I DON’T EVEN KNOW…

It’s funny how just over a month ago, while on vacation, I wrote a blog about how committed I am to following God’s lead, simply going where He asks me, and always checking in with Him.

I had one main work-related prayer throughout 2016, ‘Make my book be what YOU want it to be Lord.’ In 2017 my prayer changed to “Okay Lord, now the book is done and I am ready, bring me the people.”

Friday, December 29th I got a call out of the blue. “We are wondering if you’d be interested in having a spot on our syndicated talk radio show on our Empowerment Channel?” (This is their predominately faith-based radio channel on the largest internet radio programmer in our nation.)

What?
I didn’t even know what that was, who they were, or how they found me.
It all seemed too much, too odd, too soon.

It is so amazing to look back and see God’s great work at hand. I have always struggled with writing, my spelling, and grammar are atrocious.  Yet this was the platform God gave me, so I went. For two years I wrote… still shocked that I wrote a book (but remember I asked God to make it His not mine), and I continued with the blog as often as His words spurred me. It was a great time of learning, connecting with others,  and growth. It allowed me to process, think, and clarify the purpose I felt called to.

I no sooner felt secure in my direction…as He would then inevitably open a new door and new opportunities. I got accustomed to just going, doing, and thanking Him. Some opportunities were bigger than others and some even seemed meaningless at the time, but I went and did.  Then in the very month (December 29th, 2017) that I become aware of this new, secure, and convicted place of asking, listening and responding…

He pushed me WAY out of my comfort zone…

I said no to the radio show offer. Yep, I did. I was supposed to call them on Tuesday, January 2nd if I was interested, and I never called. This is very unlike me. I would normally call anyway and thank them for such a nice opportunity saying that it isn’t right for me at this time. Over the next 2 days, I had vision after vision, the WEWO women group I am in did as well and this was adding an element of complication and diligence to my understanding and direction I should be taking. I simply kept getting nudged to call or email the talk show back.

Jeff and I sat in the kitchen one night talking about all the reasons why I did or didn’t do it…I could hear myself, coaching myself. None of my reasons were God partnered. I was stuck in ‘self’. “I” was worried about me. How ready and equipped I was or wasn’t. How it must be a hoax- I am just a small town girl here in Iowa. How it might hurt what I worked so hard for already. See…me, me, me.  (Oh, I’m not happy about that- now but it’s the truth).

I wondered things, like how could I get enough interesting people to interview who would really help the listeners on the calls week after week….for a whole hour? Jeff lightheartedly said it was too bad I couldn’t just coach on the show…that the time would fly by, I’d be in my element, and it’d really help people. Something began to grow in my mind, heart, and soul as he spoke those words. They tossed around in my head for the next several hours.

The next morning, now Thursday, I couldn’t finish getting ready without a constant whisper telling me to call Liz. She is a mentor of sorts. She is wise and had a history of this type of work and I thought, ‘Okay, I can do that.’ I went straight to my phone and dialed her.

No answer.

‘Huh, must not have been God.’

Then the whisper returned, call Leslie (Liz’s friend and colleague). She too a wise mentor and friend of mine. Leslie listened to me rattle on in complete humility over my lack of knowing what to do. She provided such clarity, helping me to see my unsettled heart as a sign of not responding to the call which was pushing me way outside my comfort zone. In the next 24 hours my Pastor, Tim Breen, and Liz both mimicking Leslie’s gently honest support in me once again stepping out in faith.

How just like God… to see my peace in obeying over little…
With a command to step out in what I felt was- too much.

So I called the talk show back, two days past my cutoff date, and was informed they would be reviewing all the candidates on the following Tuesday. If I could get my proposal turned in by Friday night I would still be in the running. I turned it in around 11 pm and this week they offered me the spot.

I don’t know where this opportunity will take me or how it will affect me, but that is what got me into all of this restlessness in the first place.

I am going back to not worrying about me.

Instead, I am thinking of the people I will serve. I will use the time to connect, love, spur, and encourage people to take a sweet and honest look at their life. To always take into consideration that God loves them…. and that-trumps-everything-else!

I will focus on helping others step into the Trinity… God with all of His power waiting to be unleashed in their life, the Holy Spirit with such great wisdom whispering into each and every ear… And Jesus, our dear Savior Jesus, who lives on and gives us this same gracious gift of transforming freedom and life.

For now, I will look to the Word for the confidence I want while moving forward on this very exciting and unfamiliar path to more of God’s people. I have prayed for a solid year that He bring the people.

So thank you, God, I feel responsible and grateful and will not lean on myself… which awesomely replaces all my fears with your peace.

If you are in a place of nudged obedience, big or small, maybe these verses will inspire some courage in you too. Let’s head out together on the journey He has set before us…

FEARFUL?
Joshua 1:9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

2 Timothy 1:7 For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

Matthew 6:25-34 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Philippians 1:2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

INSECURE?
Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

James 1:5-7 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;

John 15:1-27 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

DOUBT?
John 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

Jeremiah 29:11-14 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

CONFUSED?
James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Mark 16:15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.

Deuteronomy 1:6-8 “The Lord our God said to us in Horeb, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Turn and take your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland and in the Negeb and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. See, I have set the land before you. Go in and take possession of the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their offspring after them.’

Isaiah 42:16 And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them.

1 Chronicles 16:8
Oh give thanks to the Lord;
call upon his name;
make known his deeds among the peoples!

Faith Infused Living… Reaching Goals Higher,

Niccie Kliegl CLC, RN