Growth is painful. Change is painful. But nothing is as painful as a moment of potential greatness, missed for whatever reason. Time touches eternity every day. Being somewhere you don't belong feels like you are taking a shower with your socks on. You are getting wet but something doesn't feel right. The opposite of this is living in the secret place of the most high God…under the shadow of the Almighty.
Work and love are the two essential elements of our adult years. A man named Dag Hammarskjold once said: “The more faithfully you listen to the voice within you, the better you will hear what is sounding outside. Only he who listens can speak.”
Many people would move boldly if they were certain they could hear God's voice telling them to do so. What if it's the other way round? What if you need to pay the price to be where you are supposed to be so that you are where He is in your life? Proximity is power. The closer you are to where He is, the more clearly you will hear His voice.
Of course sometimes the real journey is to go into the cocoon right in the midst of an existing circumstance you wish would change. You can't leave it on the outside but you can enter a transformational process on the inside. If that is where God is calling you, you'll find His voice in the cocoon.
Don't go outside – go inside. In fact, if you don't go within you will go without.
-Lance
Changes produce the ability to walk with a clearer voice from within. It can be a little adjustment in my life or it can be a tough change only accomplished thru faith
Am emerging from the cocoon and after listening to the latest dream trip realised I have been boiling the ocean!! God has given me the clarity I need to become a pointy arrow. My new brand is Lead Well, Aim High and is targeted at helping women leaders deal with the internal barriers that limit their reach into senior leadership positions. Divine timing as I head to Brendan Burchards Expert Academy next week to get the know how to effectively climb the mountain
Thanks just the word I needed to hear today. Sometimes we find ourselves in the hardest places. We may not understand why we are where we are or what the purpose is. At least we can go into the cocoon to grow. That may be the only reason for where we are.
Absolutely. God will stop at nothing to get us to that place He’s purposed for us.
I happen to be going through change myself. For the first time in 23 years I am out of work and sending out my resume. The thing is, I may soon have three offers from three very different regions of the country. So which offer is the one to accept? As you say, it would be easy to accept any given offer if we knew clearly that it was the one God was directing us to. But when you aren’t hearing clearly, it seems pretty difficult to know what to do…
“In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.” Continue to bring your process before Him, listen, make the best decision you can and move forward trusting that He has guided you through – because He said He would :-}
Jesus said, “whatsoever things you desire, believe that you receive them and you shall have them.”
Brother, don’t anticipate not hearing; determine right now that the peace of God will rule in your heart and that you will know, by God’s grace, what to do.
Remember, the key is not mapping out how God speaks, creating inner conflicts about whether you’ll “get it” or not, when it comes, or whether you’ll hear when He speaks. The key is simple faith that your God loves you and promised you “anything in My name” Jn 14:14. He also said, in both Matthew and Luke that “whoever asks and keeps asking (I assume you know the tense there is a continual tense for all three verbs: ask, seek and knock). Our God is good to us; He loved us so much He died for us and has promised us that He will never leave us or forsake us. Don’t focus on the questionable; Focus on the things that increase your peace because in the personification of wisdom as a woman in Proverbs, He told us, “All her paths are peace,” and in Ps 37:8, he tells us, “do not fret, it only leads to harm.”
Trust Him, in quiet, simple, childlike faith, that He will not disappoint you. That too, is Scripture in both Testaments, that he who puts his faith in Him shall not be put to shame (or, ‘disappointed’). You’re the guardian of your heart. Jesus said “DON’T LET YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED.” Jn 14:1.
While you’re waiting, consider the promise in John 8:31-32, “If you abide in My word, then you are truly My disciples and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” You’ve heard that misrepresented almost always with only the 2nd verse without the contingency of the first verse. “IF you abide in My word” is a very specific contingency. But don’t make it a rule or a law. See His Word as your refreshment, your hope, your peace and your rest. Don’t memorize it; FEED on it! Receive it; let it wash and bless you.
We allow our thoughts and emotions to run free far too often. Abiding in the Word will direct our thoughts, our emotions and thus our heart into peace. May you hear this in grace and peace!
Trust Him!
He is Grace and for Whom you articulate well. Thank you for those words of wisdom!
It seems the Lord has used just the opposite in my and my husband’s life to teach us stability. For our first 5 years of our marriage my husband had a wonderful stable government job, and just as we were putting our roots down into the “American dream” he lost his job. From then on, it has been a roller coaster ride. He has taught us many things in the ensuing 18 yrs. Faith, courage, perseverance, and probably most importantly when you commit your way to God He establishes your steps. We have learned when planning a move look at where your family has an inheritance, or where your family has lost an inheritance….God is in the restoration business. I believe you will end up where you need to be.
At my age (61) I found no open door for my past skills (30+ years in the computer industry). Through Lance’s beta group I started asking God what He wanted me to do. He answered, “What have I supernaturally put into your life?” The answer was that I found myself taking care of two people who were disabled. The connections were not made through my effort, my resume or networking. God showed me something I had missed in 2006/2007. An opportunity to go into a new and more fulfilling career. At that time I went back to what I had always known (computers). This time I went with God into the direction of my future. Classes and certification are becoming available and money to pay for the classes showed up through a past secular association. This week I know that I can change someone’s life who has been living without a kitchen for 17 months as my classes are to help aging-in-place and disabled individuals function successfully within their homes. My classes are taught by builders and remodelers at the National Association of Home Builders who are Certified Aging-in-Place Specialists who build and remodel homes to facilitate disabled & aging populations. See what associations and connections God has or is creating in your life. It can be frightening but God has something great in store for you!!
thanks for this, Lance. So encouraging and very timely for me. God is so faithful to communicate what He knows we need to hear!
Thanks lance, your insights are such a blessing but also a challenge, but usually lead to a greater degree of understanding, greatly valued, thanks.
“The more faithfully you listen to the voice within you, the better you will hear what is sounding outside. Only he who listens can speak.”
This is very, very true! The more one struggles for the outside voices to hear what is being said and heard, one will miss the inside voice; which says, the outside does not carry the impact one feel/believe it does.
Thanks Lance for listening and paying it forward. Much value and appreciation for all you do.
What did you mean by “Work and love are the two essential elements of our adult years.” Maybe you could expound on that?
200% agreed! God let me be with you! God let me follow you on the path!
Beloved Dean, 23 is His number for Death! God is determined to make believers out of His own people. But only individuals who have truly “died to self” can be positioned by God into the corporate “death” He is seeking for His restored “One New Man” people in the Earth. He is arresting you at this point to bring a focus into your life that none of your thinking can ever produce. Daily practice at hearing Him as He speaks through His Word, Signs – all creation, and His Voice is the Adventure He intended for His Valiant Warrior Sons (includes Daughters). In “Secrets of the Vine” David Wilkerson (Walk Through the Bible Worldwide Ministry fame) shares how he was arrested, to leave that and produce a whole new ministry – as he thought he was doing God’s Will – but had actually lost His presence. Solomon demonstrated the same need “a bit late”, but not too late for himself anyway, in Ecclesiastes. God’s richest blessings on you and yours for your Eyes/Ears to SEE/HEAR clearly in this year of the dalet, the four, the Open Door; and which He has for you. 🙂
Peter (Kendrick)-thank you so much for your comment just before mine. The explanation of the number 23 is fascinating (prophet?).
God bless you mightily.
Phil
Good word! As work and love are our greatest focus in our adult lives, they are often God’s focus too!
The Lord often uses transition, unsettling circumstances and crisis to awaken us and to speak to us. The process of loss, adversity and affliction are badges often worn by the great saints of God’s bible, why not us?
Our perpective, dreams and wants can often quietly, bypass His Kingdom and settle on alternate paths of cultural norms and success much too easily. His desire is to build Hope, Faith and His Love in us and through us!
God did not leave Job alone. To his world of works, wayward but, successful family and acquisitions. His did not leave Job alone to his small mindedness. He loved Job too much!
God do not leave me alone! I may not understand right now, but I love you!