I’ve learned that there are three kinds of ideas – bad ideas, good ideas and God ideas. The trouble is that it’s sometimes difficult to distinguish between the latter two!
I’ve had a lot of good ideas in my life. For instance, when the threat of Y2K began to surface, I did a huge amount of research and determined that our world was most probably going to change radically and most people would be caught unaware. My deep concern led me to prepare not only for my family but for the whole community and beyond. I wrote a book “Y2K & YOU – A Home Preparation Guide.” Then I went all over the province speaking at Chapters stores and various groups. I opened a renewable energy store and sold all kinds of solar appliances, wood stoves etc., and carried information on wind generators for homes. I filled a storage room with 72 pound bags of beans, a year’s worth of toilet paper and enough food to feed my community for several months. I bought a wood stove with a hot water reservoir so that I would be able to make big pots of soup for hungry people. I filled hundreds of 2-litre pop bottles with chlorinated water for drinking. I installed huge barrels of water as reservoirs for non-drinking water. I had laser vision surgery for my eyes so that I would be able to see if my glasses were to be lost and unable to be replaced. I got some gold coins, knowing that paper money would be useless. Before the frost came, I had my husband dig a big hole in the back yard, on top of which we would have installed an outhouse, had my fears become reality. I had plans to buy a horse and buggy for transportation (we lived out in the country at the time). I devised a strategy called “Y2K – Block Action” for urban communities where people with differing gifts and abilities would help one another survive in defined areas and went around speaking about the plan. People thought it was great. It was all a good idea because if Y2K had become the disaster it was purported to be, my family and neighbours would have been looked after and I would have assisted everyone who read my book and heard me speak. I had all the bases covered! But it didn’t happen and I was left with a lot of returned books and a wallet a whole lot lighter than it would have been had I not gone to all that effort (to say nothing of the egg on my face!)
I have learned that whenever a major (or minor) decision is to be made, it’s wise to seek God’s confirmation – to make sure that He is really the one leading. He says, “Let every matter be established in the mouths of two or three witnesses.” It can save a lot of money, time and embarrassment!
My most recent request for God to confirm my direction came following a job offer. Here’s how it went:
2011 Record of confirmations re Diane Roblin-Lee working with NoBorders:
Jan 2 – I rec’d a job offer from Craig Gilroy. He needed an executive assistant – He wrote “the Lord led me to you. You have the skills and this fulfills the prophecy I had for your financial growth.” (I met Craig at a meeting over a year ago, following which he prophesied over me.)
Jan 9 – I suggested a meeting with Craig and Doug Schneider, senior pastor at my church, “The Embassy of the Kingdom of God.” partly because I wanted P. Doug to meet Craig and partly because I was seeking confirmation of the Lord’s leading
Jan 10 – My friend and I prayed together this morning. She said she heard God say that there will be a holy exchange between Craig and Doug Schneider. She said she saw a window between Craig and Doug and he would need to look through into Craig‘s heart. She saw the two shaking hands and heard the word “coalition.”
Jan 11 – I got up in the night to go to the washroom and, on the way back to bed thought maybe I should stay up and pray. I wished so much that God would speak to me clearly as He does to others. However, I got back into bed and thought, “Go down to the potter’s house.” My next thought was, “There I go, thinking totally random thoughts that have nothing to do with God.” Disgusted with my lack of spirituality, I went back to sleep.
Jan 12 – In the morning, I started my devotions by reading in Jeremiah where I happen to be en route from Genesis. When I turned the page, I was at Jer. 18 – “At the Potter’s House.” I practically fell off my chair, but then began to read and meditate on what God was trying to communicate to me.
Jan 13 – Craig ended his e-mail with., “He is the potter and none of us are perfected until we meet him in person.”
Jan 13 – I e-mailed P. Doug and told him all about the Potter confirmations
Jan 13 – I went to Pastor Doug’s Bible study. He was excited because he had just discovered that the Hebrew “ASAH” was used twice in Jer. 18 – it means to create something now out of material that already exists. However, he said nothing about Jer. 18 or the Potter in the study – until the man next to me said, “It’s like the story of the Potter.” Pastor Doug & I almost fell off our chairs.
P. Doug had a word for me after the study that God’s hand is on me in a very special way. He is creating something new in my life.
Jan 19 – I read Marsha Burns’ word for the day every day. Today it was: