“This partner relationship with God is more like a waltz than a military maneuver.
He leads, but He cares what you want – you get a vote!”
Deb Krebs, Prayer Warriors in Business
“Is Jesus in the trunk of your car?” is a famous illustration many pastors like to use in their Sunday messages.
Then they say, “Is Jesus in the backseat?”
And on and on it goes until the correct answer is “Jesus is the driver”.
This common story has been circulating the Christian circuit every since I was little.
But what happens if the answer is “none of the above”?
What happens if it’s not an “either/or” proposition, but it is BOTH?
There is a famous Carrie Underwood song, Jesus Take the Wheel. It is a story of how a lady is driving her car in a winter storm and hits ice and she is loosing control of her vehicle and asks God to take the wheel.
This sounds good in theory, yet what if God trusts us to take the wheel with Him?
I have spent the last several years in a Wilderness boot camp of sorts in which the spirit of control was taken from me inch by inch (which is more painful then if it would have just been ripped from me!)
Letting go of a spirit of control is not saying “Jesus take the wheel”, while we are safely riding in the passenger side.
Or leaving it up to God to do all the driving and praying we won’t need the airbag.
He has chosen us to be His hands and feet and to partner in this journey we call life.
The more I go down this road with God, the more I have come to believe it is a partnership that He wants, not just cruising in the passenger seat. God wants us to work in tandem with what He is doing.
Joseph in the Bible is a perfect example of this partnership. He got the download from God in a dream about what was going to happen. God said there was going to be a plentiful harvest for many years and then a severe famine for several more years that would wipe out all the plenty.
Joseph didn’t sit back and say “Jesus take the (famine) wheel”, but he “partnered” with God in what He was about to do.
God gave him the directions, and Joseph implemented what He had heard in partnership with God.
The Bible says we are co-laborers in Christ or co-workers. The word co-laborers in Greek looks like our word for synergy.
God wants us to have synergy working together in unity and partnering with Him. We need to fully surrender control of our situation, which means giving up control and learning to trust.
Our job is obedience and God’s job is to work the intended outcome. Both are needed to produce in us the character to continue despite the circumstances around us.
Today, as you release control and let Jesus take the wheel, don’t forget that He wants you to keep your hands on the wheel too. He will help you steer it from His vantage point.
God will ask you to do something to partner with Him in the outcome He wishes to achieve, whether is to move forward, stand, rest, or resist.
Your corresponding reaction may not make any sense. Most of the time it doesn’t!
Be obedient to what He calls you to do in partnership with Him and allow Him to produce the intended outcome.
It will be a partnership match-made in Heaven!
“Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and
the Lord worked with them…”
Mark 16:20a (NIV)
One fateful decision landed me smack in the middle of my own Wilderness…
Though I was obeying God’s voice, I spent the next several years “walking on water,” even though it felt more like I was treading water. A Journey Out of the Wilderness is for people going through a rough time—a Wilderness experience—where you feel as though you are “down for the count” and ready to give up. Wilderness Wanderers feel as though they are doing laps around the mountain, passing the same tree over and over again wondering, “Will this never end?” However, being in the Wilderness will be one of the most transformational times of your life.