“Where to next Lord?”
In my walk with the Lord, I’m always asking for directions, waiting for the red light to change green across the street of my journey; standing still for the next instruction of my destiny travels.
Because God has a plan for our lives.
A great plan of prosperity, of hope and a future already determined for us.
(Jeremiah 29:11)
But we dare not get ahead of Him.
We dare not take matters into our own hands.
We must trust Him in the waiting.
We must not succumb to discouragement in the silence?
For His sheep hear his voice and they know Him and follow when He speaks.
(John 10:27)
Because God will speak again, and may this moment find our lamps filled with oil in anticipation and ready to move in our next instruction.
Until then, we must stand still in the timing, be confident in the strategy, be excited in big picture God has already prepared and planned out for us.
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When my mother was still with us and comfortable in her Lazy Boy recliner, I recall like yesterday her enjoying a reality TV show called “Amazing Race.”
This show was a race full of teams following one instruction leading to another instruction, taking them all around the world and awarding a million dollar prize to the first successful team who crossed over the finish line.
The instructions were complex.
The instructions had to be followed exactly.
One instruction was a precursor to the next instruction.
There were no shortcuts.
There was no possible way to hurdle the finish line without every instruction completed.
The million dollar prize was waiting to see who would finish their
AMAZING RACE.
The Bible re-tells amazing races of instructions, keeping us gripped in the narration to see if these characters would follow the “next steps” which God had given them towards their destiny.
Abraham’s instruction went like this:
1The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. 2I will make you a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those you bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
Genesis 12:3 NIV
Abraham’s instruction required him to leave everything behind without knowing where God was sending him. But if Abraham trusted the instruction, God would make him a great nation where his name would be great and be a blessing.
Abraham followed the instruction.
David’s instruction went like this:
17Now Jesse said to his son David, “Take this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp. 16Take along these ten cheeses to the commander of their unit. See how your brothers are and bring back some assurance from them. 19They are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines.
1 Samuel 17:17-19 NIV
All David’s instruction required him to do was take a lunch to his brothers. How many times do we become annoyed by meaningless tasks, not realizing they are actually setups by God to test our obedience.
Little did David know the next step of his destiny was waiting in the slaying of Goliath.
So interesting how God had already prepared David’s confidence to meet the challenge with Goliath, when David had previously slain the lion and bear behind the scenes of his life.
(1 Samuel 17:36)
David followed God’s instruction.
Preacher and Author Dr. John Tetsola once quoted:
The instructions you are willing to obey
will determine the destiny God brings into your life.
In my own walk with the Lord, His instruction and Word for 2023 in my life is this:
BEHOLD, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
Isaiah 43:19 KJV
Towards the end of the year 2022 this “new thing” has become more evident and confirmed; but will I obey?
I confess “kicking and screaming”, and “digging my heals in the sand” to this next instruction, complaining in my inadequacies, “Not me!” But I know the amazing race of my life with come to a standstill and my destiny and His instructions waiting ahead hinges on my obedience.
Dr. John Tetsola’s words push me forward as I know they are from God,
The instructions you are willing to obey
will determine the destiny God brings into your life.
God is doing a thing in our lives.
He’s making a way in the wilderness…
Rivers in the desert…
Let us all obey the Word of the Lord.
