Archived Devotionals

My Dear Friend,

      In his excellent book, Discoveries in Ministry, my spiritually wise friend, Dr. John Shiver, relates this vital lesson of divine guidance.

     "A great missionary once said, 'People keep asking me what God is saying to do about my ministry. I always tell them that I just keep doing and doing and doing the last thing He told me to do, and that was to go to Africa and preach Jesus. I've been doing that for the past 42 years and will keep doing it until He says otherwise.'

     "As a result of staying where God had put him, thousands of churches had been raised up and millions were touched by the power of God that flowed through his life. We need to practice this man's secret. We need to keep on doing the last thing He told us to do, while always listening carefully for further instructions. If no new instructions come, just keep on going, because you are in the center of His will."

     Are God's "marching orders" clear in your life? Has He led you where you are? Has He given you a duty, trade, profession, or ministry to pursue? Have you pursued it for some time, perhaps many years, without dramatic redirection from above? Do you wish the cloud of His presence would, at long last, lift and move so you could break camp and follow it to something new, something different, something more exciting? Ponder and heed the wise advice above. Why?

     It is from above! Do the last thing He told you. Do it in communion with Jesus. Do it heartily. Do it with absolute confidence He told you to do it. Stay faithful, knowing He loves and rewards faithfulness. Do it "steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord," knowing, "your labor is not in vain in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 15:58). Do not doubt you are in the right place because you witness no angelic visitations, hear no heavenly choruses, see no astounding miracles, or feel no tingling sensations. Just hold steadily to God's word of guidance.

     Namely, this: if you stay where God put you and do what God told you, God is obligated to bless you. You will see Him use you and bless others through you - all in His time and way. Where you are, in God's will, not where you wish you were, is the place you may best know His presence, peace, and anointing, and help build His kingdom most fruitfully. When new orders come, He'll see to it that you know it.

Doing the last thing, till further orders,

Greg Hinnant Greg Hinnant Ministries