For the Christian who is making big decisions.

A lot of times when I see Christians trying to make decisions there seem to be two extremes...

ONE is relying totally on self to figure it out- using all brain. logic. personal desires. finances. wisdom. and circumstances- to point us towards the right choice.

THE OTHER is totally relying on a "move of the Spirit"- using scriptures. feelings. peace. emotions. things other people say. and circumstances- to tell us where to go.

Both of these processes are motivated by great hearts, but they are unbalanced. 

God definitely moves through both of them, but neither method is my favorite.

The other day my friend Jesse and I were talking about this. 

Jesse used to be the guy that relied totally on an almost mystical move of the Spirit to show him what to do next. Essentially he would try to turn "off" his logic to hear from God. He viewed critical thinking as unbelief... by thinking critically he felt like he was doubting God's ability to function supernaturally. But God has been teaching him some awesome things that have revolutionized the way he makes decisions. He shared with me 5 things that he considers when he is making choices now, 

and I liked them so much I thought I should share them with you.

They are balanced. They are Biblical. They are fantastic.

When you are faced with big decisions in life- 

look at these 5 things to help discern God's will: 

1) The Word of God:
If the thing that you are considering does not line up with scripture- it is NOT God's will. If it does line up with scripture move directly to #2.
Example: If Shaun (my studly husband) meets a girl and feels like she is actually God's choice for his wife and he made a mistake in marrying me, the he wonders if it is God's will to leave me and marry her... Well, lucky for him, scripture tells Shaun clearly that God hates divorce and in marrying me, Shaun is not to be separated from me. Easy as pie. 

2) Peace from God when praying:
Peace is one of the fruits of the Spirit of God in us. If we don't have peace about something, it is worth reconsidering. God speaks to us in prayer so take note of things you think and feel.

3) Counsel from mature believers:

Find people who: love God, love you, and have wisdom. Their input will be helpful. They will see things that you don't see. Listen to them. 

4) Wisdom and careful thinking:
Ask God for wisdom and knowledge. He likes to give it and is glorified when we use our brains and think. Compare the positives and negatives when thinking through the options. Our lives are like a story book- it is okay to reflect on past pages as we decide what we will put on the next page. When we don't use our God given ability to think, it is like treating everything in life as a new book... and every past experience is its own book too. It's like if we were considering going into the Army... instead of looking backwards and saying, "Wow, ever since I was a little girl I have been interested in the military"... we disregard the past and try to face the decision as a totally new and separate thing. It can bring unnecessary confusion. Look at the big picture. Consider the past and the future. Factor in things like finances. Don't be afraid. You are smarter than you know.

5) Providential circumstances:
What doors are open? What doors are shut? Are there any awesome opportunities that have been provided? Any obvious supernatural provision? Factor those things in.

Sip on a lovely hot drink, 

write in your journal, 

read your Bible,

pray, 

& be ready to make some excellent choices. 

Dreamer.

 

I'm sitting in Pichilemu, Chile. It's beautiful. We are on a YWAM base near the ocean and we are loving it. Hmm.. I think I smell bad.. or the boy at the computer next to me does... but actually I'm pretty confident its me, because my clothes are pretty dirty. But that's okay. I love it here. Also my Spanish is improving, I can understand quite a lot and everyday I'm learning new things. 

On Monday morning I woke up at 4am and I couldn't move my head. I'm not exaggerating, I literally couldn't move at all, I could not even get out of bed. After 10 minutes of trying I eventually started crying and called for Shaun. He helped lift me out of bed. After 2 rounds of free acupuncture, a few massages, and lots of rest, 4 days later I am still really achy and stiff, but I'm doing A LOT better. 

This morning though I was feeling a bit discouraged because I have not been able to do a lot to help minister here in Chile. Everyone else on the team is working like crazy and I am just slowly trying to get healthy in my neck, shoulders, and arms. I was feeling bummed that I couldn't do more to bless the team and the Chileans.  It was almost a feeling of failure, that I am failing at what I came here to do.

But God is so great. In praying to Him about my yucky feelings I felt Him remind me that He does not think I am failing. He has a greater purpose to work out in me, and He is fully able to do that in my moment of weakness. He is so faithful.

One of the things that I feel Him doing in me is stirring up dreams. I have been praying for vision for a long time and I finally feel like He is going to show me something. A lot of that has to do with the leadership of this campus here in Chile. They are crazy, amazing, and totally outrageous. They make no sense at all. 

Let me give you an example.. Mitch, the base director from America, has lived here in Chile with his family for over 20 years. They literally built this entire campus from nothing. At one point Mitch felt from God that He should build a swimming pool. This would be an awesome idea... except Mitch knows nothing about pools. But he felt a dream from God so he moved towards it... he grabbed a shovel and started digging a hole. He kept digging and digging. Eventually, he and his staff began filling the hole with cement. By hand they laid bags of cement... Today Mitch's Olympic size swimming pool in the nicest in the Chile and annually hosts Chile's largest swimming competition. This all happened because a man had a dream and began to dig. Confident in God, even when it made no sense. 

Early this week Mitch asked that our team pull weeds in a huge forest of a field, because he had a dream to have a big nice soccer field for kids to come play on. Yesterday he said in our morning meeting, "imagine how great it would be to have a few hundred kids here to play soccer?".. we all sat imagining.. then he said.. "I'd love to see that happen by today at 1:00pm. So let's flatten the ground, set up the goal posts, put a fence around it.. and get it painted and ready to go." Haha he is hilarious. He dreams and he follows through. 

We didn't finish the field yesterday by 1.. we are still working on it today.. but we are getting really close. It should be ready to play by Saturday. The funny thing today though was that Mitch decided he wanted it to not only be a soccer field but he wanted us to put in posts for a volleyball net, and also make it possible for the kids to play basketball if they want. Over the last 4 days his dream expanded and now he wants to host games for the youth to get involved in. The awesome thing is that we are actually making this stuff happen.. its not just in our heads. 

We are trusting God, working hard, and watching His dreams become reality. That is the way it is meant to be. We are meant to dream with God and do with God. Both. Both dreaming and doing point to Jesus. 

In Him we can do all that He calls us to do. Without dreaming and doing, we will be missing out on what we were made for. We will be missing a major part of His plan. 

Having Vision&& Making the Most of Where We Are

We all do it. The more I open up with people about it, the more I hear "That is so normal." What am I talking about? I am talking about the feeling that happens inside us when we wonder if we are where we are supposed to be. It's the painful questions that rise in our minds when we think of all of the things we have turned down in order to be where we are today... The guy or girl we didn't date. Or the one we didn't stay with. The career we didn't pursue. The passion we didn't follow. The school we didn't go to. The diet we didn't finish. The place we didn't move to. 


Life is full of choices, and when we say "yes" to one thing, we are essentially saying "no" to the other options. One of my biggest fears in my life is that one day when I am like 40 perhaps, then I  will look back at my life and see all of the things I should have done, but didn't. Sometimes I hear adults do it- you ask them what they wanted to do when they were young and they say something like, "Oh I so badly wanted to be an artist, or an athlete, but now I am just a teacher." Notice the emphasis is not on what they wanted, nor what they have become, it is on the "just a", I never want to be a "just a". No matter where I go in life I want to be excited about where I am at, and the decisions I have made. But that temptation to feel like I'm "just" something, is overwhelming. 


I've been praying about this the last few days, because my own questions are making my stomach sick and I'm desperate for answers. True answers. God's answers. My own answers are unreliable, and the world's answers are unimpressive. The world says if you are unhappy in your marriage then divorce; if you don't like life now then leave it and start new; if you don't like your job then step on people and do everything you can to move ahead. I'm not down with that. I have seen and been a part of too many broken situations to believe that those are the best pieces of advice I can find. So then what is God's design? What does He have to say when I am crying alone wondering if I have made the right choices, or if I somewhere in the last few years I went wrong and I am missing out on something? 


God's answer for me was Joseph. The Joseph of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. Joseph is my favorite, I am constantly looking to him to show me how to live. This guy knows how to do things. He is young, good looking, and well-built. His dad favors him, his brothers hate him, and God speaks to him. Joe's brothers end up selling him to be a slave and then they deceive their father into thinking that Joe was killed by a wild animal. Joe is purchased by an Egyptian officer, and he serves the guy faithfully. In fact our man Joey does such an amazing job that he is put in charge of everything the officer owns. Then the officer's scandalous wife notices how much of a babe Joe is, so she tries to sleep with him. Honestly you would think JoeJoe would give in to the temptation, this woman is probably beautiful, and obviously Joe is not getting sex from anywhere else. But out of his love for God and his respect for the officer, he literally runs away from the woman. She is not thrilled about that,  and she is probably embarrassed, so she frames Joseph and claims that he tried to rape her... Joey is thrown into prison. But God was with Joe, and he was promoted to be in charge of all the other prisoners and everything that happens in the prison. Eventually Joe does something supernatural, he correctly interprets the dreams of some of the Pharaoh's main men- this appears to be his ticket out of prison. However he is forgotten about and so therefore, he spends two more years serving God in jail. Eventually though, the Pharaoh needs a dream interpreted and everyone looks to Joey to do the job. After he correctly interprets the dream he is favored so highly that Pharaoh makes him second in command over the entire land of Egypt, only the King has a rank higher than Joseph.


Amazing isn't it? Everything in Joe's life points toward devastation, and yet everything he does prospers. Why is that? My conclusion is that Joe's love for God overwhelms everything else in his life. His desire is to serve God faithfully, no matter where he is, or what the circumstances look like, or how long he will be there. He fully trusts God to take his life where he needs it to be. We see that in chapter 50 verse 20 when Joe is finally reunited with his brothers,


 ²⁰ As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result..."



Joe's eyes were set on heaven. He did everything he could to make the most of where he was, in order to bring glory to God. He had vision for his life and he followed it. 


There is my answer, and there is yours too. Vision. Our eyes need to be set on God, trusting in 2 things:


1) God is trustworthy.
2) He is with us.


It is important to know that we can trust Him. We can trust that He is big. He is good. He can speak to us. We will hear Him. His perspective is true. He knows more than we do. His plans are to give us a hope and a future. He loves us and He knows what is best for us. We can trust that He will take care of us and meet our needs. We can trust that His word is true and that life on this planet is not the end of the story. We can trust that if we set our eyes on Him then we will be taken places that we never dreamed possible. 


It is vital to know He is with us. He is here. Now. With me. With you. Protecting us. Leading us. Comforting us. Filling us. Strengthening us. Preparing us. Giving us access to supernatural power. Renewing our minds, transforming our hearts, and making us more like Him. We were created for His delight and in Him we find our identity. Everything else grows dim when we experience the fullness of His presence. 


So then what about my questions? Did I go wrong somewhere? Should I have picked college instead of YWAM? Or someone else instead of Shaun? Should I be dancing instead of writing? Or modeling instead of eating so much? 


²⁸ And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.


Joseph knows it. I know it. My sister Meredith knows it. Amy Plender & Beka Brigleb know it. Liz Wetherby knows it. Shaun knows it. About 30 skaters down the street know it now too. God is in control. Our lives are surrendered to Christ. We can be still now, serve faithfully, and believe for God's best, no matter what shape it takes on. We need to keep our focus on Him, right where we are, because if we remain distracted we will miss out on the blessing that is right in front of us. 




***********
Some practical application... for those like me who need help knowing how to live out the truth when our minds are racing with lies. 


Think of the people in your life and all of the roles you have to fulfill. 
(I will do myself as your example)


I am a:
-Friend
-Sister
-Wife
-Daughter
-YWAM Missionary
-Assistant to an elderly woman
-serve at Models For Christ
-Create leader
-dancer 


Okay so then you think about the end of your life. The real end. Like when you die, and your name is a memory. Now go through your list of roles and decide how you want these people to remember you. 


Example: -Friend- I want be remembered for being faithful, hopeful, not gossiping, encouraging, prayerful, fun, positive, open, listening well, being patient... etc. 


Now you have a template for how to act, no matter the circumstances. So say I have a friend that is making me crazy and frustrating the heck out of me- I know that no matter how I feel, my actions need to line up with the vision that I have set (the way I want to be remembered at the end of life). 


"Where there is no vision people perish" Proverbs 29:18 

Be an Example

A few years ago my younger sister used my cell-phone and made a phone call pretending to be me. At the time she was not a fan of talking on the phone, so instead of being her usual friendly self, she was awkward, slightly rude, and frantic to end the phone call. When I realized that she had done the whole thing in my name, I was completely frustrated because that person she was talking to, whoever it was,  probably thought badly of me and it wasn't even my fault.

Today for some reason I was recalling this memory and realized that this must be a bit how God feels when we as Christians act selfishly. For instance, God would get bummed if I put on my lovely cross necklace in the morning, a symbol of my faith in Christ, and then I headed over to Starbucks, ignored the homeless people out front and acted unfriendly to the barista. How frustrating for God, here He is loving people like crazy, and I walk in representing Him and treat my latte like its more important that the people around me. What a poor picture of Christ that would paint for the people who were present.

As Christians, people should be able to look upon our lives and see Jesus, that is the point, we are the "body of Christ". It is a heartbreaking thing when we as believers act selfishly, perhaps judging others, or gossiping, whatever it might be, and we turn people away from Jesus because they don't want to associate with a God that acts like that. It's amazing that though we live in a country with churches everywhere, many many people have never seen a good example of Christ being lived out in front of them. There is so much power in a truly faithful life, God uses it to draw people to Himself. God longs for people to know Him and one of the main ways He is going to get their attention is by using the Christians.

So it is our job as believers is to be Godly examples to others, and in humility show them what life with Christ is really about. God's love is to be shown in our life, our love, our faith, our speech, and our purity. Jesus should be evident in our clothing and in our conversations, in our music and in our hobbies, in our marriages and our workplaces; and without even saying His name it should be obvious that we are His. The way a wedding ring marks a spouse, our behavior marks our lives. This doesn't mean we won't have off days. I am often weak and struggle with all kinds of things. But God is glorified when we are quick to recognize when we have blown it, and humbly seek to make things right.

Don't let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity. 1 Timothy 4:12

How have you seen Christ lived out today in someone you know? Feel free to share your stories here and encourage others with some amazing Godly ideas of how to share Christ's love in our daily lives.