This past Sunday, I announced my resignation as Senior Pastor of Cross Church. Completely content in the Lord serving here now for 32 and one-half years, God has issued a new calling on my life. On Tuesday, April 2, I accepted the position of President and Chief Executive Officer of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee.
Needless to say, over these past months, I have needed to discern the will of God pertaining to my life and calling to the ministry. In this article today, I want to share with you a few insights to discerning God’s will for our future.
Insight #1: A God moment is a point in time when God defines your life and turns your life toward Him.
Walking with Christ daily is imperative to discerning God’s will for your life. Staying in the Word of God, the Bible, and filling your life with the Word daily in an overflowing way is necessary to see God turn your heart toward Him. When this occurs, you will experience points in time when God more clearly defines your life and calling.
Insight #2: When these God moments occur, they lead you to God’s will.
These God moments can be personal and private with God in the midst of walking with Him daily or He can use events or experiences to demonstrate Himself to and through you. He can also use both, as He did with me. These spiritual markers will ignite your life toward God and His will for your life.
Insight #3: As you more clearly understand and see God’s work within you, you will more clearly understand and see what God wants to do through you.
Even after all these years of walking with the Lord and leading people, God took me back to my calling and giftedness in order to set my path before me. I believe God has been preparing me for much of my life for this assignment by placing me on an undeniable path providentially.
Insight #4: God uses everything we walk through in life to prepare us for what He has ahead of us.
God may use some or even all of your life experiences to prepare you for what lies ahead of you. When you are anchored in the Word of God daily, this will empower you to see your life from God’s perspective. You do not view life from the lenses of experience, but through the lenses of Scripture. This matures what you sense God is doing rather than being driven by experience alone, which can be extremely dangerous.
Insight #5: God’s preparation precedes God’s calling.
God calls you to do what He prepares you to do. Enough said.
Insight #6: God’s will and future for you are not controlled by you, but by Him.
You do not control or dictate God’s will; He does.
