Hello Friends, Family, and Followers of Christ,
As we are approaching the end of this journey that has been the World Race (less than 3 weeks left!), God has still been teaching me new things and ministering to me in new ways. So, grab a seat and your favorite snack because just like kernels in a microwave, it’s about to be popping up in here. Let’s begin!
You know, God has a funny way of using exactly what you pray for to mold you (especially when it is aligned to his heart.) Back before we even entered the country of Georgia, I had felt God speaking the word “Surrender” over me for Goergia. As I started out my first entry in my Georgian journal, titled A Declaration of Surrender“, I had written:
“Surrender of my expectations, my will, the way I want to do things and even how I want to do them. This also includes me surrendering what I think is best for your [God’s] best. And Lord, I want to do it. I want to see what you can do through my complete surrender.”
Low and behold, God would do EXACTLY that… In the process of deciding where we would go within Georgia, the Lord revealed to me that I would not be the one deciding where we (our team, “New Wine”) would go. And when this started to become the case, I got angry and frustrated. I thought that I knew where we should go, trying to fight for what I thought was best. But you know what’s funny? We often times experience the most tension and frustration when we are trying to live out (or in opposition) to God’s calling for our life.
As God revealed to me later, I had a sovereignty issue. I had bought into the lie that God can’t work outside of what I thought I heard Him say or what I thought the Holy Spirit was leading us to do. But as one of my mentors put it: “Nobody has the full counsel of God. Be willing to defer to one another. You have to be willing to listen to one another. Be bold enough to speak your mind but be humble enough to have your mind changed.” The problem was, I was not. I was not humble enough, rather I was filled with a sense of pride that I knew exactly what we were supposed to do, which led to me not trusting in my team and their discernment of the Spirit (who, newsflash, also lives and speaks to them as well!).
It wasn’t until I finally trusted in God’s sovereignty, trusting that He can work outside my way of doing things and listening to the people that God has placed with me that I started experiencing peace. While God may work in ways that I don’t understand or in ways that don’t line up with my way of doing things, I can trust that God is working and as scripture puts it: “… working all things together for the good of those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). Because of this, I can listen to the people that God has also entrusted his Holy Spirit with and not lean on my own understanding, but rather lean on and depend on God (who sees MUCH farther into the future than I ever could).
Sincerely,
Hunter Land
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