Seth Barnes May 5, 2006 8:00 PM

How do you make big, scary life & death decisions?

This afternoon I got a call from one of our leaders who discovered that one of the participants on his trip was “seriously suicidal” and had been ...

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This afternoon I got a call from one of our leaders who discovered that one of the participants on his trip was “seriously suicidal” and had been hearing Satanic “laughter in my head.” I sensed it was not the time to calculate the risks of ministering to her, but to move boldly.

Also today, a number of leaders at AIM are praying about a major new orphan work and training center in Swaziland, a country where nearly half of all adults are infected with the AIDS virus. It’s a huge opportunity, but there are so many unknowns.

How do you make decisions like these? So many decisions like these have come my way over the years. One thing I’ve learned: God loves it when we step out into dangerous territory believing that He’ll show up. Over and over again, he has shown up in my life, scooping me up when I let loose of the trapeze hoping He's there.

Here's a spiritual principle: If we’re moving into territory that the enemy controls, very likely we are in the will of God. He loves to be trusted. So many of us dither and make excuses when God just wants to be trusted. In my experience, Christians are on the wrong side of these kinds of faith-decisions about 90% of the time. I include myself in that number – so often I slip back into a comfort zone when I’ve been given all the resources I need.

When was the last time you took a faith step that so scared you, it got your heart racing? When I’m “on my game” it’ll happen at least once a month.

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