There’s a certain joy that comes when you know you’re living in the will of God, when God uses your life in a powerful way. If you’ve ever felt this, then you know what I’m talking about. When you’ve ever stood for Christ, or shared God’s love with someone in your world, when your prayers are answered, or you see God’s work in someone else’s life, I love the exhilaration that you get when God includes you in His work. The truth is, God can do miracles on His own – He doesn’t so much need us to do a work in someone’s life, but I think He loves to include us. He loves to use His people to fulfill His will, to create an atmosphere of faith in our world.
What a privilege to be part of this miraculous symbiotic relationship with God, which truly provides meaning and purpose in our life! God wants us to live according to His promptings and power. This is what discipleship looks like, I think. The Bible talks about continuously being prayerful. In 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18 it says, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Being conscious of God’s promptings and acting on those promptings, as they come up, is part of living prayerfully. I don’t always get this balance right in my life. I can forget to be open to God’s promptings in my life. I can get busy, or caught up. But, recently, I was reminded of how important it is to live close to God and pray into reality God’s promptings in my heart. I try and listen to what God is saying and I love sharing with others a word of encouragement or a dream that God has dropped into my heart. On this particular day, I was in a counselling sessions with one of my clients, who was debriefing with me on a situation they have in their life. They said to me, “You’re gonna think this is silly, but I found a new strategy to deal with my negative thoughts…” I prompted them to go on with their story and they began to say, “I got this visual of a big shield, and I was using that shield to bat away the negative thoughts that were coming my way.” They went on the say, “I began to hold up the shield and yell ‘that’s not the truth…this is the truth’’’.
To put this in perspective, this client is not a Christian, and I am unaware of any Christian influences in their life. But the visualisation they came to, is strikingly similar to Ephesians 6, which tells us to put on the whole armour of God. They were hearing from God! Now the miracle is in how God orchestrates this. My colleagues and I pray over our offices, I ask God to be with, and protect my clients, and I ask God to be in my counselling sessions. You can imagine, when my client said this, that I was quaking inside with joy and excitement and thankfulness of God. We are part of something so much greater than our comprehension. He is using us powerfully and has placed us exactly where He needs us to bring His love, His freedom and His salvation to the people in our world. What is He calling you to do? What is your part in this life? What makes your heart sing? What energises you? It’s so worth it when you find yourself in the will of God!
