If you were here last week, you will recall I was having what can only be described as a full-grown toddler fit with God. You know the kind…
I don’t want to do this. This is not what I had in mind.
I am certain God was unimpressed with my presentation. The very next day, I sat in church while visiting Pastor Jerry Flowers preached a message titled “Heartbreak & God’s Timing.” The message centered on what happens when our expectations collide with God’s process, and one statement gave that fist to the mouth ooh feeling:
“Worry is a down payment on a problem you don’t even have yet.”
Well…
Pastor Flowers challenged something else we (believers) do on the regular. We are quick to blame every uncomfortable season on the enemy. Every delay must be spiritual warfare. Every closed door must be the devil. Every difficult assignment must mean we are somewhere we are not supposed to be. But what if some of the pressure is not opposition? What if it is preparation?
During the process he calls “The Journey of Promise,” Flowers teaches that pain and purpose can exist together and that part of receiving a promise is allowing God to develop us for it. So, I began to reconsider the season I am currently in.
Does Pressure Have a Purpose?
I have been very open about the fact that this current season has not looked the way I expected it to look. Teaching was not where I thought I was headed. And yet, this week, several students independently shared with me what their experience with me as faculty has meant to them. One even asked me to mentor them after they graduate.
One student saying something kind is encouraging. Several students, separately, speaking the same thing? I started paying attention. Because perhaps I had been so focused on asking God, “Why am I here?” that I was missing what He was showing me about who I am becoming here. Maybe this season is not a detour from purpose. Maybe it is development for purpose.
God Is Not the Author of Confusion
First Corinthians 14:33 says,
“For God is not a God of disorder but of peace.” (NIV)
That does not mean we will always understand what God is doing. There is a difference between mystery and confusion. I will never know where every step leads. I may not understand the timing, but I can still have peace about the next step. Being obedient to God’s itinerary requires listening. And listening to God is different from asking Him to cosign what we already decided. Ouch…I know.
So How Do We Actually Listen?
Priscilla Shirer has spent much of her ministry teaching about discerning the voice of God. One of the foundational ideas in her teaching is that recognizing God’s voice grows out of relationship with Him. We learn the character, language, and tone of the One we consistently spend time with (in His Word).
Lysa TerKeurst offers a practical filter. When she believes God may be directing her, she asks whether what she is sensing aligns with Scripture, reflects God’s character, receives confirmation through prayer, church messages or trusted conversations, stretches beyond her own ability, and ultimately pleases God. That third one is the one. It’s when we’re like…Lord, is that you, or am I making this up in my head?
Is God confirming the message through multiple places?
Quiet time.
Scripture.
A sermon.
A conversation.
Students who have absolutely no idea what I have been talking to God about.
Hmmm…
Confirmation does not always arrive with thunder from heaven. Sometimes it sounds like the same message showing up over and over until we finally stop saying, “Lord, could You make it clearer?” And God is probably like, Girl…!
Confirmation Does Not Mean Comfortable
Scripture gives us absolutely no basis for believing obedience will always feel comfortable.
James 1:2-4 reminds us that the testing of our faith develops perseverance and that perseverance does something in us. It matures us. Christine Caine puts it another way: we are called to obedience, not convenience. God’s plan for our lives may require releasing the version we mapped out for ourselves and faithfully working where He has us while remaining ready when He opens the next door.
That sounds suspiciously relevant to my life right now. Maybe the pressure I have been feeling is God pressing something out of me.
More patience.
More surrender.
More confidence in gifts I minimize.
More clarity about whom I am called to serve.
More willingness to allow purpose to evolve beyond the title I thought it had to carry.
More trust.
I am learning to recognize His direction through Scripture, prayer, wise counsel, repeated confirmation, opportunities to use what He has already placed in me, and the quiet peace that remains even when my circumstances are not particularly peaceful. Sometimes confirmation simply says:
Yes, daughter. You heard Me…
Keep teaching.
Keep pouring.
Keep building.
Keep growing.
Keep preparing.
Keep walking.
The pressure is not necessarily punishment. The waiting is definitely not wasted (I know from experience). And the unfamiliar road is not necessarily the wrong one. Sometimes God is developing us for the very thing we have been asking Him for. Perhaps my prayer in this season needs to change. Less, “God, I don’t wanna go there.” And more,
“God, please do not let me leave this season without becoming everything You brought me here to become!”
