You Are Here --> X

"Can anyone hide in secret places
so that I cannot see him?"
declares the LORD.
"Do not I fill heaven and earth?"
declares the LORD." ~Jeremiah 23:24

I have been speaking with elderly gentleman that has been disclosing pieces of his life to me little by little as I gain his trust. Today he asked me, "how can you know God's will for you?" There was a gleam in his eye and I knew he was serious but as is often the case with his questions like this...there is a catch. So I took the bait. What follows is the main gist of my conversation with him.

It is quite often the case that when we are doing what is required of us by the Lord we may not hear from Him during that time and we then discover that we are now in the middle or a period where we will either need to pray harder, rely on the faith already bestowed or both. We go through a dry season, like walking without paying attention to your surroundings and before you know it you are standing in the middle of what appears to be desert. Our meddle is being tested to see if we are ready for the next phase of tempering to harden us against evil and things that will steer us off route.

Many of us will go off track so to speak in this phase and it is often this phase that most accurately shows us our distinct location or "You Are Here" "X" marks the spot moment. We can most accurately tell what His will is for us when we are not doing it or doing something wrong since He will inevitably straighten us out, chastise us or punish us for our unrepentant transgressions. We may go rogue for a season but it will not last indefinitely for a just God will not tolerate us being idiots forever.

An easier way to gain our bearings in these dry seasons is to go back to the place we last were in His presence or He was in ours. We need to back track...or should I say go back to where we jumped the track. Where we derailed. Where the train of sanctification hit a snag in the rails and sent us barreling headlong to disarray. Whatever derailed us was nearly unforeseeable since we were moving at a clip and we probably did not even recognize that we had lost contact with God until we started to skid sideways or tumble away from the path/track laid out for us to follow. In these situations we need to be careful not to do ourselves more harm then we need to and also not to endanger or "take someone else out" in the wreck. We should try to recover as we are loosing control and right the skidding train. Throttle down and slow our progress until we know for sure what happened so not to repeat the problem. Too often people get into these situations, recover and do not bother to learn from the near disastrous outcome. We should thank our Father in heaven that He is first in foremost, forgiving as we will occasionally derail. Second we should be thankful he is merciful and full of grace.

We need to know that we have gotten off track. If we do not figure it out God is attentive and will send us subtle or not so subtle hints. Even if it means laying us over completely on our side and stopping us dead in our tracks so that we take stock of where we went wrong. No matter where we are at when we get off track God knows where to find us and he knows how to fix our problem. Trust me on this one, God has done this to me a few times in my life. Not only does He want you to know you did wrong, many times He wants you to know what you did wrong also. A few of these were extremely painful and left me standing around the wreck called "my life" scratching my head wondering what went wrong and where I went wrong. Sometimes the only thing that gets between us and the successful resolution is us. If we turn it over to Him and stay out of His way to allow his plans to unfold in His time I believe we will find that the ride becomes smoother and less prone to going off the rails. Sanctification is a process and being such we cannot jump ahead and skip parts we must follow a linear path. As we know from life many journeys are fraught with obstacles and dangers and we are well advised to avoid them where possible. Where we cannot we must face them head-on by God's grace we learn and get through them. We must learn if we are to move ahead in the process of growing in holiness. These dangers and obstacles are not place in the path just to be annoying. They are often their to test or teach us something. What obstacles have you overcome recently?

If God has something her wants you to do you can be assured that eventually you'll probably be getting around to it in due time. If you are rogue He will pull you back into alignment with His perfect will eventually. Ultimately, He is a patient God and a loving One and this will be reflected in the fact that when he does bring you back into alignment it will not kill you and you will benefit from it in the long run. Perhaps not now in this life but assuredly all things work out for the good of those who love Him.

"In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. " Ephesians 1:11-14

All aboard for those departing for glorification. Arrival Time: Eternity