Are You Asking God for His Plan or Asking Him to Bless Yours?

The Word at the Table

I'm Neal Reyes, The Entrepreneurs' Pastor, and I'm glad you're back at the table. One word this week, and I want you to read it carefully. Because I believe this one is going to land right where you are. Let's get into it.

This Week's Word

The Opening: What Are You Really Asking God For?

My calling in ministry did not start behind a pulpit.

It started behind a pool table.

I used to compete in billiards. And I remember one day I was in my home practicing drills, just me and the table, working the angles. And that is when the Lord spoke to me and told me what he had called me to do. I knew in that moment that he had called me to teach. And I was fired up. I was ready. In my mind, I went to bed that night feeling like I was going to wake up the next morning and step into something.

But that is not how it worked.

It took me about ten years before I even started to step into what he called me to do. Ten years of growing my character, getting his Word deep down on the inside of me, building godly habits. And then when I finally started to step in, do you know where step two started? Not behind a pulpit. It started in the children's ministry, teaching three-year-olds. And then it started in the church parking lot, driving one of those extended stretch golf carts, picking people up and dropping them off at the front door before service. Faithful each week. Faithful each week. Faithful each week.

I am telling you that story because I want you to understand something before we go any further today. No two callings look the same. And if you have been measuring your path by what someone else's journey looked like, you have been using the wrong measuring stick.

This Week's Word: Answering the Call

There is a question I want to put in front of you today, and I want you to sit with it honestly.

When you ask God, Lord, what is my calling, what are you really asking Him for?

Because sometimes, if we are being truthful with ourselves, what we are really saying is, Lord, will you bless the plan I have already made? We have already decided what it should look like, what it should feel like, how big it should be, how fast it should happen. And then we bring that to God and call it seeking His will.

That is not seeking His plan. That is asking Him to cosign yours.

Faith Anchor #1: Stop measuring your path by someone else's calling.

Sometimes God will call two people to the same field but sends them on completely different paths to get there. One of them may take what looks like a direct route. The other may go through the wilderness, through seasons of preparation that look nothing like progress, through assignments that seem too small for the dream they were given. And from the outside, it can look like one of them is favored and one of them is falling behind.

But God is not running a race where everyone takes the same lane. He builds people for their assignment, and the path is part of the building. So the question is never, why does their path look easier than mine? The question is, am I being faithful on mine?

Now I want to take you to a scripture that I want you to carry with you. It is Isaiah 1:19 NKJV. It says, if you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.

I want you to notice that there are two parts to that promise. Willing. And obedient. Not one or the other. Both.

As believers, we can get into a place where we are willing but not really obedient. In other words, in our hearts we are saying, yes Lord, send me, I will do whatever you ask. But when the assignment shows up and it looks less polished than we hoped, or it starts somewhere we did not expect, or it asks us to serve in a way that feels too small for the vision we were given, the obedience does not follow the willingness. We grumble. We hesitate. We decide that this particular path could not possibly be the one God meant for us.

And every time you do that, you go around the mountain again.

You know the story of the Israelites in the wilderness. What was meant to be a journey of a few days stretched into 40 years. Not because God changed the destination, but because disobedience and grumbling kept adding laps. Around the mountain. And around it again. And around it one more time.

As believers, we can do the same thing. When God gives you an assignment that does not feel like what you pictured, and you start complaining your way through it instead of being faithful in it, you have just added a lap. The mountain is still there. The destination is still there. But you have more ground to cover now than you did before.

God wants to take you up the mountain. He wants to show you things from a higher vantage point that you cannot see from where you are standing right now. But you cannot get comfortable on the ledge you are on and refuse to take the next step. And you cannot go back down the mountain and start from the ground level again, because going back after you have already gained altitude does not feel like you are back at the beginning. It can feel like you are further back than when you started.

Faith Anchor #2: Are you asking God for His plan, or are you asking Him to bless your plan?

This is one of the most honest questions I can ask you today. Because there is a version of prayer that is really just presentation. We come to God with the plan we built, the timeline we set, the outcome we decided we wanted, and we ask Him to put His name on it. And when He does not, we wonder why our prayers are not working.

The call of God on your life is not like a city bus. It does not pull up to where you are standing, let you get on, and automatically take you to where you are supposed to be. It requires you to first choose to answer it. And once you do, it is going to require work. It is going to require dedication. It is going to require trust. And it is going to require faith. It is not automatic. I wish it were. But it is not.

And here is what I want you to hold onto if you are in a season right now that feels like wilderness. When God is taking you through a transition, you may move from a season of overflow through a wilderness on your way to your next level of overflow. That wilderness is not punishment. That wilderness is preparation. Where you are right now may be the training ground for where He is taking you. The question is whether you will be found faithful in it.

You have to be willing to walk away from anything that is not His plan. And you have to be willing to trust that where He is directing you, even when it looks smaller or slower than you expected, is part of the architecture of what He is building in you.

Faith Anchor #3: If you never take the baby steps, you'll never connect with where you're supposed to be.

I want you to hear this, because I think a lot of believers miss their moment here.

Not all steps with God are giant leaps. Sometimes the step is driving the golf cart. Sometimes the step is teaching the three-year-olds. Sometimes the step is the thing that nobody sees and nobody is applauding. And if you are sitting around waiting for the grand entrance and refusing the assignment in front of you because it does not look grand enough, you are missing the step that is building you for what comes next.

Promotion comes from God. And sometimes He knows you are ready, but He also knows that ready to obtain something and ready to sustain it are two different things. It is one thing to reach a level of success. It takes something different entirely to maintain it. And God is not just trying to get you there. He is building you to be able to stay there.

So be found faithful where you are. Take the baby step in front of you. Answer the call even when it starts somewhere that does not look like the destination. Because the person He is building you into on the way there is exactly the person He needs you to be when you arrive.

Take This With You

Whatever you are feeling called to right now, I want to ask you to sit with this prayer before you go any further this week.

Lord, I believe you have created me for something great. Please confirm I am right where you need me to be in this moment. And if I am not, please help me connect with your plan and train me up so I am ready when I get there.

That is it. Not a plan for God to sign off on. Not a request for confirmation of what you already decided. Just an open hand and a willing heart.

Stop measuring your path by someone else's calling. Ask God for His plan, not a blessing on yours. And take the baby step in front of you today, because if you never take it, you will never connect with where you are supposed to be.

From the Table Last Week

On Champion's Walk, my faith show that teaches Real Help For Real Hope, I brought you Feel Called to Something More? How to Answer God's Calling on Your Life. I broke down the difference between asking God for His plan and asking Him to bless yours, walked through what it really means to be willing and obedient when the assignment does not look like what you expected, shared my own story of how my calling started at a pool table and took ten years before I took the first step, and delivered three faith anchors on how to answer the call with faithfulness, even when the first step is smaller than the dream. Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpffLKdcl4s&list=PLMPDSgKkGZNvHLzeBuhqHvZhuCSMEQEgV

Until Next Time

The call on your life is real. The question is never whether God has one for you. The question is whether you are willing and obedient enough to follow it, even when it starts somewhere that does not look like where you are going.

This Wednesday on Champion's Walk, I have something powerful coming for you. Stay close.

I'll see you at the table next Tuesday.

Neal Reyes, The Entrepreneurs' Pastor