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Farther Along from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo.

Today I want to talk about dealing with things that we don’t understand. There will be times in life when the path becomes dark, and we have to walk by faith. I want to begin in Psalm 119:

(Psalm 119:105 NKJV) Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.

The lamp in this Psalm is an oil lamp, which only gives a small circle of light. When traveling along the road at night, it was just enough to see a few steps ahead. If you wanted to see farther, then you had to take another step and the circle of light moved with you.

Walking with the Lord is a lot like that. He will usually speak to us about something, but then the ball is in our court and it is our turn to take the next step. When we take action, then the lamp moves with us and something new comes. At times in my life I have moved along very quickly and at others I just sat there, stalled. The rule is that you stay with the last word given until a new one comes.

Consider the Apostle Paul and his companions in Acts chapter 16:

Acts 16:6–10 NKJV: Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them. So passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.

The Apostle Paul was on his second missionary journey and they were visiting all the churches they had established during the first trip, when the Holy Spirit intervened and interrupted their path. He didn’t give them a new one either, He just closed the door to where they were going. Paul tried another route, but the Spirit “did not permit them” to go there either. So they followed the only path that was open to them, down to Troas. There the Holy Spirit spoke to Paul in a dream and they knew that they were to travel to Macedonia, and that is how the Gospel first came to Europe.

The Holy Spirit did not tell the great Apostle Paul where he was going until he was in the right place to hear. Our understanding comes father down the road. We can only connect the dots when looking backward, while God can connect them looking forward.

All the great people of faith in the Bible lived like this. Noah quietly built an ark in his yard while everyone else was partying, because that is what the Lord told him to do (Luke 17:27). Abraham left his homeland and his father’s house and family behind without knowing where he was going (Hebrews 11:8). The Lord filled in the blanks for him later as they were needed.

Moses spent forty years tending sheep, then forty years tending God’s people in the wilderness, following the direction of the Lord each day. In Numbers 9:21–23 it explains that the Israelites followed the Lord each day. He did not follow them around; they followed Him.

(Numbers 9:21–23 NKJV)  So it was, when the cloud remained only from evening until morning: when the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they would journey; whether by day or by night, whenever the cloud was taken up, they would journey. Whether it was two days, a month, or a year that the cloud remained above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would remain encamped and not journey; but when it was taken up, they would journey. At the command of the LORD they remained encamped, and at the command of the LORD they journeyed; they kept the charge of the LORD, at the command of the LORD by the hand of Moses.

Like the Apostle Paul, we may not always understand where we are going, or why something is happening. We are given the information that we need to know today, and tomorrow we will be given more. It is following the Lord as He guides us, day by day. The Lord does not overwhelm us with too much information or things too complicated for us to see yet.

Before we began this ministry, we had a computer business. After nearly twenty years, the Lord began to close it down and no amount of prayer, fasting, giving, or advertising would fix it. I could not understand it then. Why was He allowing this to happen to us? We had served Him faithfully for years. I looked for work everywhere but could not find a job. Then the week that we prepared to move out of our home, a job opened up as a pastor, one thing led to another and here I am writing this.

Ministry was what He wanted us to do, but I would never taken a job as a pastor if we had not been hungry. I love it now, but I had worked in computers for twenty years, was comfortable there. I would not have entered a new career at forty-five if He had not forced me. Now I use those skills that I learned along the way to do what we do here each day. Today I understand why He did things the way that He did, and it makes perfect sense. He trained us then for what we are doing now, and we couldn’t be here without having first been there. 

The answer that you are looking is farther down the road. We go from check point to check point, and He gives us what we need to get from this one to the next, but you don’t get to see the whole trip before you begin it. Only the Lord knows the end, from the beginning.

You can pray this with me if you like:

Prayer: Heavenly Father, Your word is a lamp to my feet. Please guide me and speak to me in a way that I understand. I want to follow You closely and to be in tune with what You are doing today. Give me a clear vision and draw me and my family to You, in the name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.