I will not walk as a disciple very long before realizing that God is a God of break-ins. Look how He broke into Abraham’s life: “The God of glory appeared to … Abraham” (Acts 7:2). The patriarch’s normal, average, everyday life was broken into. Whenever God does that it always means a new direction for things, such as the time He broke into the life of Paul.
The appearances of God, whether visible or inward, are always along the line of an interruption or change. Often the change is not understood by us. “He went out, not knowing where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8). Abraham did not understand that God was going to make him a universal man, a true “father of the faithful.” So it must come to me as a disciple. God must reserve for Himself the right of the initiative, the right to break into my life without question or explanation. that shattering phone call, that disturbing letter, that unquenchable vision may indeed be the first stage of God’s interruption in my life. I must be ready, never doubtful.
Since God does the initiating, He must be responsible for the consequences. Nowhere does God ever start something and then say, “All right, the rest is up to you!” The consequences of God’s actions are just as ordained as the origination of those actions. For me that is a warning—do not tamper with consequences that God has already appointed for me. But that also is my comfort; I need not worry about something that is out of my hands.
My response must always be to keep a sharp eye on God and obey His Word implicitly. Then He will surprise me with delights! “Be ready by morning, and come up … and present yourself … to Me on the top of the mountain… . And the Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him” (Exodus 34:2-5).
“For this very night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood before me, saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul’” (Acts 27:23–24).
