God will use you...

Stepping Out in RED Shoes

- Day 165 -

The Question is...

Will you flow with Him

or oppose Him?

It dawned on me that God will use you one way or the other:

He'll use you as an example of how Divine Partnership works.

 -  OR  -

He'll use your mishaps to knock others into alignment with Him.

You can either move with God and go with the flow.

-  OR  -

You can push against the current.

Saul of Tarsus, (before he became known as The Apostle Paul), was knocked off his horse by the LORD on his way to Damascus to apprehend Christians and throw them in prison.  (Acts 9)

Acts 9:5 NIV says...

"Who are you, LORD?"  Saul asked.

"I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting."  He replied.

The KJV says it this way...

"And he said, 'Who art thou LORD?'  

And the LORD said, 'I am Jesus whom thou persecutest;  

it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.'"

NOTE:  A goad or prick  is a pointed stick that was used for urging on a team of oxen.   

It was as if the LORD were saying to Saul...

"Saul!  It's me... Jesus!  I am the LORD.  

Why are you coming against me?

You're only hurting yourself by fighting me

 and resisting the plan I have for you."

At the time, God was moving powerfully throughout the land, building His church, and there was Saul -- someone, mind you, who loved God, but was erroneously and zealously moving in opposition to what God was doing.  After this divine encounter, Saul repented and yielded himself whole-heartedly to Christ and well... we know the story from there.  He ended up writing most of the New Testament.

Of course we all want to be the apostle,  the disciple,  the follower of Christ that God uses.  We all want to be found  moving with God, not against Him.  Who in their right mind wants to be the obstacle in God's way?  Not me! and not you either!  But it happens.  And you know what?  God uses the obstacles too!

I can think of many such cases.  For example, my ex-husband used to say to me,  "God put me in your life to make you the Woman of God He wants you to be."  LOL  You know what?   He was right!  God used his mishaps, short-comings and the like to continually teach me, mold me, and guide me into deeper places with Him.  He  used every single one of them.  How uncanny is that?

On other occasions, God has used people who were blatantly wrong in their actions to work something important in me.  I'd bring those people to the LORD in prayer, only to have it all backfire on me.  In their wrong doing, God would ask me to do something right.

Wait a minute!

What's wrong with this picture?

How did this turn into an occasion of repentance for me?

Really?  I'm not the one in error here!

But the LORD used the circumstance to work something in my life that would bring about a maturity in my faith that could only come out of a conflict situation.  I obeyed His instruction every time.  I didn't always like it.  In fact, it was often humbling, but I went with the flow because God asked me to.  I trusted there was a reason for it, and that it was in my best interest.  Looking back now, that was always the case.

God never wastes an opportunity for us to grow.  He loves to see us go deeper with Him and mature in the faith.  It's a blessing to Him.  Even so, I'm thinking...

I don't want to be the OBSTACLE that 

God uses to mature you in your faith.  

No!  I'd much rather be the one God 

uses as an example for you to follow.

Let me be an Ambassador for Him --  

"Follow me as I follow Christ!" 

 NOT   

"Don't do what I do -- Do what I say!"  

(That's such a cop-out!)

What about you?  Are you a "FLOW-er?"  Let's come into agreement on this one.  Let's kick off our RED shoes, pop on our floaties, jump in the river of God together, and move with the current of His Spirit.  Amen?

Gail