Next steps…that’s preached a lot at NewSpring Church! And Perry hit it hard this morning in his sermon in the All In series!
While God has made it very clear what my next step is…see my last post 2 Timothy 1:7 Kind of People for one, He has taken me back to last year and when He called me to take my next step of quitting my job at Daisy Elementary.
I’ve felt the call to ministry since the year I graduated from college, but God opened doors and made it very obvious that He’d called me to teach at Daisy Elementary for 4 years upon my graduation! Then, last spring, He made it obvious that it was time to leave the comfort of my music teaching job at Daisy to pursue my calling into ministry…not knowing exactly what that looked like or where it would take me, but He let me know it was time!
He let me know through the verse John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
This life to the full, Kelly Minter talked about in her No Other Gods study,we will only grasp and strain for if we’re not being obedient to God. This hit me like a ton of bricks that it was time to go after what I had said for several years my heart’s desire was.
So, I was going through this Kelly Minter study in the spring and then turned around and did it again in the fall. I will never forget sitting in my small group the night we were discussing this John 10:10 verse and commentary, and how God spoke to me so clearly that I am living the life to the full…I took that step of obedience and now I was living a full life.
Now let me back up…was my life looking like I thought it would when I took that step of obedience…ABSOLUTELY NOT! But what God spoke to me so clearly that night was that I was right where I needed to be with Him, and that’s all that mattered.
Ephesians 4:30 says “Don’t grieve God. Don’t break his heart. His Holy Spirit, moving and breathing in you, is the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for himself. Don’t take such a gift for granted.”
His Holy Spirit moving and breathing in me is the most intimate part of my life…making me fit for Himself!!
That’s what next steps are all about, don’t you think…responding to the moving and breathing of the Holy Spirt that is making us fit for Himself (aka sanctifying us) so we are not only in right relationship with God but RICH, INTIMATE relationship with Him…living this life to the full!!!
