Following His Direction Not Necessarily Ours

Following His Direction Not Necessarily Ours 

May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ. 2 THESSALONIANS 3:5 

The nineteenth century was the period of westward expansion as wagon trains rolled across the Great Plains toward California. By the 1850s, some of the most sought-after people in America were the frontier scouts. Men like Kit Carson and Jim Bridger, who had spent years exploring the western regions, were hired to lead the pioneers safely to their destination. They alone knew the dangers and how to avoid them. They couldn’t move the Rocky Mountains, but they knew the way through them. When the apostle Paul prayed that God would “direct” believers, he was praying that God would go before them and remove the obstacles in their way—the literal meaning of the word direct. God doesn’t just point and say, “Go there.” Like a frontier scout, He leads the way and removes the obstacles and dangers that would keep us from growing in maturity in Christ. But be careful if you pray Paul’s prayer! What you count as a possession—a relationship, a material idol, a secret sin—God may see as a problem and remove it. Life is filled with obstacles to maturity. Only God can remove them, helping us grow up before we grow old. - Dr. David Jeremiah Morning and Evening 

In the last five or six years God has done some amazing surgeries in me. 

In places in Scripture we read of Jesus being the Potter and we are the clay. All too often we can be noisy clay. Constantly asking Him "But why?" when He institutes a change in our lives that certainly doesn't appear to be anything we were thinking or had asked for. 

I know that I am among the noisy clay. I have often asked many questions about why this or why that.  If you have met me in real life you already know that I like to learn things or about things. Sometimes it's gotten me in trouble. 

The hardest things are Jesus’s methods to answer both my prayers and to follow His own word to be His workmanship. We must realize that the part of being His workmanship comes first. 

There's times when we are only in certain circumstances for a season. Either due to His knowledge that we aren't ready for the next step or due to our obstinate behavior at resisting that which He says has to happen. 

Be assured every obstacle that stands in the way of completing His work in your life will be touched, and likely removed. 

The Christian life is never a problem. It's our resisting the Spirit of God that becomes the problem.  

I have honestly hated some of the changes that have happened in my life, but I have my trust in God to lean on when those things don't make sense. 

To understand why drives me more often than not when faced with questions. It really drives me to distraction more than people realize. I can totally zone out in a crowd when my mind is still preoccupied with a problem. 

What I have learned about my physical body in the last 4 to 5 months bothers me greatly. It's a perplexing thing. It drives me to ask God why. To learn that much of what I loved to eat is truly causing much of my health problems is horrible. I have been learning to adapt but it's a hard struggle.  It's likely due to His directing my steps. I never realized the things that I am learning about me. I never realized the soft excuses that I have used concerning food nor was I ever hearing it in others.  The "I just can't do that" line. Well I couldn't either until Jesus put it before me in such a way that choice wasn't an option. I had never considered how hard it would be until that came upon me.  I am getting used to it but that's OK. In Heaven I plan on making up for what I can't eat now. 

That's just one example.

Habits we have in this life are also a hard hit area in the work of Christ Jesus in us.

We really don't get it that we, in our excuses and reasoning, hinder the work of God in our lives. We want the benefit of the result but don't want to go through what it takes to get there.

The Spiritual reality is this: we were bought with a price. We are to honor that with a Godly life. To be Holy as He is Holy. 

If there are things in our lives that get in the way of His directing our lives...they will be revealed and removed. 

When we answered that door, invited Jesus to come in and be Lord of our lives, there's things that did and didn't happen. 

One is He didn't come in and only sit in the foyer of our heart. He didn't even come in and only sit in the family room or living room. He didn't come in and go to a room all His own. 

Two is He didn't come in to be silent. He came in with words to speak. 

Three is He came in knowing there was work to be done. He came in with the knowledge of everything about you and I. The option of opening each door to each room of our hearts is ours until such a time as it conflicts with that work He is doing in us.  Then there's two options. Either we willingly hand Him that key or He busts down the door. We made Him Lord of us, not a cohabitor of our hearts. Scripture is clear that that work WILL be done. If we constantly resist that work, we risk quenching the Spirit. We risk being taken from this world. One way or another His work WILL be accomplished in us.

Being willing to trust Him is where we are at. We can easily be a misguided people. I know that I can be.  I can jump the gun as fast as anyone. Rush in where I wasn't ready. Then Jesus has to now rescue me and start some things all over again. 

Something to note is this: sometimes we ask things in prayer not realizing what that will do to us.  

Jacob, while his brother Esau was yet still far off prayed a prayer about his brother. The answer changed Jacob as well as his brother.  

To get an answer to prayer, about something in your life, might just take you through things that won't be easy. 

Jesus has been removing many things from my life that are incompatible with both my prayer requests and His work in me. 

Before you think about being upset with your life or are angry about situations, really consider that it could be that He is working in you and it's going to hurt for a while. The promise is that He is there every step of the way.