Active listening is a spiritual necessity...not a talent.

When I first recommitted my life to God after years of wandering aimlessly through life, I struggled trying to find His will for me. Don't mistake what I just said in any way to reflect on God's ability to effectively communicate said will...the problem was all on the receiving end.

God had been continuously communicating with me even through my dark pilgrimage, but I had forgotten how to listen. Still, I was fired up with motivation to amend for lost time serving my Father, and I got busy doing instead of praying for direction. Goes back to last week and my post on longing for the spiritual gift of message of wisdom.

There's a lot of  useful insight to the idiom about spinning your wheels in one place. Sure, you can exert a tremendous amount of effort and energy, but you still don't really get anywhere. The word go appears almost 1500 times in the King James version Bible. Now, I don't want to come across Yoda-like, but go obviously is inferring both movement (action) and purpose (direction). I don't know how many times the word try appears in God's word, but I can't think of a single verse off the top of my head.

So does that mean God won't bless us for trying? Well that's not really the point here. We can easily get what purpose God intends for each of us by first asking then taking the time to listen. Keep in mind, the latter part is on His schedule...not ours.

Back to my situation. I was doing a lot to try to serve the Lord, but I'm not sure how effective I was in doing so. More importantly, I don't think I was doing what He was intending for me. As I prayed and studied, I kept coming back to the point where my own spiritual wheels had come off. I was in college when it mostly began. Not a stretch because statistics show seventy percent of young people leave church around that age.

Finally I realized what God was impressing on my heart. Talk to young people about your plight. My pastor said in his sermon a few weeks back that everyone should  feel comfortable telling their own personal story about what God had done in their life. After all, nobody knows the subject matter any better. Right?

Makes a ton of sense now. So , I set out with the purpose of preventing as many young people as possible from being in the majority of aforementioned statistic. Finally, a peace fell over me. Not the you have done well my child kind of peace. No. More along the wow you finally got what I want you to do kind of peace.

Could God change my spiritual destiny? Of course He could. But as long as I feel His hand upon my efforts, I will stay on this path. I humbly pray daily that any and all glory coming from the process be reflected upon him...

If you haven't already, I encourage you to seek your spiritual path too. When you see the destiny God has set in motion for your life if you are just obedient to His will...your excessively high electric bill from last month takes on a complete different perspective. That goes for a lot of other things too.