To Where God Wants Us to Go

In the Old Testament, we can find the Israelites’ 40-year desert journey, which serves as a living lesson that shows us the way of obedience. When they were saved from the plagues through the Passover and crossed the Red Sea as on dry land after the Exodus, they gave thanks to God for His mighty power. However, they easily forgot about God’s saving grace and complained to Him frequently. When even a small hardship befell them on their journey led by God, they kept grumbling and complaining against God. As a result, most of them fell in the desert. Among the men who were twenty years old or more at the Exodus, only Joshua and Caleb who followed God’s guidance fully were allowed to enter Canaan.

This history is a lesson for us who are walking in the desert of faith. Following God wherever He leads us means trusting God 100%. Taking a lesson from the past history, we should walk the desert journey of faith with obedience and thankfulness, so that we will enter the eternal Canaan of heaven.

Five Peas from a Pod

Five Peas from a Pod is a fairy tale written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. There were five peas in one pod. The peas grew, sitting straight in a row. The sun shone outside and warmed the pod; the rain made it clear and clean. It was nice and cozy inside, bright in the daytime and dark at night, just as it should be. As the peas grew larger, they used to talk to one another about where they wanted to go when they went to the outside world.

Then one day, the pod cracked and burst open, and all five peas rolled out into the bright sunshine. They were lying in a child’s hand; a little boy held them, and said that they were suitable peas for his peashooter.

The first pea said, “Now I’m flying out into the wide world! Catch me if you can!” And then it was gone. “I’m going to fly right into the sun” said the second. “That’s a perfect pod, and very well suited to me!” Away it went. “We’ll go to sleep wherever we come to,” said the two others, “but we’ll roll on, anyway.” And they rolled about on the ground before being put into the shooter, but they went into it all the same.

“Let happen what may!” said the last one as it was shot into the air. “It doesn’t matter where I go. So, please send me where You want me to go!” Thus, the pea prayed to God, and it flew up against the old board under the garret window, right into a crack, where there was moss and soft soil; and the moss closed around the pea. There it lay hidden, but not forgotten by God. “Let happen what may” it said.

Inside the little garret lived a poor woman who went out by the day to polish stoves; yes, even chop up wood and do other hard work. And at home in the little room lay her half-grown, only daughter, who was very frail and thin. For a whole year the girl had been bed-ridden. The sick girl stayed home; she lay patient and quiet the day long, while her mother went out to earn money.

It was springtime, and early one morning, the girl looked over at the lowest windowpane and found something green that was peeping in the window. It was a little pea that had sprouted with green leaves. It was a great pleasure for the girl and her mother to see the growing pea vine. Looking at the little pea prospering so well, the girl thought she would also prosper and recover. As she had hope and the will to live, she was gradually getting better.

The four other peas tried to go where they wanted to go and do what they wanted to do. However, the last one prayed that it would live the life which God wanted it to live. As a result, the last pea gave great hope and strength to the girl who was poor and sick.

It is the same with us. When we go to a place where God wants us to go, instead of going where we want to go, and do what God wants us to do, we will be able to live a more valuable and worthwhile life. I believe that if we desire to go where God wants us to and pray for it, God will surely send us to a place that truly needs us and will help us play an important role like the last pea, so that our life and our existence itself can give great courage and strength to people around us.

God’s people follow the Lamb wherever He leads them

I think that true faith is to pay attention to what God wants and live according to God’s will, rather than planning our future according to our own will or desires. I earnestly ask you all, people of Zion, to go wherever God sends you—to Africa if God wants you to go there and to Europe if God sends you there—and to give hope to other people, plant faith in their hearts, and teach them God’s words of truth properly.

When we decide to go where God wants us to go, it shows our will to live in obedience to God’s will. Heaven is the final destination for those who have lived a life of obedience to God.

And I heard a sound from heaven … And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they kept themselves pure. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among men and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb. Rev 14:2–4

People who belong to God are those who follow the Lamb wherever He leads them. They have lived where God wants them to live—not where they want to live, according to God’s pleasing will rather than their own. As a result, they have been purchased from among the people on the earth.

“Now I’m flying out into the wide world!” “I’m going to fly right into the sun!” “We’ll go to sleep wherever we come to.” As the four peas had their own desire, so we may each have something we want to do. However, if we insist on our way and try to do what we desire in the place where we want to be, while claiming to have faith, we will end up just wasting our time and living a life contrary to God’s will. If we devote ourselves to praying to God to help us live a God-pleasing life in a place where God wants us to be, just as the last pea did, we will be able to live a life fully pleasing to God.

We do not know what our future holds, but God knows everything about our future. So, God always leads us into all good. Following the guidance of God, we people of Zion shall all reach the eternal kingdom of God.

The heavenly Canaan is for those who obey God

The Bible teaches us about obedience, meaning that we, God’s people, should become obedient enough to be able to go where God wants us to go and to live where God wants us to live.

We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? Heb 3:14–18

There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience. Heb 4:8–11

If we think and try to go to a place where we want to go, rather than going to a place where God wants us to, we can easily fall into a trap of following the Israelites’ example of disobedience. Those who try to do everything their own way tend to judge their circumstances according to their own standards. As a result, they are always full of complaints and fail to obey God. When we try to do something our own way, our hearts cannot help but become stubborn.

During the Israelites’ 40-year journey in the desert, God taught them the necessity of obedience. Those who did not obey God’s word came to sin and their bodies fell in the desert. Only those who obeyed God in faith were able to enter Canaan, the land of rest. Through the past history, we need to examine ourselves to see if we are still stubbornly thinking only about our physical lives and are hesitating to go where God wants us to go. If we think first what the will of Father and Mother is, all of our stubbornness will naturally disappear.

We cannot be disobedient if we try to go where God wants us to go. In the story of the five green peas, the last one sought to go where God wanted it to go, and God sent it to the worthiest place so it would give hope and courage to people around it. Likewise, let us pray to God, ‘I like any place, whether it is a barren land or a far-off country. Let me go wherever You want me to go and do whatever You want me to do.’

If we think that we are now where God wants us to be, there is nothing to complain about. No matter how poor the circumstances of our situation are, we should devote ourselves fully to the work of God, believing this: ‘God has sent me to this place because He wants me to improve my circumstances here little by little.’ Then we will gain ten more talents, a hundred, a thousand or even ten thousand more talents.

Where God wants us to go, and what God wants us to do

As God’s people, we, too, should benefit or enrich the lives of others through our lives. When we read the story of the five green peas, we can realize that living a life for the benefit of others is an important condition to bear precious fruit. The fruit of the gospel is not something that can be produced as a result of our desire for it, but it is a gift given to us by God when we do what God wants us to do in a place where God wants us to be.

God wants us to go out into the whole world and preach the gospel to all nations.

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Mt 28:18–20

He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.” Mk 16:15

Just going around the world does not mean going where God wants us to go. Through the words of God, we can see that the places where God ultimately wants us to go are all the regions where there are still many people who have neither heard nor seen the words of God. Going to them all and preaching the gospel to them is going to the place where God wants us to go and doing what God wants us to do.

The LORD Almighty has sworn, “Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will stand.” Isa 14:24

Surely, as God has planned, so it will be, and as He has purposed, so it will stand. Since people try to judge and guess the work of God on the basis of their own knowledge, it seems impossible and they become afraid that they will not be able to accomplish it. However, what God has planned is to be fulfilled without fail. God’s purpose is supposed to be accomplished by any means and through any person.

Going where we want to go, doing what we desire, and insisting on our own way—these things cause us to have an arrogant mind. If we are willing to obey and carry out whatever God pleases, it will surely be accomplished. So, it is God’s will for us to have faith and follow Him.

Let us reflect on our faith toward God again and examine ourselves to see if our faith is growing properly. Is our faith not being ruined by the arrogant thought, ‘I have much knowledge now,’ even though we had an obedient faith before? We all need to think about it. ‘Please lead me where You want me to go, not where I want to go!’ With this kind of faith, let us accomplish the work of the gospel of God graciously.

The life of faith in accordance with the will of God

An obedient faith is the greatest faith of all. We must have the greatest faith by obeying the will of God and live according to His will.

… As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry … The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 1 Pe 4:1–8

If we have lived according to the desires of our sinful nature, we should not live that way anymore. For the rest of our lives on this earth, we must live only according to the will of God. I repeatedly ask you to always think and act the way God wants.

As for things in this world, the more time passes, the more likely they go rotten. However, not everything old is bad. Among the old things, there are rotten things and fermented ones. They have one thing in common: They are both old. However, their results are completely different: The former are doomed to be thrown away, and the latter increase in value as time passes.

Let us examine ourselves whether our faith is decaying or being fermented as time passes by. It is the same with the new members of Zion who have just started their life of faith. If we insist on doing what we want to do and going where we desire to go, we will have a stubborn mind and end up being unable to follow God’s will. However, if we earnestly pray to God to send us where He wants us to go, as the last pea did, God will lead us to a place where He wants us to go and to those whom He wants us to preach to. Even while walking down the street, we will hear God’s voice saying, “Cast the rope of salvation to them quickly!”

Let us not leave those souls alone. There are so many people around us whom we can never meet again once we pass them by. Today, like every other day, God will lead our steps. So, let us not just look indifferently at people passing us by, but think that God has sent us here today because He wants us to preach to them, and devote ourselves all the more to the work of saving souls.