Moving Ahead of God

No one is better at convincing me I should do something than me. I could get it in my head that this is the direction I need to go and there would be very little that could convince me NOT to do something once I had made up my mind. That led to me buy things I did not need to impress people I did not know with money I did not have. The result was a debt that I am just climbing out of 16 years later.

Today when I’m going to spend money on anything other than normal day to day needs, I take it to the Lord, especially if it means we need to borrow money. That is what we did when we looked at expanding to 2 teams. We prayed about and discussed the possibility for well over a year. In His timing, the Lord opened the doors of opportunity for work, provided the right equipment and people to make the expansion possible. While we have incurred some debt in the process, the path to pay that off is clear and short. It requires one thing, discipline.

I’ve written before that not every good thing is a God thing, however every God thing is a good thing that ultimately has impact for the Kingdom. Patience is a virtue our society has little stomach for these days and is one of the reasons our culture is in such disarray. I have found if I am willing to wait for the Lord’s timing, the outcome will always be fruitful.

Blessings

Moving Ahead of God
TGIF Today God Is First Volume 2 by Os Hillman

“The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her” (Gen 16:2).

Have you ever felt that you were supposed to receive something from God but it just hasn’t materialized? You wait and wait until finally you decide that maybe God wants you to help out the situation. This is exactly what happened in the case of Abraham and Sarah.

God had promised them a son, but as years passed by they were still without a child. They took their eyes off the One who had made the promise and decided to take matters into their own hands. So, Abraham lay with Sarah’s maidservant, Hagar, and she bore a son, Ishmael (see Genesis 16). The son of promise, Isaac, came later through Sarah, just like God had promised. However, the modern day conflict between the Arabs and Israelis is the fruit of this act of disobedience that occurred centuries ago.

I recall a time when I launched a business enterprise only to fall on my face. It had all the hallmarks of a Godly venture, but I was premature and guilty of presumption instead of faith. The resulting financial losses are lasting reminders of a decision that was based on a horizontal choice instead of a vertical dependence that required patience until God said, “Go.”

The way to avoid making “Ishmael” decisions is to seek God fully on the matter in prayer, be in an accountable relationship with your spouse and close associates who know you well, and gain agreement through two or more people. The Bible says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”(Jer 17:9).

Whenever we want something strongly, it is a dangerous place because we no longer look at the matter objectively with a willingness to change our viewpoint. We have to approach a matter as being “dead” to the issue in order to fully see God’s perspective.