- 1 Cor. 16:14
We were created in Jesus’ image, and we were created to do what Jesus did. Jesus, Himself, tells us in
John 4:33-34 what it is we are to do.
33 Therefore the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?” 4Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.
We were created to “Do the Will of the Lord,” so we can finish His work which was started in Genesis Chapter1.
Our heart’s desire should be to do things which please the Lord. When we decide to do things our own way, ignoring what God has planned for us to do, we are in rebellion. The bible says rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft in 1 Samuel 15:22-24:
22 So Samuel said:
“Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
As in obeying the voice of the LORD?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
And to heed than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,
He also has rejected you from being king.”
24 Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD
and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.
When you choose not to do the will of the Lord, you are being stubborn – and in the case of Saul – it cost him his reign as king. And why? All because Saul wanted to please man more than he wanted to please God.
Here is the number one way to tell if you are doing your own will, or the will of the Lord. It is found in Zechariah 4:6:
‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the LORD of hosts.
If you went and got something in your own strength, you did not allow the Holy Spirit to do it for you. The Holy Spirit loves to guide us, in fact, the Holy Spirit’s job is to guide us and lead us on the path of our destiny. The Holy Spirit’s will of the Lord is to make sure we fulfill the will of the Lord.
The Holy Spirit tells us when to stop and wait, when to turn left when we come to an intersection or turn right; or if we mess up and take a wrong turn, the Holy Spirit will even tell us to turn around and go back the other way. In other words, the Holy Spirit’s job is to make sure we get to the place God wants us to be.
How do we feel the leading of the Holy Spirit?
Let me give you an example. Years ago I was very active in my church. You might even say overactive. As busy as I was, it did not feel right; I felt something was wrong. I was serving in ministry which Christians are to do, but there was no joy, and especially no peace. So, I began to question my actions, and I asked God if I was headed in the right direction because something definitely felt weird. I felt this void in my heart.
So, I asked God the question while I was driving down the street. I was approaching a billboard and I looked up to glance at it, and the advertisement on the billboard said, “Are you sure you are headed in the right direction?”
I laughed so hard when I read the billboard because I knew, that I knew, that I knew, it was God talking to me, and I knew what I had to do. I had to close ALL the doors I had walked through to serve in ministries. I gave my notice to all of them, and I said, “God, I don’t know which doors you opened and which ones I opened so I am closing all the doors and walking away from them. Now, Lord, YOU tell me which doors
I am supposed to walk through, and which ones I am not.”
Did you know not every open door you see is from God? The devil fights dirty, and he can counterfeit an open door and make us think God opened that door we see before us.
I was in a very famous popular mega church when all this took place, however this church did not bring me the joy and peace of the Lord. So, I started joining little ministries outside the church.
A tea set
Within a couple of weeks of seeing the billboard, God had pulled me out of the
church I was attending, and put me in a new church. There was an explosion of new
blessings everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE! God sent me new friends, a new
pastor who gave me a taste of the Prophetic anointing, and God placed an Apostolic
anointing upon my life. My walk with the Lord grew so fast and expanded so much I could barely sleep. The Holy Spirit was all over me, and the anointing from the Sunday morning sermons and Wednesday night bible studies was so strong, I would be wide awake until 3:00 am in the morning excited about everything God was showing me and sharing with me.
I knew it was the Holy Spirit who brought me to this new church. I had joy, I had peace; and I gained wisdom, and a deeper knowledge and understanding of the things of God. Everything in my life turned around.
The Holy Spirit even closed the door on my day job, and brought me to a new company to work for. The garage apartment I was living in was no longer; for God had me working the new job which provided the income to allow me to buy my first home. I did not do any of this in my own strength, my own might or my own power. I let the Holy Spirit pull me out of my mess, and into the blessings God had for me all along. And you know what? God was not mad at me because I blew it; I made a mistake, pure and simple. I asked God to forgive me; which He did, and I asked God to put me back in His will; which He did.
You see, in moving by my own might and power, I moved myself right off the path God had designed for me, and therefore I walked right out of the will of the Lord. You will never be satisfied or happy out of the will of God because there will always be an unfulfilled void in your heart.
When we arrive at the place God predestined for us to be, God makes sure right in front of us on our predestined path (i.e., God’s will) is our blessings. Now the blessings can be a divine contact with a person who God wants us to meet who will aid us in our business or ministry, or the blessing can be finances we need to pay a bill, or it can even be the future spouse God has predestined for us to marry.
You would be surprised how many people say they love God with all their heart, but they run around town doing whatever they want to do without any regard for God and what He wants them to do. Then they have the audacity to ask God to bless the gift they went and got for themselves instead of waiting to receive the gift God was preparing for them. There is an anointing on a God-given blessing you will never have on something you obtain yourself.
God loves us and His heart’s desire for us is to have the very best. However, when what we desire does not come fast enough to suit us, we often go looking for it ourselves. When we step off the path of God’s will for our lives, things get messy.
Sure, we finally got what we thought we wanted, only to find out since God’s blessing is not on it, neither is His anointing and so it does not bring us the joy we thought it would because it is not from the Lord. I want God to share in the blessing with me, so I want it to be a blessing God hand-delivers to me, and not one I go and get on my own. God is our husband and He is tickled pink when we invite Him to share in the very blessing He bestowed upon us. It becomes a time of true intimacy with the Lord.
Each year I mail the Lord a Valentine’s day card c/o my home address, of course. I also send Him an anniversary card in the mail of the date I chose to dedicate my very life to Him and become a Christian. I even do a candlelight supper on our anniversary by setting two plates at the dinner table. I get dressed up as if I have been invited to the White House for dinner. After all, the Lord is to be honored and respected above all men, and as a woman, dressing up for the Lord shows Him how much I do love, honor and respect Him.
God has a plan for us, and His plan is to love Him with all of our heart, all of our mind and all of our soul. You would be surprised how many people say they love God, yet they hurt Him by walking away from the very plan He designed for them – a plan which would have brought them the most joy, the most happiness, the most blessings, the most peace, etc. The bible says Jesus wept; even in our generation today we still can cause God to weep when we decide to take a path other than the one God specially designed for us to walk on.
I am going to be honest with you. I am not as young as I wish I was. In fact, let us just say I have been celebrating my 39th birthday for a little more than 10 years. Though one of my heart’s desires is to be married -- Even greater than that is my desire to do the will of the Lord. I want to do the work God created me to do, and to finish the work to completion, as well.
It is God’s desire to give us, His children, the very best, and God’s timing is perfect. However, we think God should bring us our blessings when we want them, whether we are ready to handle them or not. God knows exactly when to surprise us with a blessing, a desire of our heart (Psalm 37:4), and it is usually when we least expect it, which is why it brings us so much joy when it arrives.
To all of you single women who are in your 30’s, 40’s, 50’s and above, take the time to fall in love with the very One who created you out of love – the very One who put a destiny inside you even before you were in your mother’s womb. How will you ever be able to love an earthly man who is not perfect, if you have not yet first loved
God who is perfect? God loves you so much He sacrificed His own Son for you – now that is true love.
And to all of you single women (and I include myself in this group) who are still waiting for God to send you that special man who will be more than you expected, rest assured God has not overlooked you, nor forgotten about you in the area of marriage. God is a jealous God and He loves you so much He just wants to spend a little bit more time with you before He releases you to the man He has specially designed ad created for you.
It will not be much longer now. God is getting ready to set up divine marriages. It is time. We are in the last days, and we need our spouses by our sides so God can send us out two-by-two to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
If you are getting restless and wondering what to do while you are waiting for God to bless you with His will for your life, may I suggest praying for your future husband – even if you have not met him yet. God knows who He is and God will see to it your prayers reach your future husband. Start a journal of prayer. I know of a story of a woman who prayed for the husband she had not met yet, and wrote her prayers in a journal. When God brought the two of them together, they compared notes and the days she prayed for certain things were the exact days those prayers were needed for her spouse. Isn’t God amazing!
Do not settle for anything less than God’s best for your life. How can you make sure you will receive God’s best? Tell the Lord you want to do His will, and not your own.
Three women smiling
Cross Creek Bridge Ministries
P.O. Box 572391
Tarzana, CA 91357
Tel: (818) 881-2009
Toll-Free: (877) 303-CCBM (2009)
Cross Creek Bridge Ministries is a qualified IRS Section 501(c)(3) Organization