Who do you follow?

When you follow someone to a particular destination, either walking or driving, because you don't know where you are going, you usually pay careful attention so you don't get lost. I remember being in my car, years ago, following a friend to a particular place. When we got to a roundabout en route, my friend went around the roundabout once, twice and then again! I had no choice but to follow. It was funny going around the roundabout and my friend sure had a good laugh watching me following her. The fact is I had to follow as I didn't know which exit she would take and when she would take it. 

It's not fun being lost. I recall a particular evening when I was out with a friend, at that time he was well equipped with a short temper. Well, we got lost trying to get to a restaurant. He ended up going very red, bashing the steering wheel and shouting to let off his frustration at being lost. It didn't make us any less lost but did create a stressful atmosphere. 

When we were in South Africa last year, we had prayed about whether to visit a church in one of the townships in Cape Town. My friend Caryl and I had taught the pastor of the church, John and his congregation, English and life skills. Most of the congregation were from central African countries whose first language was French. I  had not seen John or his family in about 7 years. When we prayed, God gave me a picture of John praying over me and my UK passport application. We knew we were to visit with them that following Sunday. As it had been such a long time since I had visited them, Caryl offered to meet us at a nearby petrol station so we could follow her to the church. Turned out I couldn't even remember how to get to the petrol station! Caryl had left her mobile phone at home so my repeated calls to her went unanswered. We did manage to eventually find our way to the township where I had taught English and the petrol station but Caryl was long gone. We walked around for a bit and asked a few people but nobody seemed to know where the church was. As we sat in the car, I thought if God wants us to be there, we will be there, I had not lost my peace. I got on the Internet and searched for John, hoping his name and church would come up. It took a little while but I found it and managed to get an address and off we went. We were 2 hours late!

As we walked into the church, John was telling his testimony of how the Lord helped him get his South African passport. The timing was perfect, nothing was lost. John did pray over us all and then later he specifically prayed for me and called forth my UK citizenship and passport as the Lord led him.

I spent most of my life being lost. I had no specific direction and I wasn't following anyone. I was just "going with the flow". If tough stuff happened I put it down to: "that's just life" and muddled along in my frustration like I did with my friend that lost his temper. Life has changed! Now I have Someone I can follow. Someone I can trust that knows the way. Not only that, He is the Way. Jesus has been where I am going and knows what I do not yet know. He is equipping me now for the steps I have yet to take. I need to pay careful attention to where He is going so I can follow well. 

Being lost trying to get from place A to place B is frustrating, how much more frustrating is it when we have no direction in life. But because most of the world is lost, being lost is the norm and we resign ourselves to being OK to wander through life stumbling from one situation to another.

But it was not just in my worldliness that I was lost. Even though I have been working out my salvation for the last 7 years, I have seemingly not been any wiser. In the last 12 months or so, Jesus has been teaching me how to truly lay down my life. He's shown me that though I had made Him Lord of my life, I was still very much in control of my life in other words I was lord of my own life. Yes, I asked Him what to do about big decisions like, do I quit my job? where do I move to? do I need to buy a car? But for the rest I just made up my own mind and followed my own will. 

At some level in my thinking, I was convinced that I could think for myself in small things so I didn't need to ask God. 

What Jesus has revealed to me, thank God, is that He wants (desires) to be asked because Him being our Lord means He saturates the fabric of our lives, every thread matters to Him, even down to what we wear. Jesus said, "If you love Me, keep My commandments" (John 14:15 KJV). Do you want to show Jesus your love? It's simple: Command me Lord, what to do with this new day You have allowed me to live." or "Clothe me today Jesus." 

Since I have been asking God about what to wear, what to do about different situations, where to go on Sundays to worship etc. Jesus has been showing me His perfect will every time. I am learning that He has a plan and its a blessing to walk in it. I don't have to make my own decisions. What a relief! I don't have to follow my own will, I don't have to reason with logic or be practical or reasonable in any body's eyes. I can simply go to Jesus and ask Him, command me Lord and wait for His commandment and do it. Does it mean that everything goes really smoothly all the time? Well, you read above of how we got lost trying to find John's church. If you were lost for two hours would you have given up? Its easy to give up when you don't have a promise, when you don't know what God's will is. But when you know, you stay, you keep your peace and you wait because you're excited about seeing the picture in your mind manifest on earth as it is in heaven. 

His perfect will produces miracles

I had been waiting a month for some form of acknowledgement of my application. A couple of days after John prayed, I got a letter from Her Majesty's Passport Office to say my application for citizenship had been received and was being processed. A month later my citizenship was granted. Interestingly, it takes a standard 6 months to process citizenship applications in the UK. Mine was done in 2 months. 

Furthermore, we had prayed about the provision for my passport application on April 7th and Jesus showed me a picture of a passport page and on it was a stamp saying: "APPOINTED TIME". I also saw an envelope with cash in it being dropped through the door. Deborah saw a picture of two angels dispatched, one preparing the passport and another preparing the provision. So we waited in hope knowing He had a plan. 

Earlier this month I celebrated a birthday. The Sunday before as we drove home from church I asked Jesus for my birthday present from Him, I said, "Lord, please could I have my passport." That very day, the money for the passport application was handed to us in an envelope. 

Close friends who knew I was praying about the provision for the passport application asked me what I wanted for my birthday, did I want a gift voucher or money towards the passport application. I said what I felt comfortable to say, pray and ask Jesus what you should do. They sent a gift voucher. It would have been easy to say, could I have the money for the passport but that would have been my own will. A little while later the Lord told us to celebrate the Sabbath on a Friday. In the picture I saw us feasting on a beautiful meal with friends. We didn't have the money to afford this meal but I knew God was saying we had to prepare it. Then He showed me the gift voucher which was more than enough for our Sabbath feast.

When we relate our adventures with Jesus, like these I have shared with you, some people get excited and others say, "that's alright for you, that's how God talks to you but that's not for everyone." 

God does not work the same way in every one's life but we have one God, the same God that does His work in each of us. And when Jesus said, "If you love Me, keep my commandments," He wasn't talking to some people who had a specific calling to keep His commandments, He was talking to us all. So whether He commands you to sell your possessions and move to China or whether He commands you to share your sandwich or whether He commands you to make someone a cup of tea is not up for debate. Showing Him our love is to be obedient in whatever He commands us but we can only do that if we take the time to hear Him and follow Him. Hearing and obeying is not a calling, it is a commandment.

"My sheep hear My voice and I know them and they follow Me..." John 10:27 

Recommended reading: My Sheep Hear My Voice by Joseph Hedgecock visit: http://www.solm.org/