What If God Interrupts What Is Working?
What do you do when God begins to redirect you from something you have spent years building, something that is working well, something you are grateful for and perhaps never imagined leaving behind?
I think sometimes we expect God to interrupt us when things are no longer working, when we have exhausted our options or when we are desperately looking for a way out. But what happens when everything is going well? When we have reached a place of stability, established ourselves, and become comfortable with where we are? Are we still willing to allow God to interrupt our plans?
This is something the Lord has been impressing upon my heart, and I want to share with you what He has been showing me through the story of Elisha in 1 Kings 19:19–21.
When Elijah found Elisha, he was plowing a field with twelve teams of oxen. I find this detail particularly interesting because it tells us something about Elisha’s position at the time of his calling. He was actively engaged in his work, and the scale of the operation suggests that he came from a family with considerable resources. He was established, accustomed to responsibility, and knew what it meant to work and manage what had been entrusted to him.
Yet, right there in the middle of his work, Elijah approached him, threw his mantle over him, and walked away.
What strikes me about this encounter is that Scripture gives us no indication that Elisha was dissatisfied with his life or looking for something different. We don’t know whether he had been thinking about his future or wondering what else God might have for him. All we know is that he was working when the invitation came.
And I wonder how many of us have become so accustomed to associating divine redirection with difficult circumstances that we struggle to recognize God’s invitation when things are going well.
We can become so invested in what we have built, so settled in our routines and plans, that the thought of doing something different almost feels unreasonable. After all, why would we leave something that is producing results? Why would we consider changing direction after spending years establishing ourselves?
But who said that God’s next instruction has to be justified by the failure of our previous assignment?
I think this is especially important for those of us who are building businesses, leading organizations, managing responsibilities, and stewarding resources. We understand the value of consistency, discipline, planning, and perseverance. We know that building anything meaningful takes time, and we don’t easily walk away from what we have worked so hard to establish.
And there is nothing wrong with that. In fact, those are qualities that make us faithful stewards. But we must also recognize that our responsibility is ultimately to the One who entrusted those things to us.
Being faithful with what God has given us also means remaining available when He decides to lead us in another direction.
I can relate to this personally.
For more than ten years, Georgia was home for our family. Before moving there, we had lived in different states, and I remember reaching a point where I was simply tired of moving. I wanted stability. I wanted us to settle somewhere, establish relationships, build our community, and enjoy the familiarity of having a place to call home.
I remember praying and asking the Lord to allow us to stay there, and for many years, that is exactly what happened. We had our church, our community, our routines, and everything that comes with spending more than a decade in one place. Of course, life wasn’t perfect, but we were settled, and I really had no intention of moving again.
Then, little by little, things began to change.
It wasn’t as though we suddenly heard the Lord telling us to pack our belongings and move to another state. It was more like the things that had made us so comfortable were gradually shifting, and we began to sense that something was changing, even though we couldn’t fully explain what it was.
I remember one day asking my husband, “What if we move to Texas?”
Even I was surprised that those words had come out of my mouth. But as we began to pray about it, we recognized that the Lord was leading us into another season, one we had not planned for ourselves.
And I share this because sometimes we are waiting for God to give us a reason to leave, when perhaps He is simply inviting us to recognize that the season has changed.
Of course, every uncomfortable situation does not mean God is telling us to move, and every change in our circumstances is not necessarily a divine interruption. This is why discernment and intimacy with Him are so important. We need to recognize His voice and understand what He is saying rather than making decisions based solely on what we feel or see happening around us.
But I also believe we must be careful not to resist His leading simply because we are comfortable with what we already know.
When I return to Elisha’s story, another part of the passage stands out to me.
After Elijah placed his mantle over him, Elisha ran after him and asked to say goodbye to his parents. Elijah responded: “Go back again, for what have I done to you?” (1 Kings 19:20, NKJV)
I find that response so significant because Elisha had to recognize what had just happened and decide how he would respond. Elijah had placed the mantle upon him, but Elisha still had a decision to make. And what he did next is remarkable.
He returned to his oxen, slaughtered them, used the wood from the plowing equipment to prepare the meat, shared it with the people, and then followed Elijah. Think about what that meant.
The very tools and resources that had supported his previous work became part of his final act before stepping into his new assignment.
I don’t believe we should overlook that detail. There is something powerful about taking what you have built, what you have worked for, what has sustained you for years, and being willing to lay it before the Lord.
For Elisha, that decision marked a clear transition. He was leaving behind a familiar way of life to follow a calling that would require something different of him.
And perhaps that is what some of us are being invited to consider in this season.
What have we become so attached to that even the thought of God redirecting us makes us uncomfortable?
Is it a business we have built? A position we have worked hard to attain? A role we have occupied for years? A vision we have carried for so long that we can no longer imagine it unfolding any other way?
Sometimes I think we become so focused on what God has helped us accomplish that we forget He is still the One directing our steps.
The fact that He entrusted us with something yesterday does not mean we have the authority to decide what tomorrow must look like.
And this brings me to something else the Lord impressed upon my heart as I was sharing this message.
Psalm 25:14 says: “ The secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant.” (NKJV)
I love this verse because it speaks to the kind of relationship God desires to have with us. A relationship in which we are close enough to hear Him, sensitive enough to recognize His leading, and willing to respond even when what He reveals requires us to reconsider our plans.
We often pray for God to reveal His purposes, to show us what is next, to give us wisdom and understanding concerning the things we are building. But I wonder whether we have considered that some of what He wants to reveal may require us to surrender the very plans we have been asking Him to bless.
Can He trust us with His plans when they differ from ours? Can He confide in us when what He reveals challenges our preferences, our timelines, or even our understanding of what success should look like?
These are questions I am asking myself as well. Because I am realizing more and more that walking with God requires an ongoing willingness to be redirected. We cannot claim to be building with Him while reserving the right to determine where the journey must lead. And perhaps this is where the real challenge lies.
We want to be faithful stewards, and rightly so. We want to produce, multiply, establish, and see the fruit of what has been entrusted to us. But stewardship also requires us to remember that the work, the resources, the opportunities, and even the vision ultimately belong to Him.
Elisha was faithful in the field, but when the mantle came, he recognized that there was another assignment requiring his response.
I wonder what might happen if we approached our own lives and work with that same availability. If we remained diligent in what God has presently entrusted to us while keeping our hearts open to whatever He may ask next.
If we learned to recognize His redirection without automatically interpreting it as a setback or a sign that something had gone wrong. And if, when the time came, we were willing to place even our greatest accomplishments before Him and trust Him with what comes next.
Because sometimes, the very thing we are holding on to is something God is asking us to release, so we can follow Him into what He has already prepared.
So I leave you with this question: If God were to interrupt your plans today, would you be willing to let Him?
Camille Babin
P.S. I shared more about this in my latest episode of The SQ Factor Podcast, including our family’s move from Georgia to Texas and what the Lord has been showing me through Elisha’s calling. I believe this conversation may speak to those who are sensing a shift but are still trying to understand what God is doing.
