I was thinking through some plans recently. Nothing major, just a few tweaks here and there. Then I heard the Holy Ghost say, “Ok, but did you ask Me?” I had to stop. The honest answer was no. I hadn’t asked God about any of it. It didn’t seem important enough to bother Him with. But that thinking reveals something. Somewhere along the way, I had decided which parts of my life were worth bringing to God and which parts I could handle on my own. The big decisions got prayer. The small ones got my own judgment. Scripture doesn’t Read More
Category: Obedience
God’s Plan: Consult Before You Commit
The Condition We Skip “And this is the confidence (the assurance, the privilege of boldness) which we have in Him: [we are sure] that if we ask anything (make any request) according to His will (in agreement with His own plan), He listens to and hears us.” — 1 John 5:14 We love to quote this verse. We claim the confidence, the boldness, and the promise that God hears us. But too often we rush past four words that hold the whole verse together: according to His will. God Is Not Obligated to Your Plans Here is the pattern Read More
Trusting God: The HOW Is Not My Business
I keep a note on my laptop titled “Musings.” It’s nothing fancy, just a running list of things I’m thinking about, wrestling with, or talking to the Lord about when nobody else is around. A couple of weeks ago, my pastor said something that landed in that note and hasn’t left me alone since. She said: “The HOW is not my business; Trust God!” I sat with that for a long time. Because if I’m honest, I’ve prayed plenty of prayers where I said the words “I give this to You, Lord” and then spent the rest of the week Read More
Who Are You?: Knowing and Understanding Your Identity
Have you ever stopped to ask why you love what you love? Why certain people draw near to your spirit while others never quite fit? Why your mind moves toward the things it moves toward? These are not random details of your personality. They are threads God wove into you before you ever drew breath. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you [and approved of you as My chosen instrument], And before you were born I consecrated you [to Myself as My own]; I have appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5) God did Read More
From Tolerance to Territory: Reclaiming Your Dominion
There is a dangerous comfort in tolerance. Somewhere along the way, many believers traded dominion for coexistence. We learned to live beside the very things God commanded us to rule over including sickness, fear, poverty, addiction, confusion, generational strongholds and we called our endurance “patience” or “long-suffering.” But tolerance and dominion are not the same spirit. One waits the enemy out. The other casts him out. In the beginning, God’s first command to man was not “endure the earth” but “have dominion” (Genesis 1:26). Dominion was the original assignment. It was never God’s design for His children to simply survive Read More
Zealous Pursuit or Passive Waiting?
There’s a difference between waiting on God and hiding behind waiting on God. One is faith. The other is fear dressed up in spiritual language. We need to examine our posture before God. Scripture never presents faith as passive. James reminds us, “faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:17). Yet many believers confuse stillness with surrender. They tell themselves they’re “waiting on God” when in reality, they’re avoiding obedience that feels costly, uncertain, or uncomfortable. There’s a posture of open hands and a closed heart; thus, appearing receptive while remaining unmoved. And then there’s Read More