(Joshua 5: 13-14)
Joshua looked up.
He saw a man with his sword out of its sheath.
Joshua walked up to him and asked: “Are you for us or for our enemies?”
In the mind of Joshua, there was no demilitarized zone: it was one or the other.
The options are limited to these 2:
For us.
For our enemies.
But the man replied; “NAY…”
Nay?
What does that even mean?
“Nay” wasn’t even one of the options!
Many times when we are faced with choices, when we are in the valley of decisions, the divine option is not always among the options we consider.
Joshua never considered the “NAY” option.
He never even knew it existed!
You want to get married. You have Rita and Funke on your radar. You ask the Holy Spirit: Who should I marry- Rita or Funke? The Holy Spirit says, “NAY!” His choice for you is Chinwe! You never saw her as an option all along…
You want to start a ministry. You ask the Holy Spirit: Should I stay in Abuja or Lagos? The Holy Spirit says, “NAY!” His plan is for you to be planted in Jos. You never saw Jos as an option, but that is where your calling is.
You want to decide on a career path. You wonder if you should fill Law or Accounting in your JAMB form. You pray, “Holy Spirit, what would you have me study: Law or Accounting?” The Holy Spirit tells you, “NAY!” Your divine destiny lies in studying Mathematics!
Woah! What will I do with a math degree, you wonder. But that is where destiny lies. That is the NAY OPTION.
The irony is, because the Nay Option was not one of those we considered in the first place, there is a high chance we will miss it. We usually limit God to what we know. In the examples given above, the options were limited to the 2 you know. We have to learn to think outside the box. We have to learn to let God talk to us without limiting Him to a few options we think are the only ones available.
When I hear the phrase, “That is the ONLY way”, something inside me screams, “No! That is NOT the only way! That is the only way you THINK! There is a way you don’t know: The NAY OPTION!”
The Israelites in the wilderness asked for meat to eat. Moses was upset! He went to complain to God. God told him, don’t worry, I will give them meat to eat tomorrow. They will eat meat for a whole month until they are tired of it!
Moses was shocked! How?
Moses said, “Erm… here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, ‘I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!’ Would they have enough if flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?”
Numbers 11:21,22.
Moses’ thinking was limited. His thinking could not comprehend how God would provide meat for such a large crowd.
But God specializes in going out of the box to provide answers!
He told Moses, “Is the Lord’s arm too short? Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true for you.” Numbers 11:23
Moses was thinking of cows, goats, rams and fish. He never thought of chicken (quail)!
That is the NAY option!
I remember a book I read a long time ago: God’s Smuggler by Brother Andrew.
He and a few others needed a cake. They prayed to get the cake the next day and believed God for it. Their faith was fixed, they had no doubt God would supply the cake as they had prayed.
That night, they tried to guess how God would provide the cake. They thought of all the ways possible.
By the next morning, God provided a cake!
How?
The Nay Option!
The option they never imagined: someone had baked a cake a few days earlier and sent to them. It was delivered to them the morning they had prayed it should arrive! In other words, God had foreseen they would ask for a cake in a few days’ time and had told somebody to make one and send to them- before they prayed for it!
The Nay Option.
A hotel was built in a city. The builders had projected the number of guests the hotel would accommodate per time. After a few months, they realized they had underestimated the number! They realized they needed to install another elevator for the guests as the ones they had installed were overburdened. So the architects and engineers met at the pent floor with the drawings to rub minds and decide where to put the elevator.
After brainstorming for a while, they reached a consensus. They came downstairs and stood in the lobby, discussing how they would break the floor slabs to create a chute for the elevator. The old janitor sweeping the lobby heard their discussion. He said, “Break the slabs to install an elevator? I wouldn’t do that if I were you!” The architects and engineers turned to see the old man who spoke. What does he know about construction? If he were that knowledgeable, he would not be a janitor, would he, they reasoned.
“Ok, how would you install an elevator without breaking the slabs?”
The old man continued sweeping as he replied, “I’ll install it externally!”
The architects and engineers froze: they never thought of that!
That was the NAY Option!
And that was how the scenic elevator was born…
As we grow in our Christian walk, we will learn to let go and let God. We will learn to trust Him for everything that has to do with us.
We will not limit Him in our finite minds.
We are finite, He is infinite.
We are mortal, He is immortal.
We are natural, He is supernatural.
We are ordinary, He is extraordinary.
We are limited, He is unlimited.
When we understand this, we will always look out for the Nay Option for everything.
Shalom!
Haruna Daniels