Destination-Driven Dreams, Part 1

Apart from reading the Bible, what methods does God employ to guide His children?

When we need direction and we don't know which path to travel, how do we know whether God wants us to turn to the right or the left? Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll provides a lesson in following God's direction. The building story of God leading Joseph and his new family out of harm's way. In this biblical record, we discover practical lessons on God's will.

Chuck titled today's message, Destination Driven Dreams. My most full of great word pictures, and there are few more meaningful than the whole idea of the shepherd with the sheep. When I was in my years of training in Dallas Seminary, it was our privilege for Cynthia and me to spend a summer with a man who had been a shepherd in his early years in Montana. Ray Stedman grew up there in that country and would occasionally share stories about his experience as one who would lead the sheep. Most of us live our lives and never know a shepherd that is one among us.

We know we have a Lord as our shepherd. It's easy to think of the sheep as a very obedient, loving, teachable creature, but it's not true. You will never see a circus act made up of sheep because they don't follow instructions. Ray would say if one went off the end of the pier and drowned, they'd all follow.

They'd just go one right after the other. We're like that. We're such slow learners. I think it's great the Lord calls us his sheep. In fact, it's a wonderful thought to think of the 23rd Psalm, which most of us could quote from memory. It's written from the viewpoint of a sheep.

Many people will spend their life quoting Psalm 23 and not realize that. The Lord is my shepherd, and then as a sheep I'll not want. He makes me, the sheep, lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. It's the picture of a sheep thanking the shepherd for his guidance.

It's a beautiful thought. Every time we turn to God's word, we have the opportunity to find truth to guide us and how badly we need that guidance. We come today to a scene at the end of the second chapter of Matthew, where a very small family, a woman and her child with her husband, are moved from place to place supernaturally by dreams. That caught my eye, as I will explain in my message a little later, because of these destination-driven dreams.

They were clearly instructed where to go and when to leave. This time of year is a wonderful reminder of God's guidance and how badly we need it. If you know the Lord, think of where you might be today if it hadn't been for his presence in your life.

Most of us looking back 20 years would never believe we would be where we are today, maybe even 10 years. And whatever, we can be sure the Lord guides us, though not by dreams today, but through his word. So we look at Matthew chapter 2 verses 13 to 23 together to see what we can learn about how God led them, and in turn, by application, how he leads us.

I'm reading from the New Living Translation. Verse 13, after the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. Get up, flee to Egypt with the child and his mother, the angel said, stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him. That night, Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother, and they stayed there until Herod's death. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet, I called my son out of Egypt. Herod was furious when he realized that the wise men had outwitted him.

He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, based on the wise men's report of the star's first appearance. Herod's brutal action fulfilled what God had spoken through the prophet Jeremiah. A cry was heard in Ramah, weeping in great mourning.

Rachel weeps for her children, refusing to be comforted, for they are dead. When Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt. Get up, the angel said, take the child and his mother back to the land of Israel, because those who were trying to kill the child are dead. So Joseph got up and returned to the land of Israel with Jesus and his mother. But when he learned that the new ruler of Judea was Herod's son, Archelaus, he was afraid to go there. Then, after being warned in a dream, he left for the region of Galilee. So the family went and lived in a town called Nazareth. This fulfilled what the prophets had said.

He will be called a Nazarene. You're listening to Insight for Living. To study the book of Matthew with Chuck Swindoll, be sure to download his Searching the Scripture studies by going to insightworld.org slash studies.

Today's message is titled Destination Driven Dreams. When people try to follow the Lord's leading, they often do very weird things. Very weird. Read about a man who was seeking the Lord's will. He was in Washington, D.C. His car stalled in front of the Philippine Embassy. He took that to mean that God wanted him to be a missionary in the Philippines.

Really. Really weird. A woman, not sure she ought to take that trip to Israel because she had never been before, was very interested in a lot of the details. So she read the brochure and read it again and before going to bed one night, she picked it up and looked for the last time at some of the details she hadn't noted before. She observed that the flight from New York to Tel Aviv would be on a 747. She folded up the brochure and she prayed, and before it guided me as to whether I should do this or not, she slept through the night and woke up. The next morning her digital clock read 747.

And she took that to mean that she should go to Israel. Really weird. But not as weird as the young believer who had been told that God really leads us through verses in his word. And so trust him. It often may seem unusual, but he will lead us. So he sat by an open window and he let the wind blow across his Bible, and he put his finger on Matthew 27.5, which read, Judas went out and hanged himself. Well that wasn't comforting, so he took his finger off and let the wind blow further and it came to Luke 10.37, which reads, go and do the same. Now really confused, he sat back and let the wind blow until John 13.27.

Jesus said, whatever you do, do quickly. Really weird stuff. I could tell you a dozen more, all of them true.

Some of them you simply will find hard to believe. God does not lead through superstition. God does not lead his children through voices in the night, or cloud formations during the day, or a horoscope, the signs of the zodiac.

God does not use voodoo methods to lead his people into his will. Give that up. If that is your style of thinking, lose it. Lose it quickly, otherwise you will live your life disillusioned. Can you imagine a man who finds himself in the Philippines, suddenly realizing he had missed the will of God by miles?

By thousands of miles. Where your car stalls means nothing, except you probably better get it fixed. I love the words of Dawson Trotman, founder of the Navigators. The Lord gave you a lot of leading when he gave you a brain. Isn't that a good line?

You have a brain. Don't kick it into neutral when you seek his will. He will lead you through clear thinking as you use your brain to think it through. So let's talk about, for a few moments, the leading of God and how it happens.

Let me give you five things you need to remember. First, remember this, you need to be a Christian if you hope to be led by God. Romans 8.14, as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the children of God. That was Romans 8.14. If you're not a Christian, you do not know and you cannot find out God's will.

You are disconnected from the source. And the only way to be connected to the source in a relationship that will guide you ultimately through life is to know Christ, to trust in the one who died on a cross for your sins, lead the complete penalty and open the door to forgiveness, to real truth, to an understanding of life and to the security of a future that will never be changed or taken away from you. Instant forgiveness, eternal rescue. That's yours through faith in Christ, so start there. Number two, God leads us through his written word.

Not the open window method, please. God leads us through a careful, intelligent, diligent study of his word. We read from the Psalmist, Psalm 119.105, Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path. Your word. There are no magic verses tucked away here and there.

There's nothing that will mention the Philippines or minister to the Arabs or go to Alaska. Nothing here that says you should marry her or you should not marry him. There's nothing here that says you ought to be in partnership with that firm or you ought to work there. Those are not the verses you're looking for. A diligent, intelligent, careful examination allows the verses to shape their own context, and right there in the passage, every verse is in a context, and you've learned that in these last days especially. You observe what it says.

You interpret what it means. You check that with other verses by correlation, and then you apply to yourself what it is saying to you. It may not say anything about God's will for your life in that passage.

Then again, it may be a direct pointing of your life in a certain area. The destination is in God's mind. You may not know it, so you're trusting His Spirit to lead you through the written word of God. Third, God leads you through inner promptings of the Holy Spirit.

Sounds weird, but it isn't. Did you know when you came to Christ, the Spirit of God took up residence in your life? He will never leave you. You live your life with the Spirit of God as a child of God living within you. He is a divine GPS. He will direct your steps. He will convict you when you're doing what is wrong. He will give you a sense of relief when you have done what is right. He will honor your efforts to glorify God.

He will illuminate the truth of Scripture, open your eyes to see things you've never seen before. And believe me, when you pray, you ask for the Lord to guide you. The Spirit of God goes to work within, and in His own time and in His own unique way, He will make it known what you should do. Sometime it's yes. Other times it's no. Many times it's wait.

Just wait. There is no hurry when it comes to God's will unless He says in so many ways, do it now. We'll look at an example of that today. So we've got the inner promptings of the Spirit of God. Fourth, God often uses the counsel of wise, qualified, mature, trustworthy fellow Christians.

All of those adjectives are important. You don't just ask anybody that you know is a Christian to help you find the will of God. That person may not be the mature type person. That individual may have something to gain or lose.

They may have you as a close friend, and they don't want to lose you by having you move somewhere else. So their opinion is colored by all of those prejudices or preferences. You want to find people who are objective. You respect them. They will listen well. They will think it through. They will ask hard questions. They will confront you with things that you maybe didn't want to face. They will help you unscrew the inscrutable.

They will help you come to terms with what may be the will of God. Years ago, I'd been at a church almost 25 years, almost. Settled. Everything was great. Church was out of debt. Congregation was full, healthy. The staff was strong, and we were moving ahead. And then there came a restlessness. There came an invitation from Dallas Seminary for me to consider coming and being a part of the leadership at the school. And I wrestled with that.

My initial response was no. So many reasons why would I leave here? I know all the streets. I know all the stores. I know most of the people around me, and I know the church. There are no surprises.

Everything is settled. Well, that may be part of the problem. And so I decided I need to have other minds brighter than my own and more objective. So Cynthia and I invited several people to come and join us for more than one night. They were there for hours. They asked the questions that needed to be asked. They listened to answers. We prayed together. We talked it through. We discussed pros and cons.

We weighed this and that. What would be gained? What would be lost? Will the family be there? Will they remain here?

Where will you live? Does that really matter? And on and on and on. But I've never done that before. So what does that mean? Does God only lead you to things you've done before? Rarely does he do that.

But sometimes he does. But it's unusual. There are a lot of the unknowns, and those people helped me to determine what was the best decision for me to make. Not easy. The best decisions are rarely the easy decisions.

Number five. God leads us by replacing a restlessness and fear with an inner peace. He gives you an inner peace, Colossians 3.15, Let the peace of God, or the peace of Christ, rule in your life.

The word rule is the idea of acting as an umpire. Let God call the shots. Let God guide you. When he does, you'll be relieved of your fears. The restlessness will slowly leave, though not all the questions will be answered.

Much of the restlessness leaves. Furthermore, the opinions of others in the street will mean very little, if anything, to you. Every decision I've made, I've had people tell me it was the wrong decision. Even when it was clearly exactly what I should be doing. People had wrong motives, and so they, out of those motives, gave me this counsel. Cynthia and I were told as we were driving away from one church to come to the church I mentioned that was out in California, we were to go to.

We had the lady lean over, the little section that was open from the car window, and she said, I just want to say this, the Lord gets blamed for a lot of things he has nothing to do with. And she left. That was our final farewell. Thank you, sweetheart.

Great encouragement. She was as wrong as she could be, but to her it meant losing someone she wanted to keep. While we appreciated the desire, we didn't appreciate the words. It was no helpful at all.

Cynthia was in tears as we were leaving. I mean, this was a friend who would say that, which brings me to a little extra comment for no extra charge. Keep your mouth shut. I might as well say it straight, huh? Keep your mouth shut if you do not know precisely what a person should or should not do.

Keep your mouth shut. The person who genuinely wants to know what God's will is struggling, it's a big decision. And they don't need your mouthing off things that you may think or feel unless you have really given as much prayer to it as they have, and have the desire that they have to do what God would have them do. In fact, let me add this, when God leads you to do something, it will often include things that you've never experienced before. He will really stretch you. I love the way Henry Blackaby puts it, the assignment will have God-sized dimensions.

Isn't that good? There will be God-sized dimensions that you never realized. And in every decision we've made, there have been hard things that occurred that we never anticipated, every one of them.

It's never been smooth sailing all the way through. So all of that figures into it, just keep in mind those five things we mentioned. Now, having said all of that, we move back to a time in which people were led by dreams and visions, and voices in the night, and the presence of angels, and supernatural moments, the flash of lightning, the roll of thunder, the presence of fire, enormous changes in the moment that only God could cause. All of those things were the way God's people in ancient days learned his will.

Why? Well, they didn't have a Bible. Their Bible was incomplete. They had none of the New Testament. And many of them were familiar with only a portion of the Old Testament. So if they wanted to be led by the Word of God, which they would certainly seek to know, they would be a little at a loss to know the full picture. Furthermore, the Spirit of God didn't live in them permanently, like he does now with us.

That's why David's prayer after his sin with Bathsheba is, don't take your Holy Spirit from me, because the Holy Spirit would be lifted out of a life when sin was present, or sometime the Holy Spirit would be brought in when there would be the need for great power, or great decisions, or great courage. So in those days, things were different. In other words, God moved through supernatural manifestations.

It's a big word for displays. He would display his will supernaturally. One of the ways he does that, he did that, was in dreams. Look at chapter 1, verse 20. The he is Joseph. As Joseph considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, underlying in a dream. Joseph, son of David, the angel said, don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife. Up until then, he didn't know where the child came from.

She told him the child was from the Holy Spirit, and then she left town for three months. The angel appears in a dream and says, it's a good decision. It's of the Lord, in a dream. Imagine the relief that must have come over Joseph when he received this affirming word, even in a dream. You're listening to Insight for Living.

Chuck Swindoll titled today's message, Destination Driven Dreams. To learn more about this ministry, visit us online at insightworld.org. Well, the Gospel According to Matthew will capture our imagination over the next several months. In fact, the better part of the year, as Chuck guides us through a verse-by-verse study of this New Testament book. We're starting with the birth of our King, tracing his footsteps through all 28 chapters, moving all the way through his great commission to go and make disciples. Now, in conjunction with this brand new broadcast series, Chuck has recently completed a commentary on Matthew as well, and it's available right now.

In fact, because of the enormity of this study, Chuck's commentary comes in two hardbound volumes. The set is called Swindoll's Living Insights Commentary on Matthew. Whether you're new to the Bible or you're teaching the Bible as a pastor, you'll find Chuck's approach to Matthew both scholarly and accessible.

And it's written in the engaging style that's become a hallmark of Chuck's teaching. To purchase Swindoll's Living Insights Commentary on Matthew, go to insight.org slash store. If you'd prefer to call us, and if you're listening in the United States, dial 1-800-772-8888. Insight for Living Ministries is supported not by the purchase of books and resources, but through the contributions of people like you.

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How does God speak to His children? Be listening Friday when Chuck Swindoll tackles that question, here on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Destination Driven Dreams, was copyrighted in 2014 and 2021, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2021 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. The publication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.