God is beckoning

'Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward-to Jesus. I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back.
So let's keep focused on that goal, those of us who want everything God has for us. If any of you have something else in mind, something less than total commitment, God will clear your blurred vision-you'll see it yet! Now that we're on the right track, let's stay on it.'
Philippians 3:13-16 MSG

Where is 'God beckoning [you] onward-to Jesus' in your 'one thing' this week?

->

'We don't seek out a signpost in order to remain stuck beside it. Instead, we move on in the direction the sign is pointing. Where is God's Word pointing you today?' ~ WordLive 2011/08/24

A sign

When Joshua and the Israelites cross the Jordan River into Canaan, they are given a phenomenal sign:

Joshua 3:14-17
The Israelites packed up and left camp. The priests carrying the chest walked in front,  until they came to the Jordan River. The water in the river had risen over its banks, as it often does in springtime. But as soon as the feet of the priests touched the water,  the river stopped flowing, and the water started piling up at the town of Adam near Zarethan. No water flowed toward the Dead Sea, and the priests stood in the middle of the dry riverbed near Jericho while everyone else crossed over.  

There are times when God provides a clear sign to His people. Perhaps this has happened in your life. Perhaps it has happened as you have considered what it would mean for you to 'emerge'.

Sometimes, He doesn't. Even though we long for pink writing in the sky.

But if we are still, and we listen, if we invite His Holy Spirit to speak and mull over His Word and the things His people have said as we've shared our hearts with them; if we consider the things we are passionate about and the things we love to do, and those deep barely-whispered dreams of our hearts that God has planted there...watching as God connects the dots...we may find, after all, that sign.

Time

Have you given yourself enough time to think through it all and to listen to what God has to say about it?

A plan

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?
~ Mary Oliver

Come away with Me, come away.
It's never too late, it's never too late,
it's not too late for you.
I have a plan for you, I have a plan.
It's going to be wild,
it's going to be great,
it's going to be full of Me

Open up your heart and let Me in
~ Jesus Culture

I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out - plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. ~ Jer 29:11

 Is your plan His plan?

Journey into the unknown

God told Abram: "Leave your country, your family, and your father's home for a land that I will show you. Gen 12:1

Abram heads into the unknown in obedience to God. He speaks to Abram loud and clear, but He doesn't give him all the details.

Where?

How?

Abram's faithful obedience despite the unknown is a constant challenge to me, a person who likes to have all those sweet little yellow ducks nice and fluffy and lined up all in their straight row.

Why does he do it? He loves and trusts God. He is a friend of God.

In what area of your dreaming has God spoken loud and clear? Are you able to step out into that...because you love and trust Him?

'Letting God lead us where He wants us to go is daunting, but it changes the world. How ready would you be to answer God's radical call if it came now? Is anything holding you back?' www.wordlive.org

I'm giving You my dreams, laying down my rights
I'm giving up my pride, for the promise of new life
~ Surrender, Vineyard
I'd give it all up for you / Yes, I would
~ God

Road hump

'God's purpose may be clear to us. His plans, though, sometimes don't make a lot of sense.'

www.wordlive.org

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. "And My ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts. Isa 55:8-9

As I explored my dream and my list with God, I realised that there was at least one possible bump in this road. The physical 'bump' of another dream - starting a family. I wasn't sure how this would work with the dream or whether it would delay the dream.

Is there a potential bump in your road? Bring that to God now. Ask Him to show you that, no matter what happens, He is in complete control.

Delight

Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Ps 37:4 ESV
What does it mean for YOU to delight yourself in the Lord?



Keep company with God, get in on the best. Ps 37:4 MSG

Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart.Ps 37:4 AMP

Take delight in the LORD, and He will give you your heart’s desires. Ps 37:4 NLT

The Next Step

How did you get on with thinking about what fear is holding you back?
For me, I realised that my greatest fear was about provision. Ann Jackson had something to say about that, too:

'For some people, [chasing their dream] means working in a career they love. For others, it may mean working in a job they hate in order to provide for a while. Living your dream doesn't mean you turn it into a job, or even a source of income.' (emphasis mine)

'Your job is not your provision. God is, was and always has been. What's the next right step you can take?' (emphasis mine)

'I wrote down a list of everything that would need to happen.'

Personally, I feel that these lists need to be detailed and specific. Think Nehemiah. If you don't know the story, read it!

'The desire inside of you is a gift that you need to take care of, cultivate, and give back to the world. Don't let fear stop you.'

How about you? What does your list look like?

What's the next right step you can take?

Nike?

Anne Marie Miller's blog tends to ask a lot of relevant, awkward and searching questions that need to be asked. And need answers.

It seems as though there is one question around my own 'one thing' that God and I are still circling a little.

Anne said, 'Last week I asked what was keeping people from living their dream. Fear, by far, was the number one answer.' (emphasis mine).
She was speaking about a friend of hers that she had spoken to about his dream:

'...he jumped in head first into what he wanted to do. He wasn't sure how it was going to work out and it was terrifying not knowing what to expect. But day by day it's been okay.

'...and that's the thing about dreams. If you chase them, they will work out. It may not look anything like you imagined. You may hit some massive obstacles or circumstances that put you on a detour or even make you question if you have what it takes, but if you believe the Scripture is true, God will give you the desires He's placed in your heart. He will finish the work you are set out to do. It's not some out of control pipe dream. It's truth.'

What fear is holding you back?

Nike means - 'Just do it' in Japanese. Sometimes I want to put that Nike swish on our church pulpit.

Ask God what any fear might be. Deal with that fear with God. Just do it.

Take delight in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Ps 37:4

One Thing - 'How'?

Paul, in pursuit of the 'one thing' God had purposed for his life, used the method of communication that was available to him.

The questions that helped me with this were:
What methods of communication or 'working it out' are available to me?

Where are there opportunities for me to let people know the good news we have of who God is and how will I do this?

For myself, I felt that God was saying to use absolutely any means available to me at the time. I was astounded by sense of freedom and excitement that I felt at this idea. I believe that God's response to these questions for your life will fill you with joy and excitement at the possibilities, too!

In answering the question, it may be a good idea to brainstorm. Don't evaluate anything on the brainstorm sheet unless God tells you to remove it. Ask God to guide you and throw everything on that sheet that pops into your head. You are likely to be amazed at what comes up!

'What' One Thing

So I discovered that I already had my 'what', my 'one thing'. God speaks in so many different ways and I remembered - not the most emotionally moving - the most significant time that God spoke to me. At the time, although it seemed significant, it did not seem completely applicable to what was going on in my life. So I shelved it.

I remembered that, one day in church, in a row of empty seats, I heard a voice as though someone was sitting beside me in the chair next to me 'Feed my sheep'. That's all. No-one else heard it and it had nothing to do with the sermon.

I also remembered another phrase which Paul originally told Timothy 'Stay at your post, reading Scripture, giving counsel, teaching'. God spoke this phrase to me just as I was reading my devotional one day and somehow I just knew that it was important for me, so I wrote it down in my journal.

So perhaps you're not sure what your 'one thing' is - the 'what' of your purpose. I didn't know immediately. I looked back through my journals and I pondered it with God for some time.

There are no questions on the project this morning. It doesn't always happen suddenly. Don't worry about that. Keep pondering and talking to God about that.

I think He speaks to us so much more than we know. We just don't listen very well. Ask Him to show you how He has already spoken.

One Thing - Part 2

How did you get on with the questions yesterday? I found that I was surprised by how many dreams God had already fulfilled in my life. And I was shocked by my lack of gratitude for these. Some dreams were things I'd barely breathed for a lack of faith that I could ever be a part of them.

The apostle Paul was clear on what his one thing was. He had one vision.

'It has always been my ambition...' Romans 15:20

I started to ask God:

What is my life about?

What is my one thing?

It was helpful to discover that Paul also knew what was not his to do. What should be left to someone else.

I loved this quote: from The West Wing:

In one of the later episodes, Matt Santos – the party’s nominee for president – is concerned they are narrowing their focus too much. He says to his running mate, Leo, ‘It feels like we’re closing a lot of doors.’ Leo responds, ‘Good strategy always does’ (Series 7, Episode 9, ‘The Wedding’ by Josh Singer; original air date 11 December 2005, Warner Bros©).
A clear calling from God gives you confidence to do what you are uniquely gifted to do and leave alone the things you are not gifted to do.

When closing doors, be careful not to close a door that others may need to go through.

What are your ambitions?

What do you plan for, work towards or dream of?

What do you boast about in the quiet of your heart?

'I glory in Christ Jesus... in my service to God... I have spoken and acted through the power of the Spirit. It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel.' ~ Paul

Ref: www.wordlive.org

One thing

Nothing special happened first thing on August 9th to alert me to the fact that God was going to start speaking to me in a heart-stopping kind of way.

August 9th in South Africa is National Women's Day. I don't know if that ties in at all. This story is a little like a jig saw puzzle and sometimes a piece that you picked up right at the beginning only fits in at the end.

So I said 'heart-stopping'. It wasn't an audible voice from heaven that others heard and it wasn't pink and purple writing in the sky. But my heart skipped a beat. Or four.

For years, I have been asking God for something. And this is how it goes...it's a piece of a song:

One thing I would ask of You
This would I pray
To dwell in Your house, O Lord
Everyday
To gaze upon Your lovely face
And rest in the Father's embrace
(Stuart Townend)

The song is based on Psalm 27, which is where my original request came out of:

Psalm 27:4
One thing I ask from the Lord,
this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
and to seek him in his temple.

For me, this has always meant being able to be in ministry full time. And this was the deepest dream of my heart, a call that came when I was 18 years old. The opportunity came but I didn't trust God enough to pursue it past the first major obstacle. I started singing this often, asking for a second chance to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. I'm twice that age now, and so...the skipping heart.

As I opened my online devotion for the day, the title was One Thing. And I just knew something amazing was beginning.

Some questions came out of the devotional and I found them helpful and challenging. How would you answer these?

What things can I be sure God has called me to?

Which dreams have already been realised?

Which dreams remain to be fulfilled?

Although it seemed that my dream was impossible or was never God's intention, I knew that I was in a time of change and He was bringing this up now...He had something up His sleeve! And it wasn't His arm.

Are you in a time for change?

What are those impossible dreams of your heart? The ones you barely dare whisper to yourself in the dark?

Perhaps God wants you to hold onto those dreams. Perhaps He wants you to take those dreams to Him and ask Him about them. Again.

Emerge

Some time back, God started speaking to me about emerging. It was pretty exciting stuff, and at first, I thought it was just for me. Then I thought it was probably a bit bigger than this - perhaps it stretched to The Vine, a community church that God called my husband, Mark, and I to plant. So I talked to them about it, too. But, as I started sharing my excitement about it with others, I realised that God had shown me a period in time when many of His children were invited to emerge. And some had already emerged and were flying free!

So what's that all about?

I believe that the emerging is about God beginning to invite us into the adventure of a lifetime - the fulfilment of the deepest desire of our hearts - those hopes and dreams that He planted there from the very beginning. I believe that, if we choose to (this is an invitation, not an order), we can take those hopes and dreams to God and He will begin to bring them to fruition.

The Emerge Project is my - as yet incomplete - emerging story. My hope, dream, desire and prayer is that it will help you, too, to choose to emerge at this beginning of a new year.