A young woman stood in my kitchen with her coat still on and told me she had been waiting on God about something for fourteen months.
I asked her what she was waiting for, exactly, and she gave me an honest answer, which is rarer than you would think. She said: I am waiting to be sure.
Then I asked what she would do if she got sure, and she told me, and it was a plain and sensible thing that would take about a week to arrange.
And then, because we have known each other a long time and I am old enough to get away with it, I asked her what she was afraid of.
She stood there for a while. Then she said: if I move and it is wrong, then it is my fault. If I wait and nothing happens, at least I have not done anything.
I have thought about that answer for years, because she said out loud what a great many careful, faithful people are living by and would never put in words. Waiting can be obedience. It genuinely can. And it can also be the safest place to stand when a person is frightened of being blamed.
The verb is a steering verb
The verse everybody quotes about this has a word in it that assumes something.
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. (Proverbs 3:6, King James Version)
Direct. That is a steering word. A rudder does nothing to a boat that is not moving, and that is not a clever illustration, it is simply how rudders work. Direction is applied to something already in motion.
And look at what the verse asks of the person. In all thy ways acknowledge him. Ways, plural, already underway. It does not say stand still until He tells you which way, and I would be careful of anybody who quotes it as though it does.
You have been given a promise about steering rather than a promise about certainty in advance, and Proverbs 3 puts the directing after the ways rather than before them, and the Spirit is the one who does the steering rather than a person having to see the whole road first.
The companion verse says the same thing from the other side, and it is almost startling in how much room it gives a person.
A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps. (Proverbs 16:9)
The man devises. That is his part, and Scripture does not treat it as arrogance. Then the LORD directs. That is His part, and it happens to a man who is already walking.
Waiting and freezing look identical from inside
I want to be careful here, because real waiting exists and this site is not going to shame anybody out of it.
There are seasons where God plainly says wait, and Scripture is full of them, and a person in one of those seasons is being obedient and should not be hurried by an article.
But there is a second thing that looks exactly the same from the outside and feels almost the same from the inside, and it has a different engine. Its engine is that motionlessness cannot be blamed. If a person never chooses, they can never have chosen wrong.
The test I know of is not spiritual and it is embarrassingly simple. Ask what would have to be true for the waiting to end, and see whether an answer comes. Real waiting usually has a shape. Freezing usually does not, and the person cannot say what they are waiting for except to be sure.
You are not being accused when this gets named, and naming it is the beginning of relief rather than a verdict on fourteen months (Proverbs 16:9). The Spirit is the one who tells the difference between a wait He asked for and a fear that borrowed its clothes.
The river did not part until their feet were wet
There is one crossing in Scripture that says the order out loud, and it is not the famous one at the sea.
At the Jordan, the instruction is that the priests carrying the ark go into the water first.
And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off. (Joshua 3:13)
As soon as the soles of the feet rest in the waters. Not before. The river was in flood at the time, which the text mentions, and the men carrying the ark had to put a foot into moving water on the strength of a sentence.
I am not going to turn that into a formula, because it is a narrative and not a promise, and God is not obliged to part anything because somebody got their shoes wet on purpose.
But it is worth seeing that the order in that story is not the order anybody wants. We want the water parted first and the stepping second. That is understandable. It is also not what happened.
You have a promise that operates on a moving person, and the moving was never the part God was waiting to approve (Proverbs 3:6), and it is His Spirit who goes into the water ahead of anybody who steps into it.
You are not required to see it open before you move, and no verse anywhere makes certainty the entry to obedience (Joshua 3:13), and that part belongs to the Holy Spirit, who goes ahead of a person into water they cannot see the bottom of.
So say the decision out loud, and then name the step you already know how to take.
You are ordered by Him while you are walking, and the ordering of your steps is His work rather than a reward for having got it right (Psalm 37:23), and the Holy Spirit is the one who steers, and steering is a thing done to something in motion.
Now the counterfeit, and it is careful and quiet in this one, so learn its shape. It says: if you move and it goes wrong, that is on you, and God will not be with a decision He did not authorize. Learn to hear that. It is vague, it aims at you, and its whole instruction is to stay frozen. Conviction from the Holy Spirit names one specific thing and it arrives with a next step already in it.
You have a Father who directs paths rather than one who waits to see whether you guessed correctly (Proverbs 3:6). The same Spirit is the one who corrects a course, which is something He can do at any point along it.
Nothing here promises the decision becomes clear this week. It may not, and the woman in my kitchen still waited five more weeks after the phone call. And nothing here says her fourteen months were wasted or that a person who cannot hear has done something wrong. What is settled is that He directs paths, that a path implies motion, and that one step which is true in every direction is not a guess.
Declare this over yourself
Say these out loud. You are an ambassador in this and not a private citizen, and that authority is delegated to you. God promised to direct paths and to order steps, which are both things done to a person who is walking, so speak to the fear that has been wearing patience as a coat. An ambassador carries the King's word and never his own policy, so say what God has said, and however He answers, leave the outcome to Him.
- Fear that dressed itself as patience, you are not obedience and you are not keeping me safe. The Word of God says in all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths, and a path is a thing somebody is already on.
- Rule that calls a step presumption, you are finished in the name of Jesus. Scripture says a man's heart deviseth his way and the LORD directeth his steps, and it never once calls the devising arrogance.
- Father, Psalm 37:23 says the steps of a good man are ordered by You. I say the decision out loud tonight and name the one step I already know, and I thank You that Your Spirit steers what is moving.
Proverbs 3:6
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