YOU WANT ME TO DO WHAT?

A few days ago I was talking with a friend about how the Lord leads us into new areas of service for Him. My friend said something like, “I think God will open a new door of opportunity before we drop what we are currently doing.”

I encouraged him not to approach getting guidance with preconceived ideas of how he thought God would lead and then I told him the following story.

In 1967, David Wilkerson asked Carol and me to move to New York and join his growing crusade ministry. A year later David asked me to take over as his Crusade Director and I was in that position until late 1974. These were incredible years in the midst of a powerful move of God and I loved what I was doing. In late 1974, God began to speak to me about resigning and being available for another assignment in His Kingdom. I balked big time and said, “Lord, I don’t need to move—I like it here!” The Lord never wavered, He just repeated His instruction. My next line of argument was, “Okay, if You will open another door, if I get a good offer, I’ll resign and go.” That didn’t move the Lord either so I went to another level. “I am a husband and a father of two small children. I have responsibilities!” The Lord responded to this fine piece of logic with, “Your primary responsibility is to be obedient to Me!” And that was the heart of the issue: my willingness to be obedient, to listen and to do.

I resigned a few days later although I did not have another place to go. But God is faithful and another door opened in short order. God has not changed, nor will He. He is always faithful!

My friend asked me if I thought he should start to put out feelers for other places of ministry and opportunity. I responded that I believe he should to go to prayer and listen for the voice of the Lord.

In John 10:4 Jesus speaks of Himself as the Good Shepherd: “….he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.”Jesus is out in front, we hear His voice, and we follow…because we trust Him. Not every word of guidance will immediately make sense to you, but everything will become clear as you closely follow Him.

If we are committed to following Him and we put preconditions on His direction for us, it’s because we don’t trust Him to take us to the greatest point of fulfillment and service. We don’t trust Him because we think we know the vineyard and our needs better than He does and sometimes we even think He may need a little help from us.

A side note here. If you don’t recognize the voice, it’s not Him! Don’t follow! (See John 10:5.)

In Mark 14 Jesus is getting ready to celebrate the Passover with His disciples. In verse 12 the disciples asked, “Where do you want us to go and what do we do?” (Sound like a familiar request? At some time everyone who is serious about following Jesus asks Him that question.) Jesus responded to the disciples, “Go into the city, and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him” (Mark 14:13).

At first these directions don’t seem to make a lot of sense but they will. Our primary responsibility is to hear the voice of the Lord, to be obedient, and follow one step at a time.

The disciples met the man with the jar of water and followed him to where he entered into a house. Inside the house the disciples followed the instructions of the Lord and the owner of the house showed them a large upper room furnished and prepared (see Mark 14:15-16).

When the Lord gives directions and we follow them, we can be assured that there is a place already prepared for us to do His service. He will have a way to lead us to that part of the vineyard that He knows we can be useful in.

"The disciples....went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them" (Mark 14:16).

Listen for His voice!