When the answer is "No"

In a world where facebook is about the number one source of communications and we no longer call people because its too easy to text them, it comes to no surprised that this post will have SOMETHING to do with the growing social network Twitter. I dont use my twitter account often but when i do its always a joy. Today i came across a retweet that came from RevRun. He said "All of your prayers are answered...just admit sometimes the answer is NO". Now i know that RevRun isn't exactly a preacher or an ordained pastor but he brings up a good point. God answers all of our prayers. Sometimes its just hard to listen with spiritual ears when he is saying "No" to us.

I have often prayed for things that i believed i needed. I have also come across times when i feel that something is essential to my spiritual life, and because its essential than God will say yes. I have found myself praying and praying day after day until God gives me what "i need" when He probably told me within the firstweek of praying that it was NOT what i needed and He will NOT give me something that may harm me.

Faith requires that we see with spiritual eyes and hear with spiritual ears. Are you listening to God's voice, or are you listening to the voice you have made up for God. Friends i can assure you that there is a difference between God's will in your eyes, and God's actual will.

I spoke with a friend yesterday and i came to this conclusion:
Just because you do something for God doesnt mean that that is your calling. Don't get me wrong, the bible is clear when it says that everything can be used to glorify God and our goal should be to do just that. But i challenge you with this. What about an usher that has been an usher for 40 years, because he was desperate for serving, yet failed to accept his missionary calling of starting over 20 churches in all of Asia. I kid you not, many people have lived serving in one area, which is great, but failed to complete God's calling for them. Why does this happen?

Sometimes we choose and sort the things God has called us to do. I wanted to be a graphic designer and use it to glorify God. There would have not been anything wrong with that except it wasn't God's calling for my life. There IS a difference between a passion and a calling. I can be good at art yet be called to worship ministry, which i am not unfortunatly. I can be a good guitar player yet be called to organize the ushers at a local church. We must discover God's PERFECT WILL for our lives as Romans 12 tells us. And sometimes when we ask God to allow us to go into one kind of ministry God may be calling us to another one. Sometimes the answer is "no". Don't make it a "yes" if God said "No". Chances are that IF you are answering God's calling, God will see you through it the whole way.

How do i find my calling? SCRIPTURE, PRAYER, FASTING, and most importantly LISTENING. God desires to speak to you. So talk to him. Then, dwell in silence. Dont pray to God and ask him for a response and then say amen, then get up and leave. Don't do that! Pray, ask, then be quiet and listen. Sometimes God doesnt answer because you dont let him speak. LISTEN, dwell in His silence, and be prepared if he responds with a "No".

Walking on Dry Land

As i am coming to the end of spring break i am learning more and more that God has left us the Holy Spirit to magnify Jesus Christ and minimize us. You see, the more of us in us the more likely we are to live against God's Will. Why is that? Well, for starters we aren't by nature God seeking until Christ lives in us. So I feel that if I am filled with my own human habits, i cannot live up to my full potential. It is only when i am filled with Christ that i will reach my full potential. I have come to an understanding that God has a deep desire to carry us through our trials.

When you read the Pentateuch, first five books of the bible, also known as the "Books Of the Law", you experience a God with the basic intention of Caring for His people. Though they do not respond to God's will, causing them to suffer a lot, He still keeps them out of harms way and delivers them from all enemies.

Exodus, which simply represents the Exit from Egypt or departure, is known mostly because of a miracle that God does when he opens the red sea, allowing the people of Israel to cross it without any harm.

God, being omnipotent and omnipresent, knew that the people of Israel would enter into 4 decades of sin, lack of trust, and disobedience however He still took them to the other side of the sea. I begin to wonder, why God does things like this. But i realize His spirit desires much more than what we do for Him. In other words, God hopes that we step out of our nature and into His nature. This can only happen when we truly live in His spirit and His spirit in us.

God took the people to the other side and in that same way He takes us places that we don't deserve. If you are like me you have probably prayed and asked God for peace and He has given it to you. If you are anything like me, you probably didnt deserve His peace but he gave it to you anyway. God continues to carry us across the sea but will we return the favor the same way the people of Israel did? I am convinced that many of us sometimes receive God's help, yet fail to acknowledge it in the long run and live as if we weren't grateful for His help.

The people of Israel were taken to the other side, yes! But God, when he saw that they did not serve Him and honor Him, made sure that they did not reach the next level, promise land, for 40 years. According to many theologians, this voyage was suppose to only take around 11 days but instead took 40 years.

God wants to take you to the next level, but sometimes you aren't ready and you elongate the time in which you accomplish His will. I strongly believe that all of you reading have been taken to the other side and have walked on dry land. What did you do after that? Have you been walking in circles in the wilderness for 40 years? Is it time that you return to God's original plan and not yours?

James 4:3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

Maybe you do not see God moving in your life as much anymore because you ask for things to happen in your life for your will and not His. God is ready to point you in the right direction. He is ready to rise up a Joshua in YOU. But its all up to you.

We sometimes fail to see God because we aren't looking at God, only an image of Him that we have created. The best way to know Him is to talk to Him. He has also left a 66 book love letter for YOU. Read it, talk to Him, experience Him.