Invitations

As a young Christian I was constantly thinking about and worrying about “What is the will of God for my life?” It seemed that I constantly wrestled with such questions as “What city does He want me in?” “What ministry does He want me to do?” I wanted to serve Him so desperately. I wanted to be used by Him terribly. I wanted to make a difference in the world. And it seemed to me that knowing the will of God was a mysterious, mirky, uncertain business. Today, I know better and it is a great delight to my life that I have figured out how to consistently discern the will of God for my life. God doesn’t play shell games with us. He doesn’t have a mission for our life and then spend the rest of our life trying to hide that mission from us. He has a mission for our life and He wants us to know what it is and to accomplish it more than we could possibly imagine. As Mark Batterson says, “God wants you to get where God wants you to go more than you want to get where God wants you to go.” Matthew Barnett says, “God wants you to know your cause. He does not play games. Because He loves you more than you can understand, He is not going to make the discovery of your cause a tug-of-war in which He simply messes with your head. He designed that cause specifically for you because He knows it will deliver tremendous joy and fulfillment.”

Of course, sometimes God speaks directly to us in dreams, visions, or other ways but I have generally observed that He more often speaks in that still small voice. So quickly, here are the steps God has taught me for discerning His will in my life. I learned these by experience and then God has confirmed them through others over and over again and I will quote some of them. I specifically want to focus on the last one, Invitations. This is not a formula but the steps that I know God uses in my life to get me where He wants me to go.

1. Pursuing God. God’s will is not something He wants you to run off and do without Him. The first part of God’s will for every Christian is to know Him deeply and love Him deeply and stay in His presence. It’s only when I am pursuing God Himself that I can have any chance of knowing what He wants me to do.

2. Absolute Surrender. God’s will is GOD’S will not my will. The Lord’s prayer is hallowed be THY name not hallowed be MY name, THY kingdom come not MY kingdom come, THY will be done on earth as it is in heaven not MY will be done. If I want to be used of God I must be completely surrendered. I must lay my self on the altar and say, “Lord, use me how you want. You decide how my life can best bring You glory.” If it is suffering, sickness, prison, death, or advancement and prosperity, I submit to You Sovereign Lord. When God knows that I will do whatever He tells me without hesitation then He will clearly show me what He wants me to do. Matthew Barnett says, “So how do you find out what your cause is? From experience – mine and others’ – I’d argue that the first step is to surrender your will to God.”

3. Passion. God begins to lead us into the specific areas of service that He wants us in by desire. This was a wonderful revelation to me. When I realized that God put this unquenchable passion in me to know, love, and serve Him, I remember leaping for joy. I was studying 1 Timothy 3 regarding the qualifications for pastors and it hit me that the first qualification was desire! It says, “This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a pastor, he desireth a good work.” When I realized that the call of God starts with desire/passion my whole life changed.  Matthew Barnett says it so well, “In my life, God speaks through passion and circumstances. In other words, He instills a sense of desire and urgency within me. I have a passion to accomplish certain dreams. Because those dreams are not the normal human impulses, especially in today’s self-indulgent culture, I believe those are God-inspired passions.” For example, I have seen God take the passion He put in me as a little boy to be a good father when I grew up and to be the leader of a family that would love God and impact the world for generations to come and expand that original passion beyond just my blood descendants to encompass the orphans of the world. Amazing.

4. Invitations/Circumstances. The final way I, and others, have found that God directs us to His mission for our lives is through invitations to become involved in what He is already doing in the world. It has been one of the greatest joys of my life that as I am pursuing God and loving Him and that relationship begins to spill and splash on to others around me that invitations begin to come in from people to “come over and help us” (Acts 16:9) Most of the greatest blessings in my life have come from an invitation that I said yes to. Our involvement in evangelism, youth ministry, church planting, conference speaking, authoring a book, Tres Dias, adopting our precious daughter Mercy, our ministry in Colombia, our wonderful church that we now attend, and many other blessings all started with an invitation that lined up with a passion God had already stirred in our hearts. Matthew Barnett again says it so well, “If you’re serious about knowing God’s chosen cause for you, think carefully before you turn down invitations to help somebody you know engage in some type of service activity, no matter how big or small it might be. That invitation might be the beginning of the adventure that identifies the means to filling the hole in your heart.” Wow! I love that and have proven it in my own life.

So, all that being said, as I begin to think about the year ahead and what God wants for my life in 2012 I realize that God is drawing me to Himself and His presence more powerfully than ever before, I am less afraid to lay it all down on the altar for Him than I have ever been, there is a terrible burning passion in me and in my family to be involved in what God is doing in the nations, and I currently have invitations from people that I love and admire to come and preach/minister with them next year in Colombia, Mexico, Zambia, Liberia, Rwanda, Nepal, & India. I am humbled and amazed at the way God is moving in my life and I can’t wait to see where He leads.