What to Expect When Expecting
- I am not pregnant. The title was just too catchy for me NOT to use it.
As always, if you want to skip these words and go straight to the podcasts Here you go:
Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”
I don’t know if I’m just spiritually immature or a natural pessimist, but I lack faith sometimes. I want to hear God, I want him to make it abundantly clear what He wants me to do and I want to see the results of me doing it. I know I am not alone.
I hear people who are far more mature in the faith than me say things like “step out in faith” and “walk in the spirit” and “I declare ___ to happen in Jesus’ name!” Those people are awesome and I hope to be like them someday, but being the person who always wants to know the meaning of every little thing I am always left with more questions than answers.
How, exactly, do you walk by the spirit?
How, exactly, do you step out in faith?
When you declare something in Jesus name and it doesn’t happen, what happens?
Luckily I have met Joshua, the non-experienced leader of the military responsible for delivering its people into the land of milk and honey, Cannan. Someday we will talk about Joshua’s leadership skills, but right now we are talking about faith. I’d like to think that if Moses told me I was to lead (as he told Joshua) all those people into the land promised to us by God that I could totally jump on it and never question it. Unfortunately, I’m more like Moses himself and would argue and most certainly question if God picked the right woman: “who me? Are you sure, God? God, you’re not seeing me clearly, I’m a bit scattered and pulled into 1,000 directions at the moment. God, if you are mistaken, it’s ok because I lack the organization and consistency it takes to accomplish what you are asking of me. It’s ok God, go on and ask someone else who will do an outstanding job.”
And then when I replay the conversation to one of those spiritually mature people that says things like “Just step out in faith!” I want to punch them in the face and ask them, do you even know what that means? Maybe they do and they should be the ones punching me, for I have just understood what it all really means.
Allright, you ready? Forks, knives, napkins, plates. Let’s dig in.
Faith is complete surrender to God’s plan. It is always backed up by scripture and a lot of the time, double backed by a secular experience be it a movie, a commercial, a card or a person etc.. If you are stepping out in faith but haven’t closely aligned it with scripture, you’re stepping out in the flesh. What does flesh mean? (Sigh, more spiritually-mature-people-talk) It means you want what you want and you think God wants it too. In her Bible Study called “One in a Million” Priscilla Shirer explains walking in the spirit this way:
“We must wait to hear God’s voice, weigh what we think we hear against scripture and then follow God’s leading. This process is called walking by the spirit.” We must search the Word, submit to him in obedience, and rely on His power to accomplish what we are asked to do.”
So then, how do we activate our faith? We rise early. We earnestly seek His heart. And we do it again tomorrow and the next and the next. The rest I won’t have to tell you about because you will get a spiritual nudge, you will back it with scripture and you will pray on it. Your desires will become exactly what our God desires and if you’re really hard headed, you may get one of those secular slaps to let you know you may proceed or you’re on the right track. You may not though, and that’s the hard part. Start at rise early, then go to seek His heart and repeat until you figure it out. That’s where I am currently. I started this whole blog/book/email/social media because I came up with a catchy name (Mom-Dentity™) and a half way decent idea for an entertaining book and ran with it. I never took it to God. Now, I will say, although “writing” is not specifically one of the gifts given to us by the Spirit, I do believe that whatever it is God wants me to do, it will be with words. Until I figure the direction of the book and the how-to, I’m rising early and seeking His heart.
So, what to expect when expecting? Well. It’s simply not very simple. Patiently waiting on the Lord to reveal his plan for you develops character. Developing a holy desire goes against what we know here on this earth filled with fleshly desires. It could be as simple as deciding to get into shape or something bigger like starting your own church. What I’m getting at here, is usually we don’t want what God wants until we earnestly seek the desires of his heart. And still, sometimes we don’t want what He wants for us and that’s when we take baby steps and expect Him to meet us as we toddle along. While we’re doing all that developing and focusing on spiritual guidance, others are watching. Our tiny moves toward advancing God’s plan can be so obvious to earthly eyes. We are called to “spur one another on toward love and good works.” Even when we don’t really know what we are doing. We must be like a toddler grasping the pinky of the mother. We must be like the beautiful flowers that continue to bloom despite a typically dry week in the summer. We must believe with our whole heart that the Spirit will deliver results when we have trusted in Him wholly.
Shane and I dove into this topic on the GBC podcast yesterday. Listen to it and send it to a friend.
Thanks for listening and reading,
Courtney