How to respond to God and be creative

Have you ever found yourself paralyzed by the idea of hearing God for a decision in your life? You want to make sure that you choose his will in a particular situation, and so you find yourself inactive, unable to move forward.Some people will answer your dilemma by telling you that you are a son of God and that he has given you free will to choose which way to go. Others will answer by telling you to wait on God, that he will speak to you in time. But who is giving you the correct advice?The reality is that both are correct, and they represent two principles that are mysteriously wound together in the art of hearing God.The first principle is that we are called to be responsive. God has an opinion about what you should do in certain areas of your life.The second principle is we are called to be creative. God puts you in situations and allows you to make decisions on your own in order to reflect a part of you that was given by Him: the gift of creativity.The challenge is knowing whether you are in a moment of responsiveness or a moment of creativity. If you are in a moment when God wants you to be creative, you might be waiting a long time for him to speak. If you are in a moment when he has a clear directive of what you should do, you might end up choosing a path that is good, but is not the best.Adam and Eve were put in the garden and they were given a clear directive to not eat a particular fruit. Then they were told to choose to eat from any other tree in the garden. Adam was given the freedom to name the animals. When they used their creativity and freedom of expression to choose the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they made a bad decision. But if they had walked around before that, wondering which fruit they should eat, or what God really wanted the animals to be named, they would have missed the point. In one particular area, God had a directive, but in other areas, they were given the freedom to choose.I want to lay out a few helpful principles as you make significant decisions to help you know when to live creatively and when to live responsively.

1. Determine that every decision is a combination of responsiveness and creativity - There is no decision where God lays out every single part of a plan for you. Even if you have a sense of a direction to go, there are generally multiple ways to get there. If you know you need to build a building and it should be such and such a size, you still may need to choose the color of paint. If you know ahead of time that you will have to be both responsive and creative, you won't lock yourself into assuming it will be all one or another.
2. Start by living responsively. Then act creatively. -  When you are making a decision, it's always better to start by asking God if he has an opinion. God may give you a general impression of what to do. Even if all the parts aren't spelled out, you will have an inner peace to move forward, and an inner freedom will emerge to go and create.
3. If you aren't hearing anything, don't assume that God doesn't have an opinion - Sometimes it's better to give God a little time to speak before you move forward with creativity, as he often speaks clearer the more we press in to hear him.
4. God will often honor something that was initially your idea and will speak into it later - A king for Israel was not God's idea. But he redeemed and used it. God can use something that was originally your idea. The key is that when he wants to come in and speak, that you listen to his new direction.
5. Relationship, relationship, relationship - You need a deep and intimate relationship with Jesus to discern whether you need to be responsive or creative. Proverbs is full of passages that say completely opposite ideas within the same chapter. You need wisdom to know which verse to apply when and where. Relationship is the only thing that gets you to a place where you sense what is happening in a moment: responsiveness or creativity.

Have you had moments when you have seen responsiveness and creativity go together?