I have a beautiful friend in my life who really spoke something to me one day over a cup of coffee when we were discussing God’s purposes and plans…

I told her, “I don’t really know what I want… I just want what He wants…”

She said, “I’m sure that’s true, but be honest… there are things you want. I can think of a few you asked for just a few weeks ago when we prayed.”

She was right.

There are things that I wanted, but for some reason I didn’t see to come out and ask.

As I pondered this with the Lord over the next few days, asking Him about my wants, it became clear as glass what it was… I do have a lot of wants.

I’m the girl that would like to, and wants to do all the things.

I’d like to play my cello more.

I’d like to get my sewing machine back out and make girls dresses again.

I’d like to grow a garden, and have homegrown herbs and vegetables at home.

I’d like to read more books.

I’d like to shop more.

I’d like to spend more time running and train for the full marathon I’ve always wanted to run.

I’d like to further my education.

I’d like to have a few more babies.

The likes are always there, always things I’ve loved and used to do, things that made me who I am.

Then there are the wants…

These are things that I really think are greater desires, and things that are a little higher priority.

These are important to my heart, precious essential desires that I relentlessly and purposefully pursue and build my schedules and life around. The wants are really important.

But then like Jentezen Franklin says, there are the “I must” things.

The I must things are the God things.

The God dream. The vision. The call. The thing that breaks our hearts simply because it breaks His. The insatiable drawing of a Holy God calling us deeper into Him…

There are things that are planted in the ground of your heart when you get saved, or when you surrender to Jesus and begin to let Him Lord your whole entire life that God puts there.

These are the “I must” things.

The I must is birthed in prayer time with Jesus.

The I must—instead of draining you and exhausting you— energizes you and literally bubbles out like rivers of waters flowing from your belly… it keeps coming and coming and coming, the more you do it, the more you must…

The I must is only found in the surrendering, then the emptying of ourselves as we step into the fullness of Him.

Sometimes it’s a thing, a task, a dream; but that only comes to pass as you let Him work in you and through you as you completely and dependently rest in His arms.

“I must be about my Father’s business,” Jesus said.

The business of the Father boiled down is this: for His created to powerfully know the fullness of His intimate love for them through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ.

To restore intimate knowing of the Father to his children…

It is simply being fully known, fully loved, and fully His.

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