God really messed up our plans last Sunday…
Our pastor had planned a perfectly good message; he had studied and prayed and gotten the message outlined out. The church office published the message guides so the congregation had something to take home and use for study. But the pastor never got to the message!
See, as the worship team began to enter into worship before service – preparing their hearts – something took place. The atmosphere changed as they began corporately to honor God with their instruments and words…the presence of God manifested in a very tangible way.
By the time service officially started at 10 a.m., people who entered the auditorium sensed something was happening. The morning turned into an extended worship service; while it occurred, people’s lives were changed, healings took place and individuals were ministered to in various ways.
Obviously, when services like that take place, it’s a good thing. And Hope City Church seeks to listen to and yield to the leading of the Holy Spirit…but it got me thinking about how often we as Christians get in the rut of living “our” Christianity – the way we’re used to living it – rather than simply living Christianity.
Get Used to Different…Give It a Rest
“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit Who is in you, Whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” – 1 CORINTHIANS 6:19-20 (NKJV)
The phrase “get used to different” has become a favorite one of mine lately. It’s a phrase Jesus said to His disciples in The Chosen internet series. When Jesus has called us and we’ve come – responding to His call and making Him Lord of our lives – our lives are not our own. We give God permission to take all that we are – and all that we do – and mess with it anyway He wants.
Of course, the God Who is love isn’t going to do something horrible to you…His plans for us are good! We may not see it at the time, but there’s always a reason. Let me share an example from early in my wife and my marriage:
Years ago, we tried to sell our home; we wanted to build our “dream” home and were itching to get started. We got with a realtor and put the house on the market. There it sat for over a year without even a nibble of interest. Admittedly, I got frustrated, thinking “Hey God…we prayed about this! We set our hands to selling this and You promised You would prosper what we set our hands to!” We finally took it off the market.
More than a year after that, we prayed and made the decision to try and sell the house again. This time, in literally a couple of days, a person paid cash for it. A doctor purchased it for his daughter; she had walked into the house, seen a picture we had on our wall and felt peace. Immediately, we started building our new house.
After the sale was over and we had moved into our newly-built house, I asked God, “Why did things sell so quickly the second time when things failed so miserably the first?” The Holy Spirit answered, “Had you sold the house when you wanted to sell it, you would have had two car payments and a large house payment; that would have caused you major financial stress. Now that you paid off one of your cars, you can afford to have the new house.” Had we forced the issue and demanded things go our way, we would have had a disastrous result.
But God messed with our plans…and we’re so glad He did!
Romans 11:33 reminds us, “God’s riches are very great! His wisdom and knowledge have no end! No one can explain what God decides. No one can understand His ways.” While we may not understand things at times, when God “messes” with our plans, we should have enough wisdom to simply yield to what He wants – rest in the knowledge that He loves us and wants the best for us as His children – and let Him have HIs way.
To enjoy the June 6, 2021 service God “messed” with, CLICK HERE.
