Do you want to know what the will of God is for your life, or in a particular situation? Which way to go? What is the right thing to say or not to say? What to do?
There are four key steps to take in seeking a word from God in any and all situations. BUT before I let you in on them, let me share how I found out just what they were…
You see, The Lord chose to uproot us and move my husband and I thousands of miles away from all we knew and loved back in 1999, and we were miserable. We tried to keep a stiff upper lip during the week, but on Sunday afternoons we’d sit in our empty house and cry. We missed our kids, our family, our home! We were trying to settle in, trying to make friends, but all that takes time.
Suddenly, only a few months after arriving to our new environment, we were handed a way to go back home!
A new job offer came to John from a huge multi-billion dollar company! They were willing to move us back home to NH, give us a huge signing bonus and raise! It was an awesome job opportunity working for an old boss John had loved working for years before. Everything screamed, “TAKE THE JOB AND GO BACK!!”
Only, there was this one nagging question, “Why would the Lord move us here and have us buy a home, only to move us back four months later?” It just didn’t seem to make sense. So we began to pray… and pray… and have everyone we knew pray. We went back and forth; we’re going … we’re staying … we’re going.
We finally decided to accept the job, put our home on the market and head back home when John was invited to lunch with our pastor at the time, Dr. Adrian Rogers. The conversation started off lighthearted as all were getting to know one another until that is, John let on that he had just accepted another job offer and was heading back to NH in about six weeks. The room suddenly grew very quiet and Dr. Rogers grew very serious and pointed his finger at John and told him in so many words, that he was here for a reason and he needed to go home, get on his knees and confess every unconfessed sin and ask God to reveal His will to John. John came home and told me what Dr. Rogers had said, but I didn’t think much of it until the next morning.
John’s contract with the new company was being delivered that morning by FedEx for John to sign and ship it back overnight. I had only run to the store for a moment, but when I returned there was a note on my door from the FedEx deliverer informing me that he was sorry he missed me and would return on Monday.
Now we had the weekend to nail down what God’s will was for us.
By Sunday night John was pretty convinced that The Lord wanted us to remain here in our new home, but I still hadn’t heard from God in spite of all my seeking and crying out to Him.
That was until early Monday morning while it was still dark, The Lord woke me up with the words, “Come away with Me, My beloved.” And I knew at that moment I would finally learn exactly what God’s will in this situation was. I grabbed my Bible off my nightstand and hurried to the sitting room where I usually met with the Lord in the morning. I got down on my knees and set my Bible, that was still closed, on the couch in front of me, and began to pray! I sat there confessing everything I could possible think of and then promised Him that I was, “not getting off my knees until I know in which way we are to go.” I sat silently listening, waiting ….. nothing. I was growing more and more frustrated by the minute!
I began to pray again and I promised Him, “I’m going to whip this Bible open, and I’m going to start reading wherever it lands and I’m going to keep on reading until I know in which way I am to go.” I whipped open the Bible and it opened to the book of Jeremiah. Chapter 42 was on the left-hand side of the page and since we read left to right, I thought chapter 42 was a good place to start!
Then all the army officers, including Johanan son of Kareah and Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest approached 2 Jeremiah the prophet and said to him, “Please hear our petition and pray to the Lord your God for this entire remnant. For as you now see, though we were once many, now only a few are left. 3 Pray that the Lord your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do.”4 “I have heard you,” replied Jeremiah the prophet. “I will certainly pray to the Lord your God as you have requested; I will tell you everything the Lord says and will keep nothing back from you.”
5 Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act in accordance with everything the Lord your God sends you to tell us. 6 Whether it is favorable or unfavorable, we will obey the Lord our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it will go well with us, for we will obey the Lord our God.”
My heart began to pound within my chest! "What if I don’t like the answer???" But I kept reading,
Ten days later the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. 8 So he called together Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers who were with him and all the people from the least to the greatest. 9 He said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition, says: 10 ‘If you stay in this land, I will build you up and not tear you down; I will plant you and not uproot you, for I have relented concerning the disaster I have inflicted on you. 11 Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you now fear. Do not be afraid of him, declares the Lord, for I am with you and will save you and deliver you from his hands. 12 I will show you compassion so that he will have compassion on you and restore you to your land.’
13 “However, if you say, ‘We will not stay in this land,’ and so disobey the Lord your God, 14 and if you say, ‘No, we will go and live in Egypt, where we will not see war or hear the trumpet or be hungry for bread,’ 15 then hear the word of the Lord, you remnant of Judah. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you are determined to go to Egypt and you do go to settle there, 16 then the sword you fear will overtake you there,
That was all I needed to hear! I grabbed my Bible and ran back in the bedroom, woke John up and read this to him. He then shared that a friend had brought up this same chapter the day before as they were shooting hoops. We both looked at one another and knew, we were to remain in this land.
The FedEx envelope arrived a few hours later and I signed for it, but we never opened it. It still sits unopened in John’s night stand drawer 19 years later. John called and told the company he wasn’t coming and for some reason they weren’t surprised. We called our real-estate agent and told her to take the house off the market and she admitted she hadn’t put the house on the market, for some reason she had a feeling we’d be staying.
What God did after that is absolutely AMAZING! I wish I had the time to share with you! Suffice it to say, when you are in the center of God’s will it is AWEsome! We were in absolute awe just being able to watch Him work over the next few years!
Unfortunately, the remnant of Judah hadn't listened to the words of Jeremiah then, but we are so thankful we did!
Now let me share the steps I learned to take when you’re desperate to know what God’s will is in a certain situation, for I want you all to experience the joys of being in the center of God's will!
1.
Confess any known sin in your life. 1
John 1:9a, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins." Confess your attitudes. Ask Him to reveal anything
that would prevent your channel of communication from being wide open
2. Surrender
your will. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your
ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the
earth, so are my ways higher than your
ways and
my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9) If you really want to know God’s
will, you need to set yours on the altar to be burned or given back.
3. Ask
trusting Him to answer: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let
him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given
him. But
let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave
of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.” –James 1:5-6
4.
Commit the decision to Christ. "Trust in the Lord with all
your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways
acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths." In other words,
don't try to figure it out by yourself! Look to God for your understanding of
what is going on, or what He wants you to do. (Proverbs 3:5-6). Then, “Commit your
way to the LORD; and trust Him to do it!"- Psalm 27:5
I can honestly say, He has never fail to answer and give me
exactly what I was seeking as soon as He knew my heart was right to receive all
He needed to tell me.