Here's an interesting question (at least to me ;)), how do you tell when you are "waiting on God's timing" and when He's waiting on you to put your faith into action and step out?

We've all seen lot's of examples of people "waiting on God's timing" into their graves, when does that become a lack of faith or an actual show of fear? Pastor Phillip discussed this in part in the service last night, and in relation to several threads here, I'd like to discuss this, if possible.

I'll be reading on this, to look for answers, but please bring some scripture back into this for discussion as well...

Don't have any scriptures yet...(I'm actually going through things and getting rid of stuff and packing the rest into boxes...) but I just wanted to add a question of my own that I believe coincides with yours:
Is it always possible to tell the difference between doing things in God's timing or doint them because it is something YOU really want to do? How do you know? And how do you know when you are just using the fact that you are "waiting on God's timing" because you don't want to do anything out of your own selfishness as an excuse to cover up your fear/lack of faith?

I look forward to this discussion, because the question you posed interests me very much as well...it's something I think about quite often.

hmmmm.. Jason touched on this last night as well...

Yes...last night's message was awesome too. Still trying to let it all soak in. And wishing that somebody would post some scriptures allready. I don't really have any answers here. I'm still trying to figure out the answer to the first question. I'm stumped on this one!

Four reasons:

1. I have been in situations where I was sure I was hearing God's voice telling me to step out...and yet for whatever reason I couldn't/didn't. And then I found out that it's a good thing I didn't.

2. And then there have been times when I was sure that God was telling me to step out...and I waited...and watched the opportunity pass me right by and could have kicked myself for it.

3. And then there are those times when I was sure that God was telling me to step out and I did. And everything worked out fine...

4. Lastly, there have been times when I was sure it was God and I stepped out and it all turned into disaster. And I feel stupid because I thought I was hearing God, but it turned out to be the wrong thing... But then again...after the disaster...it always seems to work out, and I am better for it...

Makes me wonder if I had stepped out during those times when I thought I was better off after the fact (as in reason #1)...if the outcome would have been different all together. If maybe by my stepping out in faith, God would have changed the circumstances that followed leading me to believe that it really was better that I didn't take the chance.

Makes me wonder if those times when I DID step out and it ended in disaster...well, maybe it really WAS God that I heard after all. I mean...as Jason was saying last night, having favor doesn't necessarily mean that things will be easy. Things may seem to be disastrous, and you find out that God really does have it under control.
And God isn't going to always lead you into situations that are just rosy and comfy. He sometimes leads you right into the middle of a storm.

But we seem to be so sure that it's God's voice UNTIL the storm hits...and then we doubt ourselves. Doubt the fact that we ever heard God to begin with. Doubt that it was God's voice that we heard...because surely God wouldn't lead us into the middle of all this JUNK!?!

But I guess that could be part of what "the path less traveled" means...it's less traveled because it's not as easy. And we like things to be easy. We panic when things get tough...

So I guess it's not really a question of "am I doing this in God's timing."?

Could it be that if the opportunity is there...then that means that God PUT it there? And since He doesn't let anything happen that He cannot control or can't turn out for good...then it all comes back down to a choice that we have to make.

Are we going to step out when we know that we hear God telling us to...? Or are we going to hesitate? Because in hesitating, we give room for doubts...and we give power to the fear that tries to take over...and we give a voice to satan who tries to steal our opportunities...??????????


I'm full of questions...and really need some answers. Anybody with scriptures please help me out here! Because I feel like I might just grasp some understanding if I had some tangible scriptures to help me stop chasing my tail here...

"In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead" James 2:17

My Momma always said that you gotta meet God half way. You gotta keep walking, praying and trying. And inside of those three things, there's your waiting.

~Alanna

P.S. See, I'm still here

Ok...what about this verse....

"Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37.4

If you are in Him and seeking Him, could it be God puts those wants there. Sometimes we can oover anylize whether when we pray for something if its God wants us to pray for that thing or if its just because we want it. Well, maybe God put that desire there and its ok to pray for what you want.

"....in all your ways acknowedge Him, and he will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3.6

God wants us to know which way to go, He will make things clear.



Freedom and Purpose.

Posted by George (btw, GOOD TO SEE YOU, George and Alanna):

If you are in Him and seeking Him, could it be God puts those wants there. Sometimes we can oover anylize whether when we pray for something if its God wants us to pray for that thing or if its just because we want it. Well, maybe God put that desire there and its ok to pray for what you want.


This kinda ties in with a discussion in girl world
To Pray or Not to Pray <--click

I think it was Victoria who said pretty much that same thing to me Wednesday night. (that God's desires are birthed in you once you give Him your life)

So...

Given: God answers prayers according to His will. His will is for His children to surrender their lives over to Him.

I tell God that I surrender my will to Him, and ask Him to make my desires His desires.

Q: (told you I was full of them)
Does He automatically DO this?

A: Most likely it is the beginning of a process of purification and crucifying the flesh that cannot just happen overnight.

So...during this process, there will be desires that God has put in you, and then there will be your own fleshly desires. There will also be a third variable: temptation.

Q: How do you tell the difference between the desires that God has birthed in you and your own desires (and temptation)? Sometimes emotions make you partial to your own desires and they can seem to line up with God's Word because you want them so bad that your vision/understanding of the situation may become distorted. So how do you see clearly which desires are of God, and which ones aren't?

More scriptures, please...?

[ 07-17-2001: Message edited by: foreverchanged ]

James 4 : 2
... You do not have, because you do not ask God.

Just something to consider....

Here's the meat, it's in Romans Chapter 7, and Paul is talking of doing the things his body desires, even when he knows it's really not what he wants to do:


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I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.
As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.
I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing.
Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
For in my inner being I delight in God's law;
but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

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A lot of verse, but basically Paul is saying the battle over what he should do and what he wants to do is a spiritual one... which leads us to chapter 8, the chapter 8... we find our answer here:

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5 - Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.
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If our minds are "set on what the Spirit desires", then how can we not pray with the desires God has birthed in us?

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26 - In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.
27 - And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.
28 - And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
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This is not to say that battle between what we want to do and what we should do does not still wage within us, but in seeking His will, His Spirit intercedes for us, even if we don't have the words, even when we don't know what to pray for, which way to go... just ask, "in all things God works for the good of those who love him," and go... if we are seeking after His will, He's already went before you...

You don't mean the Chapter 8?? The best chapter 8 in the whole Bible...???

Okay...fair enough. That does make sense.

So basically what you are saying is that I know what is of God and what is not since I am truly seeking Him and living according to the Spirit. The Spirit will convict me when it is something that I know is not of God. It's those things that I know are wrong that I should no longer try to justify or make excuses for, but instead bring them into subjection, and those desires that God has put in me that I should pray without ceasing about as I am stepping out in faith for them knowing that since I am seeking God's will for my life that He will work all things out for my good and His glory...??

I have one more question that I will get to in a second...I have to lead up to it a little.

God has a perfect plan...we know that.

We don't always follow God's perfect plan for our lives...we know that too.

God can always take the messups and the detours that we take and intertwine them within His perfect plan so that everything works out...

So it seems that there is more than one way to accomplish God's goal that He has for us.

So, do we have to be out of God's will in order for that to be true? OR, in other words, in every situation that we face -- I'm talking about major decisions...not like, what shirt should I wear today -- is there only one right choice and the rest are wrong? Or is there one of many choices that we could make and still be within God's will?

For those of us who made it on time last night to hear the beginning of the sermon, Pastor Philip told us that he was planning to start a church in [Chicago?] another state until the prophet gave Him God's message, and so he started the church down here. Let's just say that the prophet had not obeyed God and given Pastor Philip the message. Pastor really thought that God was moving him to Chicago. So let's say he moved there...God would have worked that out for His good, right? I mean he had fasted and prayed and truly seeked God's direction...so the opportunity was open for him to go to Chicago. That had to have been a door that God opened up too, right? And God is fair and just so He would not have punished Pastor Philip if the prophet had not obeyed God's order to relay the message to him...and if the prophet had not relayed the message, the Pastor would have not known.....OR would God have kept trying until he found someone who was obedient to give him the message?

So that is what I mean by my question. Is there always just one right answer and several wrong ones? Or is there usually a few right ones and a few wrong ones? Anybody got scriptures about that?

yeah, that's it.... in a nutshell



I am gonna look for those scriptures that pertain to over-analyzing something until we are frozen into inactivity...

Proverbs 3 : 5-6

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.