Last week we talked about making some concrete plans for 2017 and beyond. I attended a meeting this week where the speaker (my friend who writes out a detailed plan for his life each year) was speaking — on planning! He quoted C.S. Lewis: “You are never too old (he added — or too young) to get a new idea and a new purpose.” I have listened to a number of different ministers who are all saying 2017 is going to be an incredible year for the advancement of the Kingdom of God on this earth. How that will look for each one of us, will depend on our own personal relationship with the Lord.

If we are His sheep — we hear His voice. If we hear His voice, we have two choices — to say yes, Lord or to choose to continue to “do our own thing” and suffer the consequences. I am choosing to say yes — and if I should be disobedient, stupid or ignorant in an area, I will be quick to repent when the Lord shows me my errors. There is no time to waste on a spiritual tug-of-war with the Holy Spirit. He is looking for those who are “quick to hear” and then do what they hear. While I do think that this is the season where both the wheat and the tares are coming to full maturity, where the light will get brighter and the darkness darker I know the end of the story. We win.

I don’t know about you but I have never, ever enjoyed losing. I am a highly competitive person if I am playing any kind of sport or game — I play to win. 

Back in the early ‘90s I ran for county commissioner, simply because no one else would in that district. After I had committed to do that, I took my first trip to Belize, Central America. As I was flying into the country, I heard the Lord say to my spirit, “you are home.” That startled me, but I held the word in my heart for the two weeks I was there. 

At the end of my “vacation,” the wife (and a very good friend) of the director of the mission at that time invited me to come serve alongside them. I told her I wanted to get back on neutral ground to pray into it. I never shared what the Lord had said to me. 

Now a dilemma arose. I had committed to run for the local office, but knew that I was to go to Belize. God began to deal with my heart. When I was willing to lay down the call until He worked out the details and when I said I was willing to wait until after I served that term, should I win the election, and when I chose to run that race with all my heart (that took some doing) — then the peace of God came and flooded my heart and soul. 

Oh, my — I learned a lot about our county and its inhabitants during that time. Compassion rose up in my heart as I realized they also had significant needs and that the Lord might want to use me, so I yielded my dreams and desires to go on the foreign mission field until His perfect timing. I had a call to missions from the time I got saved at 17, but I also knew to follow the peace of God. 

On Nov. 7, I think, as the election results came in — I actually won the first of the three precincts represented in that district. My opponent won the second one, so it was down to the wire. I was so wanting to win and so wanting to lose, all at the same time. 

A combination of disappointment and joy flooded my soul when the results of the third precinct came in. I lost the election but knew I was now released to make plans to go to Belize. I raised all my support and flew into that country to serve for almost four years in exactly three months. God’s ways are always the best. I still have treasured friends there and plan to go back again for another visit, perhaps this year, and have been several times since returning home.

Allow the Lord to deal with any area in your life that you know is not in line with His Word or His will. Do it now. We are going to have an incredible, adventuresome year this year and those who are the most yielded to Him will be able to go and do things they have never even dreamed about to further His kingdom here on this earth. 

If we will be diligent to do our part, He will most certainly do His. Making plans and being faithful and diligent are important. But keeping our hearts and minds open to hear the Lord is even more important. Even the apostle Paul had the Holy Spirit lead him in a different direction from what his original plans were. A great harvest of souls and disciples for the kingdom resulted. 

Stay flexible in the midst of making your preparations. We are privileged to be a part of bringing in the greatest harvest this world has ever seen. Billions will be coming into the Kingdom over the next few years and all of them will be in need of discipleship and encouragement. There is not a one of us that the Lord can’t use to bless humanity. What a time to be alive. He has saved His best wine for now at the wrapping up of this age.