Nov 29, 2023·edited Nov 29, 2023Liked by Donny Mac
Decisions, Decisions! Hearing the voice of God can be awesome, powerful, and I will use the word "tricky" if we're not in total submission in obedience to God on a daily basis. I can only speak for myself regarding the latter half of that statement. For me, if I'm not reading and meditating on God's Word or in prayer, I can't make a decision the way it should. I would be making it in the flesh. When I have made a decision that way, it usually backfires. Reason, it wasn't God's will but my pride's. I try to look on those times not as mistakes, but what can I learn from it. Fear and doubt of the unknown due to financial implications are my weaknesses. I'm not necessarily afraid of change, but the unknown financial implication of change. I recognize these are my weaknesses and pray that God helps me put those aside when making decisions. I'm no expert, but it just comes from spiritual growth and faithfulness and trust in God.
God speaks to me in multiple ways. But the one main ingredient is that I need to be in total communion, "One in and with Christ" for that to happen. If not, I could very well miss the small snippets the Holy Spirit/God brings to my attention. It could be through His Word, prayer, through a friend, etc. It could also be the overwhelming tug on the heart that gets to the point I can't breathe before I take action. Now, if there is uncertainty within me about a decision, I usually wait until I feel I have clarity from God before making a decision large or small.
The one question I ask in decision making is, "Will it glorify God?" If it doesn't, then most likely it is not the Holy Spirit speaking. I'm not perfect and will still stumble, but thankfully God forgives me when I fail, so I can pull myself back up again and move on. I just finished a 6-week Bible Study on "Discerning the Voice of God", "How to recognize when God Speaks" by Priscilla Shirer. If you've never completed it, I would highly recommend it.
Donny, I will be praying for you regarding these decisions.
Nov 30, 2023·edited Nov 30, 2023Liked by Donny Mac
Hi Donny ~ when I have trouble making decisions, it's usually because I'm afraid -- afraid what other people will think, afraid of making a mistake, afraid of failure. Then I realize it really shows a lack of faith in God. That usually gets me off my butt. Have Faith, My Friend. I'm sure God has been preparing you for something great. Go for your dreams... "If God is for us, who can be against us?" ~ Romans 8:31 Praying for you.
Our lives are just a never ending series of decisions, right? Just this week I did some self-evaluation and realized that I needed to shift some things. Since retiring, I have all the options in my days to do such a variety of things and yet it's so easy to fall into patterns of how I spend my time. I have spent some time asking God what he wants me to focus on and how I can better lean into what He deems important. When you were here I felt your excitement for how you could use your music to connect and serve people and you felt God was directing you to step into that. God has provided a job, a means to an end so that you can follow His plan for ministry. Is He telling you to step away from that and into the next phase or allow this job to continue to prepare the timing of the next step? I know it took me over a year to listen to Him telling me to move from one known, safe thing to the next unknown scary thing. That "stubborn" thing you mentioned is very much where I was. But the timing had to be His so that year was prep time for what was to come. When it was time, He let me know very clearly it was time. I'll be praying that you hear when God is telling you "it's time". Blessings, my friend!
Oh boy you and I both relate to this! I hear you! I’m still in the learning process of several things, but I couldn’t do any of this working full or part time. Financial is the fearful part for me, but God has this. Lots of things changing but that is life and we need to stay close to God I hear the Holy Spirit speak!
When I make decisions I do pray and ask God’s direction. When He answers me I have great peace in my heart that this is it. You know when Jesus left this earth He sent His Holy Spirit to us to dwell in us. His job is to lead us into all truth and direct us in the ways we are to go. He is just awesome! He is our helper in times of need.
Our ever present help in times of trouble. That’s who I go to. God bless you Donny and thank you for your prayer walk today.
One of my spiritual heros is George Muller, who cared for thousands of orphans in his lifetime by asking no one but God to provide all their needs.This was his process to making decisions...
"1. I seek to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in a given matter. When we are ready to do the Lord's will—whatever it may be—nine-tenths of the difficulties are overcome.
2. Having done this, I do not leave the result to feeling or simple impression. If I do so, I make myself liable to great delusions.
3. I seek the will of the Spirit of God through, or in connection with, God's Word. The Spirit and the Word must be combined. If I look to the Spirit alone without the Word, I lay myself open to great delusions also. If the Holy Spirit guides us, He will do it according to the Scriptures, never contrary to them.
4. Next I take into account providential circumstances. These often plainly indicate God's will in connection with His Word and Spirit.
5. I ask God in prayer to reveal His will to me.
6. Thus, through prayer, the study of the Word and reflection, I come to a deliberate judgment according to the best of my ability and knowledge. If my mind is thus at peace and continues so after two or three more petitions, I proceed accordingly. I have found this method always effective in trivial or important issues."
I prioritize first then I pray to God I made the right decision for me it’s being responsible for myself and to my life and then to people that I can help 🤷♀️
Nov 29, 2023·edited Nov 29, 2023Liked by Donny Mac
Praying for you Donny, that the Holy Spirit will guide you to the best decisions.
You are an evangelist, so don't let yourself be distracted, focus on the mission that God has placed in your heart, for my part I will support you in whatever way I can.
As for me, I have increasingly sought to wait on the Lord to make decisions, but I still allow myself to be carried away by impulsiveness.
So I pray that, just like Peter and his strong personality, God made him a great apostle, a person of deep faith, committed to the mission of Jesus despite his failures, he was an example of how God's grace can transform lives and use even the most imperfect people to fulfill your divine purpose.
Jesus said this I believe to comfort us. Pray and trust.
““I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.””
Revelation 1:8 NKJV
We are in between the acceptance of these words. My life has been trying to please God. I’m kind of like a book sitting in between the bookends, Aloha and Omega. I’m able to choose and know God loves me in the middle. I desire like you to please Him. Some of our decisions hurt and some bless those around us. We are concerned about disappointing people so we often don’t move forward. I miss those from my yesterday but know I remained on a path that God helped me choose. I know someone in my life who never inquires what God wants, so they are like a sheet drying in the wind they just flap and go nowhere. I know you to be someone who loves to please and is full of heart. You don’t just flap in the wind you’re very grounded. God is with us in our decisions we can count on that. I know you have a calling and small detours will not stop you from following the heart He has given you. Scripture says to go boldly to the throne. We can walk in that boldness of God wherever He leads.
Some decisions I don't put a lot of thought into. But, life decisions that you are facing, I spend time reading the Bible and praying diligently. I find 1 or 2 trusted christians and seek advice and prayer from them. I heard a preacher say when seeking God's will to go through open doors, and do what you know now to do and God will lead you to the next thing. You know He wants you to share the gospel. So, if that means move somewhere else, then ask him to show you where (Virginia!- just kidding!) When you find the place God wants you, a peace will overcome you and you
will know you have made the right decision. I am praying for you. I have also put out " a fleece" like Gideon in the OT
But, I have heard that is a lack of faith. God bless you, Donny! You have made an impact on my life- thank you!
I watched your eyes as you spoke and they told me a story. Take the time to listen to the silence because your eyes weren’t at peace. Prayers and hugs 🙏❤️
My husband and I used to pray about big decisions before jumping into something we were not sure of. Since I no longer have him to talk to about decisions we made together. I now pray a lot more before making decisions. When we pray about a decision we need to wait on an answer, not say well I have prayed about this so now I will go ahead and do it. You will find yourself saying I should have waited. Just like me, my Sunday school teacher asked for someone in out class to help him teach at times. I went home and prayed about teaching the class. I felt like the Lord was leading me to help him and I told him the next Sunday that I would help. I still feel like it was the right decision. There have been times when I have jumped in without waiting and later wished that I had waited. So, Donny, please pray about it and wait. I will also pray for you as you wait. You will just know it was the right decision to wait and you will feel good about waiting.
Love your prayer walks. If I were there I would be walking in the crunchy leaves and kicking them as I go. I love the leaves in the fall. I have a different prospective to decisions. I no longer have a mate to hash out the pros and cons and am at an age when the decisions are mine and mine alone. So I really have to listen to my inner voice to guide me, be whatever that is. It is not an easy route but one that I feel that I have the strength to follow. I am also asked many times by others for advice so feel I must be doing the right thing. As they say, I keep trucking!! I hope all the decisions that are facing you are solved to your satisfaction. Life's road is not always easy but the journey is such an ongoing challenge.
My last few days have been very trying, a young sister in hospital and a niece's long time mate choosing MAID for horrific health issues. Prayers and hugs to you Donny, for all your endeavors. Take care!!
Donny I always pray for you everyday you are in my prayer list.I pray for your ministry “prayer walk” many are watching you every week and may you lead more people to Christ.Amen
Donny indeed the most difficult is to make decisions , for myself I always pray and plead to God. Through the days of my life I was presented with moral choices to make decisions. And choices are often simple issues of all right and all wrong until I made the decisions almost two years ago to stop all of the surgical procedures to have a perfect face. I know for a fact I will never have the same face structure before all failed surgeries and I accept my decision and was a difficult situations. Fortunately, you do not have to deal with difficult choices alone and unaided. If you ask God , he will enlighten you. He will show you the way to go. He has given you his commandments to light your way through the maze of facts and emotions. And he waits patiently for you to bring each one before him. He will help you do what is right for your life and the lives of those you love. I will be praying for you my friend and you will make the right decision. 🙏
When faced with choices, decisions, I quiet the chatter in my mind, go to a quiet place and in that stillness I pray, listen and go with what I hear. The guidance is normally very present in my mind and heart, it is only my human resistance and doubt that try to shout over it but the guidance never wavers in my heart. I have learned not to argue with it, not to ask “what if”, not to overthink it but to begin to plan for it. It is amazing to watch God clear the path for me when I listen to Him. There are times when that still small voice is so quiet that it seems I have made a decision without choosing, but hindsight shows that it was guided. Thank you Donny for another interesting prayer walk. Continued blessings on your journey. 🙏🙏
Decisions, Decisions! Hearing the voice of God can be awesome, powerful, and I will use the word "tricky" if we're not in total submission in obedience to God on a daily basis. I can only speak for myself regarding the latter half of that statement. For me, if I'm not reading and meditating on God's Word or in prayer, I can't make a decision the way it should. I would be making it in the flesh. When I have made a decision that way, it usually backfires. Reason, it wasn't God's will but my pride's. I try to look on those times not as mistakes, but what can I learn from it. Fear and doubt of the unknown due to financial implications are my weaknesses. I'm not necessarily afraid of change, but the unknown financial implication of change. I recognize these are my weaknesses and pray that God helps me put those aside when making decisions. I'm no expert, but it just comes from spiritual growth and faithfulness and trust in God.
God speaks to me in multiple ways. But the one main ingredient is that I need to be in total communion, "One in and with Christ" for that to happen. If not, I could very well miss the small snippets the Holy Spirit/God brings to my attention. It could be through His Word, prayer, through a friend, etc. It could also be the overwhelming tug on the heart that gets to the point I can't breathe before I take action. Now, if there is uncertainty within me about a decision, I usually wait until I feel I have clarity from God before making a decision large or small.
The one question I ask in decision making is, "Will it glorify God?" If it doesn't, then most likely it is not the Holy Spirit speaking. I'm not perfect and will still stumble, but thankfully God forgives me when I fail, so I can pull myself back up again and move on. I just finished a 6-week Bible Study on "Discerning the Voice of God", "How to recognize when God Speaks" by Priscilla Shirer. If you've never completed it, I would highly recommend it.
Donny, I will be praying for you regarding these decisions.
Hi Donny ~ when I have trouble making decisions, it's usually because I'm afraid -- afraid what other people will think, afraid of making a mistake, afraid of failure. Then I realize it really shows a lack of faith in God. That usually gets me off my butt. Have Faith, My Friend. I'm sure God has been preparing you for something great. Go for your dreams... "If God is for us, who can be against us?" ~ Romans 8:31 Praying for you.
Our lives are just a never ending series of decisions, right? Just this week I did some self-evaluation and realized that I needed to shift some things. Since retiring, I have all the options in my days to do such a variety of things and yet it's so easy to fall into patterns of how I spend my time. I have spent some time asking God what he wants me to focus on and how I can better lean into what He deems important. When you were here I felt your excitement for how you could use your music to connect and serve people and you felt God was directing you to step into that. God has provided a job, a means to an end so that you can follow His plan for ministry. Is He telling you to step away from that and into the next phase or allow this job to continue to prepare the timing of the next step? I know it took me over a year to listen to Him telling me to move from one known, safe thing to the next unknown scary thing. That "stubborn" thing you mentioned is very much where I was. But the timing had to be His so that year was prep time for what was to come. When it was time, He let me know very clearly it was time. I'll be praying that you hear when God is telling you "it's time". Blessings, my friend!
Oh boy you and I both relate to this! I hear you! I’m still in the learning process of several things, but I couldn’t do any of this working full or part time. Financial is the fearful part for me, but God has this. Lots of things changing but that is life and we need to stay close to God I hear the Holy Spirit speak!
When I make decisions I do pray and ask God’s direction. When He answers me I have great peace in my heart that this is it. You know when Jesus left this earth He sent His Holy Spirit to us to dwell in us. His job is to lead us into all truth and direct us in the ways we are to go. He is just awesome! He is our helper in times of need.
Our ever present help in times of trouble. That’s who I go to. God bless you Donny and thank you for your prayer walk today.
One of my spiritual heros is George Muller, who cared for thousands of orphans in his lifetime by asking no one but God to provide all their needs.This was his process to making decisions...
"1. I seek to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in a given matter. When we are ready to do the Lord's will—whatever it may be—nine-tenths of the difficulties are overcome.
2. Having done this, I do not leave the result to feeling or simple impression. If I do so, I make myself liable to great delusions.
3. I seek the will of the Spirit of God through, or in connection with, God's Word. The Spirit and the Word must be combined. If I look to the Spirit alone without the Word, I lay myself open to great delusions also. If the Holy Spirit guides us, He will do it according to the Scriptures, never contrary to them.
4. Next I take into account providential circumstances. These often plainly indicate God's will in connection with His Word and Spirit.
5. I ask God in prayer to reveal His will to me.
6. Thus, through prayer, the study of the Word and reflection, I come to a deliberate judgment according to the best of my ability and knowledge. If my mind is thus at peace and continues so after two or three more petitions, I proceed accordingly. I have found this method always effective in trivial or important issues."
Blessings!
I prioritize first then I pray to God I made the right decision for me it’s being responsible for myself and to my life and then to people that I can help 🤷♀️
Praying for you Donny, that the Holy Spirit will guide you to the best decisions.
You are an evangelist, so don't let yourself be distracted, focus on the mission that God has placed in your heart, for my part I will support you in whatever way I can.
As for me, I have increasingly sought to wait on the Lord to make decisions, but I still allow myself to be carried away by impulsiveness.
So I pray that, just like Peter and his strong personality, God made him a great apostle, a person of deep faith, committed to the mission of Jesus despite his failures, he was an example of how God's grace can transform lives and use even the most imperfect people to fulfill your divine purpose.
Thanks for the walk!
Jesus said this I believe to comfort us. Pray and trust.
““I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.””
Revelation 1:8 NKJV
We are in between the acceptance of these words. My life has been trying to please God. I’m kind of like a book sitting in between the bookends, Aloha and Omega. I’m able to choose and know God loves me in the middle. I desire like you to please Him. Some of our decisions hurt and some bless those around us. We are concerned about disappointing people so we often don’t move forward. I miss those from my yesterday but know I remained on a path that God helped me choose. I know someone in my life who never inquires what God wants, so they are like a sheet drying in the wind they just flap and go nowhere. I know you to be someone who loves to please and is full of heart. You don’t just flap in the wind you’re very grounded. God is with us in our decisions we can count on that. I know you have a calling and small detours will not stop you from following the heart He has given you. Scripture says to go boldly to the throne. We can walk in that boldness of God wherever He leads.
Some decisions I don't put a lot of thought into. But, life decisions that you are facing, I spend time reading the Bible and praying diligently. I find 1 or 2 trusted christians and seek advice and prayer from them. I heard a preacher say when seeking God's will to go through open doors, and do what you know now to do and God will lead you to the next thing. You know He wants you to share the gospel. So, if that means move somewhere else, then ask him to show you where (Virginia!- just kidding!) When you find the place God wants you, a peace will overcome you and you
will know you have made the right decision. I am praying for you. I have also put out " a fleece" like Gideon in the OT
But, I have heard that is a lack of faith. God bless you, Donny! You have made an impact on my life- thank you!
thank you for your prayers Denise.
I hear Virginia is nice 😊
I watched your eyes as you spoke and they told me a story. Take the time to listen to the silence because your eyes weren’t at peace. Prayers and hugs 🙏❤️
My husband and I used to pray about big decisions before jumping into something we were not sure of. Since I no longer have him to talk to about decisions we made together. I now pray a lot more before making decisions. When we pray about a decision we need to wait on an answer, not say well I have prayed about this so now I will go ahead and do it. You will find yourself saying I should have waited. Just like me, my Sunday school teacher asked for someone in out class to help him teach at times. I went home and prayed about teaching the class. I felt like the Lord was leading me to help him and I told him the next Sunday that I would help. I still feel like it was the right decision. There have been times when I have jumped in without waiting and later wished that I had waited. So, Donny, please pray about it and wait. I will also pray for you as you wait. You will just know it was the right decision to wait and you will feel good about waiting.
Love your prayer walks. If I were there I would be walking in the crunchy leaves and kicking them as I go. I love the leaves in the fall. I have a different prospective to decisions. I no longer have a mate to hash out the pros and cons and am at an age when the decisions are mine and mine alone. So I really have to listen to my inner voice to guide me, be whatever that is. It is not an easy route but one that I feel that I have the strength to follow. I am also asked many times by others for advice so feel I must be doing the right thing. As they say, I keep trucking!! I hope all the decisions that are facing you are solved to your satisfaction. Life's road is not always easy but the journey is such an ongoing challenge.
My last few days have been very trying, a young sister in hospital and a niece's long time mate choosing MAID for horrific health issues. Prayers and hugs to you Donny, for all your endeavors. Take care!!
sorry to hear about your sister. I am praying for her now
Donny I always pray for you everyday you are in my prayer list.I pray for your ministry “prayer walk” many are watching you every week and may you lead more people to Christ.Amen
thank you
Donny indeed the most difficult is to make decisions , for myself I always pray and plead to God. Through the days of my life I was presented with moral choices to make decisions. And choices are often simple issues of all right and all wrong until I made the decisions almost two years ago to stop all of the surgical procedures to have a perfect face. I know for a fact I will never have the same face structure before all failed surgeries and I accept my decision and was a difficult situations. Fortunately, you do not have to deal with difficult choices alone and unaided. If you ask God , he will enlighten you. He will show you the way to go. He has given you his commandments to light your way through the maze of facts and emotions. And he waits patiently for you to bring each one before him. He will help you do what is right for your life and the lives of those you love. I will be praying for you my friend and you will make the right decision. 🙏
When faced with choices, decisions, I quiet the chatter in my mind, go to a quiet place and in that stillness I pray, listen and go with what I hear. The guidance is normally very present in my mind and heart, it is only my human resistance and doubt that try to shout over it but the guidance never wavers in my heart. I have learned not to argue with it, not to ask “what if”, not to overthink it but to begin to plan for it. It is amazing to watch God clear the path for me when I listen to Him. There are times when that still small voice is so quiet that it seems I have made a decision without choosing, but hindsight shows that it was guided. Thank you Donny for another interesting prayer walk. Continued blessings on your journey. 🙏🙏