Before I dive into this blog post, I want you to ask yourself these three questions:
How do I discern what is from the Lord and what is not?
What has the Lord already given me permission to do in this life?
What do I do when I don’t have a clear answer from the Lord about what I should do next?
These questions are what this blog post is going to be focused around, so I hope you have taken the time to think about them and bring your own thoughts to the table before I begin. :)
I was reading my Bible this morning and came across a story in 2 Kings that just hit me in the face. I wasn’t expecting it this morning, nor was I looking for it… I think it’s in those moments that the Lord gives us what we need most. I opened up my Bible to 2 Kings 20-21, since that was the reading for today in the Bible Recap study tool that I use, and I read on eating my blueberry oatmeal and scrambled eggs, learning about king Hezekiah who “walked faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and [did] good in [the Lord’s] eyes.” (2 Kings 20:3) It talked about how Hezekiah fell ill to the point of death and was told by the prophet Isaiah: “This is what the LORD says: Put your house in order, because you are about to die; you will not recover.” (2 Kings 20:1) As anyone would, Hezekiah begged the Lord to let him live longer and cried out to him as he wept bitterly. The Lord then used the prophet Isaiah to speak to king Hezekiah once more and he said, “This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the LORD. I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria.” (2 Kings 20:5-6)
Wow! What a crazy thing that God does in these verses- He adds 15 years to a man’s life! To a God who is outside of time, woven intricately into time, and created time itself, this is just a speck of His great greatness that we get a glimpse of in Scripture. Also something very important to note here from these verses is that some may use them to say that God changes His mind. This is not true for a few reasons but when we look to the Word for Truth, in Numbers 23:19 it says, “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind.” Moving further through the story, Hezekiah lives another fifteen years but he wastes God’s “yes”. How? Why, when he had been devoted to the Lord thus far into his life? Because Hezekiah became proud, foolish, and prideful and it all started by showing off everything great he had to Baladan, the king of Babylon. It only goes downhill from here and king Hezekiah ends up dead.
Why am I writing to you about a king named Hezekiah that lived a looong time ago? Because I think there is much wisdom from us to grasp from this story! The Lord heard Hezekiah’s cry and allowed him to live another 15 years on earth yet he wasted those years when he could have used them to honor God, advance the Kingdom, give God all the glory, & continued to lead his nation in a Godly-manner instead of leading them astray.
What are some areas in your life where the Lord has already given you permission and the authority to take a hold of and fully live out His “yes”?
This. This is the question that the Lord placed on my heart as I read through these verses this morning and it really got me thinking. I may not be able to see years down the road or even what tomorrow may bring, so what can I live out fully today that the Lord has already spoken over me?
These are the three “yeses” that came to my mind and the prayers I began to write down in my journal:
Lord, give me the courage and the strength to take a hold of Your “yes” to go to the nations, make disciples, and share the Gospel to every tribe and every tongue. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)
Lord, open the eyes of my heart to see and fully embrace the Biblical community around me wherever I may be. Allow me to feel the weight of the importance of unity in the body of Christ and to live enamored by Your “yes” to live within community. “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body– whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free– and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.” (1 Corin. 12:12-14)
The Lord has already given me a “yes” to live a life that is honoring and glorifying to him. He has given me a “yes” to have a God-centered relationship, God-centered friendships, to work to the best of my ability with a grateful heart, and to speak words of life rather than death over others. “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” (1 Corin. 10:31) “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:12-13) “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” (Psalm 18:21)
All of these “yeses” are things that we do not have to question as believers. For example, we do not have to question and discern whether God is calling us to live a life that is honoring to the Lord, we know that that is already an expectation and a “yes” that He has given us through His Word. These holy words from God are not meant to suppress us or keep us from missing out on a certain way of life! And if you know God, you know that His heart is pure and gentle towards us- He does not withhold things from His children, He actually loves to bestow great things upon us. “For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile– the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him.” (Romans 10:12)
How do we discern what is from the Lord and what is not? What do we do if we don’t have a clear answer from the Lord about what we should do next?
I’m currently read a book written by one of my favorite authors, Lisa Terkeurst, titled The Best Yes: Making Wise Decisions In The Midst of Endless Demands and she speaks a lot on this… so I figured I’d pull so wisdom from a Godly woman who has been through more life than me to talk on this point. In this book she gives us three questions to ask ourselves when we are making big decisions in our lives which are:
Have you been reading and praying through God’s Word lately?
Have you been applying God’s Word in your life lately?
Have you sought godly counsel and insights from wise people who know specific about your situation?
I mean… c’mon! These are such great questions for us to ask ourselves when we are trying to discern the next steps in life that we are going to take. And being honest with ourselves asking these questions can help us see if our discernment is aligned with God based on if we’re spending time with Him (spending time with God => feeding our spirit, not our flesh => allows us to become more in-tune with the Holy Spirit) and if we have been applying His Word to our life (making that head knowledge to heart knowledge connection).
So I will leave you with this, what “yes” has God already given you that you have not been living out? Maybe it’s not living in Biblical community, staying in that unhealthy relationship or friendship that is not life-giving, letting fear control your actions and tongue & having a fear of man, or not honoring that tug in your heart to change the way you’ve been living. Whatever it may be…
don’t waste God’s “yes” in your life.
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