A guest blogger shares how God counseled him and his family from the couch of a pastor’s office to the mission field.
God has a plan for your life. But how do you know if you are on the course of His perfect will?
Ask any pastor, “When someone comes to your office, and sits in that comfortable couch across from your desk, what is the question most likely to be on their mind?”
Most often the answer is this: “How do I know God’s will for my life?”
There is a tension that sometimes trips us up. We trust that God has a plan for our life, but how do we know that we are walking in His perfect will? Does God still speak to His people and lead them with specific direction?
I have heard all the “right” counsel on the topic. Some people advise, “Just do something,” while others have said, “God’s will is always paved in green”—as in, whichever option makes the most sense financially is always God’s will.
Sometimes the counsel I have been given is contradictory, even when it is backed with Scripture. I have been faced with, “Brother, you need to tarry and wait” (Luke 24:49), as well as, “Brother, you just need to go” (Matthew 28:19).
The waters of this topic are teeming with nuggets of counsel—some of which are nuggets of gold, and others, like fool’s gold.
Over the next few weeks, I would like to share with you how the Lord has counseled me from the couch in the pastor’s office to the mission field. I hope that what He has done in the process of taking my family from a small town in North Carolina to the desert sands of Iraq, will both encourage you and equip you to take confident steps to follow the voice of our King.
As you seek God’s leading in your own life, keep these points in mind:
– Obedience is a fruit of humility, and God bends down low to “give grace to the humble” (James 4:6). Whatever His whisper contains—even if it is as simple and “unspiritual” as, “Open your Bible to the Psalms”—be obedient to it.
– The counsel of the Lord is for those who fear Him (Ps 25:14), and He leads His people with His loving eye upon them (Ps 32:8). He knows where He wants us to be, how He wants us to get there, and the perfect timing for whatever may come. The question is not, “Will God speak to me?” The
question is, “Will I wait in the stillness of uncertainty long enough to hear Him?
by Neil Broere
While living in Iraq in 2013, Neil and his wife Lindsey (and their 4 children) saw firsthand the wide open door for the Gospel in the Middle East. They are preparing to move back to Iraq to minister to Syrian refugees. Neil and his family are passionate to see the church in the Middle East restored, rebuilt, and replanted (Ezekiel 36). www.ironkiteinternational.com
Original article: www.frontiersusa.org/blog/article/from-couch-to-field-how-do-i-know-gods-will
