The other night I started to look through a workbook I borrowed from my in-laws called Experiencing God as Couples by Henry T. Blackaby. In it Henry Blackaby writes, "When God gets ready for you to take a new step or direction in His activity, it will always be in sequence with what He has already been doing in your life." He goes on to talk about looking to spiritual markers in your life to help you discern God's leading. I kinda like to think of spiritual markers as those piles of stones you see on hikes, pointing you in the right direction toward your destination.
For my husband and I, God has used this workbook as a spiritual marker today. Let me explain. About a year and a half ago, a couple that we knew in ministry asked my husband and I for pre-marital counseling. We were shocked and humbled, to say the least, that this godly couple had asked us to help them prepare for marriage. We had no credentials or degrees or experience in doing this...none whatsoever, but we prayerfully lifted this up to God and waited. To our astonishment, He confirmed that He wanted us to do it. So we prayerfully created some topics to discuss with them, and stepped out in faith. Each meeting we prayed that the Holy Spirit would lead and guide our time with them, and all I can say is WOW. God met us each time, revealing His presence, and showed my husband and I how to work as a team. His gifts and my gifts were like a symphony, complementing and working in perfect unity together. We could do nothing but give God the glory for the miraculous ways he moved and worked in us.
After that amazing experience we began to wonder if God has a special ministry to couples in our future. To make a long story short, several months ago we began a major apartment room change and organization project. Living in New York City, our space is extremely tight. We chose to do this to maximize our space for our family and also to make it big enough to host more groups for ministry in our home. Our project included making our master bedroom into our living room, our living room into our dining room, our office into our bedroom, and our hallway into a large office/storage area! If your head is spinning just thinking about it, imagine what it was like for us! We had to sell furniture, including our beloved king size canopy bed, and add a gazillion bookshelves to our walls, but we are now in the final stages of getting our apartment together. Thank God!
This morning right after I had prayed for guidance in writing this much overdue blog, my husband called and I told him how much I wanted to order the DVD set and go through the Experiencing God as Couples workbook with him. As I looked into buying the set online and thought about the topic of this blog, the spiritual markers suddenly became clear. We can use our bigger living space and invite other couples to go through the workbook together! Wow, thanks God!
How about you, what are the spiritual markers in your life? Where might God be directing you?
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.
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