How many times have you asked God which direction or what path he wants you to take?
I have always asked God this question but this year it has been different and for the past 2 months, I have been struggling with this question.
There are times that we move forward and do the natural things and like Proverbs 3:6 says, “In everything you do, put God first, and he will direct you and crown your efforts with success” but right now I’m at a place where I feel like there is a specific direction he is calling me to go but I’ve been so consumed with everything else that I hadn’t really taken the time to be still and find out what his answer is.
Until recently!
Want to know what God’s answer to me has been so far?
Seek him, his wisdom, his guidance, his counsel, his ways, his word. Entrench myself in the word of God, focus only on him and HE will direct my path. Step away from ALL the Social Media Networks, ALL the distractions, ALL the things that are not building me up and edifying me, ALL the things that are taking me away from spending time with him, ALL the things I have made as my idols! (GASP…GULP) Yikes, that one is the one that hurt the most.
Definition of Idolatry is the worship of idols or excessive devotion to or reverence for some person or thing
Yep! That’s it! No clear cut direction…no still small voice…no prophecy…no gentle nudge…no Scripture jumping out at me pointing me in the direction…no AH HA moment. Just this still small voice asking me if I’m really serious about seeking God and his will for my life and if I am, step out in faith and do what he has asked me to do.
So this is where I’m at in my walk right now.
I want to share with you the different directions I could go because when he does lay out his plan for me I think it would be neat to come back here and see if the direction he gives me is even on this list. 🙂
- Continue on with my Affiliate Marketing ventures ~ This entails working on 6 DIFFERENT websites everyday including my LivinLyfeMarketing.com site where I train others to do this Affiliate Marketing thing
- Put all my effort into this website here at LivinLyfe.com and build it up to wherever God would have it go
- Get a J.O.B.
- Write a book – something I feel God is leading me to do just not sure what topic to write on yet
- Go back to empowering the youth of this generation to make a healthy, positive choice in their lives
- Start a program to empower Parents to monitor their children online
- Create a website for my husband’s Healing and Deliverance Ministry
It’s been a little over 2 weeks since I shut down my personal Facebook account. The first day was a real wake up call as to just how much I have made FB an idol. The first day I de-activated my account I went to check FB every bit of 25 times that day. Every time I did I would reach for the bible and would ask the Holy Spirit to reveal whatever he wanted to in his word all the while asking God to forgive me and help me through this.
It’s amazing the things the Holy Spirit reveals to you throughout the scriptures that you didn’t even know existed in the bible!
Of course it only lasted a week before I had to re-activate my account (incognito of course lol) You see I have a YouTube channel and this particular video that I uploaded a couple months ago has gotten a little over 2,500 views and people are asking me more questions about Facebook. Well, I couldn’t leave them hanging so I had to re-activate my Facebook account to do some more video tutorials.
I told myself I would only get on there to do the videos. I wouldn’t scroll through and see what everyone is up to. Get on…record the video…get off. That was my plan.
Guess what happened?
I got on there and almost an hour later I realized I had checked up on everyone, scroll through images, visited a couple sites that people shared links to, read articles that didn’t benefit me in the least bit and basically got sucked right back in. (Insert rolling eyes here)
Also, I realized that these past 2 weeks I’ve been visiting Twitter and Instagram a lot more frequently on my smartphone. It was like when I quit smoking all those years ago. I got rid of the cigarettes to replace it with drinking coke all the time. All I did was exchange one habit for another. Exactly what I was doing with these Social Networks.
Yesterday God called me to read I & II Timothy and I started out strong. The Holy Spirit was revealing so much to me but I took a break and figured I would quickly check my websites, YouTube videos and write a blog post for this site, then come back and finish reading. What happened? I got sucked in again and after 4 hours of being online and realizing that I got absolutely NOTHING accomplished I just wanted to cry.
I went back to reading II Timothy and I could hear the Holy Spirit telling me to quit focusing on the computer, on technology and seek God and his word. The very answer God had given me but I didn’t want to accept the fact that he meant to take a break from ALL of it. I mean this is my field of work here y’all. I went to school for Internet Marketing. I have helped clients with their online marketing, I have How to Videos on YouTube about the different Social Media sites. This is my livelihood, this is what I have always felt God leading me into and now he is saying take a break from it and seek me.
Of course, he is because I’ve made it an idol and he’s calling me back to him.
I don’t know where this journey is going to take me. I don’t know what direction he has me going but I do know one thing…I love God with all my heart, mind, soul and strength and I don’t want to disappoint him. I want him to use me as his vessel in whatever capacity he wills. So I am taking a break from technology. I am stepping away from the Social Networks for as long as he is calling me to. I’m allowing the Holy Spirit to lead and guide me and I’m super excited to see what God has in store for me and my family.
I will be journaling and if the Lord allows, sharing with you all through this site the journey as it’s happening.
In the meantime, I would LOVE to hear stories of how God called you to do something that required you to take a huge step of faith and how he answered you. Or is there something he’s calling you to do right now but you’re having a hard time taking that first step? If so, share it with me and I will pray for you that he gives you the strength and courage to move forward in his will.
Many Blessings to you all. <3
Audrey
Man, that was an honest blog. I respect your upfront attitude. It is so easy to get wrapped up in our To Do lists isn’t it? I love that you are determined to seek Him more & be attached to social media less. I check my social media many times during the day due to my attempt to build my audience, grow my ministry and grow my business. But, like you, I find myself distracted by so many things (email, Google+ posts, twitter notifications, etc). They really do take away from prayer time & time spent in The Word.
Thanks for being so open & honest.
I’m pretty honest on every post but this one was an eye opener even to me. It’s sad how easily Satan can creep his way in without us even knowing it. But that is why it’s soooo important for us to stay close to our God and his word. So when the enemy tries to take us off track we can identify it for what it is…a distraction…and be able to come against it. This break was from July to Nov. and so many great things have happened. I think I’ll have to do an updated post and share what God has done. 😉
Be Blessed,
~ Audrey
Do you mind if I quote a few of your articles as long as I provide credit and sources back
to your site? My website is in the exact same niche as yours and my
visitors would definitely benefit from a lot
of the information you provide here. Please let me know if this okay with you.
Many thanks!
No, I don’t mind at all. If it is going to help someone and minister to them by all means, quote away.
Be Blessed,
Audrey