So many people, including myself, regularly come to places in our lives where we haven’t been before. We’re inexperienced in that area and so our natural tendency is to move back into the familiar.
Fear always comes against us when we face new things. But if you think about it, everything you’re doing right now is something that at one time you had never done before.
In Joshua 1 we see a man who’d been given a huge task by God—one I’m sure he didn’t feel ready for. Can you imagine how Joshua felt when Moses died and God told him that hewas going to take over and lead Israel into the Promised Land?
Fortunately, God knew Joshua was up to the task. In verse six (AMP), we see God commanding him: “Be strong (confident) and of good courage, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.”
It never ceases to amaze me what God will allow a person to do if they will just step out in faith.
Instead of being afraid of new things, you and I ought to be excited about new challenges and opportunities that arise in our lives. Even when everybody else tells us it’s impossible, if we will step out in faith like Joshua and follow God, He will give us the grace to go forward.
The Power Isn’t in Our Perfection—It’s in God’s Plan
Early in my ministry, I had the idea to do a local TV talk show in St. Louis. We got a group of ladies together who were well versed in the Word and we rented some studio space at a local TV station to do the taping. I was trying to do an interview show but the funny thing is, every time I asked a question, I’d answer it myself! I just couldn’t quiet down long enough to let anybody answer my question.
Do you know what kind of response we got from airing that program? In six months we got one piece of mail. Why didn’t it work? I wasn’t waiting on God.
A few years later, God told us to go on TV and we didn’t have a clue what we were doing. We rented a banquet room where the ceiling was too low and some of the tiles were caving in. I had a podium and then for a backdrop we took this blue thing that looked like a shower curtain and strung it up on a pole behind me. It just looked ridiculous, but the very first day my program aired, we got 125 calls. I thought we’d died and gone to heaven!
See, when God’s hand is on something—even if it’s not pretty or polished—His anointing makes it work.
Finding Your Fulfillment in the Great Unknown
You know, it’s a great privilege to not live by your circumstances but by what God puts in your heart. If you mess up, at least you will have the satisfaction of knowing you tried.
Find God’s destiny for your life. Find what’s going to fulfill you and all you’re meant to be. Then choose to be bold enough to step out on an amazing, memorable, life-changing journey.
When you step out into the unknown to do what you believe is God’s will, He may not give you a blueprint to work with, but He will guide you step-by-step along the way.
I encourage you to do what’s in your heart because in order to be fulfilled in your life and ministry, the only thing you ever have to be concerned about is this: Am I following God?
