A Heavenly Strategic Planning Session

I have 2 significant phone meetings today with groups we’ve worked with for several years in our business. I am uncertain what will happen with either. I do know that what ever the decisions are they will have significant impact on our lives and those around us.

Sunday we got the opportunity to listen to Steven Furtick’s message ‘Closing the Loop’. You can find it on their YouTube page – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBcUOplDuuk In that message he used Joshua 24: 1-15 as the basis for the message. Verse 15 has always held significance for me since my return to the Fathers house. Joshua 24:15 “But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

There was one statement Furtick made during the message that resonated with me, “Sometimes you have to circle back to the past to understand how far God has brought you.” In an instant it transported my mind to the beginning of my relationship with Him and how He has guided us through every situation since that day of surrender on March 3rd 2001. I was reminded that He has never forsaken us, He has always provided and there is no reason for that to change. Sometimes the changes, the difficulties, the uncertainty are not about us, but about the people who’s lives we touch through His direction.

Today we have to decided what we will do regardless of the outcome of those conversations. I decide 16 years ago to follow His leading for my life, because no matter what, it is the perfect plan. Join us in prayer today, not for the outcome we would want, but for the one He wants…and that regardless of the decisions, we will praise Him and understand this is the path He has selected for us.

Blessings

A Heavenly Strategic Planning Session
by Os Hillman

“And the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?’ One suggested this, and another that. – 1 Kings 22:20

There are few times we get a glimpse of what goes on in Heaven. Here is one instance when the angels were conferring with the Lord about the judgment of King Ahab for his sin and who was going to set up Ahab for this judgment.

If God wanted to use you to impact your world for Jesus Christ, what circumstances would have to be created in order for you to respond to His call? Would prospering you materially encourage you to this end? Would a major change in what you are presently doing be necessary? What would your response be should God and the angels conclude that the only way to move you into a position of fulfilling God’s purposes was to remove some things that might be very dear to you? Would you agree with their plan if you knew this would be the only way you would achieve the purposes for which God made you? Hard questions, aren’t they?

This is the very thing God does in many who have been called for a special mission. Moses had to be stripped of his royal position in the family of Egypt and sit in the desert for 40 years. The apostle Paul had to be knocked off his horse, blinded, and receive a personal visitation from Jesus. The 12 disciples had to leave their jobs for three years to follow Christ. Imagine what kind of disruption this had on their lives. There are many examples of God bringing major upheaval in the lives of those He called for His purposes. Why?

The reason is that we do not seek God with a whole heart in times of prosperity and comfort. Prosperity and comfort tend to breed complacency and satisfaction. It is rare to find the man or woman who seeks God with a whole heart who does so simply from a grateful heart. We often must have pain or crisis to motivate us. Eventually, that crisis bridges us to a new calling, and we embrace that calling if we are open to the Holy Spirit’s work in us. We can actually thank God for the change that was required to get us to this place, but it is not without anguish of heart.

Would you be willing to sit in the strategic planning session for your life and agree with the plans God has for your life? Could you give God complete freedom to implement that plan, no matter the cost? Ask God to give you the grace and trust in His love for you to say “yes.”