Seeking Guidance

I know it has been several weeks since the first edition of prayer and fasting. God has been working in my life in some amazing ways….ways I needed to digest before I tried to put them or anything else into words.

Our second week of prayer and fasting revolved around guidance. In Psalm 146 The Word says “Don’t put your confidence in powerful people; there is no help for you there. When their breathing stops, they return to the earth, and in a moment all of their plans come to an end. But happy are those that have the God of Isreal as their helper, whose hope is in the Lord their God.”

My pastor started by saying, “We have no specific plan other than to keep our eyes on the Lord. Wouldn’t it be great if God removed man from the picture – trumped all of our wisdom – and guided our church through the miraculous.”

The irony of this statement is that our church has already been lead through the miraculous in so many ways. Four years ago when my pastor came to this tiny church set completely out of the way in Highland Village, TX, there were 168 people. Today we run 6 services in a weekend and around 3 to 4 thousand adults…We have numerous ministries that run in a place never built to hold that many ministries. We have a building that continues to stand up though there is no reason that it should. We have never done any sort of mail out inviting people to come, any campaigns trying to bring people in, and there is no way that anyone just drives by as it is so far out of the way. Yet God continues to bring in the hurting, the healing, the broken and the strong, those who have never heard and those that have been in the church since the womb. That is miraculous. We are completely understaffed yet God continues to provide the exact leadership that we need when we need it. We have been guided through the miraculous. No one can look at our church and say…”Well, they built this huge building right where everyone could see it, or well those people are constantly out and about looking for members, stealing sheep, holding campaigns, doing things that is humanly possible and their church is growing.” Rather the truth is…God has expanded faster than our staff and elders know what to do and they daily are broken and tired and in need of Him. I have a group of leaders and other members of my church that press in to Him because they don’t know what else to do. That is God guiding through the miraculous.

So we took our elders and our staff and laid hands on them and prayed for them. That God would speak to them in a definitive direction. That when God guides us that the processes created by that direction would be guided by God.

Then we prayed for ourselves. That God would deepen all of us. That those in our church who sit on the fringes…who use church as hobby, just something to do on a Sunday morning…would be drawn into the deeper part of knowing Him. And then we prayed for suffering. There is a type of suffering that Paul talks about that is a good suffering that deepens us more than anything else ever could.

In my own life I came to a realization that I was not there. I was not asking God for guidance in all things. I for sure seek Him in the big things of life, but what about the little things. God what do you want me to wear today, who do you want me to talk to, what kind of car do you want me to drive, what should my diet consist of, what friends do I need in my life. Rather than seeking the miraculous I was simply relying on my own strength (and I am not so strong) to make decisions. I kind of look at it as if I were a little pig building a house (yes I do realize I just compared myself to a pig!!). I have a great foundation - I was raised in the Word – but then I go about choosing the materials to build and then asking God to build it for me. Well, sure God could build a house with materials I provide ( I mean I He built a universe out of nothing) But how much greater would my house be if I talked with Him and asked for guidance for the right kinds of materials? Don’t you know that God would choose premium product and then offer to go ahead and provide it.