THE AUDACIOUS ADVENTURE with Danica & Autumn

Is God a STOWAWAY or Your GUIDE? How to Discern God's Will // Discernment Series (Part 3)

• Danica Childs • Episode 5

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Is God a STOWAWAY or Your GUIDE in life?  How Do You Discern His Will?  Is God's Will a ROADMAP, GUIDEBOOK, or GPS?  What is LOW STAKES discernment?  Can I DELEGATE my discernment?  Can I discern for a friend?  AND what the HECK was Danica doing in South Korea, anyway?  

Today we will answer ALL these questions and more!  Join us as we share times we trusted the Holy Spirit to guide us AND times when we most certainly DID NOT!  Learn from our mistakes and receive a framework for how YOU can collaborate with God as you live your life in step with His Spirit.

*Check out Larry Warner's book on discernment, which we highly recommend and reference throughout this series:  Discernment, God's Will & Living Jesus: Christian Discernment as a Way of Life https://amzn.to/3VRGeqB 

ABOUT US:
DANICA CHILDS is a Spiritual Director with a MA in Spiritual Formation/Soul Care from Talbot Seminary and a MA in Christian Apologetics from Biola University. Her sister AUTUMN is a storyteller passionate about the spiritual gifts and creating with the Holy Spirit. We’re sisters who've spent a combined forty years in various forms of ministry, including co-planting a church in Hollywood with other families, where we served in a variety of leadership roles for around a decade. Later we began THE AUDACIOUS ADVENTURE as a Los Angeles based ministry in 2016. We daily pursue creative, artistic, messy, and joyful lives of adventure in Southern California with our family and friends!

"We're excited to adventure audaciously with YOU!"


Danica Childs:

I was like an untrained dog. I was that dog who does not know how to heel. I was running ahead of God, and then kind of pulling God along and saying, "Come with me, come with me tell me my plans are okay, tell me my plans are okay." And in almost every case I would pray that my prayers were along the lines of show me a sign external to myself, show me the open door. If there's an open door, it's God's will. If there's a closed door, that's God's will that I don't go there. And that's pretty much how I conducted my whole decision making process in my 20s.

Autumn Cornwell:

Hello, and welcome to the Audacious Adventure. I'm Autumn Cornwell.

Danica Childs:

And I'm Danica Childs.

Autumn Cornwell:

And we're two sisters adventuring with the Holy Spirit.

Danica Childs:

Thank you for joining us today. If you have been wondering what God's will is for your life, you have come to the right place. We are going to be talking about what does that mean to be in God's will? What do we mean by God's will?

Autumn Cornwell:

Exactly. And that is a question Danica and I asked ourselves over and over and over and over again, especially in our 20s when we adventured, we explored, we risked all without an ounce of Christian discernment.

Danica Childs:

But that does not mean we didn't love God. We were passionate about being in God's will. We really wanted to be in God's will.

Autumn Cornwell:

We read the Bible, we went to church, we prayed. We got sought wise counsel most of the time, some of the time. But we weren't actually doing active discernment as we know it today.

Danica Childs:

So what did we get so wrong?

Autumn Cornwell:

Good question. Why were we so messy? Well, I guess you know, discernment is messy, We were messy. We were a mess.

Danica Childs:

But the 20s are messy.

Autumn Cornwell:

Yes, it should be kind of messy. You want to explore and fail and risk.

Danica Childs:

This is true.

Autumn Cornwell:

But anyway, we learned a lot. And we want to share our mistakes and our learnings with you.

Danica Childs:

Our learnin's. So today, here's the question is God's will a roadmap for your life, a guidebook? Or is it GPS?

Autumn Cornwell:

And now Danica will be sharing a story which illustrates so well, the fact that she forced God to be a stowaway on her adventure, rather than asking the Holy Spirit to be her guide on an adventure. And we kind of call this the roadmap. So Danica, why were you leaving Korea by buying a ticket on a Russian freighter? Do tell this story of lack of discernment.

Danica Childs:

Oh, my where to begin? Well, it begins on a lawn at Biola. I had just graduated and I was sitting there trying to discern, I use that very loosely, by the way, what God's will was for my life now that I was done. And as I was sitting on the grass, a gentleman who had graduated few years before me....

Autumn Cornwell:

I'm going to interrupt to say Biola University was the college we both went to. Just in case you didn't know what that was.

Danica Childs:

So I'm sitting on this lawn at Biola, enjoying the sun. And this gentleman came along. And he wasn't a random gentleman, he was a friend, he was the brother of somebody I knew. And he started sharing what he had been doing since he graduated. And he had been teaching English in Korea. And he mentioned that it was a great way to make a lot of money rather fast. And since I now had student debt that I had to get rid of, and I was looking for adventure, I just wanted to get out of the United States anyway possible and go explore the world. And so my approach was, okay, well, this sounds fun. So I'm going to apply to the language school, and see if I get in. And so my, my approach was, alright, God, here's an opportunity. If it's of you, you'll open the door, and I'll be on my way to Korea. So it was and I flew to Korea.

Autumn Cornwell:

I'm going to insert right here, or stop you and ask you when that gentleman was sitting on the lawn, and he mentioned that, did you get excited? And did you just know right then that's what I'm going to do without praying or asking God or getting wise counsel, do you remember any of the steps, just as a curiosity?

Danica Childs:

I'm sure I asked. I'm sure I talked to you. And my parents, obviously, and just discussed it with them. And you know, they weren't going to hinder me in anything. And I know I prayed in the sense of Lord, if this is not of you, close the door. It was very much like that. That's how I was thinking about it. This is how I was praying about it. So I know I prayed, okay, but it basically was like, "Lord bless this decision and make it obvious if it's not you." That's pretty much how I was thinking about it. So I wind up in Korea. Now, mind you, this is in, how old was I? It was 1997. And if any of you are old enough to remember this was a difficult time in South Korea and a lot of Asia because it was during the International Monetary Fund crisis, the IMF crisis. So I get to Korea and I'm teaching away and having some fun and you know, it's challenging of course, you know, you're in a different country and you don't know the language, but I'm enjoying it and loving it. Learning all sorts of things about Korea, developing a passionate love for Korea, I might add.

Autumn Cornwell:

And a love for the food was brought back and totally instilled in us.

Danica Childs:

Yes, all things Korean. And about halfway through my time there, the won crashed. And so that meant... I was being paid in won not dollars...and so that meant my salary was worthless. It was peanuts, I think we figured out I was making about $3 an hour. And so as I was thinking about that, I was like, You know what, I cannot survive on $3 an hour, I can't pay off my loans on $3 an My roommate and I were at the point where we couldn't even buy oil to heat our apartment at $3 an hour. So we're sleeping in the same bed together to keep warm, you know.

Autumn Cornwell:

Sounds like a Charles Dickens orphan story.

Danica Childs:

I know! We were cuddling under my one comforter, my down comforter that I had brought, which I was so thankful for. And so I had just gotten to the point where like, alright, this adventure is over. Like, I need a new adventure. I don't like this one anymore. And, you know, basically, because I wasn't getting paid enough. And so I decided I was going to leave Korea. And you know, I think this is where you know, somebody who was probably more discerning would have taken time to sit through that decision and say, Lord, what should I do here? What do you want me to do? As I sit in this situation? Well, that was not my way in my early 20s.

Autumn Cornwell:

And I want to ask you this. I think the person you were with, were they a faith person, a person of faith? Or were they someone who was agnostic or atheist? Would that have influenced the decision? Because you guys were both in this together?

Danica Childs:

True. Another friend of mine also wanted to leave. She had started at the same time. I had met her there. She was not a Christian, though.

Autumn Cornwell:

That's what I mean, so that's interesting. She wasn't a Christian. You're a Christian. Did you guys grapple with this together? Did she have like, where she just kind of seeing what you were going to do? You're seeing what she was going to do?

Danica Childs:

That sounds like we had we put way more thought into it. Okay. I mean, we were just remember, I don't know if some of it is a little hazy. We just were like, We need to get out ,what should we do. And so these were the two options really before us because there were two other friends I was there with, we all started teaching at the same time. And two of my other friends, including my roommate, also knew that they had to leave halfway through their contract. So all four of us were, were ending our contract sooner than we were supposed to. Now two of us, that would be my friend, and me decided we were going to do the exciting way. And we were not going to inform the school first that we were leaving. Now, this is something I have repented of later, okay, because this is not how Christians should conduct themselves. But here's what was motivating me. I was motivated by adventure. I was like, this is exciting. We get to flee in the middle of the night, and try and not be caught by the authorities because there were stories about how they would meet you at the train station. Not that you would go to jail or anything, but they would just force you back into your contract. And you'd have to pay them back. You basically have to pay them back for the flight out to Korea.

Autumn Cornwell:

Oh, I forgot about that.

Danica Childs:

They paid for your housing they paid for your flight.

Autumn Cornwell:

Also Danica and I both grew up reading a lot of adventure books of women heroines. They did all sorts of active undercover espionage kind of things. And I think our minds were full of that kind of thing.

Danica Childs:

Exactly. And so I wanted maximum adventure. And so I was not really discerning at this point. I wasn't even thinking about it. I was just like, all right Lord make it happen. And so honestly, I don't think I had a shred of conscious about leaving my contract in the middle. Now the other two people, my roommate and another friend, they left with honor, they did it right. They contacted the school and said we have to leave and they did what needed to be done. And then they left, you know, in a way that was honorable. That was not me. And that was not my friend. Because like I said, we just wanted to maximize the potential for adventure, basically that was my 20s. And so we left in the middle of the night on a bus to Seoul. We were in Daegu at the time. And so we took a bus to Seoul. And I remember being on the bus going, oh my gosh, what are we doing? We had tickets, we had airline tickets. But before that we had thought you know what would be even more fun. An even bigger way to maximize adventure would be to get tickets on a Russian freighter, and sail around the Pacific until it dropped us off in Los Angeles. And then Autumn remembers this.

Autumn Cornwell:

This was the best. I think I will set this up. We I was visiting our parents in Virginia. And we were on a speakerphone my dad and mom and myself and I guess my husband was there. Yeah, that's right. That's right. That was at Christmas time, and Danica is calling us from South Korea to explain this adventure choice to us. My Dad, do you want to say how you opened it up with or

Danica Childs:

I don't remember.

Autumn Cornwell:

So Danica starts to say, "Guess what! I'm leaving; I'm hightailing it out of South Korea, and we're getting on a Russian freighter, and we'll be seeing you sometime. We're gonna go on this adventure and we'll be home at some point to Los Angeles." And my dad, oh my gosh, he was like, "You are not getting on a Russian freighter with a bunch of male sailors. Just you and your friend.

Danica Childs:

This is an appropriate response from a dad. This is what every dad should say.

Autumn Cornwell:

Dad was pacing back and forth. He was popping Tums in his mouth. He was trying to...and he's a man of God; he's a man of faith. Our parents are both believers who love Jesus. But this is his common sense, wisdom and discernment that you guys weren't able to discern that that would not have been an ideal situation.

Danica Childs:

What should have been common sense. This is just an example of how your brain is not fully formed until at least 25. So I was not 25 yet, and this is evidence of that. So then after, you know, the terror my dad was feeling at the time, I was like, Okay, well, maybe we should rethink that. And so my friend and I decided to get airline tickets instead. But we were going to be flying out early in the morning. And so we had to get to Seoul in the middle of the night. And I remember thinking, Oh, what are we going to do once we get to the bus station, we didn't have a hotel lined up, we had no places lined up. So we pull into the bus station at four in the morning, the Seoul bus station at four in the morning. And we get out and we're like, what do we do now? Where do we go? Do we just hang out here until we can go to the airport? You know, what do we do? Well, then, this is why God is lovely. Okay, so I was doing something that had lacked Christian character and that was dishonorable. And yet God

Autumn Cornwell:

It was foolish is what you would say.

Danica Childs:

To be precise, it woul be foolish. It was a foolish decision I had undertaken. And yet, at the bus station, God sent us a Korean man who approached us and started talking to us in English and said, Are you guys looking for a hotel? And we said, Yes, we actually need a hotel to stay in for the few hours before our flight. And I looked down and this guy is holding a book by Francis Schaeffer called How Then Shall We Live. And so I knew this man must be a Christian, because most people aren't reading that book. And I believe God sent this man to to help us at the bus station. So he ushered us into a taxi. He told the taxi driver where to take us, and the taxi driver took us to this cheap hotel where we were able to spend the night before heading out the next day.

Autumn Cornwell:

And I want to say that guy could have been an angel, he could have been an angel sent to help Danica and her friend. And also the trajectory between you being on the phone with us, dad freaking out that you're getting on a freighter, at that moment did you go okay, we have to scrap that? And we're gonna go second choice?

Danica Childs:

I think so.

Autumn Cornwell:

And that was why you're in this situation now. I just wanted to clarify that.

Danica Childs:

So then the next day, we didn't know if we had been notified to the authorities, and they would stop us at passport control. But we went through with no problems.

Autumn Cornwell:

And I bet deep down you wish you had been stopped? I know, don't you?

Danica Childs:

Probably yeah, it would have been it would have been an adventure.

Autumn Cornwell:

I would have been a little bit like that. I would want it to have all worked out well.

Danica Childs:

Yes, you want to know the ending, that it will have a happy ending. So then this particular ticket allowed us to stop off in Hawaii. And we could stay in Hawaii up to six months without needing a new ticket. So that's what my friend and I ended up doing. We had another adventure in Hawaii. And let me tell you, not a single point along this journey was I ever trying to discern what God was actually leading me into.I would say the way I describe my early 20s, in all of this is that I was like an untrained dog. I was that dog who does not know how to heal. I was running ahead of God, and then kind of pulling God along and saying, Come with me, come with me. Tell me my plans are okay, tell me my plans are okay. And in almost every case, I would pray that my prayers were along the lines of show me a sign external to myself, show me the open door. If there's an open door, it's God's will, if there's a closed door, that's God's will that I don't go there. And that's pretty much how I conducted my whole decision making process in my 20s.

Autumn Cornwell:

Yeah, and that was probably me too. You know that was very common. I actually think with a lot of friends, you know, as well, it's that, oh, the open door means go. Open Door means go, you know, and prayer is discernment.

Danica Childs:

We thought that . I don't even think we talked about it.

Autumn Cornwell:

We didn't know what discernment was necessarily.

Danica Childs:

I don't think we ever said that.

Autumn Cornwell:

But in theory, I think that's what we thought. We were discerning God's will because we prayed. And he didn't stop us. The door opened. And so that is the answer. Let us go.

Danica Childs:

And yet, we're here to say prayer is not the same thing as discernment.

Autumn Cornwell:

Yes, exactly. And the other thing too, which is worth thinking about, is that idea of peace, sensing peace about the idea. But when you're in your 20s I don't know if you ever stopped to really process, am I feeling peace?

Danica Childs:

No. And then what you know, peace...

Autumn Cornwell:

How esoteric that almost sounds.

Danica Childs:

discern where your peace is coming from. And I didn't have time to do that. I was too busy trying to find adventure. So when describing this time of my life as God's will, as a roadmap, the way I thought of God's will was like, this sort of static piece of paper, like a physical paper map. A map as you know, it's just a static piece of paper, it does not move, the directions on it, the roads and everything always stay the same. And it was my job to figure out where I was going on that map by paying attention to God's open and closed doors. And so it becomes this. What is God's plan for me? Well, the way I figured out God's plan is through these external circumstances that either

Autumn Cornwell:

Yeah, I believe that was like, 101. That's how everybody that I knew that was at a Christian school or church, it almost always seemed like that way of going about your life. Especially when you were young and trying to figure it out.

Danica Childs:

Right, and not paying attention to your own self. It's like, how much self awareness did we have?

Autumn Cornwell:

I know, I know.

Danica Childs:

I mean that internal self awareness. The second one we're going to be talking about is God's Will as guidebook. And by this, we mean when we just look at the Bible to give us wisdom. So it's the idea of like, we're growing in wisdom, the more we're in the Bible. And once we have all this wisdom, we can just make really good choices all the time. And I would say, before we go into stories on this, too, is, the idea of this is is the idea of parent and child. And so we think of it as you know, when you're a child, your parent guides you and directs you and helps you grow so that you will become independent of them. So there will be a day hopefully, I'm sure they're saying, where you will leave the house and have an independent life. And they can trust you with that independent life. And you can make your own choices. And so that's kind of like, God's Will as guidebook. We have the guidebook we've been raised up in it, and now we can go make choices and kind of like make our Daddy God proud.

Autumn Cornwell:

Yes, yes. And in fact, you don't want to inconvenience daddy God, you don't want to have to be pestering him for every little decision. And it's this idea of, we should know enough by now. We have the word.

Danica Childs:

And we have the faith. And God can trust us to do what's right. So the idea of guidebook is God's will is really tempting for us because it says that, oh, we've got God's word, it's in us, we feasted on it. And now we can just make, we just know what good choices to make now because we have been informed by God's word. And so we are tempted to assume that we know best in all these different situations where a choice needs to be made. So guidebook as God's will, is a great temptation for us. And I would say it's a temptation for anybody who has been a Christian for a really long time, who has grown up in the church has been steeped in God's word, and so was very familiar with God's moral law, moral absolutes, And so then what I think ends up happening is you get ahead of God, because you have a presumption that you know what's best. And this is a temptation for all of us, no matter how old you are, how mature you are, in the Christian faith, there can be a temptation like, Oh, I know what God would do in this because it's so obvious. What a good choice would be here. Now, I will say this, though, that you do use God's guide book to determine between good and evil, because you never discern to do evil. I mean, that should be common sense, right? You just discern between two goods, not between good and evil. And so the Bible is excellent at helping you determine between good and evil.

Autumn Cornwell:

And of course, we also have the GPS version, which is what Danica?

Danica Childs:

GPS is, Larry Warner's metaphor for God Provided Spirit, get it? GPS. And so this is where, you know, obviously, the Holy Spirit is our guide. So going back to that picture of the dog, I was the untrained dog that was constantly pulling God along with me. Well, the Holy Spirit as your guide would be a picture of a dog that is heeling right next to its master. And so we are the dog and the Holy Spirit is our master. And he is guiding us and we're staying right next to him. So it's a partnership of walking along in step together. And that's what is meant by GPS. God provided Spirit. And this is exciting, because this means that we have God in If you're a Christian, you have God in you, the Holy Spirit in you and guiding you so you have access to the mind of God. What is that? It's in First Corinthians two it talks about we have the Spirit who can help us know God's thoughts and desires and will. Each one of us has that in us. And so, you know, sometimes there's a sense in which some people talk about God's Will as sort of like this is God's will for us. But there is a sense too where there is God's specific will for you. Because you are different from your neighbor, you are created in a very specific way for a specific purpose with unique talents, a unique personality, a unique way of being in the world. And so the Holy Spirit in you is going to look different than the Holy Spirit in Autumn, or in me. There are no cookie cutter Christian lives, because the Spirit is working with who we are in our uniqueness. And so I thought, I think that's such a wonderful way of thinking about the Holy Spirit, because God is creative. So why wouldn't Christian lives look creative?

Autumn Cornwell:

Yes. And freedom, you know, for where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. I mean, that's all what this is all about. And I like what you said about cookie cutter lives. And it's also why we can't judge people. Because we don't know what is going on in their life and what their discerning the Holy Spirit is saying to them, and how the Holy Spirit is guiding them.

Danica Childs:

This is huge. Because I'm sure we've all been there. But we do as Christians have a tendency to judge how other Christians live their lives. And it's because we kind of think, oh, it should all look the same. Or it should, you know, what I would have done in that situation is X, Y, and Z. But the reality is, is like, we could be in the exact situation, Autumn, and I could be in the exact situation, and God actually calls us to two different things in that situation. And that is okay, that is totally fine. That's how the Spirit can work.

Autumn Cornwell:

And it's freeing, it is so freeing, for me not to think I have the model in my life, what Danica is doing, and vice versa.

Danica Childs:

Because who's supposed to be our model? Who is our model? Jesus, Jesus, Jesus is our model. And Jesus says Himself, I don't do anything but what the Father is doing. And he is being led by the Spirit into that work of the Father, Jesus lived his life dependent on the Spirit, and He models to us what that dependency supposed to look like. So Jesus is the model. No other Christian is our model. Of course, you know, you can look at other Christians for, you know, wise counsel, and you can look to other Christians for, you know, what a good life looks like, there's nothing wrong with that. But don't assume your life needs to look like somebody else's, that way leads to pain and disappointment. So along with this is the idea too, that we cannot delegate our discernment to anyone else. And I have to tell you, this is one that I struggled with so much throughout my 20s, and definitely my early 30s. Because I did not feel like I could hear God for myself in a personal sort of way. Like I read the Bible. I prayed. But you know that there's a specificity, specificity, to listening to the Holy Spirit for yourself. And I didn't trust myself, I didn't trust that I could hear God. And so I would delegate this discerning authority to other people. And I would assume, Oh, that person over there who's been a Christian a lot longer, and I really trust and who's very smart and a mature Christian, they can speak into my life and tell me what I should do. This can lead to all sorts of problems. Nobody else can discern for me what God wants for my life. They can offer advice, they can give wise counsel, but ultimately, I need to be discerning for myself.

Autumn Cornwell:

Do not over consult when the Holy Spirit has made it definitive that that's what he wants you to do. Or you get a peace, that you're going in the right direction, you do not need more validation. You know, I think sometimes we need all this validation, validate me, validate me, validate me. So I can feel confident that I'm on the right path versus feeling at peace and stepping out

Danica Childs:

Yes. And I would say the reason why I often would delegate this authority is because I want if anything went wrong, I could say, well, it wasn't me. It was their fault, because they guided me wrong, or, you know, like, I want to avoid responsibility.

Autumn Cornwell:

It can be a temptation to look good to it. Like, if I get all this validation that goes wrong. Well, hey, you know, it's vindicating me I went and did all this. And God is not trying to get you in a trap, like, it's gonna be a right or wrong decision. And now, ah ha!

Danica Childs:

I think this is a good place to remind you all and I remind myself of this when I get into difficult choices and difficult situations is that God is for you. God loves you. God is for you. And He has good for you that is better than anything you can come up with yourself. So we can trust that as we're going about our lives in step with the Spirit. It's going to be filled with good

Autumn Cornwell:

Yes, that's huge to remember. God is good. He loves a loving us.

Danica Childs:

So Autumn, what does it look like for you to actually engage with the Holy Spirit as your guide as your GPS? What does that look like?

Autumn Cornwell:

Well, an example is is just like going through my day and when I kind of sense the nudge of the Holy Spirit to do something kind of out of my routine, or out of what I thought I was going to do. I mean, it took some time. It's an exercise that you do. And then finally it's a muscle, that's what it is.

Danica Childs:

Even though it's a relationship. It's a capacity, it's a capacity we grow in.

Autumn Cornwell:

So as I go throughout my day, now, whenever I the Holy Spirit kind of presses me or nudges me to do something, or go up and talk to someone, or send an email or a text, or take a step of faith, or risk or whatever. I usually pause and go, okay, yeah, this sounds like you're asking me to do something, if I'm busy. Case in point, let's say I'm on the mountain, and I'm hiking, I have a lot of stories about God, you know, nudging me to go pray for someone or talk to somebody and engage with a hiker and help them find their way or, or sometimes I'm even prophesying over someone out of the blue that God directed me to. Sometimes it's at the store, I'll be checking out. I remember case in point, I was checking out groceries with my daughter, and we were at a store and the checker was telling the person in front of us that she had this really bad migraine headache, and the doctors couldn't figure it out, and medication wasn't working. And she was just in such pain. And God said, "You're gonna pray for her, you're gonna pray for her." And I'm like, oh, my gosh, we're in a hurry. But I do have compassion for this woman. And so, I mean, I'd seen her a couple times at the checkout stand, but I felt like the Holy Spirit was like, you need to reach out and offer to pray for her.

Danica Childs:

So the urgency came from the spirit.

Autumn Cornwell:

Yes, yes. Because I was urgently wanting to leave. But the Holy Spirit kind of kept pushing, and I was like, oh my daughter, this will be good for her. She can engage with me too. And I think at that time, she was like, 11, or something. And so then when we got up there, I just said, I heard you explaining that you are in pain, and you have a headache? And she's like, Yeah, and she We believe in God, if you're cool with it. Since there was nobody in line behind us at that time. And would you be open for me praying, for my daughter and I praying for you? And she's like, "Sure." And so then we asked can we put our hand on your shoulder. Because that was kind of awkward, then my daughter, and I just put our hands on her arm, and we prayed for her and just simply asked God to heal her pain. And then, and then after that, she was just, you know, most people, we can get into this in other episodes, but people are always, almost always, grateful for just someone to give a kind word to them or to pray for them, or anything.

Danica Childs:

Yeah, I think most people are almost astonished when they even realize you noticed them. The way I frame it is this - God wasn't going to be mad at me if I didn't do it. But when I said yes to the Holy Spirit, and engaged in that moment, I was getting to play with the Holy Spirit, I was able to minister with the Holy Spirit, I was able to spread joy, and then my daughter could see what I was doing. And that helps children model that kind of behavior as well. And that kind of

Autumn Cornwell:

Yes, yes. That was exactly it. Oh, you care enough to pause to pray for me. And she was the type of person I could tell wasn't embarrassed. You know, like, if I felt like she was awkward, but you know, she was a cool, kind of outgoing woman. And I could tell that she was fine with it. And so it's like, we want to be effortlessly going through our day. I feel like the thing not to do is to feel this scrupulosity of every single person I've see and heare that has an arm that's bandaged, or a bandaid on their finger or, or it seems to be in pain, I'm supposed to go up and pray for them. Because I got into that at a certain point. I'm kind of an all or nothing. So I felt like God wants us to pray for everybody all the time. And I got so overwhelmed. Every time I saw someone with a broken arm, I'm like, No! Now I'm responsible to go up and offer that person prayer. You know, I settled down. But so now the way I operate is...

Danica Childs:

In step with the Spirit.

Autumn Cornwell:

Yes, in step with the Spirit. It's a peace. And it's like going through the day, and I'll just shoot a prayer. Like if I see someone who actually has a broken leg, I would shoot a prayer to God saying bless that person and help them or whatever. But only if I felt the Holy Spirit say, Whoa, you know, just take a moment and just go ask that person what happened. And sometimes it's a prophecy that comes up not necessarily praying for So it's exciting. It's an adventure. I never know what the Holy Spirit wants to do. But I had prayed a long time, for a long time God, give me a heart for those people I see. And a heart for what breaks their heart, you know, and help me to see people through your eyes, I want to see the gold in them. I want to see what makes them laugh. I want to see what hurts and depresses them. So we can

Danica Childs:

I mean, another fun example is Danica and I were celebrating my birthday at the Getty Museum which we love. We love museums, we love going out and about ot different things.

Autumn Cornwell:

Art and gardens and so we were in the gardens and Danica was telling me what a wonderful sister I was and how much she loved having me in her life.

Danica Childs:

She might be exaggerating.

Autumn Cornwell:

So anyway, we're having a lot of fun laughing and this lady who's kind of sitting near us is kind of laughing as she watches us. And she kind of start, not butting into our conversation, but kind of inserting herself in the situation. And "you guys are so much fun, are you sisters," and we started getting in this conversation and we could just tell she loved being around And long story short, we just felt at a certain point that God wanted us to bless her and prophesy over her.

Danica Childs:

When we were sitting in front of the bathroom.

Autumn Cornwell:

When we were sitting in front of the bathroom and so it was very organic. And I think she knew we were doing my birthday celebration, and she was but it's your birthday. And I think Danica said and this was would have been my thoughts. Oh, there's nothing Autumn would want better on her birthday than to pray and prophesy over someone. You know. And so we did and that was like We could have said, Hey, this is Autumn's birthday. Or, you know, God, you know, we're trying to have fun together as sisters. But no, you know, we were like, open, you know, you never know. What are some examples from your life, Danica?

Danica Childs:

Mine are a little more subdued.

Autumn Cornwell:

But powerful.

Danica Childs:

So this is what it looks like for me. So growing in this capacity to be in step with the Spirit, listening to those nudgings. Well, a few years ago, my friend and I, we give out Christmas baskets, goodie baskets to neighbors, and we don't give them out to every neighbor, but we do do several. And this was during the time of COVID. When there was a lot of lockdowns, when there's just that kind of feeling of suppression, and it was weighty and everybody was kind of depressed and hopeless. Well, as I was thinking about giving out Christmas bags, this, this neighbor popped into my head, his name popped into my head. And I was like, oh, that's unusual. We hadn't given him a bag before. And so I kind of sat with it for a while was like, Holy Spirit is this you wanting me to give him a bag? And this kind of urgency came up of like, yes, give him a bag, you know. And with the bags, we give little cards as well, you know, saying something. And now mind you, we have lived in this neighborhood at this point, like 12 years. And he's lived in the And not once during this time have we ever been introduced to each other, and he lives practically across the street from me. So we've seen each other to wave, but that was it. So this was kind of like my introduction to this neighbor. And so we left a goodie bag on his porch. And a few days later, I got a card on our windshield. And he said, Thank you so much for this goodie bag. He's like I And he's like, thank you so much. You made a bright spot in an otherwise depressing day.

Autumn Cornwell:

That's huge.

Danica Childs:

So it's like, that's tiny. You know, that's not anything big.

Autumn Cornwell:

It's tiny, but it's huge in God's kingdom.

Danica Childs:

And so now we just keep asking the Holy Spirit, who else should we add to our goodie bag list, and pretty soon it's gonna be like, 100 neighbors. I'm like, All right, God, you're gonna have to provide the supplies, if that happens. This should give you a sense of freedom, as Autumn said, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. This should give you a sense of freedom, a burden lifted, that you have to do everything all the time. You are just supposed to be in the present moment, the Spirit gets to worry about your future, the Spirit gets to decide what's going to happen with you and your future. You just have to keep being responsive to the Spirit in the here and now. And then all of those little decisions you make in

Autumn Cornwell:

Yes. And those little steps also prepare you for the big leap of the Holy Spirit, when he's asking you to do larger things, that could be actually hard to discern between two goods or whatever. So this is all kind of practice, but it's also still fun, and you're engaging in it the whole time.

Danica Childs:

We call this low stakes discernment. Because the Holy Spirit, in discernment, the Holy Spirit is the one who is inviting you in to make a choice, and you have the choice to respond or not. And so we call this low stakes discernment. Because, you know, nothing would have happened if we hadn't prayed for the woman at the Getty. It's not like our lives would be radically changed. But All right. So there you have it. The three views of God's will. We've talked about God's will as roadmap, we've talked about God's Will as a guidebook and then God's Will as GPS, God provided spirit and how the GPS idea of God's will is really the model that Jesus shows us - being led and directed by the Spirit as a guide who we partner with, we have relationship with and we have As we close, we would like to leave you with an exercise you can do with the Holy Spirit, and we call this low stakes discernment. So if this is something that's unusual to you, or you haven't done it before, simply ask the Spirit to draw your attention to a low stakes decision that you have to make in your day, and then actually ask the Spirit, what would the Spirit like you to do? And then

Autumn Cornwell:

Yeah, And now if you if you don't have the courage to respond, or if you resist, you know, then talk to God about your resistance, why don't you want to do it? What's holding you back. But if you do have the courage, then go for it and then see what happens. And then just try and do this as much as possible throughout your week. What are all these low stakes decisions that you can bring the Holy Spirit into? Because ultimately, we really want to be partnering with the Spirit in all our decisions. You know, we're not meant to be alone. And so as we make these low stakes decisions, they will give us the confidence and the relational experience to make high stakes decisions. All right. Well, there you have it. And Danica, I must say in closing, you have come a long way from the freighter full of Russians.

Danica Childs:

Indeed, I have Autumn. I like to think that I have grown in my ability to partner with the Holy Spirit instead of just keeping Him as a stowaway.

Autumn Cornwell:

Yes, yes. We have all learned from your stories. We have all learned to discern!