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.

What's next?

When Dave shared the topic for this week I felt stumped because, in terms of the specifics, I have no idea what's next for me. Of course I know that I'll always be called to be a wife to my husband John and a mother to my sons; that will always be a huge part of my what's next.

A big part of why I'm stumped is because I've encountered some challenging situations these last couple of years. Situations that have felt like I've had the proverbial rug pulled out from under me.

I lost a career job and felt like I'd kind of lost my place in the world. As I've shared before, I've applied and applied and applied for a job, and participated in some interviews, only to meet rejection after rejection. I'm currently working in a situation that makes less than half of what I used to make and that's something I did back when I was pregnant with my now 16 year old son. Yet, there is always a bright side; I do feel like I get the opportunity to serve in this position. They repeatedly let me know how happy they are with me at this job. So my stance is that I'm trying to seek God and do my very best where I'm at, while I continue to be out there researching and applying for jobs. I'm seeking God about this whole thing, while trying to ensure that I'm doing my part so to speak.

A couple of years ago I started a small Bible study group in my home that has never grown past 4 participants. I guess that could seem like a lack of success. But I will say that we've all become close and been there for each other through a lot of really tough life experiences. For myself, I greatly treasure the experience of going through life together with these women of like faith. Yet, even though I love my local church, it's not perfect. One of the things I'm uncomfortable with is the emphasis on numbers; and of course that emphasis on numbers emphasizes my "failure" with this small group. It can also feel sort of bad because sometimes I'll be all ready and all of the participants in this group will call at close to the last minute and cancel. My kids look at me like I'm nuts; I got the house ready and drinks out and a fire in the fireplace and no one is here. I tell them that I'll just take awhile and pray for the ladies in the group; that who shows up to a certain extent is up to God, not me. I sure hope I'm at least modeling faithfulness for my sons.

I've also shared before that one of my three sons is not seeking after God. While he has not denounced his faith and will freely say he is a Christian, and because of this stance, will follow some moral guidelines, he's not seeking after God. Instead he's pursing the pleasures of the world; popularity and partying, having a good time. I continue to seek God's wisdom daily and earnestly for how to best deal with him. God's put His faith and assurance into my heart that this son will wake up and return to Him; I just pray that this happens SOON.

The point I'm trying to make by telling you so much about my challenges this year, is that the things by which I would have measured success in the past, are not present in my life right now. Right now seems to be a season in my life of waiting on God. Of trying to learn to be with Him in all situations and have my contentment come from Him alone.

So, as to what's next, I've no idea. But I do know that God loves me and has a plan for my life. I do know that I can look to Him each day, and look for doors He's opening in that day for me to share His love with others - and then step out.

Personal Destiny

Change is inevitable in life. Interestingly it often comes slowly, however; there are those events that change our lives in an instant.

This week we'll be talking about where or how we think God is leading us, what our personal vision is. Obtaining a God-given destiny is not a competition, but the fulfillment of His personal promise to each one of us.

For those of us that are middle-aged or older, we have enough history to look back and see God at work in the different seasons of our lives. That length of experience can be good, or it an actually cause us to be jaded about life. Think about the woman who had the issue of blood (Matthew 9:20) or the man born blind (John 9:1). God changed their life in an instant. Even the twelve were going along in life and then Jesus showed up; it was radical.

Conversely, there are Bible characters that spent years after an encounter with God, seemingly doing nothing; like Moses for example. Even Paul spent years in Arabia after his conversion (Galatians 1) before the big stuff started happening.

For those of you who are regular readers of Kingdom Bloggers or Fire & Grace, you know that I have struggled with this very concept. As Christians, I believe that we all do. I have heard the following verse preached many times; especially as part of corporate church visions.

Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keeps the law, happy is he.


As I was teaching my class a few weeks ago, I realized that not only had I given up on desiring spiritual gifts, and in fact, even using the ones I already had, but worse, I did not have a personal vision. It was a meditative ride home to say the least. Alone with my own thoughts, soft instrumental music playing, I thought about all the failures. Why is it that I continue to forget my own redemption and that the mind is the battleground of the Devil?

I am what God has made me, and He's pretty happy with the results - snap out of it David!

I decided to start to pray and meditate on my own destiny. In fact that is how my new book came about. I had to remind myself of the ways in which God touched my life in so many different ways over the decades. I needed to remind myself of what I am no longer because I have experienced Jesus - the real Jesus!

My personal vision is to be there for my family, and I pray for them twice each day. I am part of a local church body, and I pray an hour or so each week about how I can serve them (not what they can do or me). I have decided that he destiny that God is creating here, will in fact be different from all the rest because I have a promise. (I have had it all along.) Regardless of what life looks like, God is on my team, and there is work to be done before I achieve glory.

I used to think that there was some grand plan that I needed to figure out in life, but there isn't. Sure, God has spoken certain goals for my life through prophetic people, but that is not the plan, nor the vision. Who among us that has been saved for 10+ years doesn't have some sort of idea where God would like to use us?

The answer to David's destiny, is this:

John 5:19 Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.


As a son of the Most High, all I have to do is learn to see what the Father is doing, and then do it. It takes a lot of pressure off, and I can start right now. I only need to do the next God thing. Whew!

How about you, are you seeing the little step that reach to a rich destiny in the Kingdom?