Even though there are some hard times God would not remove, God can prepare you for them. And there are some that God wants to remove, if only you listen.
“And the LORD said, 'Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?'”
Genesis 18:17 (NKJV)
Welcome to Day 16 of our special season of Prayer and Fasting. This is Day 2 of our 5 Days of Providence. Yesterday, we started on the topic of Providence. We saw that one of the things you must understand, if you would ever be able to trust and take advantage of the providence of God, is the sovereignty of God. The sovereignty of God is God's supreme, independent, and unrestricted right to rule over all things, creation, nations, history, and every single life, governing everything according to His own will and for His own glory.
One thing you have to see is that if you are on the Lord's side and in His will, then His sovereignty is on your side. Everything in this world responds to God, so there is nothing you are going through that is beyond Him. Today we would explore one of the proofs of providence, and that is Divine Leading.
God reveals His providence, His preservation, His presence, His commitment to His people, through the privilege of divine leading. At the end of these forty days, you should be able to say, "I am at the center of the center of the plan of God for my life" Because God has a plan for you, and that plan is not locked away from you. He wants to reveal it to you. In His providence, He wants you to live a life where you never lack direction, which means the formation of the wilderness is meant to train you to live your life listening to God.
Proverbs 14:12
New King James Version
12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. God does not want you navigating your life by what merely seems right. He wants to point you in the right direction Himself. He does not want to govern your life silently.
Genesis 12:1-4
New King James Version
1 Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you.
2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
4 So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
God spoke that to a man with no children and an old wife. It did not matter what Abram's situation looked like, God was already planning something bigger than what Abram could see, and He was specific. God in his providence can be specific about your future.
Genesis 15:13-16
New King James Version
13 Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years.
14 And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions.
15 Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age.
16 But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
God did not just tell Abraham that his descendants would suffer. He told him how long. Four hundred years. And when his descendants were slaves in Egypt, groaning under Pharaoh centuries later, it was not because God had forgotten. God had already spoken.
Sometimes, when you have no explanation for what is going on with you, it is not because God is wicked or cannot intervene; it might be because you did not take advantage of the providence of divine leading. This means that even though there are some hard times God would not remove, God can prepare you for them. And there are some that God wants to remove, if only you listen.
Amos 3:7
New King James Version
7 Surely the Lord GOD does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.
Surely the Lord God does nothing without telling somebody first. That is not a coincidence spanning four hundred years of Scripture. That is His nature.
James 2:23
New King James Version
23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." And he was called the friend of God.
The friend of God. Are you a friend of God? God wants to make you one in this season, so that by His providence He can preserve you by the privilege of divine leading, by the privilege of prophecy. And Jesus said the same thing, centuries later, to His own disciples.
John 15:15
New King James Version
15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.
A servant does not know what his master is doing. A friend does. So before we ever get to how you discern what He is saying, settle this first: He wants to tell you. That has never been in question. He has never been the God who works in isolation from the people He loves. And His word is so sure that even evil men could trust it. Herod sought prophecy to find Jesus.
Matthew 2:4-6
New King James Version
4 And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
5 So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet:
6 ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, Are not the least among the rulers of Judah; For out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.’ ”
He was quoting a word given centuries earlier. He followed the prophecy in Micah 5:2 to find Jesus. That prophecy could be trusted so much that a word given years back could still be valid to know Jesus would be born in Bethlehem. So not only did Herod trust the prophecy, but he also acted on it. This is something we have to learn.
Now, every believer has the Holy Spirit, so every believer can be supernaturally guided. We are in a dispensation of priesthood for all, where all of us can approach God boldly, but also all of us can hear God clearly. Anyone who cares to give room to the expressions of the Spirit would prophesy and would hear God on events in both their lives and the lives of others. God can lead with respect to people, places, timing, etc.
In Scripture, Saul, who was blind, saw in a vision that he should meet Ananias and knew what he looked like. Mary knew that she was pregnant, and also that Elizabeth was pregnant. Mary paid Elizabeth a surprise visit, and on getting to Elizabeth, the baby in Elizabeth's womb leapt, and instantly she prophesied, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?...” (Luke 1:42-43). God can lead you like that, about the smallest things in your life.
As God reveals His will to you today, understand that every believer is called. You might not be called to pulpit ministry, but there is a call.
Ephesians 2:10
New King James Version
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
It says “prepared beforehand”. Assigned before you ever showed up to walk in it. But you might be called to a more focused and committed ministry, and one of the things you must know how to do is discern it. And for specific callings to ministries, there are a few things to know about the call:
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There is always an objective and a burden. When God called Abraham out, it was not random. God was not moving Abraham for movement's sake. There was something God wanted to achieve, and Abraham was being brought in as part of the administration of it. A calling always has an object bigger than the person carrying it. If what you are calling "a word from God" has no objective beyond your own comfort or promotion, be careful — you might be listening to yourself. If it's comfortable as well, it might not be God. Usually the burden feels bigger than the person called.
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There is always a specific place. A call from God rarely comes as an assignment without an address. It has a where attached to it, not just a what.
Acts 16:9-10
New King James Version
9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”
10 Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.
Paul was actively trying to go somewhere, and the Spirit shut two doors before opening the one that was actually his. When it is the right location, doors open of their own accord, and when they open, you move immediately. Being in the wrong location, even a good one, even a fruitful one, can put you out of step with what God actually wants to do through you. This is why some of you are fruitful, but not fulfilled. You are doing good work in the wrong field.
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It is always bigger than your current capacity. Gideon was hiding in a winepress, threshing wheat in secret out of fear of his enemies, when heaven called him a mighty man of valor (Judges 6:11-12). A calling addresses who you are becoming, not who you currently are. If your calling only ever describes your present capacity, it is too small to be from God. Do not disqualify yourself from a word because you do not yet look like it.
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It requires confirmation, not just a private impression.
When the word came for Barnabas and Saul to be separated for the work of God (Acts 13:1-2), it did not come to them alone, in private. It came in a gathered room, in the middle of fasting and ministering to the Lord together. A genuine calling can usually be recognized and affirmed by others walking closely with you, not just declared by you about yourself.
- It will be resisted. Some of you will feel the pressure to force it before its time. Others will feel the fear to run from it altogether. Both responses are real, and both cost something. But hear this now: a calling delayed or resisted is not a calling cancelled. So what should you do?
a. Commit to obey before you even know what it is. Willingness comes before clarity, not after it.
b. Take the Word as a lamp, not a floodlight. It does not show you the whole journey. It shows you the next step. That is enough.
c. Honestly sought counsel.
Proverbs 15:22
New King James Version
22 Without counsel, plans go awry, but in the multitude of counselors they are established.
Seek real counsel from people who are not afraid to tell you what you do not want to hear.
d. Prepare. Whatever it is God has shown you, begin practising it now, in private, with no audience. This is what it means to be hidden before you are heard — the labour that happens before anyone is watching is the labour that makes you ready when everyone finally is.
e. Run with it with all you have.
2 Kings 13:18-19
New King James Version
18 Then he said, “Take the arrows”; so he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground”; so he struck three times, and stopped.
19 And the man of God was angry with him, and said, “You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck Syria till you had destroyed it! But now you will strike Syria only three times.”
The king had a genuine word from a genuine prophet, and he still lost most of the victory available to him because he obeyed halfway. He struck the ground and stopped, satisfied with partial effort, when the instruction demanded everything he had. When God shows you what He is doing, do not strike three times and put the arrow down. Strike until there is nothing left in your hand.
With Love,
The Catalyst,
Pastor Michael Ipaye.
Prayer
Father, I believe in your providence and from now on, I enjoy supernatural leading. I declare that I am at the center of your will for me.
