(written by John Adams, Blount Campus Worship Pastor) Recently my wife, Julie, and I responded to God’s call for us to move away from our home and jobs in south Florida.  It was not a decision we took lightly, and much prayer, meditation on God’s word and communication with each other were involved.  God showed us just enough to convince us of His will and His call, and so we began the process of responding.

 What followed was a seven month journey of learning to truly have faith in God.

 Julie and I resigned from our jobs and I began a search for ministry opportunities in the Knoxville area where we both agreed God was calling us.  Julie was newly pregnant, but we felt God had blessed us with finances to carry us through the time it would take to secure new employment.  Our plan felt like a responsible approach to God’s new call on our lives.

 As the weeks and months passed, and our window of financial security grew smaller, (and Julie grew more pregnant,) my search for opportunities in Knoxville and beyond was proving fruitless.  Friends and family began to question if we were making wise decisions, and honestly, so did we.  We began to look at a plan B and thought maybe we had misunderstood what God was trying to tell us.  We were looking for safety nets and reassurance wherever we could.

 I was offered an extra month at my job as I continued looking for work elsewhere.  That seemed to be an opportunity to accept wise counsel as I continued to wait for God to “open the door” to where I was supposed to go.  God quickly showed me however that what He wanted was for me and Julie to take steps away from safety nets and outside opinions that seemed real and into true safety which was His will for us.

 We began to realize that we were trying to take steps only where we could see, but that God’s path was one we would have to walk blindly.  That each time we tried to scatter sand on our invisible path to see, God would blow it away and wait for us to step again.  We got to the point where we were looking for ways to take blind steps as we sensed God blessing us as we did.

 By the time we found our home here at Faith Promise God revealed how He had been working all of the details out without our help.  I realized that what I needed most was to give myself wholly to His will, not only when it made sense to me.  I learned that I cannot accomplish God’s will, but I can allow him to use me to accomplish it.

 Oswald Chambers said of true response to God, “…there is no sense of personal achievement – no human ingredient in it at all.  Instead, there is a complete overwhelming sense of being brought into union with God…”

 Sometimes, even as firm believers in God, His Word, His Spirit…it can be difficult to have the courage and faith to fully respond to His call.  Like Gideon, God sometimes asks us to do things the world considers foolish to show His Glory.  But as we learn to trust the Truth and not the world or our flesh we will see God accomplish “even greater things than these.”