What Do I Do Now?

It's 1:01 pm eastern time. I just got back to the apartment after visiting the Vineyard Church of Augusta. It was a very good experience. Unlike the church I visited a couple of weeks ago, this one reminded me a great deal of New Prairie.

During the announcement time I flipped the Bible open to a passage (I tune out announcement time). It was 1st Samuel 10, and in this passage Samuel is annointing Saul as the first king of Israel after the people demanded a human monarchy over a divine Theocracy. A couple of verses in particular caught my attention because they speak to something I'm struggling with now that God has called me back to Georgia and the role of management rather than the role of pastoring a church.

Samuel has just annointed Saul and proclaimed him the king and is telling him about what will happen next. "When you arrive at Gibeah of God, where the garrison of the Phillistines is located, you will meet a band of prophets coming down from the altar on the hill. They will be playing a harp, a tamborine, a flute and a lyre, and they will be prophesying. At that time the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you with power and you will prophesy with them. You will be changed into a different person. After these signs come to pass, do whatever you think is best, for God will be with you."

Look at the progression of this scenario:

1. Saul is called by God.
2. He is sent to a place where the enemy has a stronghold.
3. He meets with other worshippers of God.
4. The Spirit of God comes upon him.
5. He joins them in their worship.
6. He is changed into another man.
7. He is given incredible freedom to follow his own heart and mind with the
assurance that God is with him.

Over the past several weeks I've asked myself often, "What do I do now?" I know God's calling on my life. I'm in a strange city where I know no one. I'm a manager at a newspaper when I know God's called me to be a church planter and pastor. How do I live out my calling?

I feel like the answer is, "Do whatever you think is best." I feel like there is tremendous freedom for me to flesh out my calling in whatever I feel is best. BUT...other things MUST be in place before this freedom becomes a good thing that bears fruit:

1. I have to be sure of the calling on my life, which I am.
2. I have to rest in the fact that God has brought me to this place and recognize
that the enemy is strong here.
3. I have to be in connection with other worshippers. It's essential that Lynn and
I surround ourselves with other Christians.
4. I have to be continually abiding in Christ, because it's only through this that
I will be changed into a different man.

The only way any of us has the capacity to know "what is best" and do it with any effectiveness is if the Holy Spirit is upon us, we are new people; changed inwardly by the Spirit within us, and we are surrounded by wise, Godly people who can speak truth and wisdom into our life.

Ultimately, Saul messed up. He became obsessed with his own ability, his own glory, his own agenda, and basically told God to take a hike. He saw the work that he had been called to as his own, not the work of God that could be powerfully done through him. He failed miserably and ended life a miserable man prone to frequent psychotic episodes.

His successor, on the other hand, was a man after God's own heart. David was the king, but more than anything, he wanted to make sure that the hearts of everyone in his kingdom were turned toward God and giving glory to Him. I pray that in Augusta I will follow in the footsteps of David as I live out my calling "doing whatever I think is best."

I think I'll go to Logan's Roadhouse again this Sunday. Thank God for Logan's Roadhouse!