It’s easy to think redirection is failure isn’t it. But really, when we are in motion, that is when we get to see God lead us. It’s not by sitting still. Take a car for example. When a car is moving, you can round a corner. But if you’re sitting in a car that’s not even turned on, you can turn the wheel whichever way you want but your not actually leading or directing the car anywhere because you’re not moving. One time I heard someone say they were trying to open a bag of Twinkies and couldn’t get the bag open so they took that as a sign God didn’t want them to eat them. That’s kind of a silly example but do you ever think like that? When something doesn’t work out the way you expected do you think it must not have been God’s will? When you try at something and fail, do you assume it must not have been God that was leading you in the first place? We took the kids to the Kennedy space center and the Lord used it powerfully in my life. They show videos of all the launches that failed. Again and again the rockets exploded. Tons of money, time and valuable resources seemed to be wasted by rockets exploding on platforms or falling apart in the air. How easy it would be to give up. How easy it would be to give up thinking it must not be God if He allowed such failure. How in the world did the lie, “If it’s easy, it’s God and If there’s resistance it must not be God” sneak into our culture? Was it not God’s will that Jesus endure awful on the cross because it was hard and He had to persevere? Was it not God’s will that the Israelites be led out of captivity when they came up against the resistance of the Red Sea? Oh how we desperately need to grow in perseverance. I’m not so much talking about emotional, hard things perseverance b/c we all can point to many godly people who are persevering through hard hard times. But perseverance in the things we do. Oh we are so often so quick to give up when it’s hard. But really God will allow resistance, He will allow failure and that very much could be His plan for the purpose of driving us to get wisdom, to learn. Failure is a gift. It can drive us to get wisdom and learn how to do things better. And really Christians need to be leading the charge in the ability to persevere in the things we create, build, do etc. for the Lord. Because we have the Holy Spirit inside of us who enables us to persevere in doing great things for the Lord, a gift the world doesn’t have. Oh let us be persevering people who get wisdom and invest what we have well. And when we are in motion, in action, walking by faith, God is able to redirect us. But aren’t we so quick to cling to the “wait” verses of scripture than the “Go” verses… the take initiative verses. Did you know the word stay is used 62 times and the word go is used 1,052 times. Faith is an action. It’s an active trust. Faith is not passive, sitting back and waiting for things to fall in our lap. And when we think that is what faith is it is crippling our effectiveness, investments in heaven and ability to glorify God Look at plants. They need sun, water, soil and oxygen. We don’t have enough rain to keep even grass alive on their own. But that’s a law God put in place, putting effort in produces fruit. Taking initiative doesn’t equal a lack of faith. In 2 Samuel chapter 5 David (like he is so often) inquires of the Lord to see if and how he should attack other groups. He didn’t move until he heard specifically and directly from the Lord. That makes it seem like passivity, sitting and waiting until we have some special, specific call from the Lord to act seem like the right thing to do. It stumped me until I spend quite time asking the Lord to teach me about it. Guess what He showed me!? David didn’t have the Holy Spirit or the full Word of God! So of course He needed specific revelation from God because it was not already given. And guess what else He showed me. That the only time in the New Testament the disciples were told to wait (as in halt their activity) was when they were told to wait to receive the Holy Spirit. How beautifully amazing! Jesus had told the disciples to “GO”. And they did. And while they were going, if they were headed a wrong direction, the Lord redirected them. The minute we surrendered our life to Christ and received His forgiveness, we were sealed with/given the Holy Spirit and were given God’s specific call to “Go and make disciples of all nations”. You my dear friend already have a specific call. You don’t need to sit back and wait for some other mystical directions. You don’t need a feeling or dramatic almost audible voice from God. Your call has already been written down and it’s your responsibility to invest what you have and live out that mission, and when you’re headed the wrong direction, God will direct you. It is to “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." (Matt. 28:19-20) About LauraLaura, the creator and host of Missional Women is married and has four kids, two of whom are adopted. Laura and her husband have been missionaries to college students for 11 years serving with Master Plan Ministries. Laura is the Staff Women's Development Coordinator and has discipled over 150 girls, led over 30 Bible studies and speaks to college and women's groups. Laura has authored 5 books, including an award winning 12 week Bible Study on First Samuel, Beholding Him, Becoming Missional, Reach; How to Use Your Social Media Influence for the Glory of God, and A Devotional Journey through Judges, a devotional to accompany the free online Bible study at TheBookofJudges.com. You can find her on facebook,twitter, pinterest, youtube, instagram and her author site. My first year in ministry I met Christy who was a skeptic about Jesus. She often came to the fun events our ministry hosted, but not the Bible studies or anywhere she would hear the Gospel. I knew she needed Jesus, but honestly I was pretty intimidated because she seemed so skeptical- almost like she had already made up her mind. Maybe she would stop coming to anything if I pushed it to much. On the other hand, maybe she would never hear the Gospel if I didn’t take the initiative to speak up. Through the power of the Holy Spirit I took the initiative to ask Christy what she believed about spiritual things and was able to share the Gospel with her. She was interested but had heard too many arguments against the Bible being true. I asked her if she would like to investigate further and she said yes! So we began meeting weekly and discussing and researching evidence for the Bible and for Jesus being who he said he was. Each week I shared the gospel and prayed that Christy would place her faith in the truth. One week she sat down and I asked, “so what are you thinking is true?” and she simply pointed to the Bible and said, “this is the truth”. Right there on campus, Christy placed her faith in Jesus to rescue her from darkness. And I got to be there! Not just be there- I got to PARTICIPATE! In Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus came and said, “All authority has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." Wow! Can you think of any greater mission in life? To make disciples of all the nations! And God has given us the authority to do it. I can think of no greater privilege than seeing someone go from darkness to light. About RhondaRhonda attended Oklahoma Baptist University for two years until she felt called to reach out to a secular campus. She then transferred to Mesa State where she graduated in 2004 with a B.A. in Counseling Psychology. She now serves as a missionary to college students and has a passion for reaching out to young women. God has a purpose and design for who he wants Godly women to be, and Rhonda is excited about helping women find freedom and joy in His purpose. A friend and I sometimes call each other and in a highly sarcastic tone say things like “Lets fellowship over pizza tonight” or “Wanna fellowship and watch Baby Mama?” because the word fellowship is one of those churchy words that get thrown around so often it tends to lose it’s meaning. Fellowship is more than just hanging out with other Christians. It is an intentional time spent with other believers as you seek Jesus.
About a year ago, I was at a women's retreat with other women from our ministry. We had an afternoon where we did a prayer mosaic - going to different stations and praying through different things in our life, and also praying for different people. I got to the station about praying for different people on campus that needed to accept Christ and asking God what our next step was with these people. I found around 10 girls in my phone that I had either been sharing with or had recently met that I had yet to share the Gospel with that year. I could share multiple stories from not only praying for these girls and me sharing with them, but to save time, I'll just let you know I got to share with 6 out of the 10 after that retreat. I even got to share with someone completely new because of setting up an appointment with a gal on my list! This girl who came in on our conversation just kept telling me, after I had shared the gospel with her, "Wow! I have never heard this before! Wow!!" But here is my favorite story (so far) from this prayer list. I got to share the gospel with Nicole at a retreat last year, and I knew another lady on our staff team was also sharing with her consistently. But I hadn't been as faithful to pray for her to be saved until I put her on my list. By our first retreat this fall, she made the decision to put her trust in Christ!! Later this semester, she came to a prayer night we had at our house. I encouraged everyone there to write down 5 people at home who needed Jesus and 5 people from school, then ask God how to reach them. I then share how Nicole was on my list for under a year until she accepted Christ. During the break, Nicole pulled me aside and told me, "I just wanted to say thank you for praying for me! I had no idea that I was on a list or that someone cared for me enough to keep praying for me." You should have heard her reaction when she found out it wasn't only me, but our whole staff team and her closest friends praying for her too! And little does she know that there were even more when it came to all our supporters and the supporters of our staff also praying. And little do we know who else was involved in this miraculous event for Nicole's life to go from death to life!! I share this story because prayer is powerful! I have been so unfaithful when it has come to prayer, but God has changed my view of prayer by seeing how much He has done in the lives of a a handful of people just because I specifically prayed. James 5:16b says, "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." We often believe the lie that our role in prayer is minimal, where scripture shows us that our prayers are actually effective and powerful. About LeahLeah works with Master Plan Ministries at Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO. Other than watching college students' lives change, she enjoys getting her mind blown by God and His Word, watching sci fi, baking cupcakes, and spending time with her hunky husband. |