Internal Navigator

Step 6: Have a Plan

If you want to get from point A to point B, you don’t just hop in your car and enter some random address into your GPS and say, “Guess I’ll go there today.” No, you decide where you want to go and then find the address of that location.

God doesn’t come up with random places to take you. He has strategically planned out exactly where He wants you to go. Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV) reminds us, “He knows the plans He has for us … plans to proper us and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and a future.” Psalm 139: 16 (NIV) says, “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” This journey you are on is not a game to God. His plan is to complete the good work that He started in you (Philippians 1:6).

GET ON BOARD

Heed the Instructions

When I conducted group counseling sessions with children, one of our rules was that when someone else was talking the rest needed to have quiet lips and listening ears. This elementary rule has spiritual applications. To set a conducive atmosphere for the Holy Spirit to speak to us about our destinations, we need to remove the distraction of self, shutting our mouths and opening our ears to what He has to say. If two people are talking at the same time, they are talking at each other, not to each other. Both will miss part of what the other is saying. Effective communication involves listening and then responding accordingly.

I love watching Family Feud. Partly because Steve Harvey is so funny. But also because it takes great cognitive ability to quickly listen to the question and then respond immediately with an answer off the top of your head. I laugh when a family member hits the buzzer before the host finishes the question and then gives an answer they would not have said if they’d waited to hear the entire question. For example, on one show, Steve Harvey started with “What does a woman do for her baby—” The buzzer went off and a girl shouted, “Change his diaper!” The answer was not up there. With a smirk, Steve Harvey finished the question: “What does a woman do for her baby that she also does for her husband?” The woman who rushed to speak missed some vital information that would have helped her respond more appropriately.

We will find ourselves in that same predicament if we rush past the Holy Spirit and don’t give Him a chance to impart the necessary things into our lives. We need to be attentive and fully engaged as we commune with the Father as He guides us. Listening is a key ingredient to reaching our destination.

Here is a prime example. When my brother told me that he and his friend were coming to visit me one weekend, I planned several fun activities for us to enjoy. One of them was going to a facility that had a game room, go-karts, a batting cage, and more. I called the place to get the address. The man who answered tried to give me detailed directions, but I didn’t pay attention. I had the GPS and an address—I didn’t need anything else.

When the three of us got together, we hopped in the car and I entered the address into my GPS. Thirty minutes later we pulled up to a deserted building. I called the place again. The man who answered told me I had the right address but the wrong zip code. The street we were on stretched across the city and into another one. The man told me to head toward Memphis instead of Clarksville, and that made all the difference.

As I thought back to when I first called, I realized that the man had tried to tell me specifically where the place was, but I tuned him out after he gave me the address. I heard only the part I wanted to hear because I believed my GPS would handle the rest. If I had listened to the full instructions, we would not have gotten lost or gone an hour out of our way.

We tend to think we can succeed by our own skills, wits, and assets. But these man-made resources are insufficient. We need every detail of the Holy Spirit’s guidance and instruction in order to reach our desired destination. Leaning on our own understanding and having selective hearing will delay our process and get us far off track.

God does not waste words. When He speaks, He does so with a purpose. Listen to all that He has to say, even if you feel that some of the information is irrelevant or unimportant. If it doesn’t have meaning in your life at the moment, it will down the road.