Dr. Dianne Coflin
Co-Pastor, River of Life Church
I’ve met so many people that are searching for direction in their lives, stuck in a rut, or some truly sensing that they are in a season of change and aren’t quite sure what to do. Are you ready for a change? How about a radical change? To have a radical change in one’s life means to have a new thorough, major, complete, comprehensive new course of something different from what it would be left alone.
Are you open to the Spirit of God invading your life with something new? Sometimes in order for God to invade us with change we have to be open, willing to let go, or take a step back in order to go forward.
Maybe a radical change in your life might be to embrace something so different that you even have to lay down your formed opinions or an attitude of heart and embrace a change in the way you are thinking.
In Genesis 13:1 AMP it says, “Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had.” Abram had been in Egypt because of a famine. Egypt meant to be in a place of confinement, to feel cramped, and distressed. One day he made a decision to leave that place.
Maybe you have to make a decision such as Abram did. Are you in a place that feels confined and distressed, and you feel you need to make a change?
Decisions can be so important in a time like this. To decide means to come to a conclusion or resolution reached after consideration. In order for a change to take place, conclusions must be drawn and decisions made. Is it true God wants me to leave, or does He want me to adjust my attitude, or could it be embracing something new right where I am?
That brings to mind the story of Isaac in Genesis chapter 26 who also was in a place of famine and yet God told him to stay put and He would favor and bless him.
I often think how dependent we are on God’s guidance. I would imagine if I were to ask you, do you want God’s will for your life? You would reply, absolutely YES! But do I want God’s will for my life if it means I may have to change? How about a radical change? Certainly all these questions require more thought, and how does God lead me into change?
Did you know that Jesus spent several chapters in the book of John teaching the disciples that one of the purposes for sending the Holy Spirit was to help lead them and guide them? The word to lead means, to prepare the way for, to induce to follow a wise course, or to act as a guide to show the way.
In John 16:13 AMP it says, “But when He, the Spirit of Truth (the Truth-giving Spirit) comes, He will guide you into all the Truth (the whole, full Truth). For He will not speak His own message [on His own authority]; but He will tell whatever He hears [from the Father; He will give the message that has been given to Him], and He will announce and declare to you the things that are to come [that will happen in the future]”
The Holy Spirit has been given to us to HELP lead and guide us in every area of life. Ask for His Help! Paul writes in Galatians 2:2 NLT, “I went there because God revealed to me that I should go.” The Holy Spirit had shown Paul what to do.
I love this very familiar passage of scripture in Proverbs 3: 5-6 AMP, “Lean on, trust, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding. In all your ways know, recognize and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your path.”
There are four things I feel that these scriptures point out.
#1) First, God asks us to trust and be confident in the Lord! He desires for us to have a strong belief and assurance in Him! Especially when we need to know the path to take or the direction to go. He asks us to rely on Him.
#2) Secondly, He requests us to not lean on our own understanding. Imagine that! Isn’t that the first thing we do is to begin to try to figure things out with our own understanding. Yet God asks us to not even try to lean on our own intelligence, knowledge, or familiarity with something. That would lead me to believe that there are times where God may lead us and it would absolutely make no sense!!
#3) Thirdly, He says In all your ways to acknowledge Him! That means in every way, plan, or direction. Do you know how easy it is to think of asking God’s help in the big things and not to bother Him with the little things? Yet he asks us to acknowledge him in all our ways.
#4) Finally, He says he will direct, make straight and plain your path. This speaks to me of clarity, no confusion, and a clear solution. If the spirit of God is on the inside to lead us and guide us, he will attest and confirm with our own spirit the way to take!!
In Proverbs 16:1-3 AMP He states it like this: “The plans of the mind and orderly thinking belong to man, but from the Lord comes the [wise] answer of the tongue. All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirits (the thoughts and intents of the heart). Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed.”
The Lord will show you the right way through the Holy Spirit’s help by causing your thoughts to become agreeable to His will. After you have prayed and acknowledged Him, trust that your thoughts are being established by His direction. Sometimes having a radical change isn’t necessarily in having to relocate to a new location as Abram did, but a new place of thinking that gives you a fresh new outlook, His way of thinking.
I believe that the Lord is saying that whatever circumstances you may feel you are in that solicit a feeling of confinement or stress, He has another way. He asks us to realize our own wisdom is not enough but to acknowledge Him and He will reveal His way to take.
Dr. Dianne Coflin, Co-Pastor of River of Life Church, Lutz, Florida. Our services begin 10:30am on Sundays. We would love to have you come!!
410 E. Chapman Rd.
Lutz, FL.33549 • (813) 949-9931
www.roltampa.org