That urge, the one that tells you that you must do something “right now” or the world is going to fall apart is not from God.  God is love, love is patient, so likely the directions that include waiting on God are the only messages directly from the Lord.  That is not to say that the Lord will not sent you urgent warnings to action or movement, but they will be specific and clearly meant for His glory and your protection.  When you have that obsessive, I’ve got to do this thing right now feeling, it is important to remember the structure of the fleshly language and sin.

The flesh wants satisfaction, Now!.  It does not embrace wisdom, Godliness, purity, patience and endurance, it consumes and looks for the next bite, plate, escape or passion.  It will not give in to reason telling you that it is okay to wait, pray and think another day.  It screams, NOW in every prompting.  Understand the voice of God, practice listening to Him and His voice will become distinct in the crowd of noise and demands pulling upon your heart strings.  Waiting produces a quality in humans that is absent in the sensory fulfillment range of understanding and action.  It is difficult to wait, typically something that is waited for is better, more lasting and significantly more fulfilling than the instant gratification of fleshly wants and enemy promptings.  Therefore God and His prophets continually counsel us in the Bible to Wait upon the Lord.

It is important to mention that in your waiting you must continue to make preparation for that moment when the Lord does direct action, so don’t just sit around waiting to hear the audible voice of God or His angels, prepare.  Learn, walk, disciple, teach, stretch, study, pray, fast and Pray again for this is the preparedness of every Christian.  In humility and knowledge of my relationship with God, I must wisely wait.  For I can be guaranteed that if the enemy is using my fleshly obsessive components to get me to do something now it is meant to cause me to forgo God’s blessing upon which I was meant to wait in faith.  This is how he steals, kills, destroys Christian blessings, by making sure that we are late, early or miss the Divine opportunity around the next bend.

Father, teach me again humility and understanding that often begins with waiting upon Your Will instead of pursuing my own.  You know my dreams, especially those nearest my heart that coincide with resembling You.  Let me achieve the best in life, preparing for the next.  Let me only chase or wait upon those things You have prescribed for my blessing.  Lead me, let me not lead myself into danger or disaster.  I love You Lord, in Jesus Name.

Lord help them.  Let them see Your shining Glory, whether written in the stars, on faces of children, mountains high, waters deep or a simple Autumn day.  This leaves too much to chance, this life, lived for my own satisfaction.  My inadequacies are your strength, but there are so many Father, it is hard for me to see where I may be used for such Holy purposes.  Yet here I stand, wrapped in courage, faith and knowledge that You shall win this war and if I do nothing but stand my ground, my victory’s assured.  Their slander hurts, though it should have lost all sting, just like the death which the enemy promises to bring.  Did you say that I would stop caring what they say or just that I would be set apart sanctified for Your Kingdom?  I often have to stop and turn my eyes skyward, reminding myself that Your return will be just as Your passing.  Oh that wonderful day, when this world sees Your Glorious arrival and we, the redeemed, sit behind You, waiting to take the day.

So much less than a mustard seed of faith, as I command mountains, ignoring they refuse.  I will stand and fight Father, with Your Shield, breastplate, belt, shoes, helmet and Blessed Word, knowing it is not my breath that they fear but the Word of Almighty God.  If You could grant my one desire, to know that they arrived Home, because I chose to obediently look them in the eye and proclaim the Gospel, unashamed and true, Like You.  There is so little in this life I may call my own, but even the small Joy I carry as proof of citizenship on High makes me the wealthiest of many and the strongest of few.  For I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.  I love Your life Lord, not my own, may that day of our meeting come soon, but not so soon that I fail to see my loved one come to the cross in answer to my prayers.  Lord Jesus, thank you.

What do you think Jesus wants?  That is all that matters what you have in your own head and heart about your savior.  We certainly do not wish to custom design God, in direct prohibition of the second commandment, but isn’t your relationship with God totally dependent upon what you believe about Him and yourself?  For instance, do you believe that the Bible is the inerrant, correct, infallible Truth, that was Holy Spirit inspired given to over 40 different writers but penned at His instruction and direction?  If not, what is the nature of your disbelief, can you remember the moment when you decided you didn’t believe?  Or, are you like most people that have never really studied, meditated and prayed about God’s Word, choosing to instead be shaped by what someone told you or worse yet could it be an excuse so that you don’t have to do the study work?  Did you suffer the poor, boring or inadequate teaching of someone without passion for Christ and His Gospel?

Let’s agree to be totally honest with each other and in so doing, I have to agree that having a relationship with Jesus without believing the Words He preached is definitely an obstacle.  Do you have the courage to test your belief and disprove the Bible or know enough about it to make a decision based entirely on your own discernment?  After all eternal salvation is between you and God, although I may encourage, assist, discuss, pray with you and for you, teach or preach about Jesus, you must invariably and inevitably make a decision for or against Christ by yourself.

I know the Lord, not that I fully understand Him, because He is so beyond my comprehension I cannot begin to express, but I know Him personally in my own walk.  His Word has never been wrong when put to the test in my life or the thousands of people with whom I have interacted.  He is faithful and true and never renegs or bails on His Promises.  Therefore, and I know this also empirically that if you genuinely seek Him He will answer you.  If you are like me at all, I thought I knew what was in the Bible, so I had an opinion based on some of my parents understanding, or misunderstanding, partly influenced by my friends, my laziness and a whole lot of disinformation from men and women desperately trying themselves to run away from God.  This unfortunately was often mentors, school teaches, respected writers or commentators and the like.  Honestly, I never took the time to read the book and find out for myself.  When I did my entire world transformed and I could no longer avoid the questions God was asking me.

For my Christian Brothers and Sisters, how did the Lord wish for us to approach the Gospel.  I find this passage from 2Timothy especially instructive in clarification; Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.  Can I be approved in any work, even my daily job if I am ashamed at my knowledge of the job and its requirements?  Will others listen to me if I loosely handle my worldly job, never taking the time to investigate the specifics, techniques or unique directions incumbent to my labor?  Am I doing my best if I have just taken the word of multiple people on what is involved in success at my career?  How could I correctly teach another worker about my job if I did not know it well to be considered “approved”?  How could my boss expect me to teach someone else if I was ashamed and unsure of the “correct” instructive wording?  Worse yet, isn’t this what God wants us to do, shouldn’t that factor be enough to make us follow through?

That is what amazes me about folks who say that they don’t believe the Bible, yet they are unwilling to show me the inconsistencies that caused their disbelief.  Aren’t we talking about eternity?  If even the minutest possibility existed that I would be separated from God, my family and everyone I love for eternity, I assure you I would study that information seven ways from Sunday making sure I knew what was what, especially if I were looking for a way to deny it.  How then can we, knowing clearly that He expects us to study to an approved level, so that we are neither ashamed nor are we fumbling to tell/explain the truth, continue in our naivete, ignorance or unstudied position?  One word, sin.  Our sin continues to lure us, capture us, misdirect us, leading into the snares of abandon and the enemy.  Have you ever tried once to not do what you know you shouldn’t be doing.  It gets easier to resist doesn’t it, as God strengthens us through His Spirit?  Why then would we hold onto small pockets of rebellion?  When will we give in and truly want to know “God’s Will” for our lives, when will each of us surrender and let God finish what He started in each us?

I know you say that you do want to know His Will.  If you aren’t studying to show yourself approved, not being ashamed and rightly dividing the word of God then you certainly do not wish to know His will for your life.  I cannot count the times, Christians have told me that just wish that they knew God’s Will for their lives.  Yet, when I ask them what they believe God wants them to do they invariably tell me clearly what they think they should be doing, yet they haven’t taken any action.  Look we cannot expect God to tell us the entire story in one sitting, we must remain obedient to the directions He gives and then wait on Him for further understanding, guidance, reproof and blessing.  To these people I say that they do not wish to know God’s Will for their lives because then they would be faced with the overwhelming dilemma associated with being obedient to a Sovereign Authority.  My advice if you want to know God and know His Will for your life then try doing what you already know He wants you to do and wait for further revelation.  How about studying the Bible so that you aren’t ashamed and can show yourself approved to handle His Truth.

Praise You Lord for the Word that may instruct, grow, foster, nurture and support all who believe.  In Jesus Name.

I invite your review of my life, as it is oft difficult for a man to see the results of his own footsteps upon the land.  Have I trampled over the innocent?  Have I neglected the Lord’s Word in my walk?  Have I followed the leading of my eyes, flesh and pride?  Do I give honor, glory and praise to God or wash myself in self-recognition?  What of my love for the Father?  Do I love Him with all my heart, mind, soul and strength?  Do I sin at each opportunity, denying the death of my flesh on the Cross with Jesus?  Do I remain unchanged, pursuing the same ideals of my past or have I been transformed by the Holy Spirit of God into a new creature, unrecognizable by historical context?  Do I live for this world, placing all my investment in capitalization of my worldly pursuits?  What of the hereafter, am I storing up treasures for myself in heaven?  Have I forsaken the practices and pleasures of Earthly citizenship, knowing fully that I do not belong within the roles of worldly accounting?  What would you tell me about me?

I know what you would say, that I have fallen short in all of these areas of my life.  I regret that your review would certainly be worse then my own introspection, but I believe that my grade would be failure at best.  How is that possible, when I have tried so hard, done so much, chased the dream of Christianity?  The resultant answer is undeniable, it is not about me, or the works I have done or continue to do.  I cannot self-sanctify, I have tried my hardest and still cannot live up to what I believe the Lord requires.  This purity, that the Lord requires is impossible through human achievement, it is solely a thing of Spirit, controlled and dispensed by God.  What then is my job in this pursuit of perfection, this desire for the Lord’s likeness?

My job is to love Him, myself and you.  I cannot extend the love of God to others without first expressing and accepting God’s love for me.  If I do not understand His unconditional and Sovereign love for a man like me, who deserves no quarter, then I will never understand how to love others the way that I would wish to be loved.  For, in understanding God’s love for me, I am humbled and prepared to offer that same requirement free love for others.  Once understanding how God gave Himself for “my” salvation and to return me to a position where I may begin relationship with Him, I can no longer refuse this same gentleness, kindness, patience and consideration to the world.  I cannot speak for God but this is how I would look at the love of my children.  If they truly loved me and knew how much I loved them, irrespective of their worldly actions, then they would be free to extend that same kindness and care to others.  I would consider it joy each time I saw them give love, especially where it was undeserved, for I would know that they were emulating and expressing their love for me through extension.  This is the crux of all Christian belief, as Christ told us, that all the law and the profits hinges on this love of the Father and others.  Without love there is no sanctification for lack of love denies the Spirit’s loving Hand upon our lives in transformation.

I have failed by every worldly standard, I have not great wealth, given by the sweat of my brow or as result of my talent and intention, I have no great understanding, peace of wisdom through my numerous pursuits of knowledge and meditation on serenity, I have no recognition for being that man who tolerates everything around him, never losing my cool, always extending courtesy even when offered anger.  Thanks be to God that I have been set free by the Grace offered me in confession, humility and belief.  I praise the Lord for that wonderful day when He took my sin upon Him as the perfect sacrifice, redeeming me to God, ending my war with the Almighty.  Since, we have established that my efforts have not done a lick of good toward making me look like Him, I throw up my hands in worship to a God who loved me that much.  Holy Spirit I commend my heart voluntarily to Your Work, as without it I am doomed to remain in likeness to my past.  Hallelujah, I am free indeed.  In Jesus Name I thank You for Your Love Lord.

Free from my own influences, my previous servitude expired.  I thought that Freedom was easy to comprehend then I took some time and looked at my own warped/skewed comprehension and was amazed at my perpendicular view.  Is freedom an aspect or facet of liberal decision making as the ethical relativist would subscribe?  Doing whatever I wish, whenever I wish, with whomever I wish for as long and as frequent as my inclination permits.  Shall I look to the fuel cell, knowing that my freedom is only limited by the amount of energy, money, time or imagination available?  Do I “shop until I drop”, “do it til I’m satisfied” or “just do it” as Nike, pop stars or celebrities recommend?  Shall I indulge every desire, knowing that unless I do I will be redefining or losing my freedom?  Am I free at all in this worldly existence?

What if I were to create the following controversy and state emphatically, “He who has not been set free by belief in the Lord Jesus Christ is completely defined and held within the confines and limitations of; written/established law, rituals, thinking and scientific laws of this world and remains a shackled spirit confined within the jail cell of a languishing and finite body and will never understand or experience the truth of freedom”.   Conversely, the Bible establishes clearly that he that has been set free by the Lord Jesus is “free indeed”.  So, life within my own thinking, urges, authority and strength is chosen captivity where I might never comprehend freedom.  I am not just trapped by circumstances, I am walled off from understanding the truth of my own mortality and its conscripted limitations.  Living in Christ is not enlisting into another bordered or finite set of performance and legally designated limitations it is truly being set free to understand that “love” for God and people is the only guiding principle.

I hate the jail cell of this life, remaining captive to all the limiting parameters of worldly existence.  Living in my own understanding is surrender to a life that will never understand freedom.  Freedom is eternal life in God through Jesus Christ the King.  Know Christ, Know Freedom.  Praise You Lord for all of Your limitless characteristics.  In Jesus’ Name.