He Will Show You His Will

Next on In Touch, he will show you his will. My father died when I was about nine months of age and so those were pretty tough years for me because I was sort of pushed around to this one and that and to somebody to keep me while my mother worked. I don't remember anything much about those years except that I do remember feeling very lonely because I would come home and my mother was gone because she had to work and she was not there not because she didn't want to be but because she couldn't be. My only remembrance of those early years was that I felt real empty and all alone. Then when I was twelve years of age, the second row where I usually sat on the edge, I stepped out one Sunday morning, fellow monies, and asked the Lord Jesus Christ to save me and immediately, without anybody ever telling me, somehow I had this awesome sense of feeling. God not only has saved me, but God has something to do in my life. God must have a will or plan a purpose in my life, never heard a sermon on it, never heard anybody explain it. It was just the witness of the Spirit that God had something in mind to me. Two years later, when I was fourteen years of age, I knew that the Lord wanted me to preach the gospel. It's the only thing I've ever thought about doing, the only thing God ever impressed me to do, never doubted it one single time from the moment I was absolutely sure that I know how to find the will of God in those days, probably not. And in my ignorance of just asking the Lord, what do you want to do with my life? I'm sure that He impressed me so strongly, so clearly, so simply, so early in life, He knew that I would never doubt what He was saying in my life. But I remembered that after I was saved, that I didn't feel all that lonely anymore. All of a sudden, this God who was out of reach and totally, beyond my comprehension those days, suddenly He'd come into my life, and as I began to read the Scripture, things started looking a little different. I began to understand things I didn't understand before, began to read how He worked in the lives of Jesus and how He worked in the life of the apostles, and I wasn't too much into the Old Testament those days to later on.

But I knew that God was saying something to me and speaking to my heart and getting me ready for something, and I think one of the most overwhelming, assuring, encouraging things that I've ever learned in my life is God has a will and a plan and a purpose for every single one of us, no matter who we are. I don't know of anything much more exciting than to know that the God who created all of this has you in mind, has me in mind, has a purpose and a plan, and the wonderful thing about it is He doesn't keep it a secret. When the Bible talks about the mysteries of God, it's certainly not the mystery of His will and His purpose for your life and my life. God's will could be divided generally into His moral will, into His personal will, and if we get beyond that, in His providential will, that is the way He's going to operate creation and all those things above and beyond our understanding. But in His moral will, that deals with those things, those do's and don'ts, some things we know fit into His moral will, thou shalt not steal, lie, cheat, commit adultery, murder, have other gods before us, then there's His wonderful personal will for our life. That is what God's agenda is for your life as a person, what He has in mind when He created you. And so what I want to talk about in this message, listen, not only the fact that He has a will for your life, but you can know the will of God for your life. The will of God, He will show you His will for your life. So I want you to turn, if you will, to Ephesians 5. And I want us to look at a couple of verses here. In this 5th chapter, Paul has been talking about our relationship to evil and sin and how we should lay those things aside that do not fit who we are in Christ Jesus. And so then he comes down to this 15th verse and here's what he says of Ephesians 5. He says, therefore, based on all the things that he said about laying aside their old man and so forth, he says, therefore, be careful how you walk. Not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Am I friend?

God has a personal plan and purpose for your life. And so the question is, well, can we know what God's will and plan for our life is? Yes, we can. Not only does He have one, but we can know it. Why would He say? So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Would God tell us in His Word to understand what His will for our life is? He says we're not to be unwise as the world is, walking as the world walks. Walking is unbelievers walk. He says we're to understand what the will of the Lord is. That means that not only does God have a plan. but we have the wonderful privilege of being able to understand what it is. Now, that's just as consistent with God as knowing that he has a plan, that he is willing to show us what that plan is. Because you see, it'd be inconsistent for God to say, "I have a plan for your life, "but I'm not gonna tell you what it is." Here's what I want you to live a certain way, but I'm not gonna tell you how. I have a purpose for your life, but you have to figure that out. It would be totally inconsistent for God to require me of me something and then not tell me what it is, nor enable me to do it. Because you see, the truth is, you and I cannot live a spiritual life in the flesh. The God who has a will and a purpose and a plan for life also is the same God who has promised to enable us.

And equip us, not only by our spiritual gifts, but also by the fact of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. Listen, anything and everything. You've heard me say this over and over again, because I want you to understand it. Anything and everything, God requires of us to become or to be. That is to be or to do. God has committed himself to enable us by his indwelling presence to do that in our behalf for us, through us, to us and in us. He knows that apart from us, we can never discover his will. Apart from him, we can never discover his will, nor could we ever do his will. Therefore, we have the wonderful privilege of knowing that he has a will for our life and the wonderful privilege of knowing that he has assumed responsibility for revealing his will to us. And so God has not said, you figure it out. He says, for example, the Holy Spirit is the one who discerns the mind of God, and he's the one who speaks through our spirit and enables us to know. And sometimes when a child trusts the Lord Jesus as their Savior at six or seven or sometimes five, I'm sure that sometimes adults say, well, how in the world could they understand

what God is doing in their life at five? Never underestimate the power of Almighty God to speak to a child. As I think about, at the age of 12, I think some of these five-year-olds and six-year-olds knew a whole lot, I know a whole lot more about what Jesus is all about than I did at the age of 12, because they've got godly parents and they've come to Sunday school and they've heard a good teaching of the Word of God throughout those early, early years of their life, probably learning a lot more than we realize. And so you never underestimate the power of God to make himself known to a child as well as to an adult. Now, how is it that God shows us and reveals his will to us? Well, I want you to listen carefully because I'm gonna give you several things. Now listen, all these are simple because God certainly would not make a mystery out of something so very important that he wants even a child to understand. You see, I began to say to my children before they could ever even begin to understand what it was about. I would say to them at nighttime, kneel down by the bed and pray and talk to them about the Lord Jesus. And I always, usually I'd read them a story about something, if it's a cowboy story

or whatever it might be, but I always wanna end up talking about Jesus because I wanted them to go to sleep at night. And the last thing we talked about was about God. And friend, let me tell you something. You and I ought to do the same thing. I was talking to someone today, I said, well, what do you do right before you go to sleep? Well, I pray in this, and I said, well, I believe in that, let me tell you something. Sometimes it's, listen, before you go to sleep at night, it's much better to read the word of God than to get into some big deal about praying about these things and those things and all these things that troubled you. You're better off getting the word of God, reading the scripture and pouring God's word into your mind because then during the night, the spirit of God takes your subconscious and something's going on all during the night while you're asleep. That's why if you will do that, sometimes God will wake you up in the middle of the night, say something to you that you hadn't even thought about before, why? Because you went to bed, you went to bed with the word of God ringing in your heart, the word of God on your mind, the word of God penetrating your spirit. You went to bed, so to speak, with the Lord Jesus Christ

in your mind, on your heart, in your spirit. And therefore, listen, it's better to go to sleep at night with his word in your heart, rather than getting into some big difficult time about praying, God show me your will for my life. Listen, you get in the word of God and you're gonna get it. Because listen, the first step I believe and the most important step in understanding the will of God in any particular area of big major issues in our life is go to the word of God. Now listen carefully, I do not mean that the things I'm getting ready to share with you, that all of these you have to go through some ritual to find the will of God. Not saying that, but I'm saying in major issues of life, all of these things are important. Listen, and when this begins to be a habit of a life, what you're gonna discover is that finding his will in those daily decisions would just be just like this. You'll know what to do, why? Because you are in the habit of reading you won't listen automatically, react by the Spirit to understand what He would have you to do. I want you to turn to Psalm 119 for a moment. Psalm 119, and I want you to look at verse 105, probably most of us memorized this years ago when we were kids growing up, but the 119th Psalm and the 105th verse, listen to what He says. I'm going to give you a moment to find it. 119th Psalm and the 105th verse, listen to what He says. He says, "Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." What does that mean? It means that the Word of God will listen, will lighten our path, will show us the way. And in the King James, I believe it is, the 130th verse. You may want to look at that in whatever translation you have in the same chapter 119. The 130th verse says, "The unfolding of thy word gives light," or

the entrance of thy word gives light. That is the Word of God. Listen, the Word of God lightens the way. The Word of God shows us the way. If I want to know what God is thinking about, listen, in any given area, I know exactly what to turn. Open the book and find out what is it that God said about this situation or something so similar to it that the principle is here. And so, the Word of God is full of the wisdom of God because it's the unfolding revelation of God Himself. That's the first step. The second one, of course, is to pray. If I want to know the Lord's mind about something, get on my knees and ask Him to show them. You say, "Well, you have to get on your knees." No, you don't. Well, can you stand up? Yes, you can. Sit right. Yes, you can. But you know what? There is something about kneeling before God, humbling ourselves before Him and saying, "Father, I desperately need your direction. I need wisdom. I humble myself before you. If you are too proud to get on your knees, more than likely, you are too proud to listen to what He has to say. And so, we need to humble ourselves before Him and in prayer, asking the Lord to give His direction." Now, praying isn't doing all the talking. Praying is telling you in what we think, how we feel and listening, backing off and listening. That's why it's so important that prayer involves meditation, reading the Word of God, being quite listening. Lord, what are you saying to me in this? And sometimes, God will just stick me on one passage of Scripture or one or two verses, sometimes one verse, sometimes a week, sometimes two weeks, sometimes longer than that. And I know when I can't get away from something, God is trying to say something to me. When you say, "Well, why can't you get it the first time?" Same reason, you can't. And that is, we don't always understand exactly upfront what God may be saying to us. And none of us have any insight on God. All of us have the same Holy Spirit living on the inside of us. God deals with each one of us in relationship to how He knows us. And so sometimes, you get me in some passage and I think, "Well, Lord, what are you saying?" Prayer, seeking, listen, spending time with God, I want you to get this, there is no substitute in all of life for spending time with God in prayer with an open Bible. And people say, "Well, I pray, how much time do you spend reading the Bible praying?" Well, you know, I just pray all the time. That's not the issue. Well, listen, what God's are praying, what gives validity to our praying is the Word of God. Now, once in a while, someone will say, "Well, I like the sermons you preach that helps me understand get my needs met." But these doctrinal sermons, sometimes they go over my head. No, they don't go over your head. Here's the important thing about doctrinal messages. In order, listen, in order for the message

about meeting our needs to have validity and strength, you've got to understand who God is. You must understand those basic truths about God. This is why people get all emotional jumping up and down praising the Lord and Hallelujah and praising God. Have a nervous breakdown. You know why? Because they are living on emotion, not truth, not listen, not abiding, rich, deep, theological truth. That is the truth of God. And so that's why I don't want to always talk about getting this need met, and that need met. But who is God? Who is the Lord Jesus Christ? What is the work of the Holy Spirit? What is His way? How does He operate in our life? Then we understand, we give again to see our needs. We seek God to meet our needs based on solid biblical principles, not on some, "Oh Lord, bless me good." Hallelujah, praise God. Well, listen, when your feet hit the ground, the truth is, are you on truth or are you on some emotional bend? You want to walk in truth. The Bible says we're to walk in truth, Walk in love, walk in light, not walk, listen, walk in. tomorrow. On our face before Almighty God, the third thing that's so important is this. Now, listen carefully. Listen, if I want to know the will of God, listen, not only must I be in his word and in prayer, but listen now, listen carefully, I must focus on my relationship with him. Now, listen carefully. God is not an information sinner. He's not an information sinner waiting for us to tap into him. God is our Father. What is it he wants? He wants a relationship with us. So, therefore, if I want to know the mind of God, if I want to know his will about something that what I want to do is I want to pursue my relationship with him at some given point about this particular situation. Lord, don't mean you speak to my heart. What do you want to say to me about you? What do you want me to know about you that has to do with all this? You see, he's not interested in just dishing out information. He's interested in drawing us to himself. He's interested in conforming us to his likeness. He's interested in building a relationship with us. So, here's what I've discovered and I'm discovering and that is simply this. If I want to know the mind of God about something, I don't have to make a big issue about what that is. What I want to do is focus on Father. What do you want to say to me about my life? What is your willing purpose and your plan here? I want you to... I show me how to love you. Show me how to express my love and devotion to you. Show me how to walk in you. And you know what? It's very clear. The will of God and the purpose of God and the plan of God begins to unfold as I find myself being enriched in my relationship and deepened in my understanding of who he is. He doesn't keep secrets from his children

more than willing to show us. And so, what happens? Oftentimes, we just come to him and say, Lord, here's the decision I have to make. I need some direction here. What do you say, God? And God's real silent. You know why? Because he's not an information center. He's not an operator sitting on the other end. God is a lover. He is the chief of all lovers and he loves us and he wants us for himself. And the unfolding of his will for us is an expression of his love. And so, therefore, God's not interested in handing out information with no relationship. And this is why people still are prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed and God hadn't said a thing. You know why? Because praying and praying and praying is not the issue. It's relationship. Remember that. If I want to know God's mind and heart, I focus on the relationship not on the particular issue that I'm after. The fourth thing is this. One of the ways that he reveals his will is through circumstances. Sometimes, God closes a door. Sometimes, he closes his door and opens this door. So oftentimes, he will reveal his will and purpose and plan in a given situation for your life by opening a door or closing a door. Anytime God closes a door, it's for your protection. Anytime he opens a door, it's an invitation. And sometimes, you and I may run right up to a door that looks open to us and slam right in front of us. Why? Heading in the wrong direction, something about that appealed to us. It wasn't the will of God. In his love, he slams the door. What is he doing? Protecting us from making a wrong decision. And he knows that you and our children, we're growing up. We're going to make mistakes. And sometimes, we're going to misinterpret. Sometimes, we don't understand what the will of the Lord is as simple as we'd like. Some things are difficult to discern. So, somebody says, "Well, I would make a decision, but I'm afraid. You don't have to be afraid. If you genuinely, with all of your hearts, surrender and yield it to him, make a decision." And it's the wrong decision. Listen, God will rescue you out of a wrong decision if your heart was committed to being obedient to God. And for some reason, out of any experience or ignorance, you misread what the will of God was. You weren't trying to indulge yourself. You weren't trying to have your way. You really believed that was the will of God. It didn't seem to work out the way you expected it to. God, listen, if God closes one door, he's got something better. All I have to do is to be responsible, to be obedient to what he says, do, and trust his reasoning is far greater than my understanding. And so, it's so very important, I think, that you and I understand that. Well, of course, one of the things that you and I can depend upon to some degree is Godly counsel. Sometimes, you and I will talk with someone else,

maybe not even bring up the issue at hand. And God would use that person to say something exactly what we needed to hear. And so, Godly counsel is certainly one of God's ways of revealing and unfolding his will and purpose and plan for a particular area or making a decision for us. Now, a lot of other things I can say, let me bring us to a close. How can I be sure? Ask myself seven questions. How can I be sure that I've heard what God has said? So, if you just jot these down, number one, is what I believe I've heard consistent with the the Word of God. but we know the principles. Is this consistent with the word of God? Now you say, well, what do you mean by principles? Let me give you a couple of examples. Here are principles in the scripture. Look, if you will, in Galatians chapter six. Look at this. Here's a simple principle of scripture. Galatians chapter six. Now, we said the moral, listen, the moral will of God, thou shalt do this, thou shalt not do that. But what about the principles? These are the things that oftentimes are between the lines. Listen to what he says. Here's a simple one right out in front of us. He says in verse seven of Galatians six. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. Whatever a man or a woman sows, this he or she will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh shall reap from the flesh, corruption. But the one who sows to the spirit shall reap eternal life. Here's what he says.

Here's the principle. Now principle means this. If I do this, here's what I can expect God to do. If I do this, here's what I can expect. These are the principles of scripture. For example, he has something to say about giving and sharing. For example, turn to Proverbs 11. Look in Proverbs 11. And notice this verse. There's another principle and the Bible's full of them. Listen to what he says. Verse 24. There is one who, look at this. There is one who scatters yet increases all the more. That is, you give and what happens? The principle is if you give, he says you increase all the more. There is one who withholds for himself. What does Justler do? But it results only in what? What's the principle? Here's the principle. And do I want God to bless me? Here's what I do. Then if I want him to bless me, then I'm gonna give. If I hold it to myself, I'm gonna lose. If I give, I'm gonna gain. That is a principle you absolutely, listen. Principles you cannot change. Principles you cannot change. It's the law of God, it's the principle of God.

And that is, listen, if I hold on to something tightly for myself, I'm gonna lose it eventually. If I say God, here it is, you know what he's gonna do? He's either gonna give me that or give me more or something better than what I had. And here's a principle that's so simple. And yet, I'm telling you, you'd think, surely after a while, people would catch on. And the principle is simply this. If I give, I'm going to be blessed. He says, you're gonna have more. If you hold on and keep it for yourself, he says, you're gonna lose it. He says, you're gonna be in one. That principle, listen, that principle works in every single area of life. If I want to be loved, pour out my love upon someone else. If I need something material, give away what something that I have. That's the principle. If I need something, the way to get my need met is to give something away. You cannot change that principle. You cannot improve on that principle. And I think about the Lord's work around the world would multiply and be so awesome. It's indescribable. If people would just learn that simple principle, you can't change it. Whatever we sow, we're gonna reap.

What we sow more than we sow later than we sow, cannot change it. If I give, I'm gonna be blessed. If I hold them myself, I'm gonna lose. Cannot change that principle. That's what I'm talking about in the principles of God. And so, when you look at this passage and you ask yourself the question, first question is this. Is it, have I heard, have I heard right? That is, do I believe what I've heard, is there any violation of scripture and what I believe the will of God is? If, listen, if there's no violation of scripture, if it's consistent with the word of God, then I can move on. Second question I ask myself is this. And that is, listen, is this a wise decision? And you know, you are not deep down inside. We know one of things wise when it's not wise. And does he not say here in Ephesians? He says, be not foolish, but he says, be understanding what the, be wise, be understanding what the will of God is. Is this decision a wise decision? The third thing is this. Can I confidently ask God to enable me to do this? If something is not the will of God, I say, well, I have confidence, I'm gonna do that. Listen, the spirit of God will bear witness with your spirit with static.

There'll be conflict in your spirit. You say, when I say, well, can I confidently ask God to enable me to do this, watch this. There is no way for me confidently to have any confidence to ask God to enable me to do something that's not as well. I won't have any confidence. I'm trying to muster it up all I want to. I'm not gonna have confidence to disobey God. I'm not gonna have assurance to disobey God. The confidence comes in knowing the mind of God. And listen, if it's in keeping with scripture, if it's in keeping with scripture, if it's a wise decision, if I can confidently, "to enable me to do this." Then the fourth question is this, do I have the witness of the Spirit? Is the Spirit of God giving me a quiet sense of affirmation on the inside? Now watch this, somebody says, "Well, "as soon as I get peace, I'm gonna do it." You know what? Sometimes we can sort of think we must it up peace. Listen, you can't go by feeling. It must be the witness of the Spirit. You will know in your Spirit when the Spirit of God has affirmed for you, this is the mind of God. This is the will of God, you're free to move in this direction. The next one is this.

I have to ask myself this question, this question. If I believe this is the will of God, does this fit who I am as a child of God? Does this conduct, does this purchase, does this act, is this in keeping with the mind of God? Does this fit who I am? Does it fit who I am? Is there a violation of the Spirit as a fit who I am? I'm coming back to illustrate that in a moment. The next question is this. Does this fit God's overall plan for my life? Somebody says, well, I don't know what God's overall plan for my life is. Well, listen, does it fit the Scripture? Does it fit who you are as a believer? Listen, if it fits who you are as a believer, it's gonna fit God's overall plan in your life. And then we have to ask ourselves this question. In thinking about all of these things, does, will this honor God? If I do this, will this honor God? Now, you ask yourself those seven questions, you're gonna know whether it's a God or not. Now, let me give you a couple examples and I'm gonna close. Lady came to me one day, she said, she said, I'm going to the mission field. I said, well, wonderful, praise the Lord about that. I said, then I know your family's all excited about that. She said, no. I said, what do you mean?

She said, I'm leaving my family going to the mission field. I said, no, wait a minute. She says, I've asked the Lord to give me direction for my life and I know this is the will of God. I said, no, what's the will of God? You mean to tell me that you're leaving your husband and your children and you're going to the mission field and all beings to God? Yes, I am. I said, no, you're not. You may go to the mission field, but you're not going to the mission field and all beings to God and walk away from your husband and your children because you want to be a missionary. Well, I believe God called me years and years ago and I probably shouldn't have gotten married and had these kids and I said, it's too late, ma'am. Don't sit here and tell me that God's called you to the mission field to leave your family. God would never give you guidance to violate his word. God's not going to give you, listen, God's not going to ever give you direction for your life. He's not going to give you any direction for your life to violate the word of God. God, listen, God would be a contradiction within himself. He's not going to lead us to do anything that's going to harm someone else. He may lead us to do something that causes someone else pain because they don't agree, but he's not ever going to listen. He's not ever going to lead us to do something

that violates the living word of God. You ask yourself those seven questions and you will know whether you have heard from God, whether you have the will of God for your life or not. Now, God's a wonderful father. He wants the best for us. He makes it simple. Now, I've strung this out a long ways and told you a lot of things about it. Does that make it complicated? No, I'm simply saying here are some things that you can consider in the major decisions of your life, in the minor decisions of your life, and listen, what God wants us to do is to walk in his spirit and it'd be such a natural, normal thing for us that we just sort of know what to do next because we are, listen, because we are walking in the spirit. Our mind and heart is committed to the will of God and knowing the will of God oftentimes is very, very simple and most things in life. But then there are those tough things and you know what? He is there to make it very clear. This much I know it is the will of God for you to be saved. This much I know it's the will of God for you to be baptized. It's the will of God for you to be a part of a local fellowship somewhere. And I know there's some people who live in different areas of the country where they live maybe many, many miles away from a church

and can't get there every Sunday. I do understand that there are those circumstances health-wise and so forth. But in the normal conditions, it's his will. If you'd be a part of a local body of people who believe God's word and love him, love each other, it's the will of God that you walk in the spirit. It's the will of God that you love each other. It's the will of God that you forgive. It's the will of God. Listen, that you and I are growing and our faith taught him. A lot of things I know the will of God for your life. And I just want to say to you, if you've never trusted Jesus Christ as you're saying it, you ask him to forgive you of your sin. Tell him that you're putting your life in his hand. In that moment, you've taken the most awesome step you can take because you will have just changed your whole eternal destiny in one commitment of obedience to Jesus Christ. (gentle music) (gentle music) (upbeat music) [MUSIC PLAYING]