Plan with a Disclaimer

I decided to write about the topic that I recently spoke on at my old high school's Wednesday morning bible study.  But I'll start out with a little background.

When I received an email asking me if I would like to speak, I said yes and wrote the date in my planner.  

However, I had no idea what to talk about.

Whenever I speak somewhere, I always wait for God to give me the idea, so I know it's what He wants me to say, and it is important to me because He laid it on my heart.  But this time, it certainly was taking a while!  Finally, I heard a little urge on not planning.

Not planning?! How was I going to get away with that topic when there would be teachers listening?  

But God wasn't finished explaining yet.  So finally, my lesson was ready - Planning with a disclaimer - allowing for God's spontaneity.  And here is the lesson that grew and was presented.

From grade 2, I had a lot of plans.  They have changed over time, and morphed, and grew, etc.  But...where are a lot of them now?  So much has happened, much of which is unexpected.  In January of 2015, I would not have expected......to have basically gained another family in another country, to change churches so soon or to which church I started attending, to be going to college for general business studies, to have had something added to my job description, etc.

The important thing to remember is, that God sees all.  So what is "spontaneous" to us is all a part of His plan, because while we see from right beside it, too close, He sees from above, and sees it all.  And His plan is the ultimate one to follow, so while we may not see it, we need to be ok with going with it.  And if we want to follow God's plan like everyone always talks about....why do we end up planning so much on our own?

Proverbs 16:2-5 says that "All a person's ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the Lord.  Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.  The Lord works out everything to it's proper end - even the wicked for a day of disaster."  (Sorry it's NIV, due to where I was presenting I thought it best to use that version.)  I looked up the word "establish," and came away with the following definitions:

• To make firm or stable
• To bring into existence
• To put on a firm basis
• To put into a favorable position
• To put beyond doubt

And that's what God wants to do with our plans!  But what has to come first?  We need to commit to the Lord whatever we do, and accept His spontaneity, and He'll establish our plans.  

James 4:13-15 says (I had it in NIV, but I'll change this one into KJV), "Go to now, ye that say, to day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow.  For what is your life?  It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.  For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that."  I also have a little warning to go with this: don't let "God's will" be an excuse for laziness - just always know there is a disclaimer that God has every right to redirect your path and surprise you with this or that.  

Proverbs 16:9 (NIV) says "In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps."  There's that word establish again.  Now, in KJV, "A man's heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directs his steps."  So here's another word study.  Direct is,

• To regulate activities or course
• To organize, energize, and supervise
• To train and lead performances of

The last definition intrigues me and I really like that definition in this context.  Think of it - movie directors often will change little parts of the script, or how it is carried out.  No two directors would direct the same movie script to happen the very same way.  But if we let God be the director of our life, it will come out the best way!

A good right-now, practical application of allowing God's spontaneity is spontaneous worship, which I have come to love more than any other form of music.  It is, according to a very good friend of mine, "Holy Spirit led singing with no defined words or melody.  Participants are encouraged to use their own words, phrases or utterances to express their worship to God."  (If you want some amazing examples, just look up some of Bethel Music's spontaneous worship.)

Basically, here's the real importance of allowing this disclaimer: If you're not ready to allow for God's spontaneity, you won't be able to do what He's called you to do.

There are tons of examples of this in the Bible, something that major Bible characters that we always learn about had in common: they had to decide whether or not to listen to God's spontaneous change of their plans, and thankfully for us, they did!  

We'll start with the Old Testament.  Noah had life planned.  But then God said, "Build an ark, I'm gonna make it rain."  Moses had life kinda planned; he was working for Jethro.  Having God speak to him from a burning bush and telling him he was to be a leader was not in that plan!  Abraham had life planned.  But then God told him to get up and go - doesn't matter where right now, just go.  Esther had life planned.  But then, surprise! Beauty contest to be a queen! And, oh yeah, you also have to save your people from genocide now.  David, I'm sure, had some kind of plan, although he was pretty young when he was first anointed to be the next king.  Gideon was hanging out, threshing some wheat, when an angel appears and tells him he's to deliver Israel!  He didn't want to deal with that spontaneous declaration, which is why he asked God to prove Himself three times.  And Jonah, of course, was just doing the prophet thing, when God suddenly wants him to go to Nineveh, and....well...we know how "running away from God" works out, right?    

How about the New Testament?  The disciples all had some kind of life planned out for themselves - fishing, collecting taxes, etc, when suddenly Jesus calls.  Mary and Joseph both  planned to have a nice Jewish family when suddenly Mary's carrying the Christ child!  Saul had plans to kill more Christians when suddenly Jesus calls.  The list goes on and on; this is by no means an exhaustive list.  But what would've happened had these heroes of the faith, these Bible characters that we forget were just common people like us, not listened to God's spontaneity?  

What if God calls you to not go to college, to take a gap year before college to do missions, to quit your job, to change jobs, to do missions for life, to go on a simple short term mission, to serve in your church, to witness at your job, to tell that person at the supermarket or the waitress who looks like it's been a long day that Jesus loves them and that He gave you words just for them?  Are you willing to adjust your plans accordingly?  Because if you don't, you may not get to enjoy the fruit and the fulfillment of your calling.