One of the main reasons so many of us are burned out and stressed out is that we don't know how to be still, to "know" God and "acknowledge" Him. When we spend time with Him, we learn to hear His voice.
When we acknowledge Him, He directs our paths. If we don't spend time being still, getting to know Him and hearing His voice, we will operate from our own strength in the flesh. As we saw before, we can burn out because God is not obligated to anoint us in doing something He didn't direct.
We need to learn to be quiet inside and stay in that peaceful state so that we are always ready to hear the lord's voice.
Many people today run from one thing to the next. Because their minds don't know how to be still, they don't know how to be still. At one time I didn't know how to stay home for an evening, and I was a full-grown adult!
I felt I had to find something to do every evening. I had to be involved and on the go being a part of whatever was going on. I thought I couldn't afford to miss anything that happened because I didn't want anything to go on I didn't know about. I couldn't just sit and be still, look at a tree in the backyard or drink a cup of coffee. I had to be up doing something. I was not a human being - I was a human doing.
Our young friend Paul was like that. At the age of 22 he had the call of the Lord on him but didn't know what it was. Paul was so used to doing, the Lord required Paul to do only one thing: Stay home with his family for a year.
Even though the requirement was simple, obeying would be hard. Paul was used to running around with his friends every evening. Paul knew every night his flesh would start screaming, "I want to go out with my friends!" For Paul to obey God's requirement took special obedience.
One of the reasons the Lord told Paul to stay home for a year was to establish good family relationships. So for the next year Paul was there in the family barbecuing for them, watching good movies with them - spending time with his mom, dad, brothers and sisters. But he was still so full of his old lifestyle, he found it hard to be still. In the evening he roamed all over the house.
"I would rotate around the house at night. My mother said she saw me in the kitchen at least six or seven times a night. I just couldn't be still; I had to be up doing something."
The difference in him between then and now is amazing. It's hard to believe he was ever that way. The Lord wanted to keep Paul still for a year so that He could do the work needed in Paul. I believe if Paul had not obeyed God for that year, he would not be in the position he is in now, experiencing the blessings, including the peace and joy, that result from doing God's will.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers