It is time to pack your bags!!

The summer after high school, I went to a leadership camp retreat with Lutheran Outdoor Ministries in Ohio, and then later in the summer was hired to be a fill-in camp counselor for a week. I had known for several weeks prior that I was going to be doing this week for them, but the days kept going by and it seemed as if they would never call. It was frustrating for me because I am not a patient person in the natural realm. I began to question if I was even supposed to go. A few days before I was to leave they still had not called me, and I felt the Lord tell me to go and pack my bags. Huh? “That’s silly,” I replied, “they haven’t called me yet and told me they’d hired me.” However, I felt the Holy Spirit was adamant. He wanted me to pack and to pack before they called for me. So I did. Feeling like an idiot, I packed my bags. They called me the next day. This is the reason for years I kept a packed suitcase in my closet “just in case” I was ever called out to minister I would be ready. I did that for years until a friend of mine reminded me that if I did it for me now I had to do it for my whole family and eventually I got out of the habit of doing it. But I believe in packing your bags in faith. You have to be ready when God calls you to go.

Too often in the body of Christ, we are standing on the promises of God, because we know He has said something to us that we are to do, or to be, or to have. What happens is then we do not take steps of faith to see that thing happen. James 2:26 says, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” You have to act on the things God has in your heart for you to do. For example if he has called, you to be a doctor then you had better get your behind in school. Just setting and declaring that you are a doctor from your house is not faith. You have a part to do. You have to take action. For years, I knew God wanted me to write my first book before I did. I struggled with it. But I had to physically set down and do it. That is not to puff me up. I know it has been God, but it is to say you have to do your part.

Hebrews 11:6 says, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” God loves it when you do things in faith. It gets him excited! He says there is my child who trusts me. I want to point out here that faith is not manipulation. We cannot do things to try to manipulate God to get him to do something. He moves in His timing.

He loves it when you get ready! He loves it when you do things out of faith. When you pack your bags before you have the job, it gets Him excited! A few nights ago, I began to think about this blog while trying to go to sleep and I got so excited I had a hard time sleeping. I feel that many of you including myself are in that place right now. Get your bags packed! God is about to do something big in your life and you need to be fully convinced of that fact. Some of you are going to grab a hold of this message and it is going to change you. You are going to know that you know that this word is for you. It is time people to “pack your bags” and get ready for a miracle. What I mean by that is begin to expect for something to change. Do whatever the Holy Spirit tells you to and get ready. Suddenlies may appear to be suddenlies in the natural but in the spiritual realm they take years to set up. The suddenlies are going to happen in some of your lives. Get ready for it!