It won’t feel normal. People might think you are crazy. Your family and friends might not agree with you. You might feel like you are alone, with no one on your side, but that's okay.
God has not called us to live normal lives. He has not called us to fit in with the crowd around us. Actually, He's asked us to do the opposite. His word explicitly tells us not to conform to the patterns of the world that we live in.
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. (Romans 12:2 NLT)
His word says that we should allow Him to transform the way that we think. Why? So that we can come to know His perfect will for our lives.
This is what I needed. I needed to know God’s will for my marriage. I knew what everyone else thought, and what it looked like on the surface…that healing was unlikely. I felt the same way, when I sat back and thought of how upside down my relationship was. But somewhere deep down, I believed that there was still hope. I had heard stories of God taking these seemingly irreparable marriages and restoring them. Some part of me believed that if God could do it for them, He could do it for me.
But what God wanted to do in me, required seclusion. He needed to get me out of the world, so that He could get the world out of me.
Don’t be afraid of obscurity, embrace it.
This is the place where God redefines who we are. When we take the time to shut out all of the noise in our lives, and we surrender our will to His, He begins a deep work within us. He begins the process of renewing our minds.
And, according to Romans 12:2, the process of allowing God to renew our minds is a prerequisite to knowing His will for us.
When we skip out on this process, and choose to live our lives parallel to the culture around us, we miss the plan of God.
We end up choosing our own path. We live life in a way that is comfortable to us. We live according to popular culture and socially acceptable norms. We make decisions that pacify those closest to us, and then we ask God to bless that. We want Him to put His hands on our plans. But God is saying, if you want to live in my will, if you want my blessings to flow into your life, it starts with allowing me to renew your mind.
Why? Because this fallen world that we live in has conditioned us to think and live in a way that is contrary to God’s plans for us. His ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.
Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. (1 John 2:15-16 NLT)
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord . “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9 NLT)
The world we live in tells us to seek retribution, but God wants us to forgive. The world tells us to act in our best interest, but God tells us to act in the interest of others. The world has conditioned us to make decisions based on facts, by God wants us to follow Him in faith. These two worlds do not mix. They are quite opposite.
So we have to understand that when we ask for God’s will to be done in our lives, He will start by renewing our minds first.
He wants to show us His perspective, so that we can live life according to His ways. And His ways are never what we would consider to be normal. His ways are mysterious; they never make sense with our natural minds.
Throughout scripture, God defied logic, customs, and even laws of nature. When he told Noah to build a boat, it wasn’t logical. Noah was preparing for a great flood, a disaster that had never occurred before, so everyone must have thought he was out of his mind. But Noah obeyed God in faith, and his family was saved because of it!
And when God called Abraham, He didn’t even tell him where he was going.
The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. (Genesis 12:1 NLT)
God’s request made absolutely no sense. He wanted Abraham to leave his home, his family, and everything he knew behind, without giving him the security of at least knowing the destination. And, Abraham obeyed.
So Abram departed as the Lord had instructed, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. (Genesis 12:4 NLT)
Abraham’s obedience birthed an entire nation, the chosen people of God, the ancestors of Jesus Christ.
But it doesn’t stop there. I can think of countless other times, when God has asked someone to do something that didn’t make any sense, in faith. Like His instructions to Moses as the Egyptians closed in on the Israelites.
“Pick up your staff and raise your hand over the sea. Divide the water so the Israelites can walk through the middle of the sea on dry ground…” (Exodus 14:16 NLT)
There was an army of Egyptians after them, but God told Moses to raise his staff over the water and part the sea. I can think of so many other, logical, instructions that God could have given them. He could have told them to get ready for battle, or He could have led them along a different path, instead of leading them to a dead end. Don’t forget, God led them to the Red Sea. This wasn’t the only route to the promised land. And, not only did God choose this route, but He intentionally position them for this encounter.
Then the Lord gave these instructions to Moses: “Order the Israelites to turn back and camp by Pi-hahiroth between Migdol and the sea. Camp there along the shore, across from Baal-zephon. Then Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are confused. They are trapped in the wilderness!’…”(Exodus 14:1-3 NLT)
So why did God choose to lead them this way?
First we have to understand His purpose. His intention wasn’t just to get them to their destination, but He wanted to manifest Himself in that moment. Yes, He wanted to manifest himself to the Israelites, but most importantly, He wanted to show their enemies who He was.
“…When my glory is displayed through them, all Egypt will see my glory and know that I am the Lord!” (Exodus 14:18 NLT)
When we walk in His ways, He gets all the Glory.
But I also want to focus on Moses’ obedience in that moment. We have to remember that He was a person just like us. He must have feared for His life, and the lives of everyone under his leadership, but he still obeyed in faith. Imagine him, in the face of death, stretching out his hand, believing that the God that saved them before, would save them once more.
And just think about God’s instructions to Joshua and the Israelites. He told them to walk around the walls of Jericho once for six days, seven times on the seventh day, blow the rams horns, and then shout. This is how God wanted them to approach the city. Not by taking up arms and devising a clever plan of attack, but by walking around in circles, blowing ram horns, and shouting. Imagine how crazy they must have looked to the people of Jericho. Imagine what the Israelites thought when Joshua told them the plan. Imagine how they felt walking in circles for seven days. Each day wondering if they were out of their minds for believing that it would work. But all God needed was their obedience and their praise. He did the rest. The walls of Jericho fell, and He enabled them to conquer the city.
On the seventh day the Israelites got up at dawn and marched around the town as they had done before. But this time they went around the town seven times. The seventh time around, as the priests sounded the long blast on their horns, Joshua commanded the people, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the town!...” (Joshua 6:15-16 NLT)
When we do things God's way, we can walk into what others have to strive for.
And when I think of the time that Jesus and Peter walked on the water, I think of how much faith it took for Peter to leave the crowd behind and get out the boat. There were eleven other disciples with him, but only Peter had the faith to do the impossible. Now think about that. They were all disciples of Jesus. They all had a close relationship with Him. They knew His teachings. But Peter was the only one that said, this is no longer enough for me. I want to go deeper. I want to experience more of my Lord and Savior.
When the disciples saw him walking on the water, they were terrified. In their fear, they cried out, “It’s a ghost!” Then Peter called to him, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water.” “Yes, come,” Jesus said. So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. (Matthew 14:26, 28-29 NLT)
This is what it’s like to live a life of faith. It’s not about being Christian. It’s not only about proclaiming your love for Jesus. It's about following Him. It’s about actually trusting Him, even if you’re the only one.
We can’t expect to live in the supernatural if we won’t get out the boat.
And this is what I realized as I sought God’s will for my marriage and my life. Because everything about my marriage pointed to divorce. There was no shred of evidence to supported any possibility that we could work it out. But in that season, I believed that God was calling me into the deep. He asked me to lay down what I thought about my situation, so that He could transform my mind. He asked me to give him the actions of my flesh, so that He could show me how to walk in the spirit. It was His spirit that enabled me to walk the path that He laid before me.
And now, I have no choice but to proclaim His greatness. I have no choice but to proclaim how He took our brokenness and brought healing and wholeness. There is no way for my husband or myself to accept the credit for what God has done in our lives. And if you had knowledge of what we were going through at the time, you would have no choice but to recognize that it was the hand of God that brought restoration to our family.
This is what He does. This is what He’s always done. His ways are not our ways; He’s never done anything that would be considered normal. He doesn’t work in the natural; He works in the supernatural. All throughout scripture He tore down the boundaries of man. Even if He performed the same miracle more than once, He did it in a different way. He refused to be labeled; He refused to be normal. And so should we.
We desire His provision, His healing, His peace, His restoration… those things that only He can give us. But He asks us to follow Him. And what does that mean? That means that the path won’t seem sure.
So let’s stop looking for God to come through in a way that makes sense. Let’s stop believing that His ways coincides with our own.
The truth is that He is always doing a new thing.
For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland. (Isaiah 43:19 NLT)
He already has a path marked out for you. And He’s made preparations for everything that you’ll need along the way, but it won’t look like what you’re used to. It won’ t feel comfortable. He will ask you to take steps that aren’t normal, but that is a sign that you are headed in the right direction. That is a sign that you have stepped out the boat. And know, that when you take that step of faith, you won’t be alone. Even if you start to sink, you won’t drown.
“Yes, come,” Jesus said. So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. “Save me, Lord!” he shouted. Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him… (Matthew 14:29-NLT)
This is the most beautiful aspect of walking with God. You won’t have to fear, because you’ll be right there with Him, in His will, in the sweet spot of His grace, the place where His peace abides. A place that normal can’t take you.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, forgive me for seeking to live life on my own terms. I desire to live in your will, and receive the life that you have for me. But I know that your thoughts are nothing like my thoughts, and your ways are nothing like my ways. And I know that your will does not come through conforming to the world around me. So right now, I make myself available to you. I lay down my agenda, my will, and my plans, so that I can learn your ways. I lay down my thoughts, so that I can learn to think like you, and so that I can understand your perfect will for my life. Show me what you want to show me in this season. Holy Spirit, give me the strength to leave my will behind, so that I can follow you. And when I turn away from you, remind me what your word says. Remind me that your plans are better than anything I could hope for. And remind me that your grace is sufficient to cover my weaknesses. I am not alone on this journey, but you are always with me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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