How Does God Reveal His Plan For Me

This is the Truth Network. Welcome to Running with Horses, a podcast devoted to inspire you, concerning a relationship with Almighty God that empowers you to accomplish things you never thought possible.

Shirley Weaver wants to take you there. And now, here's today's episode. Hello everyone and welcome. This episode of Running with Horses is brought to you by, drum roll, Shirley Weaver Ministries and Truth Podcast Network. We're glad you're here.

We're glad to be here. And today, we look at some of the foundations, just some principles. You'd think that we know these things right, but sometimes they slip. Paul said, make sure you don't let these things slip. So just looking again, I've called this Making Disciples 01, number one.

We've got several things to cover in the next few episodes. And you're going to love it because it's going to remind you of your first days in the kingdom. And if you're new to the kingdom of God, it will absolutely inspire your spirit, cause you to be invigorated because you know what to do. We know that we are to get understanding right. Wisdom is the principle thing. So get wisdom, but in all you're getting, get understanding. Without understanding, we can't cooperate with what God is saying. So we're reminding ourselves, we're plugging in maybe some things we have let slip.

So sort of a health checkup here. And while we're at it, just here at the beginning, I would like to say hello to our friends in Argentina. We see you and we're able to know that you're there, that you're listening and it means everything to us to know you are there. We are connected and your world and our world here in the United States becomes closer together because of you.

Thank you so much. Can't say enough. You know, the Latin culture is beautiful. It's so fascinating to me.

And when I am in countries like Argentina, I think there is so much to learn from the people and to experience their culture. It's a wealth to me, means a lot to me. So our topic today, how does God reveal his plan for me? Again, let's make disciples point number one. How does God reveal his plan for me? There are several things here we're going to touch on. It will be a framework, sort of a guideline for you, maybe like an outline.

We won't cover everything for sure, but take a look at just a few things. I'm going to give you the key. We're going to talk about process, emphasize the need for a strong spirit, and then talk a little about the presence of God, which is the glory of God.

So those things, first of all, the key. And I love Matthew 4. God doesn't, he doesn't expect us to live just on natural food. Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from his mouth. So the proceeding word of God, that means he's talking all the time and we can listen all the time. And sometimes I think we don't think he's talking, maybe because we are not listening, but he is speaking all the time.

He wants with everything to convey to you his will for your life so that, like we said, you will gain understanding and be able to cooperate right there. The born-again believer really has that option, has that ability, has that inspiration because of the indwelling spirit of God. So as born-again believers in Jesus, we are disciples of his. I mean, it's the purest concept you can possibly have outside of discipleship.

We really don't have a structure to sort of hem in and lay out for us exactly what our life should look like as followers of the Lord Jesus. A believer, born-again believer, always qualify believer as born-again believer because born-again is the first step. Then you are a believer, that means you can become a disciple. Not all believers are disciples, but God's intention, his plan is that you would be a disciple. And as a disciple, automatically a student of his word. The two go together, a disciple is married to the Word of God and is a student, a consumer, you might say, of God's Word daily, all day, all the time.

And it is a growing thing, growing part of our lives. You know, because Jesus is the living Word, John 1, 1, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. So to the extent we know God's Word, we know Jesus. To the extent we know God's Word, we know God. The two go together and we say God the Father, God the Word, and God the Holy Spirit from the foundation of the worlds because God the Father, God the Son, who was the Word. You know, the Word took upon himself flesh and dwelt among us.

So God the Word and God the Son are one and the same. We cannot separate from the Word of God as a primary part of what we intake. Yes, we eat and we drink in other necessary parts of life, but the Word is preeminent. Otherwise, we are cut off from understanding. So first of all, the key, we don't live just by natural processes. We live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, not only the written Word, but the Word he speaks to you today, a clear, fresh Word. You hear him and therefore walk with him in that Word.

Secondly, there's a process. If the question is, how does God reveal his plan to me, I would say my answer is there is a process to this discipleship, this lifestyle. Your understanding grows, experience builds confidence, trust is developed. In Proverbs 4.7, wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom and with all thy getting, get understanding. We see then that revelation flows from our understanding.

Think about it. A parent speaks to a child on the child's level so that the child can understand what's being said because the ask the parent is making of the child is to cooperate with the instruction being given. Same thing with followers of Jesus, disciples of his, our understanding level determines what we can take in, what we can process, even though we may have the rudimentary things, the basic things, if we don't understand what's being said to us, it's difficult to cooperate. So this process of discipleship builds us through experience and trust and God's wisdom flowing into us and we see then that understanding comes and the natural byproduct is revelation and that's not a weighty word, that's not far-fetched, it's not rare, it's normal. Yes, the book of Revelation is a book of the download of an end-time plan that was given from the Lord to the Apostle John.

So that is major right there. Sometimes people are intimidated by the book, don't need to be, but the revelation I'm mentioning here is the revelation that you have right this minute that you're hearing from God because he is speaking and your desire, I know, is to hear him and to cooperate. Next thing, you need a strong spirit, a strong spirit. Your carnal nature is by nature strong. We are born with that sin nature. So the born-again believer fills the spirit, their human spirit, with the Word of God, his principles. We learn his nature. We imitate him.

We also imitate mature believers that are in our path because, hey, God puts them there. A strong spirit is needed because a strong human spirit that is flooded with the things of Almighty God is the underpinning for everything. Your discernment sharpens when your spirit is strong. I would even say that we do not rightly discern when the spirit within us is weak, when it's malnourished, when it's hungry.

You know, it's limp. Listen, this is no time to be living in this world with a limp spirit. You got to have a strong spirit. You must be built up with the Word of God, the presence of God, the experience of the kingdom, all of that. So first of all, our key is discipleship. Secondly, knowing that is a process, we're not going to start out from day one the same way we will be years down the road where our experience level is so much greater, and then we understand that the spirit within us must be strong. And just to elaborate right here, Oswald Chambers explains the connection of a submitted, like, you know, your spiritual nature to the life of Jesus to produce clear understanding because the distance between you and the Father is less when your spiritual nature is submitted to the life of the Lord Jesus. The submitted nature connects you to Him. So your understanding clears, your understanding grows, and as the connection grows, that distance that sometimes people feel, they feel like God is far away from them. They don't feel that He is close. Well, there's a reason why they do not.

It's a submission that we, that's a decision we make. Father, I don't understand everything. Lord Jesus, I have a lot to learn, but right here, today, I submit to your leading and to your nature and your life so that I can become one with you, be more like you.

Here's the quote from Oswald Chambers. Once your inner spiritual nature is willing to submit to the life of Jesus, your understanding will be perfectly clear, and you will come to the place where there is no distance between the Father and you, His child, because the Lord has made you one. And in that day, you will ask me nothing.

In that day, what day? In the day that you come to that point of submission, you will ask Him nothing. And just briefly, just basically meaning here, you won't need to. You'll just know. It's like, as children, there were certain things that we didn't know, and as we grew and matured, we just knew those things. Intuitively, we knew those things.

I think every person would say that that is true on some level. Okay, magnify it and apply it to your fellowship with the Lord. You come to the place where you know Him so well, you just don't have to ask. You just know, like ultimately, because of the process that we're describing here. You're living by the Word of God. You're in a discipleship process.

You're building up your spirit. And because of that process, you arrive to a point in time that is described here in that day. In that day, John 16, 23, you are one with the Lord. And lastly, I don't know why we don't hear more about the presence of God and the glory of God, because it should be very natural. The presence of God is the appearing of the Lord with us, not necessarily in bodily form. I have heard testimonies where that, and you probably have, where that was the case, but it's more of a sense that we have and sometimes very strong so that we may feel the strength of His presence to the degree that it's tangible. And then relaying it to someone after the fact, you know, it's hard to put words on that. I've had that experience. It's a supernatural thing for sure.

And then to put natural words on it. The Bible says it's hard to compare the natural with the spiritual or the spiritual to the natural. And it's so true. A spiritual experience is difficult to explain in natural words. And several scriptures that I learned as a new believer really come to me right here. They're out of 2 Chronicles 5 and 6, two chapters here. Let me just pull out a couple of verses to make the point.

This is verses 13 and 14 of 2 Chronicles 5. The house of the Lord was filled with a cloud so that the priest could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God. See, the cloud is the glory. Their word for glory is weighty. The cloud was weighty.

The priest stood to minister, but the presence of God was so strong, manifested in a manifestation as a cloud, that the human strength of the priest was not such that they could stand. And you may think that's odd, but that is experienced often. I have experienced that. It's not often. I mean, it's not a lot. It's not every day. Let me clarify. It's a lot to me because one experience like that is off the chart, right?

It will last you for many, many, many days. But the influence of God's presence cannot be understated in the life of a believer. And if you think about it this way, that God's intention is to show himself to you.

So don't rule this out. And don't think it odd when you hear a testimony or a story of a human experience that way. There is biblical basis right here, 2 Chronicles 5, verses 13 and 14. And then chapter 6, verse 6, the Lord said, I have chosen Jerusalem that I may put my name there. God planned to put his name on Jerusalem. When we think of Jerusalem, we think of the name of Almighty God.

We put the two together. He put his name there. And in another place, it says, the word of the Lord will come forth from Zion, the hill of the Lord.

See, his presence and his name in this case are own in the city. And verse 18, 2 Chronicles 6, but will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built. Solomon speaking, building a house for the Lord is something we want to do. But truthfully, a building cannot contain God.

The heaven and the heavens cannot contain him. God's intention is to dwell with you, to be present with you, to manifest in your circumstances, in your situation. And this process, our question, how does God reveal his plan for me?

Think about it. If his presence is there with you, his life is in manifestation, his glory is on display one way or another, sometimes in small ways, sometimes very magnanimous ways, how could we not know what he is saying? I'm telling you, you will know. You do know if you follow this process.

And it doesn't have to be slow, but I'll just encourage you that it doesn't happen in a split second or overnight. This is a determination you make to partner with God. And lastly, what is the result?

What is the result of this process? We've got the key, the Word of God. We're living by the Word of God. We're being discipled. We're building a strong spirit with his word, with his presence. We understand that we can discern and experience his presence and his glory.

What is the result? Well, this discipleship grows, and it means that you allow God to reveal his plan or plural plans for your life, because God has a plan for each life. And in this process, the result is your spiritual maturity. So we no longer prefer just milk, the milk of the Word. We're hungry for the meat of the Word. And we hear the Lord. We hear him as a result. Sometimes a voice that we hear in the heart, sometimes it's something we sense, like you just know it. My favorite expression is, you know, I know it because I know it.

In the place where I know it's the most real thing, it's the loudest message, the most convicting and convincing message, and we learn to listen. Now, that's huge right there. You may be very busy, and your routine and habit, if you are in your teens, your 20s, your 30s, and really your 40s, your routine is flooded with distraction. It is the demand on you to multitask 10 things at one time. It's probably true that God did not design your body to multitask.

Yes, you can because the brain is amazing. But the toll taken on your physical body cannot be understated, should not be understated. This is not a good routine. So let me just say again, learn to listen to him. And that takes discipline.

It takes time, takes devoted time, and it takes determination not to be distracted. This process, God reveals his plan for you and to you. He wants to do that.

He actually longs to do that. Your discipleship in his Word, gaining understanding, building a strong spirit within your life, and recognizing and choosing to prefer his presence over other things so that you recognize his voice. All of that. This is the answer to the question, how does God reveal his plan for me? We are making disciples.

The Word lets us know that the Great Commission go you into all the world and make disciples, disciple them through this process. We'll pick up right here in the next episode of Make Disciples. We'll see you then. God bless. Thanks again, and we'll see you next time.