Echoes From the Campfire

[Don Adkisson]

      “More than one way to skin a skunk, but all ways is odoriferous.”

                    --Ernest Haycox  (Grim Canyon)

       "And He spoke a parable to them:  'Can the blind lead the blind?  Will they not both fall in the ditch?'"

                    --Luke 6:39 (NKJV)
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I would usually ask my Bible classes, "Who would like to know God's will for their lives?"  And most of the students would answer in the affirmative.  "Well, I've got good news for you," I would say.  "I know what it is."  I would then tell them that God's will for their lives at this point in their lives was to be in school.  "Groooan!"
     Very seldom does God show a person the plan for their life in advance.  Moses, for example, living in the house of Pharaoh could not have imagined that he would one day be leading millions through the desert to the Promised Land.  Or David, tending the sheep could not have seen that he would be king of Israel.  Or Daniel, living in Jerusalem was not shown that he would be captive and that God would use him mightily in Babylon.  Abraham was told to pick up and go.  Go where?
     Francis Chan puts it well, "I think a lot of us need to forget about God's will for my life.  God cares more about our response to His Spirit's leading today, in this moment, than about what we intend to do next year.  In fact, the decisions we make next year will be profoundly affected by the degree to which we submit to the Spirit right now, in today's decisions."  In other words, we are not to be concerned about God's will next year, but we need to commit to following Him today, and then the next day, and so on.
     Being raised in Pentecostal circles I have seen just about everything.  There are plenty of abuses when man tries to manipulate the Holy Spirit instead of letting the Spirit guide them into all truth.  I will say it here:  beware of personal prophecy.  Don't get caught into letting someone else, good intentions or otherwise, tell you what the Spirit wants for your life.  You should already know--He wants obedience to the Word of God.  There was an incident in my life when someone came and "prophesied" over me saying that I was to be a missionary to Japan.  The thought had never been in my mind, but later, several years later in fact, I found out that the person who spoke over me was a missionary to Japan.  He was trying to project his "calling" on me.  If you have someone do this, it should be in confirmation of what the Spirit is already speaking to you.
     Now, I don't reject the idea of God calling people into ministry, but that still does not show what His will is.  In fact, all of us are called to be a minister of the Lord, "living letters."  Oh, it may not be a pastor, but whatever we do we should do for the glory of God.  Paul, a persecutor of Christians, becomes one of the leading apostles writing much of the New Testament.  Did he know that when he was struck blind on the Damascus' road?
     God doesn't promise us a "twenty-year plan of action," in fact, we are not promised tomorrow.  What He does promise is that He will never leave us or forsake us.  (Chan)   Paul tells us, "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." (Galatians 5:25, NKJV)  If we walk in the Spirit won't we then know God's will?  Psalms 37 gives us some information regarding God's will for our lives.  David writes, in verse 5, "Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass." (NKJV)  As we commit our walk, as we trust in Him, His will is revealed.  Many misuse the previous verse (4); they will quote and claim, "He shall give you the desires of your heart (NKJV).  Hmmm, the heart is deceitful; the heart can have us make an emotional decision, one that is wrong and not in the will of God.  To claim that promise we must first obey the first part of the verse, "Delight yourself also in the LORD."  Then we add verse 5 to it and we are on our way to finding God's will.
     Later in that same psalm we have another clue as to God's will for us.  "The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, and He delights in his way." (23, NKJV)  Take a step--then understand you are in God's will.  "God wants us to listen to His Spirit on a daily basis, and even throughout the day, as difficult and stretching moments arise, and in the midst of the mundane." (Chan)  Part of knowing the will of God is to follow the words of Jesus, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me." (Luke 9:23, NKJV)

D.C. Adkisson