Destination God

"A mature man will walk in the ways of God, displaying the character of God and the methods of God, and have His favor on their work."

I HAVE NATURALLY CURLY HAIR. Read that in your best cartoon character voice. A number of times over the years I’ve had my hair did by someone who had no clue how to work with curls. Fortunately, there are no pictures. I also used to color it blonde. I’ve decided, now that I’ve passed half a century, to just let it go gray. But in my salon days, I paid quite the buck to make myself look purdy.

What’s my point? Well, I have a dear friend who works in medicine who is good at her job. She has applied herself to training to gain knowledge and has a fantastic memory for patients and the process of technology she must use in what can, at times, be a difficult work environment. I have a dear pastor friend who is so wonderful with people. He connects to the heart like few I have ever met. In what can be a high-pressure position, he studies the Word of God faithfully and doesn’t let the voice of the devil turn him away from the strength of God working in him to help others. A good and loving God is in control. I could speak of others who do their work well, having taken the time to learn what is required and put it into practice. Then again, there are also those hairdressers who turned me into a poodle. The fact they meant well means nothing when I viewed the results.

Many have put themselves into the ministry for a wide variety of reasons, but it is God who calls us and not ourselves. Who God calls, He equips, and that equipping requires following the path He has written. No two stories are alike, so far as how someone was called and in what they are to do, but all must go at the pace the Spirit leads them and acquire the revelation He desires them to have. And acquiring revelation requires time with Him. Time in the secret place, studying the Word of God, meditating on its truths, and praying in the Spirit, time spent in worship, is what gives us God’s vision, His perspective for our life and how to walk fully in it, and our experience we gain is what gives us maturity.

A mature man will walk in the ways of God, displaying the character of God and the methods of God, and have His favor on their work. They know His voice through relationship gained in their time spent with Him and follow His leading with each footstep. They won’t do things through selfish ambition and in self-reliance, but their reliance, their trust is in God.

Abraham trusted God, although what God had said to him was preposterous in the natural. Asked to leave his hometown, he travels to a destination he doesn’t know on the promise it will be his and his children’s. He’s already past the age to have children, and his wife is barren. How will this happen? Then God promises it again a second time and again a third time. Isaac, the son of promise, was born when Abraham was 100 because Abraham believed God more than what his mind and the people around him said. He spent time with God, He knew Him, and matured in his trust of God to the point that obedience was not questioned when he was told to sacrifice his only son. Even if God had to raise Isaac from the dead, he said he would obey. And he believed.

No one on earth would believe what Abraham believed. Sarah, his wife, laughed. But because he believed, because he walked after God with every intent to rely on Him, he gained Isaac. People opinions meant nothing to him against the size of God’s promise. He did not hear them and fall into doubt, but his trust was in God alone, who walked with him toward its fulfillment. This is meant to be our pathway. We are walking with God, not against Him, and He gives us all the knowledge and understanding we need as we continuously pursue Him. It is a lifestyle, not a moment now and then, but our greatest love. Abraham loved God above all else, enough to travel into the unknown with no guarantee but God’s word. He changed his name to reflect it.

We have been given a new name and that name is Jesus Christ. In Him is all the wisdom and understanding we require to walk into what unknown lays before us. In Him is experience, led of truth and peace, and in the end, complete success. As promised to Joshua, who faced a huge task, to fill Moses’ shoes, and to conquer a land filled with people who considered it theirs, and yet, in God’s strength, with God’s hand, conquer it they did, and so shall we. The wind in our hair, a smile on our face, God’s glory shining brightly all around us.

“This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.” (Joshua 1:8)


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com