Suddenly Or Planned

Is it more spiritual when God moves or does things through people unexpectedly? Or is it more spiritual when God shows things for people to do or say in advance? I would say neither is more or less spiritual than the other. They are both equally spiritual and both equally God.

Sometimes we see in the Bible where God would do things suddenly and unexpectedly. It would be miraculous and people are amazed and blessed. Take for instance the appearing of the angels to the shepherds announcing the birth of Christ. This was so unexpected that they were pretty much in shock. God used this to glorify the birth of the savior of the world -- Jesus. But, also we know that His coming was prophesied about throughout the Old Testament. We know many things about the PLANNED coming of the Lord.

I believe that it is cool with the Lord that we plan things in advance -- messages, services, topics, ministry, etc. It takes planning and coordination for many things to even take place. Once we pray and ask God to lead us, guess what, He will. He will show us things that are to come in advance. Then, He often will do unexpected things that add to the planned and expected things.

Often the culture of a church will determine how messages are delivered, received, and prepared or not. I remember a coworker of mine at UPS back in 1984. He was working there part time. He loved the Lord and sometimes would speak at his church. This church was accustomed to having no planned things, but to just let the Spirit move as He chose. The ministers would not use notes but maybe come with some scriptures (though they did study the subject they were to preach).

This man, however, chose to write out his messages word for word in advance. He would then speak at church what He believed the Lord was bringing to them through this advanced prepared message. He took a lot of flack for doing that. He was pressured to not use notes. Apparently God was just not moving as He should because it was preplanned. I do not know how things went for this man, but I still remember him and how God used him to bless and strengthen my life.

Over the years as pastor of this church, I have given messages that were not preplanned, at least in detail. I believed that God would move and if I had a right heart that He would say what the people needed to hear. I still believe that. But, I have come to learn that He will move through a message that I pre-write most all of it, even as much as three weeks ahead of time (I did this when I went on vacation). To my amazement He can still transform lives by a preplanned message. The Word of God will still inspire people to live Godly lives though it is not inspired just at that moment, but was inspired days, weeks, even years earlier. Now, I have found that I actually have better messages and people remember them more than before by preparing a message in as much detail and forethought as possible.

Now that does not mean that one is better than the other. I think it depends on the man or woman God is using and what occasion and purpose the meeting is about. The point is that God is bigger than how things are delivered; they just must be delivered to people in the best way possible, so they can receive it and retain it.

Remember Joseph? He was sold into slavery and ended up in prison in Egypt. This seemed so random and bad. But, later Joseph told those brothers that it was God's plan to get him in that place to save peoples lives. Joseph had interpreted a dream of Pharaoh and caused a plan to be put in place to store food for seven years and then sell it for the coming seven famine years to all the world. It was a "suddenly" of different God events that brought forth a plan that was supernatural, but perhaps later seemed mundane to implement day after day all those years. I am sure that there was a lot of planning and organizing and writing things down before hand to make it all happen.

So, God is still in the business of saving all the world through Jesus Christ. Let's not get bogged down in the methods, but lets get busy with the message. As sojourners, missionaries, in this world, we are to relate the Truth in a way that the culture can most avidly accept it, so their lives will be transformed. It is different how God uses me today. I love being used how He wants at this time. Maybe He wants to use you in a new way, too.