DAY 9: "Follow the Leading"

There are a few spots throughout the 60 Days of Dreaming when we'll intentionally stop so that we may listen carefully for God's direction and fine-tuning.  Today is the first of those.

ENGAGING THOUGHT

It may seem a bit odd to wait until Day 9 to listen for God's input.  There are two reasons we're doing that:

1) He hasn't really been silent or uninvolved this whole time.  I think sometimes in our Hollywood-and-Hallmark-saturated culture we expect that God only directs us through big, obvious signs, or that He only leads with long-strings of "coincidences."  His Holy Spirit has been leading you already through this process by guiding your thoughts and insights, leading you to unlock the layers of His DREAM you've discovered so far.

2) It is much easier to be redirected while in motion than it is to be directed from a stand-still.  Did you know that it's easy to redirect an NFL Linebacker...if he's already moving?  If he's got his 300+ pounds of meat and muscle planted firmly in place, forget it; but, if he's running toward you just step to the side and give him a nudge when he passes.  You may not knock him down, but you'll alter his trajectory a bit.  We're the same when it comes to forward motion in pursuit of the DREAM: as long as it's a "someday I'll do it" sort of thing, no amount of direction or instruction really helps get us up off our fat, lazy...apathy.  If we're already taking steps in pursuit of the DREAM, however, we're in a position to be easily guided wherever God wants us to go.

So, what about it?  Do you feel the Lord is giving you some instructions or directions as you seek to identify the DREAM?  How does He do that, you may ask?  Well, first off, let me say this: it seems God will defy any attempts to put Him in a box, so let's not be too quick to say how He must direct us or how He may not speak to us.  There are a few things we can be sure of, however: He will never speak or lead contrary to the truth in His Word, the Bible; His guidance is always for our best; He is more interested in the development of our character than He is the preservation of our comfort; His leadership will always move us into deeper relationship with Him.  There are far more insights we can make to the nature of His leading, but that will take an eternity to cover (perhaps, literally).

In Scripture we see the Holy Spirit lead people in a variety of ways: through written word; through circumstances; through impressions in the heart and mind; through an inner voice (or even an audible voice); through confirming circumstance or others who will confirm something we've been made aware of.  Paul wrote to the followers of Christ in the Greek city of Corinth about listening to the leading of the Holy Spirit:

"For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.  For who among men know the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him?  Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.  But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised" (2 Corinthians 2.10-14 NASB).

There's a lot going on in that passage, but notice Paul's intent that we grasp this one fundamental reality: the methods the Holy Spirit employs to reveals to us what we need to know are different than how we normally become aware of things - they are spiritual.  That may not sound shocking, but how many times have you gotten frustrated because you felt God wasn't giving you the input you so desperately wanted?  Was that because you were listening to the wrong things (or listening for the wrong things, that's a whole different topic!).  Maybe this image will help: if you want to listen to the weather report on the radio, do you turn on the shower head?  Do you adjust the hot and cold water until you get the right radio station?  "That's ridiculous!," you say.  "One thing is designed for one purpose, the other is designed...for...Ohh, I see what you did there!" 

Our five senses (sight, smell, touch, taste, hearing) were designed to make us aware of our physical surroundings - and they do a pretty good job of it - but there is more to life than just physical surroundings, isn't there?  Should it really be a surprise to discover that God has also given us the resources to "notice" what's going on in our spiritual surroundings?   Is it shocking to think that He uses that particular means to communicate His most precious and important messages to us, His DREAMS for us?

ACTION STEP

DON'T SKIP THIS ONE!!!!! This ACTION STEP may be a difficult one for you depending on your familiarity (and comfort level) with spiritual things.  Some of this may be way outside your box, but truthfully, actively pursuing God's DREAM is probably way outside your box already, right? 

1) You'll want to do something that shuts-out the rest of the world a bit: go to a secluded space, turn off the phone, duct-tape the kids' mouths (that was a joke!).  The point is you need to be able to quiet the usual parade of distractions.

2) Sit still and ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you about His DREAM for your life.  Ask Him to give you clear thoughts and impressions, maybe even visual images in your mind.  I have found that if you ask a specific question He tends to give a specific answer.

3) Take a few moments to write down what you feel you should write down; what are the thoughts that seem most pressing or most vital.  Don't worry about it making sense or forming complete sentences. Just write!

4) Set this aside for a while (several hours, maybe) and return to it to see if some of the things you've written make more sense or have taken on a "depth" to them (I wish I had a better word for that, but you'll know what I mean when you see it).

ALTERNATE: This one's waaaayyy out there for some but might be more effective depending on how gutsy you are.

1) Use a blank sheet of paper;

2) Write at the top, "What is my true purpose in life?"

3) Write an answer (any answer) that pops into your head.  Again, don't worry about complete sentences.

4) Keep writing out answers until you write the one(s) that cause you to start crying (Yep, you read that right).

The point is that you start tapping into a part of you that is very different than your norm. It will probably take you a while to get past all the surface answers before you start getting deeper.  That's okay, keep writing.

5) Follow Step 4 (setting it aside) in the above ACTION STEP

Tomorrow is a true point-of-no-return: when the DREAM becomes real.