This year has been a transition point for my life.  Last year, I had a drastic change when my husband died.  In some ways, there is a new freedom.  During other times, I realize that I’m much more constrained.  There was a lot of freedom in being a married woman and simply having another warm body in the house.

The other day as I walked down my street, a man I never met called out my name.  Shocked, I turned and realized that even though we have been distant neighbors for many years, we had never met; but this person knew my name and was bold enough to yell at me.  Surprised, I smile, waved and quickly moved away.  My thoughts were Yipes!  This is unpleasant.  Okay, now what?  Do I stop walking down this street?

Because of this whole transition, I’ve yearned to know where the Lord is leading for the next years.  I believe some things are settled.  My work within the mentally challenged community through Special Gathering will be ongoing.  However, the fringe exercise and direction of my activity in this ministry is always in question.

During this time, I received some “words from the Lord” from several interesting places.  First, came a dream that I didn’t understand.  I shared it in front of a large group because I felt that the Lord wanted me to share it.  (By the way, I always advise people to never share their dreams in a crowd.  Dreams reveal a great deal about you.)  My good and trusted friend told me what the dream meant.  She said I was planning to drop a portion of my ministry; and I must not do that because it was having a wide ranging effect.  I had planned to drop somethings that I felt were not beneficial but very time consuming.

Later, as I pondered dropping a different portion of my ministry, another friend said that the Lord was telling her that even though I was thinking about dropping somethings, I should not do this.  Through my friend, the Lord said that this too was much more effective than I knew.  She hesitantly shared this during a prayer session.

God often speaks through a prophetic word to our hearts when it comes to direction.  The key is that we should be listening.  To tell the truth, I was not at all pleased with these two messages.  The things I wanted to drop have been hard work and I like results as much as anyone else.  The results I see are barely accountable.

Over the past few months, even after these clear messages from the Lord, I tried to rationalize why I should not continue doing this work.  However, there was no way these two friends could’ve known my heart-plans because I had shared them with no one–only the Lord.

Clearly, not everything that people tell us is from God.  When God speaks to us, it should be a confirmation of what you already know or the answer to a question that we are actually asking.  Therefore, if a neighbor yells your name out of the blue, giving you a message that does not apply to your life, then you should smile and move away as quickly as possible.  This message is probably not from the Lord.

Where am I? is a question that we ask in many situations.  The question may not mean that we are lost; but simply in transition.  We feel the need for more secure boundaries in our life.  God will supply the answers for us and most of time it is through godly men and women we know and trust.