God May Be Using A Flu-Bug To Keep You Off The Titanic

Last week we talked about loosening the grip.

This week I want to show you what God does with the hands you finally opened.

He reroutes you. And the rerouting is almost always a mercy you could not see at the time.

The Flu Bug And The Titanic

Prudence said something recently that I have not stopped thinking about.

Set up your plans. Be okay when the plans do not run their exact course. God may be allowing a flu bug to keep you from boarding the fatal Titanic. God does not lead you where His Spirit cannot stay right next to you.

Sit with that.

The thing that wrecked your plan this week. The delay. The closed door. The illness that knocked you off the schedule you built so carefully. The deal that fell through at the last second.

You called it a setback. You may have called it an attack. You prayed against it.

What if it was the flu bug that kept you off the boat.

God is not obligated to explain the redirect in real time. You are standing on the dock, furious that you missed the ship. He is watching the ship head toward the thing you could not see.

In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps. Make the plan. Hold it loosely. And when He establishes a different step than the one you drew up, trust the One doing the establishing.

He Will Not Lead You Where He Cannot Stay

This is the part I want you to build your life on.

God does not lead you anywhere His Spirit cannot go with you.

So when He blocks a path, closes a door, or reroutes you through a valley you did not choose, it is not abandonment. It is often the opposite. It is Him refusing to let you go somewhere He could not walk right beside you.

My thoughts are not your thoughts, He says. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways. That is not a brush-off. That is a comfort. His vantage point is higher than yours. He can see the boat.

The redirect you are resenting might be the clearest evidence that He is still holding the wheel.

You Can Disappoint Someone And Still Obey

Here is where the grip usually catches, though.

Following the redirect often means disappointing somebody. And a lot of us would rather stay on the sinking ship than let one person down.

Rachel Green Taylor said it in a sentence that needs to go on your wall. You can disappoint someone and still be walking in obedience.

Read that slowly, because it breaks a lie a lot of good people have organized their whole lives around.

We assume that if someone is upset with us, we must have done something wrong. So we keep the peace. We stay on the boat. We bury the talent. We come down off the wall for the meeting, because saying no would disappoint someone.

But Jesus disappointed people constantly. He disappointed the crowd that wanted a king. He disappointed the rich young ruler. He disappointed His own family for a season. He disappointed the religious leaders every single week.

He was not being unkind. He was being obedient. And obedience and universal approval have never once been the same thing.

If your obedience requires that no one is ever disappointed in you, you will never obey. You will just manage everyone's feelings until your calling runs out of daylight.

The Ravens Come In Surprising Ways

Do not miss how God actually delivers when He reroutes you.

He fed Elijah with ravens. Unclean birds. The wrong delivery system by every religious standard in Israel. A serious person would have refused the bread.

God has never once been bothered by His delivery method. Only we have.

When He changes your plans, the provision usually shows up on the wrong bird too. The unexpected person. The door you did not want. The city you did not pick. The tool you were suspicious of. The redirect itself.

If you have been waiting for the help to look the way you expected it to look, you have probably already walked past it.

Which Fear Is Fighting The Redirect

Here is the thing. You cannot receive a redirect you are too afraid to accept.

Fear of the unknown makes you cling to the old plan because at least you understand it. Fear of missing out makes you sprint back onto the boat because everyone else is boarding.

Naming the fear is how you finally open your hands.

The Fear Compass shows you, free, in three minutes, which fear has been making you fight the very redirect that was trying to rescue you.

→ Take the free Fear Compass HERE

Make your plans.

Then be okay when God spares you from the boat.

Onward,
Chris Behnke

P.S. Next week is the last email in this series, and it might be the most important. When God reroutes you and carries you through, He is not just rescuing you. He is building a testimony the world is going to need. I do not want you to bury it. Don't forget to look for the ravens.