I believe there are times in life where God will lead you to take a step forward even when you are not fully ready to do so. Here are 3 instances where this could happen.
- If God Wants You Do Something That You Must Rely on Him to Do, Oftentimes He Will Lead You to Proceed Forward When You Are Not Ready So You Know You Must Rely on Him and Not Yourself
Faith will often lead you to take steps you are not ready to take in your own personal power. When we can see all the necessary steps we need to take and we know we can accomplish all these steps in our own strength, faith is not required. Faith is required when we know God is calling us to do something even though we know we can’t do it on our own.
Hebrews 11:8 says, “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.” From a practical standpoint, you are ready to start a journey when you know where you are headed. Abraham was not ready in the practical sense because he didn’t even know exactly where God was telling him to go. But in a spiritual sense, God made him ready by giving him the faith to follow even though he did not know exactly where God was leading him. He just knew it was God who was leading him.
Likewise, if God is calling you into something that you don’t know how it will end, from the world’s viewpoint you are not ready. But if you know God has given you the faith to follow him no matter what because you know it is God who is leading you, then in a way, even though you are not ready, you are actually ready because the faith God has given you is leading you to proceed forward.
- If God Is Calling You Into Something That You Can Only Be Prepared for By Doing It, This Is Often a Sign God Is Telling You to Proceed Forward Even Though You Are Not Ready
Oftentimes, waiting to start a journey until you are ready is a mistake because then you will never start. In many cases, the journey is where God will teach you and make you ready.
One of Jesus’s favorite phrases was, “Follow me.” He said it often, but he never said it to someone who was ready to follow him perfectly. Jesus never picked a disciple based upon their current level of obedience or past history of following him successfully. Jesus knew that through following him, his disciples would then become more equipped to follow him better.
In Luke 9:57-62, we have a snapshot of all the ways in which people told Jesus that they were not ready even though he was telling them to follow him:
As they were going along the road, someone said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ To another he said, ‘Follow me.’ But he said, ‘Lord, let me first go and bury my father.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’ Yet another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.’ Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’”
Some weren’t ready because they wanted the security of domesticated living. Some weren’t ready because they had family obligations. And some weren’t ready because they were not prepared to pay the social cost of losing their close friends and family. But to all of them, Jesus said, “Follow me.”
In Luke 6:40 Jesus said, “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.” Jesus doesn’t call people to be his disciples who are already like him. Rather, through being his disciple and following him, Jesus trains us to become like him.
The truth is, when Jesus calls any of us to follow him, none of us are ever ready. But we have to say yes anyways. Jesus will cause us to become ready through the journey with him. By following him, his grace will sanctify and train us to follow him even better (Matthew 28:20).
- If God Is Presenting You with an Opportunity You Don’t Feel Ready for But It Will Pass Unless You Take Advantage of It Right Now, This Could Be a Sign He’s Telling You to Do Something Even Though You Are Not Ready
Sometimes you may not be ready but the opportunity is ready. If you wait until you feel ready, oftentimes the opportunity will then not be ready.
Don’t get me wrong, just because you are given an opportunity or an invitation to do something doesn’t automatically mean that God is telling you to take this opportunity. You have to use wisdom and discernment from the Lord. For example, many people have been offered leadership before they are ready to handle it and they have been ruined by it. When referring to elders, 1 Timothy 3:6 states, “He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.”
With that said, life itself is a fleeting gift that is time sensitive. This life is going to end, and when it passes we are not going to be able to say to God, “But I wasn’t ready to do what you had asked me to do.” 2 Corinthians 5:10 states, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”
You may never be ready to obey Christ’s calling if you wait until you feel ready. But it’s always the right time to do the right thing. As Jesus said in Luke 12:40, “You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”