Letting Him Win You (#671)

Wayne and Brad follow up last week's podcast by continuing to talk about the challenge of forsaking our own best-laid plans, to go on a more fulfilling adventure of following him even if we haven't the foggiest idea where he is leading us. Realizing almost all of us seem to prefer him giving us a strategic plan we can follow from start to finish, it is a constant vigil to stay true to his working. None of us can see far enough ahead, nor all the variables God does so we easily end up getting our plans and hopes confused with his. However, to be able to follow him that way, we have to be won into a depth of love and trust that will allow us to be comfortable with uncertainty and unresolved circumstances as he shows us the way through.

Podcast Notes:
The latest news from our project in Kenya

12 Comments

  1. This was one of the best broadcasts I have heard from you. In all my loneliness this is so encouraging for me. Thank you for this honest and open conversation. Am very curious about the next broadcast.

  2. This was such a convicting but true and timely message.
    Thank you so much.
    I live in New Zealand and I usually listen to your podcast each week.
    Bless you both for making Godsense ?

  3. In the light of what you are trying to teach – how do we run companies?

    • John, (this is Wayne) I’m not sure exactly what you’re asking here. Can you be a bit more specific about the conflict you see? I have no problem with God leading us to plan when plans are needed, but having a plan in the absence of his leading will draw us away from him. Most of the travel I do takes some planning, sometimes well in advance. But it is hopefully inline with Father’s leading and not for other agendas.

  4. I suppose it’s direction and change in an era of diminished funding of non-profit organisations. Deciding which route to take in the light of potential funding that would pre-determine that direction.

    • Or, just follow the Lord’s leading instead of letting your assumptions about money be your guide. God knows the reality in which asks us to follow him and he can provide in a myriad of ways. The important thing is that we hear and follow him.

  5. I think I learned it from Wayne or I can’t remember where but in regards to the unknown and future…we can be content with God leading us the next step and not need to have all the steps figured out. Many feel led to leave the institution gatherings but many stop because they don’t have all the steps figured out…they want to know what is supposed to happen next. Because we know He loves us we were able to trust Him that we didn’t need to know the next step:) Actually many were frustrated with us that we didn’t have a plan except following His undeniable leading:) Its because of His love we were able to move forward in that unknown and still to this day just simply have loved the next person in front of us as the next step and nothing of structure has really happened but much fruit and joy has come forth! My girls get to see the verse “whoever saves his life loses it but whoever loses it for My sake finds it” evidenced in our life:) they get more fulfillment by visiting our elderly neighbors, making friendships with those we deliver meals on wheels to, playing music at the nursing homes, helping neighbors who have had surgery, becoming close friends with those we would not have imagined from different walks of life but it’s His gift to us these relationships! Galatians 5:23 there is no law against the fruit of the spirit…as we live loving the next person in front of us, established in contentment of His love for us…we get to enjoy the present journey and not need to know the plan.

    On a heavier side for those trusting the unknown. My husbands best friend took his life a few months ago and his wife and kids are pressing into His healing and wrestling…one thing she keeps saying is how can a loving Father do this to His daughter…knowing she was believing His leading her to believe for healing of her husband who had unbearable pain for almost a year…I have shared with her that we can’t know everything but remember the simple things we do know otherwise it can get mucky….

    That God Loves us, He is love, Every good and perfect gift comes from Him, He shed blood for our healing, the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy and there are other factors of principalities and powers, fallen creation, free will, medical system (he was on so many meds that had side effects of suicide)

    She will say if God’s plan can’t be thwarted (quoting Job) then how could this be His plan…I have shared with her as we weep together that I believe this wasn’t His plan…and she does know the factor of free will but what she is wrestling with is if God is all-powerful and could have intervened in that unbearable pain but didn’t during those months…

    I guess I personally believe we don’t fully understand but I believe He did heal us and did everything for us on the cross and why the particular healing is not always manifest here are many factors including some we may not be aware of. She has a strong faith and God had shown her the word for her is TRUST and she has that hanging in your house now as she presses into the pain with her kids. He also gave her the verse of Him being their gentle shepherd.

  6. First time listener you now have another Kiwi listening to your podcasts I found your discussion very thought provoking. I quite often struggle with how to please God but thanks to you guys things have become a little clearer. I know that I’m certainly guilty of praying for all sorts of things and then it just seems my prayers aren’t answered. So many times I’ve prayed and instead of waiting on my Lord I have taken control of the situation myself. God bless

  7. Hi Wayne and Brad. Been listening since the first podcast.
    Reading your book Beyond Sunday’s.
    The way you articulated thay a life of worship is not an event but living in a stream of Jesus reality, was refreshing.
    I highlight so many lines and paragraphs that your book looks like a coloring book on my kindle app .
    I Am a former minister and missionary, living outside the box for almost ten years now. So i do have a lot of connections made with institutional leaders. I made the mistake of sharing a quote on FB about how you have lived outside the institution for over 20 years and how that looked. I had to take it down ten minutes later. How a preacher and preachers wife heard…. your story saying i don’t gather with others, that no institutional church means you are not part of the church at large? You even talked about gather with others and walking in Christ to grow and help others in christ.
    But a minister friend and anithet ministers wife took the quote as you saying (and because i posted, as I was saying) we don’t need to gather.
    They gavebme words about how we have to gather sometime etc etc.
    I deleted it.
    It confirmed your fear, and mine, at least for my region in eastern Canada. There is a lack of willingness to see any othet expression as valid.
    I honestly have no idea what kindof lens you have to wear to read anything you write as suggesting you can leaveand walk it alone.
    Anyone with a spiritual pulse seeks out others to do spiritual life with. You can not curb thay desire.
    Institutional Church people are so quick to shut things down if it s not of them, from them, and for them. They see themselves as the center of all spiritual attention.
    I know becuse I was one of them.
    I follow a little idea to keep me centered.
    One church, many locations.
    One family, many expressions.
    One mission, many partners and relationships.

    I have to beef with the church. It, in part got me where i am today. The degrees in theology taught me many wonderful things.
    Working on making new fishing nets the last two months and my adult son and I got caught uo on all the episodes we missed last summer and fall while at sea.
    Appreciate you and Brad all these years.

  8. Isn’t the misunderstandings of others part of their journey as well? When we get free of worrying about what others think, even when they misinterpret us (wittingly or unwittingly), then we can put truth in the world without fear. Part of the reason some jump to such conclusions is because without the “have to”, they wouldn’t either. They fear freedom because their heart for God isn’t in their journey. They only seek his favor to keep something worse from happening to them. You’re right, Andy, the passion for God and his community is relentless in the heart of a God-follower. You don’t need to obligate them for what they already desire.

  9. Hey Wayne
    Gary Lackey here. I had heard you refer to a “7-minute-segment” in this podcast when you were podcasting with Tom Moehn. Now, having listened in, I see what you mean about what unfolded in your conversation. Listening, made me want to hang onto the thoughts to rehearse them; like I did for years in notebooks from sermons. I took notes all the time in services, thinking I use them again, not knowing they’d lay in my storage for years and never be revisited. I probably will re-listen a few times, but being “won to love & trust” is an awesome deal. Unfortunately, it’s like the biggest secret I’ve heard on living a Christian life. I wish it wasn’t so slippery to get hold of, or to pass along to others. From the depth of resonation my wife and I both experienced as we listened, there’s a good sign that more love & trust has developed within us than ever before. Yaaaaaaaaaay!
    Thanks for carrying on brothers—this ones a keeper. Precious moments happen suddenly, I guess, after years of unfolding.

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