Following God's Plan

Sometimes when God says something to believers about His plans for their lives, they try to make them come to pass by their own efforts. When they do that, they can muddy the waters, so to speak. In other words, they can hinder God’s plan for them so God isn’t free to do what He wants to do. They need to just stay in faith regarding God’s plan and let God bring to pass what He has told them. To fulfill their part, they need to prepare themselves according to the Word and the Holy Spirit’s leading.

I muddied the waters of God’s plan for me more than once when I was young in the Lord. Sometimes when the Lord said something to me about my ministry, I would try to jump out immediately and do it. Every single time I did that, what the Lord told me to do didn’t work out right.

Now someone might think, Well, that just shows that the Lord didn’t really speak to you. But the Lord did speak to me; I just didn’t get the timing right, so I hindered God’s plan.

As I grew in the Lord, I learned not to jump out ahead of Him, but to just allow Him to bring to pass His purposes for me as I stayed faithful to prepare myself. I also learned to get not only the what of God’s plan, but to continue to pray until I also received the when and the how.

Over the years I’ve learned to operate that way in every area of my life. I don’t move until I get the signal from the Holy Spirit to move. When I get that signal and act on what God has told me, I have found that God’s plan always works smoothly.

I learned long ago not to try to figure out with my own natural understanding how and when God’s plan will come to pass. And as I’ve been faithful to obey Him step by step, in His own time, He has brought to pass what He revealed to me.

God has prepared a plan for your life, but you aren’t always ready to fulfill the next step of that plan. So God will take whatever time is needed to develop and train you before He brings to pass what He has spoken to your heart.

Days of preparation are never lost time. There may be important lessons or truths that you still need to learn in order to successfully fulfill God’s plan for you. And it takes time to prepare and establish yourself in God’s Word (2 Tim. 2:15).