I became a Christian at 16 and my Heavenly Father has guided me ever since. The eagle-eyed of you with great memories will know that is how I started my first blog (Green Custard)! This blog is about how I started to experience his guidance.
At that age, like other teenagers, I was thinking about my future career, choice of subjects and universities. I’d grown up thinking I’d be a teacher but when I reached the 6th form, I didn’t like the way ‘we’ treated the teachers so started looking for something else.
As a new Christian, as well as committing my life, I also committed my career choice to the Heavenly Father and asked him to be my ‘agent’, like an actor or footballer would have. “You sort it out for me Lord.”
My dad was a mechanical engineer, and (back in the day) he didn’t think women should be engineers SO what better motivation did I need; I always loved a challenge. I went to various events and started to get quite excited about becoming an electrical engineer. BUT I needed to know, if my earthly father didn’t approve, did my Heavenly Father?
So I asked Him the question, “Lord should women be engineers?” (Remember we are talking almost 50 years ago). I was not sure how I would hear the answer; couldn’t imagine the answer coming from the Bible, but back then I didn’t know about the rhema word! God knew I’d asked the question, and had already prepared the way. His timing was perfect. I was in the middle of studying Romans. The very next chapter I read was Romans 12. Verse 2 says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world…” That was all the confirmation I needed; I knew I’d been given the go ahead. And just to prove how much my Heavenly Father backed my decision, against all odds I won one of the best engineering sponsorships in the UK: I was paid a salary to go to university. God’s amazing provision.
Whatever stage of life and career you are at, God has a plan for you – the best plan – so give the direction and decisions over to Him. He will never let you down.
I’m probably the only person with whom the Heavenly Father used Romans12:2 to confirm a career in engineering! But I’ve since learnt through GoChurch teaching that the Bible contains the rhema word. It is living and relevant to us all on a daily basis. It is not just ‘logos’, the written word.
I didn’t really take much notice of the rest of the verse until much later in life “… but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes.” TPT
The Father wants us to be set apart from the world and the way it thinks. Kingdom thinking is powerful and creative and does not conform to the pattern of this world. It is upside down thinking! Embrace it.
By the way, in the end my earthly father supported my choices throughout my career too. A proud father.