I Don't Know

There is just something about a rainy day, a fresh pot of coffee being brewed and that lovely aroma filling the air that puts me in the writing mode. Writing for me this past year became a form of therapy. Sometimes I couldn’t always verbalize what I might be thinking or feeling, but for some reason I could always find the words write it.

Writing has become one of the ways that I not only process through what I may be going through, good or bad, happy or sad, it’s one of the many ways God’s speaks to me now. Obviously the only reason I recognize it being God speaking is from being in His Word. Author/Speaker Lysa Turkurst put up a facebook status the other day that I simply loved. It was about how do you know when it’s God speaking? This is what she posted and I could not agree more!

I'll be honest - though I do hear from God, I've never heard His voice audibly. When God speaks to me, it is a certain impression on my heart that I've come to recognize as Him. I've also learned to ask 5 key questions to help me determine if what I'm hearing is from God or not:

1. Does what I'm hearing line up with Scripture?

2. Is it consistent with God's character?

3. Is it being confirmed through messages I'm hearing at church or studying in my quiet times?

4. Is it beyond me?

5. Would it please God?

I sat with a friend of mine just the other day talking/preparing to lead a small group together in a few weeks in Florida. We both shared how God has been teaching us a lot about discerning His will. It’s probably one of my favorite subjects these days to get on because I have found that many Christians, myself included, have complicated it. God wants you to know His will more than you do. He’s not trying to keep it from you. But for some reason we’ve made “the will of God” this huge mysterious thing.

I’m not saying that every decision you make in life can be made in 5 seconds. There are the revealed commands of God (His Word). Honestly, there are some things that we say we are going to go “pray about” that God has already told us in His Word what to do. It’s called God’s Word because it’s God’s Words on the page (2 Tim 3:16). What we are usually stressing out over is the unreaveled will of God.

For example, you will not find a verse that says, “Take her unto Chilli’s.” Doesn’t work that way. It’s been amazing to me lately the more people I have talked to ,about a number of different things, but the #1 things I have found is the same in why people over-think and over-spiritualize decision  making is fear. It’s not so much faith in God, or that we really trust God in this situation, as much as it is fear of unknown. We say, "I'm trusting or waiting on God to give me a sign" when really we're just scared. Let's be honest. 

I told a sweet friend of mine a few days ago, “you could marry the godliest guy you know and in 5 years he could go off the deep end. You don’t know.” Her response, “that’s scary.” My thoughts, Yep, but we don’t’ have guarantees in life. The only guarantee we have is Jesus Christ. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Which is so comforting when we don't have that guarantee with anything else on planet earth. We can’t avoid hurt and pain. I am not saying go looking for it, no one (in their right mind) does that. But, at the same time we have to realize that to love at all is to be  vulnerable!!! 

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

At the end of the day we are called to walk by faith, and that is going to require that we step out into the unknown. Whether it be a new relationship that you don’t know exactly were it’s headed, maybe it’s taking that relationship to the next level and getting married, maybe it’s a move to a new town, job, church. Maybe it’s ending a relationship (of any kind), comforting a friend about a situation or conflict, which college to attend. I don’t know what decisions you have to make but I can tell you this if you are waiting for everything to fall into place before you make a decision so that you won’t have to walk by faith…ain’t gonna happen (bad grammar, great theology). 

There just comes a time when we have to make a decision on some things. Some decisions take longer to make than others, but what I am talking about are things that God has probably either already made pretty clear and we just don’t want to hear it, or some times God is calling upon us to act and make a decision and trust His sovereignty. He gave us His Spirit, and as my friend mentioned there comes a time when we flat out have to trust the leadership of the Spirit. Trust He's in there! 

…But what we so often as humans want is the very thing God will never give, and that is a formula for finding out His will that would make Him unnecessary in the equation.- Steven Furtick