(Originally posted August 6, 2009)
Once again I’m at a point where I need to make a major decision regarding my future. It seems every few months I have to make a decision that will affect the next few years of my life. This time it regards a conference I need to go to in Tennessee in order to prepare for a new class for Pacific Rim Christian College.
Over the past twenty-five years of my Christian life I’ve been involved with four churches, three parachurch organizations, and running my own Bible seminar ministry. At each step of the way I’ve had to make some major decisions and each time I’ve prayed for the Lord’s guidance.
Although I have not found a surefire way to discern the Lord’s perfect will, I have found three things are needed in order to move forward in the right direction. I call it the WHAT, HOW, and WHEN. This idea was originally developed by Dr. J. Robert Clinton.
THE WHAT: This is typically an impression I get from the Lord that He wants me to move forward in a certain direction. These impressions usually come over the course of many months although I don’t always pick them up. It’s like a yearning that rears its head every so often: a solution to a problem, a call to minister in a particular area, a desire to help in some way. But it’s incomplete without the next step.
THE HOW: This is how the Lord wants you to accomplish the WHAT. You may have a desire to minister to the youth. Will it be through your church’s youth ministry, a parachurch organization, or a missions agency? You may have a desire to be part of a drama ministry. Do you find one that exists or do you start one on your own? How will you accomplish that yearning or impression? You need to pray to discern the HOW. But that’s still not enough.
THE WHEN: Timing is crucial. You may know the WHAT and the HOW but not know the WHEN. I’ve seen leaders move forward with the WHAT and the HOW but then everything crumbles because they moved before the Lord said to move. They assume that because they knew the WHAT and HOW that it’s time to move. Not so. Sometimes the WHEN may not come for weeks, months, years.
Next week I will look at two negative examples and two positive examples.
© Gary Lau 2012
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