How to Discern God’s Will (Part 2)

Forced change. I am not one who always goes willingly. Whether it’s a move, a new job, or a different way of doing things, it always takes time, and repeat messages before I uproot my life and plant somewhere else.

Over the past few months, my husband and I have been sensing that, after eleven years of worshiping in the same church, God wants us to move to a different congregation. Through a series of messages before, we knew beyond a shadow of a doubt our season at this church was over.

It was a wonderful decade where I served as women’s ministry leader for four years, and spoke at a women’s luncheon I co-founded for six years. We love the people, our Sunday school class, and the location.

But we know that we are to leave because it’s been made clear. But where?

That’s the most difficult part. Waiting on God’s direction.

Have you ever been told to do something, but God didn’t tell you where or when? For weeks? Maybe months?

So for a stretch, we’ve been church nomads. Visiting congregations and praying for God to make it clear where we are supposed to plant. It doesn’t feel comfortable. We visited one church that reached out to us with open arms, and my husband said, “I have no interested in going to this church.”

Mark that one off the list.

There is a mega church in the area that I’d always been drawn to, but it’s not convenient. It is extremely large, and that frightens me a bit, because I enjoy a community. However, I love the teaching and the worship at this church. As a sportscaster, I always enjoyed covering the big events, and for this congregation, every Sunday is Super Bowl Sunday.

Looking around the auditorium, the majority of the people, men and women, have their hands lifted up praising God, as if it’s a special revival service or retreat. I want to worship like that. I worried about my conservative husband. “Lord, if this is where you want us to go, I pray he will be fine with the outward worship.” One day, he said, “Aren’t you going to fill out their form for more information?” I knew that was a sign.

As I said, I worried about the size of the church. Would we ever know anyone or be connected?

How do we discern the will of God?

God gives us repeat messages.

It seems almost everyone I’ve met lately attends this church, something that has never happened before.

Coincidence?

I currently serve on a team of five people where three out of the five are members this church. Out of all the congregations in the metroplex, how did that happen?

And last Sunday, amongst the thousands, I ran into two people I know there, and just like I would do at my old congregation, we stood and chatted.

We can’t ignore the repeat messages.

So on May 7^th, we are attending a membership class to move forward, trusting that this is where the Lord wants us, and we are excited about the future.

When we seek God’s direction, he knows our concerns. If he wants us to make a move, he will plow through our reservations.

Repeat messages; the second way we can discern the will of God.

In the Bible, Jonah was told to preach to the Ninevites several times before he finally did what God asked.

In the New Testament, we hear over and over, unless you repent of your sins, and accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you will not have eternal life.

The prophet Jeremiah heard a message from God numerous times. Tell the Israelites to repent, or they’re going to be led off into Babylonian captivity.

And what happens when we don’t listen to those repeat messages? When we don’t explore what God is trying to tell us? When on faith, we don’t take a step in the direction God is pulling us?

Often there is calamity. In Jeremiah’s case, the people didn’t listen and they were hauled off into captivity.

In Jonah’s situation, he ended up in forced solitary confinement in the belly of a large fish.

In our case, if we don’t accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, at the end of our life, we will be eternally separated from God.

In the heavenly realm, God is disappointed that we did not pay attention because he wants us to thrive where he desires to plant us.

In the book of Jeremiah, God explained how he feels when we don’t act on his repetitive direction.

“If you do not listen, I will weep in secret because of your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly, overflowing with tears, because the LORD’s flock will be taken captive” (Jeremiah 13:17).

We don’t want to break God’s heart because we haven’t paid attention to the countless similar messages.  We don’t want to become stagnant, or face problems because we did not listen.

Confused about how to proceed? Ask the Lord to give you repeat messages. It’s a second way to discern the will of God.