Before you can walk on water, you have to be “in” the boat!

Scripture Read: Judges 6:17-18: So Gideon said to Him, “If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who speak with me. “Please do not depart from here, until I come back to You, and bring out my offering and lay it before You.” And He said, “I will remain until you return.”

Application: : In all the years I have spent with You Lord, I have found that so many of Your children struggle with finding the direction You have for them in life. So many of us relate and struggle in the same way as Gideon, as he asks for “The Direction” God is leading him to. In the same way we may ask for “God’s direction”. Like Gideon we too, struggle with “faith”. Yet, we can find a key principle in discovering the answer to finding God’s direction for each one of us in the story of Gideon’s request.

 First, we need to be clear in our terms so we can determine what we are seeking. When we discuss God’s plan for our life, we should break in down into two terms.  His “will” and His “direction” ~ for our lives.

Scripture is clear that God’s “will” for life is universal. –  His “will” is that all should “know” Him and be saved. Anyone that is a child of God should offer themselves to God.  Everyone should be standing in His will. What is most important is that we should not even bother trying to find His direction until we know for sure we are standing in God’s will! Why should God give individual direction if a person is not willing to yield to His universal will?

Romans 12:1–2  Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Often we ask for God to lead using the term “will”, which is not wrong,  but I have found it helpful to use the word “direction” to help me better walk through this process and understand where I’m going. When I am in the “will” of God – that means I am not serving sin, I am serving Him, I am not thinking or living like the world, my mind is filled with His Word – then I can move in the direction I sense He is leading me to. This is so much healthier than playing games with God, like opening the Bible and dropping your finger on a passage hoping God will cause your finger to fall randomly to what He is trying speak to you. That is treating His Word like a fortune cookie! “Words of Knowledge”, circumstances that “seem” right, dreams, or seeking some sign you made up in your head are often judged correctly as silly and can be disastrous some times.

God’s direction, is personal for each individual. Only that person and God can confirm what is truly God’s desire for that individual. So, how can you “know”? Notice, even Gideon does that. The first thing he moves to do is to worship God. Isn’t that the universal desire God has stated for all His children? There is not one “child of God” this does not apply to. When we  ~ worship Him,  ~ offer all we are to God, ~ remaining in the Word (which will transform our way of thinking into God’s way of thinking), ~ ministering for Him, then we are ready for God to illuminate His “direction” to where His “desires” for our individual lives.

Just live close to God, be open for what ever He desires and you will here His voice…even if it is a whisper! Our Dad deeply desires to make us into the maximum of what we can be and to guide us to that place where we will experience the greatest peace and contentment. He could do that with a snap of His finger, but then we would lose the fruit, the growth in faith and all eternal investment. The reason God allows us to seek for His direction in our lives is for our benefit, not His! True, It delights His heart when we grow and experience His joy, but He is God. He needs nothing. His focus of love is so unselfish and we are the benefactors of it. Thanks Dad!

Meditation Questions: Are you living in everyway you can everything God has commanded us to live right now? If not, why? If you will not obey something God expects of all His children why would He show you something more specific to do? If a person won’t obey a general rule, what will they do with more specific rules? Isn’t possible that the best chance to know where God is leading is to follow what you already know first? Do you think God wants to guide you? What does your answer show you?