One of the main reasons Christians never see their dream or vision realized is that they never come into this place of divine alignment, which is to say the same thing God says and do it the way God wants it done. Again, the reason God insists on this is so that He can bring forth Christlikeness in our lives.
As you align yourself with God, you are becoming more like God. His plan is not just to bless you, nor does He want you do to it His way just to prove your obedience to Him. He wants to alter you, to change you, to make you into the image of Jesus Christ.
When you receive a word from the Lord, you find out very quickly if you are walking in divine alignment or not! We find out just how aligned we are with God when we receive a word from Him to do something different from what we are used to doing.
For example, when the Holy Spirit directed me to move my family to Russia and help to establish churches in the great revival that is taking place there, my first reaction was not “Yes, Lord!” In fact, I cried out in pain, “But what about my ministry in American, Lord?”
First, I tried to buy God off. I told Him that I would send all the missionaries in Russia all the teaching tapes they wanted. Not only that, I would give as much financial support for their ministries and other missionaries in the world as God would direct. Still, the word remained: Move to Russia.
When that tactic didn’t seem to satisfy God, I agreed to make a trip to Russia with some other evangelists, hoping that the visit would appease God and relieve me of this terrible burden. Instead, the hook was driven deeper into my soul: I fell in love with the Russian people.
Finally, I thought my deliverance would surely come when I told my wife that I thought God was telling me that we were supposed to move to Russia. Instead of bursting into tears with argument after argument against going, she tearfully and joyfully agreed.
There was no way around it now! If we were to obey God and walk in divine alignment with His plan and purpose for our lives, we would have to move to Russia.
So I made the official announcement, taking great pleasure in boldly proclaiming the word of the Lord for our lives. Then this great man of faith went home and hung his head over a toilet bowl for twenty-four hours, vomiting! Anxiety flowed through my veins, worry filled my mind, and nothing I did would relax me.
All I could think about was going broke, losing our home in the United States, the ministry going right down the tubes, and those I had employed in the ministry not being able to feed and clothe their families. Money! Money! Money! How would we ever manage?
When I received and acted upon this word from the Lord, everything in me that was not in alignment with God’s will and every ounce of doubt and unbelief in my soul came rushing to the surface – literally! All I could think about was money! Over and over and over I cried, “Lord, what will happen to my ministry if I obey You?” Finally, I not only heard His answer, but began to understand it. He said, “What will you miss if you don’t obey Me?”
There is nothing more thrilling than those times when the Holy Spirit moves and gives you a grand and glorious plan to follow, but there is always that pound of flesh that must be cut off in order for you to come into divine alignment, enter into His supernatural rest, and carry out His will for your life.
What if you received a word from the Lord right now to quit a company where you had been employed for ten years and start a new business? The idea is exciting in the beginning, and you can envision all that money pouring into your office, money that you will funnel into the preaching of the gospel. Then you start the process of considering all that your obedience will require of your personally, and the flesh is not so enthralled!
It’s easy to give up everything to obey God when you don’t have very much, such as the time when He called us into the traveling ministry and we didn’t have anything anyway. But it can be much more difficult when He has enabled you to build something great and wonderful, and then He asks you to lay it all down and move on to something foreign and different!
The most thrilling aspect of choosing to obey God’s will for your life and coming into divine alignment, however, is knowing you are still pliable enough in His hands to give up everything you have if He requires it of you. It’s a joy and a pleasure and the greatest reward to know that after He has made you “ruler over much,” you are still, above all else, the faithful servant of the Lord.
All of us who want to follow God one hundred percent know deep down in our hearts that it is only from this attitude of servanthood, from this position of solid, unequivocal alignment wit the will of God for our lives, that we can march forward to fulfill our divine destiny in total confidence and real, unshakeable faith.
Excerpt permission granted by Albury Publishing
Rick and Denise met while they were each on an individual quest to wholeheartedly follow God's plan for their lives. Rick was a college student, growing in his teaching ministry. Denise was a talented vocalist. She chose not to pursue a course that held the prospect of performing with the Metropolitan Opera so that she could instead pursue a relationship with Rick and fulfill her heart's desire to enter full-time ministry.
Rick and Denise's friendship has led to lifelong love and a powerful partnership in building the Kingdom of God. After a decade of ministry, first as pastor and then as itinerant ministers, Rick and Denise Renner embarked on an adventure of a lifetime. In January 1991, the Renners and their sons Paul, Philip, and Joel left behind all they knew to relocate their family to serve the region that only weeks earlier had become the former Soviet Union.
Rick and Denise remember kneeling together as a family and kissing the ground when they arrived at the airport in Latvia on that cold January day. At that moment, they all committed their lives to the will of God and to the people of their new homeland. The following year, Rick moved forward to launch and establish the first of its kind, and eventually the largest, a Christian television network in that region of the world.
Over the years, Rick and Denise pioneered three churches, a Bible school, and a ministerial association that serves thousands of Russian-speaking pastors throughout the former USSR as well as parts of the Middle East. As Rick began training and mentoring leaders in the early days, Denise also developed a women's ministry that is actively involved in changing the lives of women and their families today. Specifically, they minister to the needs of orphans, women prisoners, the homeless, and drug-and-alcohol addicts.
Rick, Denise, and their children began as a small circle of five, willing to go beyond their comfort zone to reach the uttermost parts of the world. Today that circle includes their sons' wives, six grandchildren, and a large ministry staff that helps the Renners extend their reach as they exalt Jesus Christ as the Hope of all nations.