But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God. So, Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of His own accord, but only what He sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise (John 5:17-19).

One of the dilemmas of the Christian life is our “next step” in our walk with Christ. We develop our routines, habits and behaviors and we settle into doing what God has placed on our heart to do. In some ways there is nothing wrong with this but when you find someone only doing those same habits and behaviors 20 years later it makes one wonder if that person has ever sensed God leading them to engage new assignments from Him. How does God lead in everyday life. How do I listen to God and obey Him daily rather than understanding the big meta-narrative of God and I will look after the details.

Henry Blackaby stated it well,

“Look to see what God says and how He works in the Scriptures. Make your decisions and evaluate your experiences based on biblical truth.” “What is God’s will for my life? Is not the right question. I think the proper question is, what is God’s will? Once I know God’s will, then I adjust my life to Him.”
We love having a full business plan for our life. We like to control the direction of our life. We assume that we can create our own legacy. We like to be at the center of our own universe. This often carries over into our Christian life and ministry. The core, motivating catalyst for life is relationship with God and how is He leading. A person’s “next step” of doing God’s will is God tells me, often, only my next step. We get nervous if we do not receive a full-blown plan that shows the journey of God’s will from beginning to end. We hate unexpected interruptions to our plan. We do not like to be blindsided by variables.

We are also told in Galatians 5: 16 – But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. The picture here is “keeping in step with the Spirit.” This is a very relational picture – the Spirit leads and I keep in step with him. The danger is that we get an idea or conviction of what God wants us to do, and often it is a big picture kind of thing; plant a church, start a ministry; start a business – and then we act like God handed us the baton, and we run off and do what it takes to make that happen.

God rarely give us the “whole picture” of His will. He most often gives us our next step and often that is all we are shown. In order to live this way, we must implicitly trust God that He will do us no harm. If we do not trust Him, we will not take that next step.

Church ministry is often the same. It may be impossible (and unnecessary) to “not” plan. But life and ministry are far more about learning to take our next step with God and not running off to do something for God. He wants us to follow Him not try and get Him to rubber stamp His approval on what we do for Him. Regardless of whether we are taking our next step of faith in our own walk with God or starting a new ministry, it is imperative that we follow Him, not try, and impress Him. We are doing His will not trying to get God to do our will.

The question is can we learn to simply take our next step with God? We are always in danger of demanding the full picture from God unless He shows us everything that is ahead of us. But life is not a business plan between God and His children, it is a relationship of our heavenly Father with His children. We follow Him, listen to His wisdom, learn about His will and follow.

In His Grace

Pastor Brad Little