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FIRST-PERSON: Insights for discerning God’s will


Ronnie Floyd is president-elect of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee. For his overview of the EC’s work, click here.

NASHVILLE (BP) — I announced my resignation as senior pastor of Cross Church on Sunday, April 7. Completely content in the Lord serving in my 33rd year in northwest Arkansas, God issued a new calling on my life when I accepted the position of president and chief executive officer of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee the previous Tuesday, April 2.

Needless to say, over these past months, I have needed to discern the will of God pertaining to my life and calling to the ministry, which prompts me to share with you a few insights for discerning God’s will for our future.

Insight #1: A God moment is a point in time when God defines your life and turns your life toward Him.

Walking with Christ daily is imperative to discerning God’s will for your life. Staying in the Word of God, the Bible, and filling your life with the Word daily in an overflowing way is necessary to see God turn your heart toward Him. When this occurs, you will experience points in time when God more clearly defines your life and calling.

Insight #2: When these God moments occur, they lead you to God’s will.

These God moments can be personal and private with God in the midst of walking with Him daily or He can use events or experiences to demonstrate Himself to and through you. He can also use both as He did with me. These spiritual markers will ignite your life toward God and His will for your life.

Insight #3: As you more clearly understand and see God’s work within you, you will more clearly understand and see what God wants to do through you.

Even after all these years of walking with the Lord and leading people, God took me back to my calling and giftedness in order to set His path before me. I believe God has been preparing me for much of my life for this assignment by placing me on an undeniable path providentially.

Insight #4: God uses everything we walk through in life to prepare us for what He has ahead of us.

God will use your life experiences to prepare you for what lies ahead of you. When you are anchored in the Word of God daily, this will empower you to see your life from God’s perspective. You do not view life from the lenses of experience, but through the lenses of Scripture. This matures what you sense God is doing, rather than being driven by experience alone, which can be extremely dangerous.

Insight #5: God’s preparation precedes God’s calling.

God calls you to do what He prepares you to do. Enough said.

Insight #6: God’s will and future for you are not controlled by you, but by Him.

You do not control or dictate God’s will; He does. You do not belong to yourself; you belong to Jesus. If you were called into the ministry of the Gospel, you do not get the privilege to determine where you locate and how you are going to spend your life. When this is violated, you settle for much less than what God has for you. Stop reducing God into any selfish and vocational box. Release God to do whatever He desires to do in and through you, regardless of what it may be or where it leads you.

Insight #7: Always keep the heart of Isaiah 6:8, “Here am I, send me.”

Early in the morning on March 4, 2018, God led me to begin praying Isaiah 6:8 into my life daily. Yes, for over 13 months I prayed Isaiah 6:8 daily, which God used to keep my heart aligned with the Holy Spirit, and ultimately unknowing to me, what God was doing in my life. Never did I imagine while praying these words, that they would become so personalized and so dramatically shift my calling, position and location.

God seeded my heart with Isaiah 6:8, cultivating a culture in my life that whatever God wanted, I was ready to do. I was willing to go and more than willing to stay.

There is so much more I could say about these matters. But today my goal is to keep this brief enough, that the insights glisten before you more clearly as you discern God’s will for your future.

    About the Author

  • Ronnie Floyd