When God is ready to use us for a task in His Kingdom we should be ready and waiting. God should not have to interrupt all we are doing and force us to do something we probably view with fear and unrest.

Every place our foot treads belongs to us forever, when we are walking in God.

This brings us to the second principle of the victorious life. We are to look to the Lord constantly to verify we actually are walking in God and to guide the next step. God will not perform His works alone, ordinarily. We cannot possibly perform them alone. We have to step toward God each day. God will use us according to His plans and purposes in Christ.

God did not tell the Israelites to head out in whatever direction pleased them as though it didn't matter whether they marched toward India, China, Africa, or Europe. They were given a specific goal. "Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Great Sea on the west."

How many times have God's preachers invited the believers to be ambitious and presumptuous? "Buy a large building and trust God for the finances." "Smash your glasses so God will heal your eyes." "Give your grocery money to the ministry and God will pay you back a thousandfold." "Go out and do big things for God." "Dare to be a Daniel."

This is to violate the second principle. We are to go only where God tells us to go as we are pressing forward and claiming our inheritance, our rest in God.

Goals have been given to us in the Bible, and sometimes God will give us personal goals.

The personal goals are known only to the individual. The Bible goals have to do primarily with our being conformed to the moral image of the Lord Jesus Christ and our being brought into untroubled rest in the perfect will of God.

Moral transformation and union with God are our objectives.

You and I have to start to step toward God. But as we do we are to be pursuing that which God has shown us in the Scriptures or has spoken to us personally.

If we wait for God to do the stepping we will grow old and finally die without any of our dreams of Divine service being realized.

If we move out in ambition and presumption, expecting we can tempt or force God to take some action, we will end up blaming people and circumstances because of the frustration we are experiencing.

There is a driving spirit in the land as ambitious men and women plan this great program or that great ministry. It is not a comfortable spirit to be around. There is none of the peace of the Holy Spirit in it, none of the waters of Shiloah that flow softly. Although there is a tremendous amount of religious talk, and it appears great results are present, the men or women who are masterminding the effort are more visible than the Lord Jesus. All such large-scale activity that is not being directed by the Lord Jesus but by human talent will be swept away in a time of religious persecution. It is the cult of bigness.

To be continued.