In January 2011, my parents and I
weren't ‘seeing eye to eye’. I'd just informed them that I had decided to join
school of ministry (Bible school).
Since quitting a well paying job
in Dubai, in November 2010 and landing in December (informing them that God had
asked me to come back), I seemed to keep rubbing them the wrong way at every
turn with every decision. And now I was adding insult to injury by mentioning
joining bible school. They didn’t approve of it, and declined from paying the
fees. Every day they kept telling me to rethink, get a job, get settled and
join bible school in 2012/2013 but I stood my ground, because I knew what God
had instructed me to do.
I got tired of hearing all the
noise so I decided to move out in February. Did I consult God? Nope! Moving out
seemed like a brilliant idea and it was. However, that wasn't what God had in
mind for me.
NB: There are consequences that
come with chasing ‘good ideas’.
The neighborhood was safe and
quiet, the house was new and gorgeous, the rent was ridiculously high, the
traffic was insane but I didn't care, I finally had my space and peace down in
Tassia..... well, until trouble came knocking. There never seemed to be enough
money for food and transport or stocking up on household items, plus I was
paying my fees, and I still hadn't found me a job as I’d thought I would have!
I was quickly running out of resources and it was frustrating. I would cry out
desperately for God to intervene, but He kept telling me to go back home as
moving hadn’t been His idea (but I rebuked it as a bad thought, convincing
myself that moving had been His idea).
The thing that amazes me with God
is that He never wastes opportunities to make Himself known to us even when we’ve
gone off course. Despite my detour outside God's umbrella of His plan for me,
and the painful consequences that followed, I grew spiritually and had loads of encounters with
God (since I had space and time to worship and seek Him out).
After two months of detouring, I
decided to retrace my steps, and headed back home in April; where my parents
received me with open arms. They were however still against the whole bible school
idea, even though I’d already started classes. God catered for my every need:
shelter, clothing, food, fees and bus fare, school project money etc. - I can
honestly say that I didn’t struggle financially. I had enough to even share
with others!
Here is what 'the move' literally
taught me: whenever you make a decision to obey and trust God, no matter
how dumb and irrational His idea may seem, there’ll always be sufficient grace -
for God backs and caters for His instructions (anything under His umbrella). But,
whenever you step out of that umbrella, you get rained on - there's a struggle
and you end up missing out on what God had purposed for you per that time. Even
though you succeed and get positive results, you’re still outside God’s will,
and He doesn’t back what is not His idea.
Sometimes we launch out and make
decisions that seem brilliant at the time, forgetting we're here on assignment
and that we should check our itinerary with God.
That it is a good idea doesn't automatically make it a God idea!!
That you went on a mission in
another city and won souls for Christ, (when he'd purposed for you to be
at home or elsewhere), don't make it a God idea. For the sake of those you went
to minister to, He'll pour out of Himself, but you, missed out on His intended
plan for you that day.
Many
shall say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not in your Name prophesy, and
in your Name cast out demons, and in your Name perform many miracles which
demonstrated the power of God? And then I will declare in a public announcement
to them, I never came to know you experientially. Be going away from me, you who are working the lawlessness.
{Matthew
7:22-23 Wuest}
Here's a perfect example: Moses had brought out the
children of Israel from Egypt, and they were now camped out in the desert. They
grumbled and complained at him for drinking water. Moses checked his itinerary
with God, who then instructed him to speak to a rock. In a previous time, God had instructed Moses to hit a rock for water {Exodus 17:6}, but now God required him to
speak (God is not limited to one way of
accomplishing His purpose in us, His ideas are limitless!). Moses must have thought to himself 'What do you mean speak to a
rock, you've got jokes! Want me to look like a fool? Speaking, don't work for
me, I'mma hit it like I did last time.' So
he hit the rock and God caused water to come out for the sake of the Israelites.
The coming out of the water wasn't dependent on Moses but on God, and He had
His reasons for asking Moses to speak and not hit the rock. But Moses decided
to go with the good idea, since the God idea seemed absurd; and it cost him
dearly. He never set foot in the Promised Land. {Number 20:1-12}
So exactly what has God asked you
to do? If you've already launched out on your 'good idea', it’s never too late
to retrace your steps to the 'God idea'. Like I mentioned in my blog dubbed
'Where are you?', we have an internal GPRS system ( The Holy Spirit), who'll be
more than glad to help you navigate your way out of the good idea zone into the
God idea zone.
What 'good idea' plans have you
made/are you making right now? And what is it that you're already in, that was
merely a good idea and not a God idea?
Is it a business? A relationship?
A job? Ministry work? Some money you gave? A project you started/shut down? Etc
etc. take a good look at your life and judge honestly whether it was/is a good
idea or a God idea.
Allow me to paraphrase a quote
from John and Diana Hagee’s book ‘What
every man wants in a woman; What every woman wants in a man’
>>>>
Is
there someone (or something) in your life that you need to walk away from? Remember
that good is the enemy of better, and better the enemy of best. Before God can
give you something that is better, He has to take that which is good away from
you. And before He can give you what is best, He must take what is better away.
If you don’t trust God to bring you to your divine destiny and absolutely
believe that your best interest is His top concern, you will live in torment
worrying and chasing ‘good ideas’. What you are willing to walk away from, will
determine what God can bring to you. Selah!
I’ll leave you with these
profound words that I borrowed from my friend’s facebook wall:
~ Maturity is taking what God wants
for you (In my words; ‘God ideas’) as opposed to what "SELF" wants for you
(In my words; ‘good ideas’). Maturity is coming to a level of knowing when it
is "SELF" driving you or it is God and being bold enough to abandon
decisions made by "SELF" (good ideas) to accommodate God's decisions (God
ideas) ~
God has given us a free will to
decide as we please, He never imposes on us His plan, so its up to you to make up your mind on which idea to follow.
#ChooseWisely
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