Divine Direction

INTRODUCTION Do you ever feel a lack of direction in your life? Do you sometimes have difficulty focusing? Do you ever struggle with knowing why you are doing certain things? Have you ever felt you were moving in the right direction, and later realized that you were wrong? Is your life passing through a time of haziness? Could God be leading you into directions that you would not usually seek? Have you not seen the vision fulfilled you thought God gave you? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you are reading the right book for the reason and season. I must admit that I sometimes feel directionless and unfocused. And I doubt that I am the only one who feels this way from time to time. We all need a heightened sense of direction from the Lord. The reality is that everyone needs guidance from God to fulfill their destiny. Finding and looking in the right direction with the right intention is critical in our relationship with God and for our journey here on earth. God is continuously pointing us in different directions at different times for various reasons. If we are alert, we will realize that God's instructions are reflective of our present situations and are necessary for our move to the next level, season, or phase of life. He promised in Psalms 32:8, " I will instruct you and teach you concerning the path you should walk; I will direct you with my eye." (ISV). It is my earnest prayer that everyone reading this book will allow God to instruct, guide and teach them concerning the path they should walk. If God promised to direct, you should have the faith to allow your eyes to look in the right direction. The Backstory This book adopts and adapts my proprietary Five-Way-Directional Model© to provide a way for Christians to focus their attention on what matters at each point in their life. The Five-Way-Directional Model was developed for and first introduced at the 14th Workshop on Corporate Governance organized by the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management in Brussels, Belgium, in November 2017. My only plan at the time was to make the model known to the field of management science, to help leaders gain diverse perspectives as they look at various scenarios. A fundamental assumption was that leaders would be ready to do something to reposition their companies for growth in the short to medium term, based on their directional views. The model provides five directions that a person can look toward, which are forward, backward, inward, outward, and upward: in no particular order. The model has taken various forms over the years and used in different contexts, and I discovered that it is a useful model to apply to our personal lives not just in the business arena. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused global economic devastation, triggering panic across the world. The epidemic was a great crisis, which created fear, anxiety, depression, and discouragement for many. In the heat of the pandemic, it occurred to me that leaders could take their eyes away from the catastrophe, and then, purposefully look in these five directions. Doing this may enable them to take specific actions to survive the crisis and stay strong post-crisis. The business community positively received the idea of the Five-Way-Directional Model as a leadership tool. As the global COVID-19 pandemic continued to hold the world hostage, Christians everywhere prayed earnestly for God's mercy and intervention. Praying to God was a significant and appropriate first step. According to 2 Chronicles 7:14, "if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land" (NIV). Indeed, God is the only One that can cause a turnaround for good. However, how we articulate the situation and what other actions we take, would determine how we cope while God works out His divine purpose on earth. The scripture mentioned above, which is God's word to the Israelites, inherently supports the need for a five-way-directional focus. - if my people, who are called by my name (a backward look validates their status as "God's people), - will humble themselves and pray and seek my face (praying and seeking God's face requires an upward look) - and turn from their wicked ways (the inward look helps people to acknowledge their sins and repent), - then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land (an outward look considers the plight of others in the 'land'). - The overall intention of this scripture is to transform a bad situation; therefore, there must be an envisioned state. The "Five-Way-Directional Model" helps you to focus your attention on what matters in the moment of a crisis, and more broadly in life.