A friend told me a story about two enthusiastic fellows. One said to his buddy, “God told me to run into that brick wall. Stand back. Don’t try to stop me!”

So he backed up so that he could gather velocity, and rushed forward with lightning quickness. He crashed into the wall at full speed and fell back in a crumpled heap. His friend ran to him and heard the sufferer whispering. “God spoke to me again.”

“What did He say?”

“He said not to do that any more.”

We’ve all heard a lot of silliness about hearing God’s voice and knowing His will for our lives. But just because some people are goofy or manipulative, it doesn’t change the fact that God does speak to us and He does call us to do things.

Not just pastors, either.

You’re no accident. God placed you on earth purposely. You here for a job that no one else can accomplish. It’s important that you get on with the task. Here are three things that God wants you to know about your life:

God’s calls

There are different expressions of that call, different ways we come to know what our purpose in life is. Sometimes it comes by “lightning bolts” and sometimes by still, small voices. It may express itself in a heart that gets mad at injustice (Moses seeing the Egyptian beating one of his people) or just simply a match-up between your gifts and the job at hand.

A calling stands the test of time. David Wilkerson once compared it to the burning bush”it just keeps burning and won’t burn out. At times it seems stronger, at times weaker but it stays. It’s not the emotion of a moment.

“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.” (Jeremiah 29:11, The Message)

God’s timing”

When I was in college, I was preparing to be a journalist but I kept sensing that God might be calling me to His ministry. Between my sophomore and junior years of college, I really sought God for direction.

If He had said, “Preach!” I would have left my college and went to Bible College. But, God was strangely un-talkative that summer. So, I went back to the college where I had been for two years”and met the young lady that God had planned for my wife.

Later, He spoke about the ministry. But, for what He had planned for me, I needed to go back to that college (and meet that girl!)

God’s timing is as important as God’s calling. Don’t try to force things. And don’t wait forever saying, “Well, it’s not God’s time yet!” Wanting God’s will forces us to seek Him, and that’s good. No, that’s EXCELLENT.

And while you’re waiting start preparing yourself. What would you do if someone said to you, “I’m going to be a surgeon. Lie down here and let me operate on your heart!” You’d run as fast as you could, wouldn’t you?

Often God touches our heart but He doesn’t open a lot of doors at first because we need to get ready.

Then, there’s God’s heart”

You can do the will of God without the heart of God. Jonah did. You can’t find a more sour evangelist than him but stewing awhile in a big fish’s belly helped him to see that God’s will is to be obeyed whether we want to or not.

Paul talks about this:

“For when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me.” (1 Cor. 9:16, 17, NIV).

But, doing God’s will and staying attached to His heart, even when it’s tough, can change us. Moses started as an unwilling employee. His motto? “Send Aaron!”

At some point it became his enterprise as much as God’s. Moses would say to God, “Your people” and God would say to Moses “your people that you brought out of Egypt.”

Maybe that wasn’t just a hot potato issue between them in that neither God nor Moses wanted to own up to the fact that they were associated with that ornery bunch. Just maybe it was a statement of “joint-ownership,” ownership of the call and the work among the people.

I’d say that at this point you become more than an employee–a willing or unwilling employee–and you become part owner of the business.

Do you know why you’re here on earth? You can know. You better know.

_______________________________

Hummm…

“Missions is the overflow of our delight in God because missions is the overflow of God’s delight in being God.” –John Piper

A friend who is an air traffic controller told me a story he’d heard.

It seems that two Brazilian pilots had to fly the day of a super-important soccer match. No problem. They took off with their passengers, leveled out and got their coordinates.
In those days, it seems you could still get regular radio channels on the airplane’s radio, so after setting their course, they tuned out the control tower and tuned in the match.

Hours passed as they played the match with the players from their perch high above the world. After the game they turned the radio back on to check in.  A little problem presented itself though. When they had locked in their original coordinates they had made a mistake.

They now found themselves flying high over the Amazon jungle, hours from the nearest airport and with not enough fuel to reach a place to land. According to the story, the black box fished from the crash site contained prayers and all sorts of heart-rending voices.

Whether this story is true or only an air-traffic controllers legend, it’s something to think about.

Lots of us get busy in life, running after things we like to do or just making a living. We turn our “radio” off and just listen to voices that please us or challenge us in a direction we want to go.

God tries to break through, but we’ve turned his channel off. Oh, we give Him lip service, but truth is, we don’t listen too closely. We’re afraid He’ll tell us to make a course change we don’t want to make.

Let’s be sure that we don’t finally turn the “control-tower radio” back on and find ourselves irremediably lost.

“If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you.

“But since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand, since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke,

“I in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock when calamity overtakes you-when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you.

“Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me. Since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the LORD, since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke, they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes.” (Prov. 1:23-31, NIV)

Ummm, my friend. If you life if full of noise and things that help you forget, can I make a suggestion? You might want to turn your radio to the “air-traffic control” frequency. Someone is trying to call you before it’s too late!
_______________

Hmmm…

– Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me, I want people to know “why” I look this way. I’ve traveled a long way and some of the roads weren’t paved.

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Poor Mee sank heavily into the covers and closed his eyes.

He slowly drifted into the fog and then found himself walking along a rainbow-lighted path. All around birds, trees and mountains sang praise but after his initial wonder he progressed, looking at his feet instead of the beauty around him.

Suddenly a strong smell of expensive cologne caught his attention. There slightly off the path stood Rocky Handsome, curly hair teased by the wind, blue eyes shining and bright teeth sparkling. Poor scowled and continued. “I’ve always wanted to be good looking but God just gave me a plain face!” he groused.

He advanced through the woods awhile and finally came to a clearing where an industrious man shined a Porsche Carrera GT . Poor stopped and looked longingly at the car, then at the man. “I always wanted to be rich, but I just get by,” he said to himself.

Later, he passed a leader much admired by his comrades. “I always wanted to be someone special but God never put me in front so that I could make important decisions.”

It was a nice walk through the forest that day, but Poor Mee saw nothing except those who were living his dream, what he had wanted to live. He missed the flowers because he was constantly growling about his lot in life.

At the end of the day, his path led out of the forest but suddenly a shining man blocked the way. “Oh, Lord, I’ve come to you!” Poor Mee exalted. Then his face clouded. “Lord, all these people you blessed so. I wanted to be blessed like them. I wanted to be handsome and have plenty of money. I wanted to be the leader and I wanted to have exceptional talent. You didn’t give me any of that.”

Suddenly the light of the shining man’s visage dimmed enough that Poor Mee could see his features. Tears streamed down the wonderful face!

“I made you as you are my son! I needed someone in the world exactly like you and you passed your whole life wanting to be someone else, somewhere else and something else. So many people suffered because you refused to play the role I created you for. Why couldn’t you just have been the “you” I needed?”

Poor Mee fell to the ground at his feet …

And awoke, buried in his blankets, tears streaming down his face too.

God’s Spirit says,

“Before I shaped you in the womb, I knew all about you. Before you saw the light of day, I had holy plans for you …” (Message)

Once when I taught in a Bible School, frustration stabbed my heart as I heard stories of great young people who had had parents who treated them like dirt. I even preached in the chapel (and you’ll pardon my bluntness, I hope), “Some parents should have been sterilized before they got married. They don’t deserve children.”

But, I don’t believe that anymore. Far from it. How the world has been blessed by hurt people who let God heal them and make them into a blessing to others. They are often the best healers because they know what hurting is like and they’ve found the One who heals.

They don’t complain about their lot in life. They just do what God put them here to do.

So, you’re mad because you’re not what you want to be, doing what you want to do? Others are prettier, smarter, have more talent or at least have better political connections?

Who cares?

God says to you, “You’re no accident. I know you. I created you and planned you. Be all I can make you to be right where you are.”

You have a role to play specially crafted by God. He needs you to fill that place to the best of your abilities augmented by His power and ability.

Quit pouting, get to working.

________________________

Hummm…
(A few things to chew on from the missionary conference I attended last week). (Leaders) “Stop asking people to help you. It’s not about you … if people are free to fail, they will succeed … every church, to be effective must reinvent itself every three to five years … force people to ask the right questions instead of giving them the answer.” Ron McManess.
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