“Going Out”

 

 

Do you have things that you heard or read years ago that are still with you today? Do you have images or experiences from decades ago that still challenge or inspire you?

 

Sometimes I find out that what I had once unquestionably accepted is not really true, or is not the whole picture. Other times I am excited and surprised that I am just beginning to “see” something that I thought I saw long ago, that I am just starting to understand the depth and complexity of something that has been with me through many seasons of life.

 

Then, there are those things I’ve read or heard that keep getting deeper and higher and wider and longer as the years pass. I first encountered My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers in 1966, thanks to my friend George Will; that is 56 years ago. I read what I just wrote and wonder, “How can that be? Fifty-six years!” As I’ve mentioned before, dear George introduced me to Oswald Chambers, Andrew Murray, A.W. Tozer, Robert Murray McCheyne, and Watchman Nee (Nee’s The Normal Christian Life is something every disciple should understand); those seeds that George planted have borne fruit season after season for 56 years.

 

Within My Utmost For His Highest, January 2 has been with me since I first read it, I have not only never forgotten it, I have often pondered it when making decisions, when sensing the leading of the Holy Spirit. The Scripture for January 2 is from Hebrews 11:8, “He [Abraham] went out, not knowing where he was going.”

 

Chambers writes, “One of the most difficult questions to answer in Christian work is, ‘What do you expect to do?’” Then he writes, “The only thing you know is that God knows what He is doing.” Then a bit later, “God does not tell you what He is going to do – He reveals to you who He is.”

 

Now I don’t think that God never tells us what He is going to do, that is too much of a blanket statement, but I do think that God’s purpose in all things, including in our being led by the Holy Spirit, is to reveal Himself to us. I also think that God often simply puts one step in front of us to take, and that as we take that step that He shows us the next step.

 

I find Acts 16:6 – 10 instructive: Paul and his companions were “forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia [the province],” and “the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them” to go into Bithynia.” Once they came to Troas Paul had a vision about Macedonia and they concluded that God had call them to preach the Gospel to Macedonia.

 

This is to say that being led by the Holy Spirit, which is a mark of the children of God (Romans 8:14), is a process through which God reveals Himself. When we ask our Father to “give us this day our daily bread,” certainly this includes being led by the Holy Spirit – we learn to live in koinonia with the Trinity as a Way of Life, a daily Way of Living.

 

I try to be aware that God may be calling me to “go out, not knowing” just where I’m going. I may have a sense of the general direction God is leading me, but I often have to trust Him to reveal the details as I, by His grace, respond to Him as a Way of Life in Christ.

 

After all, if being led by the Holy Spirit is one of the marks of the sons of God, then ought not we to continually grow in responding to the Holy Spirit’s leading?

 

Could it be that we often miss opportunities to grow in Christ and to serve others because we will not go out into the unknown? Do we insist on not moving unless we have all the answers, until we know just where our journey will take us? I have likely missed opportunities in Christ by waiting until I knew more or saw more or was certain of a safety net; and I think I’ve seen organizations miss opportunities for growth in Christ and in the Gospel when they have insisted on being certain of the future.

 

When God calls us, sometimes God may show us a lot, sometimes not much, and sometimes nothing – but though we may face a future with unknown details, we do not face a future with an unknown God.

 

I have friends who say to me, “If I don’t do what I am doing, what will I do?” Perhaps it is better to ask, “What will God do?” Or, “Can I trust God if I go out, not knowing where I am going?”

 

I do not want to be “as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding, whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check, otherwise they will not come near to you.” (Psalm 32:9). I want to grow in my koinonia with the Trinity so that I will be sensitive and responsive to the leading of the Holy Spirit – after all, this is an earmark of the disciple, of the son or daughter of the Living God.

 

Am I growing in my relationship with God in being led by the Holy Spirit?

 

What about you?

 

I’ve included Chambers’ thoughts below, and a link to My Utmost For His Highest.

 

 https://utmost.org/will-you-go-out-without-knowing/

 

Will You Go Out Without Knowing?

By Oswald Chambers

He went out, not knowing where he was going. —Hebrews 11:8

Have you ever “gone out” in this way? If so, there is no logical answer possible when anyone asks you what you are doing. One of the most difficult questions to answer in Christian work is, “What do you expect to do?” You don’t know what you are going to do. The only thing you know is that God knows what He is doing. Continually examine your attitude toward God to see if you are willing to “go out” in every area of your life, trusting in God entirely. It is this attitude that keeps you in constant wonder, because you don’t know what God is going to do next. Each morning as you wake, there is a new opportunity to “go out,” building your confidence in God. “…do not worry about your life…nor about the body…” (Luke 12:22). In other words, don’t worry about the things that concerned you before you did “go out.”

 

Have you been asking God what He is going to do? He will never tell you. God does not tell you what He is going to do— He reveals to you who He is. Do you believe in a miracle-working God, and will you “go out” in complete surrender to Him until you are not surprised one iota by anything He does?

 

Believe God is always the God you know Him to be when you are nearest to Him. Then think how unnecessary and disrespectful worry is! Let the attitude of your life be a continual willingness to “go out” in dependence upon God, and your life will have a sacred and inexpressible charm about it that is very satisfying to Jesus. You must learn to “go out” through your convictions, creeds, or experiences until you come to the point in your faith where there is nothing between yourself and God.