Contrary to what many Christians think, God does not begin your life of obedience by asking you to do something you’re not ready or equipped to do. He’s not going to send you to Africa unless you’re ready. He will deal with you today, right where you are. If you will follow His leading, He will tell you what you need to do, how you need to change, what effort you need to make for Him, and where you need to go—if anywhere!
He wants us to reach the place where we trust Him, where we know He is wiser than we are, where we are willing to do what He says, whether we understand it with our minds or not. That is called walking in the spirit, living the high life.
If we hold on to our own interests, desires and ambitions—if we fight and strive to perform our own wills in the earth—the Spirit of God will have no opportunity to take us into the higher life. We never will hear His voice speaking to us, or if we hear, we will not obey. We must make the decision to lay down our lives for Him. Jesus said, “If any man intends to come after Me, let him deny himself” (see Matthew 16:24). We must reach that place where we say, “Lord, I’m giving You the rest of my time on earth. I’m living it for You.”
I have made that decision in my own life. I have laid down my life before God. (And yet I have to confirm that decision over and over every day as choices are continually laid before me.) My desire is to please God and to do His will. I want to stay in the earth as long as He has work for me to do here. I am determined to run the race God has set before me, to finish my course and do it with joy! Yes, I intend to enjoy it!
But you cannot stay earthly minded and at the same time think about the glory of God, eternity, the kingdom of heaven and the Father.
Before I made this decision, there were certain things I enjoyed doing that interfered with my time with God. Those things, like hobbies for instance, were fun to me. I had to make myself go to the Word. Sometimes, because I so enjoyed those other things, I would spend too much time doing them, and my Word time would slide by. I have always been a reasonably disciplined person, so even in those times I stayed in the Word enough to keep my body healed and keep myself together spiritually.