God’s Will isn’t a Tightrope
Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. Ps. 119:105
A few years ago, one of my professors made a statement that I didn’t I quite agree with at the time: He said that there was freedom to choose in God’s will. He then gave an analogy of an electrical cord, explaining that the focus of God’s will is for you to be connected with Him rather than the things that you do. So for example, which job you should take is more up to you — so long as you are connected to God within the journey.
That’s an oversimplification of the concept, but that’s generally the point. At first glance, I didn’t like the point. I didn’t know if I agreed with him. To me, it sounded like another version of “Atheistic Christianity”, which considers God to be uninvolved in our lives. It’s a faithless mindset that limits God to the principles of the Bible, assuming that He isn’t actively engaged with us. That sort of belief didn’t sit well with me — not after having personally encountered God’s active voice and direction in my life.
But I took his teaching and sat on it without flushing it down the drain. Perhaps I didn’t understand fully? It took a few years for me to reach my own conclusion on the matter. It took a lot of trial and error and exploring with God.
I am so glad that I had some stubbornness to me. I don’t know if my professor’s definition of freedom is the same conclusion I have arrived to, but this is what I am certain of God’s will is not a tightrope, but a pathway to walk with Him. In other words, you’re not dangling by a thread, restricted to the choices that He commands you. Yes, there are things He is pretty adamant on, but a lot of life consists of actually navigating a pathway of righteousness — a pathway with the freedom to choose in the midst of decisions.
Like I said earlier, it’s not a conclusion I arrived to immediately. I’ve had seasons where I was paralyzed with fear, never deciding to do much of anything without the guidance of the Lord. That wasn’t the healthiest. Then there were legitimately seasons where He was directing my every step (But these are only seasons).
So I want to share with you the experiences I have had with this reality and the beautiful nuggets I’ve gleaned from Him in the process. If you’re in this process, I pray and hope God gives clarity to your walk as you navigate God’s will in your life!
When God’s Will Collides With Free Will
Once upon a time, Adam and Eve lived garden. They were Naked — or “nekked”, as some of my friends in the lower part of North America like to say.
They were given a list of to do’s from God: make babies, be with one another (in every function of the word), be with God, and culturize the Earth (take dominion). They had one fence they weren’t supposed to cross over, and that was to eat a fruit from a tree.
You know the rest of the story. They bit that thing and then passed blame. The effects of their poor choice are still unfolding, but the good news is that God is on a massive “Habitat For Humanity” restoration project. He is making all things new.
But here is the interesting thing about God…. He allowed the tree to stay in that garden.
…which begs the question, why the heck would He allow that sort of thing in His garden?
Choice Bears the Fruit of Love
Shouldn’t he uproot it and throw it in the Eden dump before letting His children roam near it? Apparently not. And now I realize that it was there for a purpose: To give His children a choice.
To have a choice is invaluable. Why? Because of the freedom to choose, we can decide what we really want for ourselves. Without the freedom to choose, we are under compulsion, and you know that controlling us to do something isn’t the leadership style of a God who loves you enough to want you to be able to choose Him or not choose Him.
Now Adam and Eve had the choice between good and bad. There is free will in that. But does God allow us to choose between two good things? As in, can we choose between one job or another, one college or another, etc..? Is there a grey area of choice amidst the black and white yes and no, where we have freedom? I’ll share my experience and some of my journey uncovering these things in my life.
Sacrifice By My Choosing: Wrestling
I wrestled while a freshman in college. Those first few months of wrestling felt pretty difficult due to the high workload (by my measure), lack of scheduling skills, the shock and pain of getting my butt kicked in wrestling , the lack of healthy eating options, and the fact that my back had severe pain (my femur bone felt like it was twisted up in my patella — yay!)
It being hard wasn’t my issue though. My issue with wrestling is that I wanted to disciple students, and I felt like my time budget was fully clocked out. I didn’t have time to disciple people and wrestle (or so I thought).
So I prayed and fasted to God. During that time frame, I didn’t feel the permission from God to quit mid-season. But once the season ended, I felt something like a spiritual harness lifting from me. I felt like the subject to leave was back on the table, and that God was revisiting the discussion. (It felt like a mental/spiritual shift. I felt permission from the Lord. It’s hard to describe the spiritual experience of it, but it’s one way God speaks to me).
The decision to quit was not a popular decision with those around me, so I pressed into God, fasting for a time, praying constantly: “God, what do you want me to do?” It felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere with Him.
Eventually, I realized what God was trying to tell me since the beginning. “You can choose. I’ll bless you either way.” I’m not sure how you might feel if God were to say that to you — perhaps you’d be excited. But I was more perplexed with a side of fear than anything. That answer was groundbreaking, shocking for me.
“But what about doing the exact best thing for my life?” Was what circled around my subconscious mind. I wanted to live an efficient life, a perfect life without any flaws. This word from God was scary because it meant that I would in some manner be responsible for the outcome of my life. God was opening the door of personal responsibility and maturity — something I had little grid for at the time.
Should I stay or Should I go?
“Oh come on and let me know!” -The Clash
Flashforward a few years when I felt like God was inviting my family to go somewhere where we had never lived (Hawaii). It was a very expensive place to live, and in that season of life, I felt pretty beaten down by everything going on around me at that time.
I tried to prepare to go, but all of my financial goals were not met. I didn’t want to move. My hope levels were depleted. So my wife and I sought God, praying once again for clarity. I told him honestly; “If this is a command, I’ll go. But if it’s an option, I’d like to stay in Texas.”
Again, God responded by saying that the option was for us to choose. I chose to stay in Texas, rather than go to Hawaii. Who wouldn’t want to go to Hawaii? But just think about milk prices for a moment!
So we stayed. And I worked with a job that was a financial blessing and I actively served the churches I was part of.
Now that I look back on those situations, part of me wished I’d stayed in wrestling. It was fun! And rewarding.
At the time I didn’t realize that I could disciple during wrestling and that God was equally as interested in my dreams as He was in fulfilling the great commission — and the kicker is that our dreams and God’s commission to us are not mutually exclusive things if God himself gave us the desires of our heart. No, at that time, my focus was the Great Commission right now at the moment.
Do I wish I would have gone to Hawaii in faith to figure out what God had for our family there? Yeah, I do. It would have been cool to see God show up and miraculously come through as He has in the past. But I don’t live in regret about it.
I know that God taught me many of the things He wanted to show us in Hawaii while I was in Texas. And God can always take us around the mountain again to teach us what we need to be equipped — that’s what He did with the Israelites in the wilderness, and He does it with us.
So, here is what I learned. God loves our free will. He loves for us to choose. He will not violate our boundaries by forcing us, putting us under compulsion to do what He wants.
There are things that He allows us to choose between — and those things can both be good. For wrestling or discipleship, both were good, both would be blessed by God. And the same goes for Texas. God allowed me to choose, and my desires didn’t offend Him or hurt Him even though I decided I wanted to stay.
Good or Good? Your Choice.
Paul spoke to the Corinthians about their heart posture in giving to His missionary endeavors. He wrote: “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” -1 Corinthians 9:7
In other words: Paul is saying that God’s will for the Corinthians involves their own choice in the midst of it. Give much, but only if it is with a cheerful heart. Don’t give without a cheerful heart. Or give little with a cheerful heart. Your move — just make sure that it’s what you want to do.
I think this is absolutely vital for us to understand as we navigate God’s will. Some of us are so paralyzed in our thinking (I was) about God’s will that we forget the empowering nature of God.
God is a good father who actually is concerned that we have buy-in with His plans. If we tell Him our opinion, He listens. He wants to partner with us, and sometimes God is just waiting for us to make up our minds on certain things.
He isn’t going to throw us into a prison or a pit either just because we are honest with our process with Him. He likely may say something to you like, “That’s a great idea. I think you should go for it.” Or, “You asked me about my will. But I am interested in what you want?”
Or perhaps we keep asking, and God remains silent. God may be saying, “I’m silent because I’ve trained you to think as I think. I trust your ability to walk in confidence. I’ll teach you as you go, so you make the call.”
That may feel scary at first, but actually, it demonstrates that He is looking to create a partnership with you.
Making Decisions is a Process About Maturation
Have you ever been in leadership where you had no say-so in how things should be run? Your job was to just do what you were told.
How’d you feel? Probably frustrated, because a good leader empowers you to think, rather than only tell you what to do with everything.
A good father or mother gives set rules as well as space to explore. “We don’t do this in the house.” Is there as a healthy fence around our lives, to keep us safe. But when the child asks, “Should I get this or that, or choose this class or that?”
A good parent is more interested in empowering his or her child. “I don’t know, what do you want?” Or, try it out. Or, “here are things you can consider when making your choice.”
And that is the beauty of our relationship with God. His concern for us is that we develop into His likeness. We become like Him. If God were to micromanage me and tell me what brand of milk to buy or what shoes to wear for that day, I may be really good at taking orders but be completely incompetent in the world. I wouldn’t be able to think, but rather, be really good at advancing someone’s agenda for my life.
It’s kind of sad when you think of it that way, but it’s the truth. God doesn’t just want to tell you what to do, but how to think. God in His beautiful wisdom wants to give us a frame of reference for life.
When He speaks, He isn’t just interested in commanding us to do something, but He is interested in building our identity, our self-confidence, in telling us that He loves us. God is relational, and He is not just a master who orders us around.
He is looking for an authentic relationship with you, and relationships are dynamic and changing. We have times of depth with one another, and times of fun, times of sitting together, enjoying quality time without a word spoken, and times of laughter and talking.
If you treat God simply as Lord and exclude the relational piece, you have excluded him to maybe 10% of your life because you encompass more than simply “what do I do” — you have the feelings you feel, the opinions you carry, and the relationships you are developing.
I didn’t realize I was limiting my relationship with God to only “Your will, your way” for years. But again, realizing that God’s will was not a tightrope, but a pathway to walk with Him was an experience I needed to have with Him to understand His desire.
It took interaction with Him. It took seeking His heart. And as time progressed, I began to understand more clearly the leadership style of Jesus in my life. He holds the role of Lord and Saviour, but also Father, Friend, and Counselor. Praise God!
So the reason God doesn’t give us a tightrope will and always tell us which brand of clothing to wear is because He wants to grow relationally with Him. His concern is that we are connected with Him -
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. -John 15:5–8
He wants to empower us to think like Him. He wants us to feel free and in our own skin. And He wants to empower you and I to dream with Him and ask for things that we want, not just what He wills.
*God’s heart for this is to empower you. But there are always seasons where He is very specific in a direction for you to go!! Just know that this article will not try to be balanced and cover both sides of the spectrum of God’s voice and will in our daily lives. Follow Jesus, but in our everyday living, know that God is a big proponent of you thinking like Heaven and not just thinking He is in Heaven ordering everything we do in life.
Free and Responsible
13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.” -Galatians 5:13
Freedom is essential to the Gospel.. Without it, we wouldn’t have the Gospel. In other words, Jesus paid the highest price and put His freedom and rights aside so that you and I could have the option to choose life abundantly and reject a life of purposelessness..
This is one of the most exciting things about our salvation — the ability to choose for ourselves what is true and good. Believing that God’s will is a tightrope is just another invitation to slavery. To believe that every action has to be directed by God only creates a structure of paralysis and fear. When this happens are not motivated by our love for Him to do His will, but are rather motivated by fear. We fear punishment. We fear missing it. We fear not meeting God’s “lofty expectations.”
The tightrope paradigm is the same paradigm of the unfaithful servant in the parable of the mina:
20 “Then another servant came and said, ‘Sir, here is your mina; I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. 21 I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow.’
22 “His master replied, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant! -Luke 19:20–22
My life changed when I realized that God’s will is not a tightrope of control, but a road to explore with Him on. As God began to reveal His heart for me — how He actually thinks and feels about things, and how He wants to empower me to decide, I began to rethink how I related with God and conversated with Him.
I learned the art of dreaming with Him and joyfully co-laboring with Him for the future. He became my greatest friend as well as the Lord of my life. I actually could understand His heart for things because I wasn’t just seeking God for my life, but I was seeking God to get to know Him.
He wants that for all of us. My heart in sharing this is for you to be creative and free again, rather than living with a tightrope mentality. You are not called to be a tightrope dancer, but to be a co-laborer in Christ, to walk in the fullness of Christ on paths of righteousness.
You have free space to dream, to sing, and co-create with God! It’s for freedom that He made you free so that you can do what you are called to do in the first place!
So you may be wondering how to apply this to your life. I would suggest that this article is designed to give you breathing room — to restructure your mentality and create space for you and God to actually build some beautiful things together. When we redesign the stance of God from tightrope to a pathway that we are walking with Him on, everything about our walk changes.
I pray for favor, grace, and peace as you navigate His will for your life!
You can find more articles at www.fantheflamerevivalnetwork.com.
Shane
Challenge:
Do you consider God’s will to be like a tightrope rather than a pathway?
If so, why?
What have you found in scripture that shows God’s will?
What areas has fear kept you from experiencing the peace of God as you pursue His will?
Write down some questions you want to bring to God as you spend time with Him as you navigate your journey seeking His will for your life.
