That is a territory that I would never want to tread upon! I could tell him that like the rich young ruler story in the bible, that whatever Jesus would call him to would cost him, and the big question is not what he is calling you to, but are you really ready to pay the cost! So I told him, "it has cost you to achieve the success that you have. Are you prepared? Is your heart prepared for the call that you seek clarity on?"
He enjoyed the outdoors so I told him, "pack up your tent put your hiking shoes on and go into the wilderness and be silent and still and stop asking, and through silence and stillness get to the place that you can listen and just be prepared to be obedient!"
A few weeks later he cornered me in the gathering room at church and said thanks for the advice. I asked if he had done the wilderness retreat thing and he said yes he had. So I expected to hear that he had received the clarity about what he was to do now but that is not what happened.
Instead he told me that one night sitting before a campfire looking at a night sky that only the wilderness can bring, having made no request for the next plan from God, he felt the presence of the Lord that made his lips quiver and his eyes grow moist. In that moment he sensed the whisper that many of us recognize and usually comes out of silence and stillness say, “I’m enough right now, just walk with me.” He told me,”I love this, I know I will get to doing something new one day but now I am freshly connected to the One I will be doing it for.”
Silence and stillness is where God will reveal himself often more than a plan, but it is that revelation of God that is needed for the strength to carry out the plans that He will surely bring.
Question: Is God only a source for plans?
'So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?”'
- Acts: 1-6 (NLT)
Meditation: The pursuit of plans alone can lead us into some very treacherous territory and into some very bad decisions. God didn’t send a plan he sent His son!
Scripture:
'I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night— but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you.'
- Psalms 139:7-12 (NLT)
Today sit in silence and stillness with the thought; there is nowhere his presence is not!