Go back, Stand still, Hurry up

I haven't been saying much about what God is teaching me these last few weeks. It's not because He isn't saying anything. It's because it has been personal. While I love sharing about what God is doing in my life, God asked me a couple of weeks ago if I only liked hearing from Him so I would have something to blog about. Heavens NO!!! I love my God and desperately want to hear His voice. After some self evaluation I realized that I don't share with you everything RC and I talk about. I don't share with you everything my best friends and I talk about. I felt like God was telling me that not everything He says to me is for everyone else also. I was so blessed by this. God is intimate with us. Not for the sole purpose of us doing things for Him and telling others about Him. For the sole purpose that HE LOVES US.

God was providing me with a motives check. And I believe He was preparing me for what He was going to share with me. I am trying now to use more discernment about what God releases me to share and what He wants me to hide in my heart.

Here's something I want (and feel I can) share.

Have you ever had God tell you to do something that is hard or scary to do? You start off obeying and as you go along you start questioning whether you heard God correctly? You start looking back at where you left and all you can seem to remember is all the good stuff and when you look forward all you can see is uncertainty and mountains?

Did you know that God didn't just part the waters once. He parted them twice, a different set of waters mind you, but He parted the waters for the Israelites twice. Twice He made a way for them to walk across on dry land. If you aren't very familiar with what I'm talking about check out Exodus 14 and Joshua 3.

I'm going to focus on the passage in Exodus for a moment. The Israelites are standing on the bank of the Red Sea and Pharoah and his army are after them. The Israelites start whining about how God has brought them out into the desert to just let them die. Ridiculous! The Israelites solution to their problem is to GO BACK. Moses knows that God did not bring them out into the desert to let them die. In his effort to be obedient his solution is to STAND STILL. While God says loudly HURRY UP! If Satan can't get us to go back then he will try to get us to stand still. But if we listen to God it is likely we will hear an "I told you what to do, now HURRY UP." God has told me what to do. In fact, He told me what to do last fall and in my attempt to wait for confirmation I ended up standing still even after God confirmed what He said. He has told me again very clearly and now I am trying to HURRY UP. Mind you, our idea of HURRY UP and God's are usually not quite the same. This process that God has called me to is going to probably take months, but the problem was that I was standing still.

The other side of the coin now. If you want direction from God on something specific and you ask and ask for an answer and He remains silent then DON'T MOVE. In the summer of 2006 we (RC and I) had some doors of opportunity open to us. We stood in the doorway and asked God if we could go through. He said nothing. Some people think that this means that God is letting us choose and He is okay with whatever we do. I disagree. I believe God is waiting to see if we will wait on Him. RC and I didn't realize it at the time, but I believe God was testing us. We chose not to go through the door because we didn't have a clear answer from God. I am so glad we waited. While I don't believe that path would have been sin, I do believe it would have only been God's permissive will instead of His perfect one.

If you think that you need to just do something and trust God to work it out you probably don't agree with anything I've just said. All I know is that when I have chosen to wait on God I have never been disappointed. I can, however, tell some stories about going my own direction (and I'm not talking about sin here) and ending up in less than land. I can promise you that less than land doesn't even begin to compare to God's perfect will. I can speak from experience.

So I'm hurrying up and heading toward the unknown. I'm excited, nervous, and unsure of myself. But I am completely confident in my God. I'm following His orders so I have nothing to fear.

Now glory be to God! By His mighty power at work within us, He is able to accomplish INFINETLY more than we would dare to ask or hope. Ephesians 3:20 NLT