God, Are You Hiding Something?

Have you ever been seeking God's will for your life and feel like it's a game of hide-and-seek? Except you count and then say, "Ready or not, here I come..!" and you still can't seem to find His will?

I feel like that sometimes too....

Like right now...

So, here's the thing. There is a possibly huge change coming up in my life. I won't go as far as to reveal it now, but I will just say that this is one of those changes that will alter the rest of my life, should I go in this direction. This is something that I have been praying about for the past five months, and am continuing to pray about. But a lot of times, my prayers look like, "God, do you want me to do ______?" Just asking "Yes" or "No" shallow questions. And, listening too, but I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to be listening for. I'm open to anything, but I feel a little desperate for God to show up in this area for some direction.

So, where is He in all this? Is He hiding his plan from me like it seems?

I have been doing a Priscilla Shirer study called "Discerning the Voice of God." I know... right? How appropriate! So, anyways, yesterday I as doing part of the reading and saw this sentence:

"God desires for you to know His will. He's not hiding it from you. When I ask the Lord to confirm what He is saying to me through the Holy Spirit so I can be sure He is indeed speaking, He allows the Holy Spirit to speak to me and verify His message through His written word, circumstances, or even a person."

Wait, what? I read that first part over and over again.... "He desires for me to know His will.... He's not hiding it from me.... He desires for me to know His will.... He's not hiding it from me...."

Over and over and over again.

So, what next? How am I sure that this is God telling me to do this life-changing thing and not me trying to tell Him what I want Him to want me to do?

I don't have an answer to that directly. But, I do have the wisdom that Priscilla shared in her book.

The Five Ms of Correctly Hearing God (and how I'm implementing them in the next season of life):

1.Look for the MESSAGE of the Spirit.
(Taking 15-20 minutes each day to listen to the Spirit)

2. Live in the MODE of prayer.
(Praying "God, I'm hearing that I should _______. Is that You?" Every time something comes up throughout the day-- even if I repeat the same prayer over and over again.)

3. Search out the MODEL of scripture.
(Doing inductive studies regarding this thing that I feel like God is calling me to, researching what God has to say about it.)

4. Submit to the MINISTRY of Eli.
(Seeking wisdom from a more mature believer, asking them to walk through this decision with me.)

5. Expect the MERCY of confirmation.
(Thanking God for NOT hiding His will, asking Him to make it more clear.)

So there it is.

For the next 31 days, I will be pressing in to listen to what God has to say, holding onto the promise that He doesn't hide his will from us.

This very well could be the next season of my Journey to the Center of God's Will.

Thank you for your prayers :)