Do You Look Beyond Your Circumstances to God’s Face for Clarity?

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Even Gideon and  John the Baptist Lacked Clarity When They Focused on Circumstances

Have you ever known with a certainty that God has called you to do something? God had provided you confirmation after confirmation after confirmation. You couldn’t have been more confident. Then things changed. Then opposition rose up against you on every side. Then you likely started questioning, “Lord, was that really your will?”

Sometimes we need to look beyond our circumstances to God’s face and His Word so we don’t confuse circumstances for the will of God. To help us do this, we will briefly look at Gideon, John the Baptist, and my own testimony and consider what happens when we focus on our circumstances.

Gideon

In Judges 6 – 8, we read Gideon’s story, which starts with God clearly telling Gideon that He was with Him. Yet Gideon looked at the circumstances and questioned God. “If the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us?” (Judges 6:13.)

Gideon’s attention was focused on Israel’s circumstances. Israel had been subject to the Midianites for seven years due to the evil Israel had done in the sight of the Lord. Surely, based on the circumstances, God could not be with them.

God did not let Gideon determine God’s will by the circumstances.  Instead, God clearly spoke His will, saying for the second time, “Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?” (Judges 6:14.)

Yet, Gideon just turned his focus to other circumstances, more personal circumstances, saying, “My family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” (Judges 6:15.)

Gideon continues focusing on circumstances and is convinced it is not God’s will that Gideon go up against the Midianites and save Israel.

What was God’s response?  Assurance.  He repeated His assurance that He would be with Gideon, saying “Surely, I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. (Judges 6:16.)

Most of us know much of the rest of the story.  Gideon vacillated between having confidence in what God was telling him to do and doing it, and asking for signs to build his confidence before he would do what God asked him to do.  Gideon went back and forth depending on whether he was focused on God’s Word or the circumstances that surrounded him.

What was the end of Gideon’s story?  Every time Gideon turned his sight to the circumstances, he doubted God’s will. Gideon remained vulnerable to losing sight of God and ultimately raised up a snare, a distraction from God’s will, in his own life and that of his family and all of Israel (Judges 8:27).

John the Baptist

Let’s now turn to John the Baptist. Who is John the Baptist?

• The one who proclaimed, “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  Matt. 3:2.
• The one who declared himself to be the one crying in the wilderness, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,” quoting Isaiah 40:3.  Matt 3:3.
• The one who further proclaimed, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.” Matt. 3:11

Yet we read in Matthew 11:2-11, when in prison, John sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus, “Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?”

Had God’s message changed?  No.  John’s perspective changed as he sat in prison.  Let’s not be too critical.  John still had faith to trust Jesus’ answer.  He still went to the Source.  He remained faithful.  But, while focusing on his circumstances, he began doubting and needed reassurance.

How did Jesus respond to John?  He turned John’s focus back to the Word, away from his circumstances.  He quoted Isaiah 35:5-6 and 61:1, saying , “The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” John knew what that meant. Yes, was the prophesied One.

Gideon taught us not to judge God’s will by the circumstances.  John the Baptist teaches us that focusing on the circumstances distracts us from God’s message and calling. Yet in both situations, God was there to assure them and turn their focus back to Him.

Personal Testimony

Now for my personal testimony. My husband Mike and I are Associates in Missions in Costa Rica. After many years of preparing to do missions work after we retired, God called us to Costa Rica even before retirement age. I was able to leave my career and focus full time on ministry, both speaking and writing. And my husband has been able to serve in Costa Rica while still working full time for a U.S. employer.

Once we heard God calling us to Costa Rica, things began moving full-speed ahead, confirmation after confirmation after confirmation.  We received our pastor’s agreement. He reached out to the Global Missions Department to start the process. My husband’s employer agreed without question that Mike could move to Costa Rica and continue working for them. The Global Missions Department approved our application. For 10 months we experienced confirmation after confirmation after confirmation. 

Then circumstances changed.  Suddenly we received news about something happening within our family. It felt like an absolute sucker punch to the gut.  I couldn’t breathe.  I didn’t know what to do.  I just sat in shock. From that point on our circumstances were challenging at best.  Focusing on that news alone was enough to cause us to believe we had made the wrong decision.  We couldn’t leave.  We had to stay at home for the sake of our family.  God had not called us.

But we continued moving forward in preparing to move to Costa Rica. And more challenges arose. We went through so much money repairing a complete mess a painter had made to our house as we prepared to sell it, replacing appliances, repairing vehicles that were in good shape before we needed to sell them.  When we focused on our circumstances, which we did many times, we doubted that God had really called us.  But He had.  And we came to Costa Rica! 

We can’t afford to focus on our circumstances.  We have to focus on God, His will, His message.  He will assure us and He will make a way!

I share all of this not to glorify us, but to glorify and thank God that He kept us strong enough to keep our eyes on Him.  He gave us many prayer partners that held us up as we made the transition.

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! … ³⁶ For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

Romans 11:33, 36

In hindsight we know God had a plan.  He prepared us for things we couldn’t foresee.  Oh, how rich is His wisdom and knowledge.  Who knew that we would arrive in Costa Rica in June 2019 after our supervising missionaries had returned to the US due to a medical emergency, and we would have to find our way without them for several months? Who knew there would be circumstances in Costa Rica that caused the closing of all national events we would have been a part of? And who knew churches, businesses, and airports would close due to a pandemic shortly after the opportunities for ministering had opened up again? God knew.

It was not our own careful planning and resources that got us to Costa Rica.  But it is for Him, through Him, and to Him that we were able to come. And through the challenges He prepared us for all of the unexpected things we experienced after arriving. And he expanded our ministry throughout the world through the Confidence in God blog, and Hey Dad, It’s Me! Discover the Father Who Loves and Protects You, a book I recently published. It was all for His glory!

I share this to encourage you to examine yourself when you begin questioning God’s will in your life.  Make sure you are still focused on Him and the will He had previously communicated to you; and that you have not become distracted by changing circumstances, thinking that God’s will had changed, confusing the circumstances for God’s will.  Don’t be like Gideon, who ultimately raised up a snare for himself, his family, and all Israel.  Be more like John the Baptist. Although he allowed his circumstances to cause him to doubt the message and calling God gave him, he returned to the Source for assurance.

God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.  His way is perfect and His word is flawless.  We can have total confidence in Him when we stay focused on Him, His will, and His word.