What is God Asking Me To Do?
Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” Isaiah 30:21
Do you trust the voice behind you? Do you trust the very same voice that has also gone before you? Do you trust the path that He’s laid out before you? Will you trust Him even when it makes no sense? Even when fear is the heaviest weight you’ve ever experienced in your life?
Will you still trust?
Do you trust your ears enough to believe when you hear God? Do you trust what’s within you enough to know when it is the Holy Spirit?
Where are you currently in your faith walk with God?
Here is Where I am I didn’t write this blog because I have the answers. I wish I did. I wrote this blog because of where I am in the midst of worry and fear as God leads me through transition. I’m sure you’ve heard me vaguely mention this many times, but here it is again. Years ago, actually approximately 3, God began to lead me on a journey; a journey from the old into a promise of something new. I thought that when I made the decision to follow Him, the new would begin immediately, but life corrected me swiftly and I instantly realized that my assumption was completely wrong. That what I believed to be true, actually was not my truth at all.
You see God had called me out of a comfortable, actually successful, and fruitful familiarity into what deems to be a very uncomfortable wilderness. Jeanice Sherai
Year after year after year (can you hear my exhaustion and frustration) God has been doing a true work in me. He has consistently been tearing a way lies, knocking down walls, dissolving fears, removing insecurities, and giving me grace in the midst of my worries. He has been continuously stripping me. He has been constantly pruning me. He has been diligently teaching me. He has been patiently developing me. He is efficiently rebuilding me, but this time my framework lies on a SOLID foundation and He is the cornerstone of that foundation (Ephesians 2:20). Every single thing that’s not bearing His fruit, God deems to rid from my life. If that plant sprouts again, then so will His fire show up to burn it completely away. It has not at all been an easy journey. It has tested me, challenged me, broke me, but yet, it has also delivered and healed me in places that I wasn’t even aware that I actually needed His grace of deliverance and healing. Although, I recognize that pruning will have a lifelong occurrence in our lives. I must be honest with you and tell you that this season from Fall to Winter has truly been one of the hardest pruning seasons of my life. We are at the end of this year and I recently realized that I had circled the same mountain again. It was time for me to make some finite decisions about my life. Here, I was, again, questioning where God was leading me and trying to figure out shortcuts that could possibly get me to that place faster.
If we learn His voice through real life experience we will begin to grow courageous in our faith and our belief that we always knew His voice from the very beginning. Jeanice Sherai
In the midst of my current transition, that is one of the key pieces of wisdom that God has made known to me through life, lessons, and experiences.
I hear God.
Fear wants me to believe that I can’t hear Him. Fear tells me that I’m not worthy to hear Him. Fear whispers to me that I’m going to mess something up if I don’t quickly hear Him and understand what exactly He’s leading me to do in that place or situation.
Fear sends me launching into striving.
What does Striving even mean? Google defines striving as a fight or a struggle. It is what we do when we are making great efforts to achieve or obtain something but yet we continue to come up short in our efforts.
Striving (this tug of war, this weight that you feel within) lets us know that we are going in a direction, that is opposite of God. Jeanice Sherai
Striving to me is a smoke signal that says, “Sherai, you are trying to force something into a timing, season, or place in your life, which God never approved or ordained.”
Striving is the opposite of Peace. Striving means, “I don’t trust God’s way so I am going to develop my own way to His promised destiny.”
Example: Trying to work hard to obtain salvation, when God’s Word tells us that salvation is a gift that we cannot earn or obtain.
Example: Trying to be promoted at your job by constantly being in your manager’s face, but never once being noticed and so the result is you grow weary and frustrated. Did God tell you that was the way to your promotion? Or did He instruct you to simply be humbly obedient in that current assignment and not even worry about being noticed?
Are you currently striving in a specific area of your life?
Do you lack peace?
Is your mind constantly filled with confusion concerning that area?
Then let me introduce you to one of my best friends (literally LOL!). His name is PEACE.
Peace is the opposite of striving. Striving leads to exhaustion and confusion. Peace on the other hand leads to clarity and direction.
Peace that is accompanied by wisdom and understanding, teaches us that we are on the right path. Peace is a green light that instructs us to keep going and not only that, peace provides direction.
Where are you with your decision, situation, storm, or trial?
What emotions are you currently experiencing in that place?
Have you gone to any of the trusted individuals in your life and asked them to pray?
Have you sat still and truly listened within to what God is speaking to you about that situation?
I wrote this blog because where I am currently may be a place that you also reside in this season. Currently I am standing right smack dab in the middle of Struggle Street pondering whether I am truly hearing that voice behind me leading me or if I’m allowing fear, stubbornness, guilt or any other emotion to lead me on a different path.
As I wrote this blog, God helped me to understand the root of many of our emotions in decision making and how they impact the way in which we each hear His true voice and the Way He is currently leading.
What’s causing you to struggle with the biggest decision before you?
Are you afraid of what people will think? The root of that question is pride. Pride is a fruit of the enemy.
Are you afraid of getting it wrong? The root of that question is fear. God did not give us a spirit of fear, but one of power, love and a sound mind (2 Tim 1:7).
Are you confused and dealing with turmoil on the inside? God is not the author of confusion (1 Cor. 14:33). He is a God of clarity and a God of Peace.
Are you afraid of failure? You are MORE than a conqueror through Jesus Christ (Romans 8:37).
Ask yourself what is the root of your hesitation in that area?
Here is what I want you to be assured of as you read this blog. As Lisa Bevere famously quoted, “You can’t mess up God’s plan for your life.”God knows how to speak to you in a way that will resonate within you.If you haven’t heard from Him in a way that you understand just yet, keep being patient.In order to know how God speaks to you, you have to learn how to listen to HIM. We learn a person’s way of communication through intimacy and relationship with them.You have to get to know God, His word and His Ways, in order to understand how He will provide you clarity, direction and revelation concerning that specific area. I’ve learned that in order for me to truly hear God, I have to do a few things: I have to quiet my voice and my emotions.I have to make room within me in order to truly know what He is saying.My heart has to be softened and opened in order to truly receive what He is saying. I encourage you today to get bold enough to make a decision about that situation. Whatever is causing you hesitation in that area; get to the root of it. Don’t fear making the decision, but don’t rush making that decision either.No matter what it takes, take time to get still and hear from God.When you hear Him, follow Him. God has a way of placing signs along the road as you follow the path He has laid out for you to take. The truth is you may never be 100% certain prior to the decision being made that it is God’s leading, that’s why God speaks to us so much about faith. Yet, what I’ve learned is that God has a way of confirming immediately once we’ve made the decision and taken the steps to follow Him.
That doesn’t mean the signs make the path easier, the path will more than likely still be hard; which is why God left us His Comforter, who helps us by confirming our route along the way.
As Steve Furtick recently said, as you follow God, pay attention and trust His promptings along the way. He will show you the way.
Sometimes the answer concerning our prayers and pleading for direction won't be received in the midst of our prayers. Sometimes that answer will only happen when we put one foot before the next and take that first step or that next step He's leading you to take.
Love and Light
Jeanice Sherai