How to Discern God's Will - Genesis Part 58

Last week, we started a little series called God's Leading, and we asked the question last week, as followers of Christ, does God get involved in the everyday details of our everyday life, like leading us to His choice for a mate, a job, a college, a house to buy, a graduate school to attend, a career, all of these things, and we said the answer is absolutely yes. Yes, we said last week that we have a personal God who is personally involved in the personal details of our personal life, and if you missed that message last week, I want to urge you to get the CD or to download or podcast it, because this is a critical thing for us to believe in our Christian walk that God is personal, He's personally involved, and He's personally interested in the things of our personal life, and may I say that if you're here, and you've never trusted Jesus as your real and personal Savior, that this is a wonderful thing that comes when we come to Christ. When we come to Christ, not only do we get forgiveness of sin and eternal life by what He did on the cross for us, but we also get connected to God in a personal way, where He takes that personal interest in our everyday life, an amazing thing that the God of the universe would care about your life and my life and the details of our life. But friends, He does, and if you don't have that relationship with God, I want to urge you to consider giving your heart to Christ, being born again and becoming one of His followers, because you will get that relationship with Him.

It comes along with the package, and I hope you'll consider that. Well, we want to move on today to talk about another question, and that is how do we find, how do we discern God's will for these specific issues of our life? And the Bible gives us three primary indicators to use that when they line up, we can be certain that we have identified God's will and His choice for the details of our life. So let's look and see what they are.

Number one, indicator number one, is the written Word of God, the Bible. Psalm 119, verse 105 says, You're what? Oh, that was so mealy. Come on.

You're what? Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Jesus said, Matthew Chapter 4, Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And David said, Psalm 119, Direct my steps. Next four words, according to your word.

That's right. The most important indicator of God's will for the choices of our life is the Word of God. God never leads anyone contrary to the Word of God. God never leads anyone contrary to the Word of God.

You know, in 35 years, I've had people I interview or meet with people every week that I'm in town, and I've had people tell me some of the most amazing things that they believe God led them to do. I've had people tell me that God led them to move in with their girlfriend and their boyfriend and become sexually active. But the Bible says 1 Corinthians 6 18 flee sexual immorality. I've had people tell me that God led them to marry their unbelieving boyfriend or girlfriend.

But the Bible says 2 Corinthians 6 14 do not be yoked together with unbelievers. I've had people tell me that God led them to withhold reporting income on their 10 40s. But the Bible says thou shalt not steal. I've had people tell me that God led them to take personal revenge on someone that hurt them. But Romans 12 19 says never take your own revenge. I've had people tell me that God led them to have an affair.

And yet the Bible says do not commit adultery. And I've had to say to these people now look, I don't know who it was that you think led you or led you to do that. But let me just tell you it was not God that led you to do that God does not lead people contrary to his word. So it may have been a friend that led you it may have been the devil himself that led you it may have been your own flesh that led you, but it was not God. Friends, God never leads anyone contrary to his word. This is indicator number one of God's leading in the choices of our life. Number two is the inner witness the inner confirmation of the Holy Spirit. Remember last week we saw the verse Isaiah chapter 30 verse 21, where God says that if you're looking for direction from me, you will hear a voice behind you saying this is the way walk in it well whose voice is this friends it's the voice of the indwelling Holy Spirit himself. Romans eight verse 16 says that the Spirit of God bears witness with our spirit confirming witness that when we come to Christ, we are the children of God, but the Holy Spirit also bears witness with our spirit about what God's will is in the details of our life after we come to Christ. Now, you know, the Bible I know, you know, this doesn't speak with absolute clarity to every single issue in life. And so I often have people who will say, hey, pastor, can you help me with this? The Bible doesn't seem to speak to this.

What should I do? And I have to say to them, well, I can't tell you that if the Bible doesn't speak with absolute clarity to something, then the best I can tell you is to get on your knees and seek the face of God and ask the Holy Spirit to tell you what it is he wants you to do. Seek his guidance until you hear the voice of the Holy Spirit saying to you, this is the way walk in it until the Holy Spirit bears witness with your spirit regarding what God wants you to do. You know, Hudson Taylor, the great missionary to China, had an experience like this.

He was 17 years old. And here's what he said. He said, I pleaded with the Holy Spirit to give me some work to do for him. I put myself, my life, my all upon the altar. The presence of God became so real. And I remember stretching myself on the ground and lying there before him.

Now watch. Never shall I forget the feeling that came over me. Your prayer is answered. The Spirit said to him, your conditions are accepted. The Spirit said, and Hudson Taylor wrote from that time, the conviction has never left me that I was called to China.

End of quote. Folks, this is the Holy Spirit bearing witness to a person's heart. But this only happens when we are seeking God in earnest the way that Hudson Taylor was.

Let me show you something. First Kings chapter 19. Elijah, the great prophet, has gone to Mount Sinai and the Bible says there Elijah went into a cave and spent the night and the Lord said to him, go out and stand on the mountain for the Lord is about to pass by. Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountain apart, but the Lord wasn't in the wind. And after the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord wasn't in the earthquake. And after the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And then after the fire came a still small voice, a gentle whisper. And when Elijah heard it, he covered his face with his robe.

Why did he do that? Because friends, God was in the still small voice that he was hearing. And this is what seeking the Lord is all about, my friends. It's about seeking to hear that still small voice of the Holy Spirit. But this can only happen when we are immersing ourselves in the word of God every day. When we are on our face before God in serious prayer every day.

When we are seeking hard after God with fasting and prayer on a regular basis. If you and I are not practicing these spiritual disciplines, we're all but guaranteed to miss God's still small voice in the noise and in the bluster of life. You say, but Lon, this is Washington, man. I mean, with all the hustle and bustle in this crazy town, where in the world am I going to get the time to set aside like Hudson Taylor did? Well, you say he wasn't as busy as I was.

This was like hundreds of years ago. Listen, friends, don't you and I delude ourselves into believing that the great saints of the past were any less busy than you and I were? You really think you're busier than Moses was leading two million people through the desert? You really think you're busier than David was running a whole kingdom? You really think you're busier than Daniel was running the entire Persian Empire?

Or Joseph being the prime minister of Egypt or Hudson Taylor running the China inland mission? Come on. That's just a lie that we tell ourselves to justify not spending time with God. Let's shoot straight with each other, folks. That's all it is.

These people were busy, but they made the time. I love what Hudson Taylor said. He said, and I quote, Satan will always find something for us to do instead of seeking God, even if it's just arranging the window blinds. End of quote.

And that's right. The bottom line is if you and I want God, the Holy Spirit, to lead us and guide us to God's will for our lives, if we want to hear the still small voice of God saying this is the way, walk ye in it, then friends, we need to be seeking God. It's mandatory if this is going to happen in our life.

Number three, the third indicator, finally, are circumstances. God is a God of circumstances. I love Revelation three, verse eight. Jesus said, I have placed before you an open door that no man can shut.

But not only does God open doors no man can shut, he also shuts doors that no man can open. And as followers of Christ, God uses this control over circumstances to lead us and to guide us. Let me give you a great example of that on the Apostle Paul's second missionary journey.

There's a map up so you can follow it. Paul set out from Antioch, his home church, and then went north through modern day Turkey, Asia Minor. Well, when he got into Central Asia Minor, he wanted to go west into where Ephesus was, into the Roman province of Asia. The Spirit of God said no.

And then he went all the way north to the Black Sea, and he wanted to go east into the province of Bithynia, where we know there was a large Jewish population at this time because Peter mentions them in his first letter. And the Spirit of God said no. And so he couldn't go any more north. He couldn't go east. He couldn't go west. He'd already been south. And so Paul ends up stranded on the northwest corner of Turkey in a place called Troas, ancient Troy. He doesn't know where to go. He doesn't know what to do. He's run out of land.

And listen to what happens. During the night, Paul had a vision of a Macedonian man. Now Macedonia, as you saw on the map, was right across the Aegean Sea, just a few miles from where he was in Europe. And the man was standing and begging Paul, saying, come to Macedonia and help us. Now watch. And after Paul had seen this vision, say the next word. What? Immediately, we got ready to leave for Macedonia.

Next word. Concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. Now, how did the Apostle Paul become so convinced? How did he conclude that going to Macedonia was the will of God for him and his team, Luke and Silas and Timothy? How did he conclude that?

Well, he looked at how God had been working in his circumstances. He had been forbidden to go west. He had been forbidden to go east. He couldn't go north. He'd already been south. God plopped him into Troy as he's just a few miles from Macedonia. And then he has this vision with the Macedonian man saying, come help us. Paul looked at all of these circumstances and said, there is no other conclusion I can possibly draw. We have been called and that's where we're going. Folks, there is no random circumstance that ever enters a Christian's life.

God has his hand on every one of those circumstances and he uses them to show us his will. You know, I had an interview just a couple days ago and someone asked me in the interview exactly what I get asked a lot. Hey, how did you end up at McLean Bible Church? Well, what happened was in 1975, as I was finishing seminary, I got invited to come over to McLean Bible Church over on Balls Hill Road and be an assistant pastor there for six months.

It didn't work out. I left. I went to graduate school. I taught in seminary. But in 1979, four years later, God convicted me that he wanted me to go into the pastorate. And so I went and told the people running the seminary where I was teaching and they said, wonderful, you got one year. Your contract's not going to be renewed next year. You got a year to find a pastor. I said, well, you know, I mean, like, I'm not even looking.

I don't even know how to do this. You know what? So they said, that's fine.

You got a year to learn. So I said, OK. So I didn't know what to do.

I just prayed about it and prayed about it and prayed about it. And that was in the fall of 1979. In the spring of 1980, I found out that the pastor at McLean Bible Church had resigned. And one of the elders came up to me because he also taught at the same school and said, hey, we know you.

You were there for six months, a few years ago. And so what we want to know is, do you have any interest in coming back and being the pastor at McLean Bible Church? And I said, yeah, yeah, I do. And I went through all the candidate stuff and everybody, you know, signed off on me. Finally, I needed a 75 percent vote of the congregation. And man, I was green. I had never pastored a church in my life. I'd never even attended church growing up. I was greener than green apples, friends.

Trust me. And there were a lot of people that didn't want me to come be their pastor. And so just before the vote to see if I made the 75 percent, they had a question and answer time for the whole congregation. And it was a gentleman sitting in the front row who I knew was voting against me.

He'd already told me he was voting against me. Yeah. Tough skin, folks.

That's the way it is. And so he raised his hand and I thought, oh, geez. So I said, yes, sir. And he said, you know, you need 75 percent in order to technically be called as the pastor. He said, but how much more than 75 percent? 80, 85, 90 percent. Now, he was going to vote against me. You might understand this. Would you need before you were sure it was God's will you come to this church? And I said, sir, I said, if I get 75 percent, it will be such a miracle that if I get 75.1 percent, I'm coming to McLean Bible Church.

Well, I got 75.4 percent. This is true. It's true. I passed by three votes, folks, three votes. And that's how I came to McLean Bible Church. And let me tell you something. When I looked at all those circumstances, how God had even put me here five years earlier, so people knew who I was and how he had stacked all those circumstances up. I knew as certain as my name that God had called me like Paul to preach the gospel at McLean Bible Church.

And thirty five years later, I am just as convinced of it today as I was in 1980. Praise the Lord for that. Amen. So listen, you keep your eyes on the circumstances of your life. God will use them to lead you and guide you if you're keeping your eyes open.

So let's summarize. These are the three primary indicators of how to identify God's choices for our life. Number one, does it square with the word of God? Number two, am I getting the inner witness of the Holy Spirit saying this is for you? And number three, are the circumstances stacking up in a way that it's clear to me this is what God has for me?

Now, just two things and we're done. What about the advice of godly people? We hear that all the time. You know, Proverbs 20 says, make plans by seeking advice, ask others for guidance. Proverbs 11 says in a multitude of counselors, there's wisdom. Friends, asking advice from godly people is always a good idea.

Listen to my caveats now. Godly people who know the Lord well, they know the word of God well, and they're willing to be honest enough to tell you the truth. Those people, it's worth asking their advice. But you know, even with those people, you can ask 10 of them for advice and you're liable to get four or five different opinions.

So as valuable as it is to ask for advice, that cannot be the final determiner. We've got to go back to the word of God, back to the spirit of God and back to the circumstances of God and sometimes say, well, that's great advice, but that's not what God wants me to do. You know, I had a pastor friend called me when he heard in 1980 that I was coming to McLean Bible Church.

Good friend. He called me up on the phone and he said, I heard you go into McLean Bible Church. And I said, Yeah, that's right. He said, Have you lost your mind? He said, You have never been a pastor before. You didn't even grow up going to church. You don't know anything about the pastorate. He said that church has got more problems in it than you could shake a stick at. He said, I've been a pastor 22 years and I wouldn't touch that church with a 10 foot pole.

Let me just tell you something. He didn't know the half of what was over there, not half of it. He said, They're going to chew you up and they're going to spit you out.

But I said to him, I said, You know what? I'm sure you're giving me good advice, but I know I know that God wants me to go to McLean Bible Church. I know it because of the Holy Spirit's confirmation. I know it because of the circumstances. And if I don't go to McLean Bible Church, I will be out of the will of God.

So I don't really care what's going on over there. I'm going to McLean Bible Church and we'll just see what happens. Friends, listen, advice is great. But if you've got the witness of the Spirit and you're in line with the word and you've got things lined up with your circumstances, you stick with that. Finally, what about a sense of peace? You know, I'm sure people say this, you know, why I had a sense of peace.

You know what they say? Listen, a sense of peace is OK for you to at least consider. But friends, it's dangerous to make this the primary indicator of God's will, because it's too easy for all of us to conjure up a sense of peace if I really want to do something bad enough. See, I'll tell you, I got a huge sense of peace and I've had it for years that I should buy, you know, a yellow Ferrari.

Yeah, I do. Huge sense of peace about that. Now, my problem is I have another indicator of God's will in my life that doesn't agree.

Her name is Brenda. Yeah. And I got another little problem, which is I can't afford a yellow Ferrari. But man, you asked me if I got a sense of peace about buying one.

Big as this auditorium, my friends. But it's from my flesh. It's not from the Lord. It's from my sinful human nature.

And that's why I can't depend on that. You say, well, Lon, how do we tell the difference? Here's our last question. How do we tell the difference between my own fleshly sense of peace and when the Holy Spirit is witnessing and confirming to my heart that something's right?

How do I tell the difference? Well, great question. And the answer is you have to know your master's voice. You got to spend enough time with God often enough and you've got to get to know God well enough. And we have to develop the spiritual discernment deeply enough that we know the voice of our master when he's speaking, as opposed to our flesh when it's speaking. And we can do that. God invites us in to do that. God opens the door and says, you've got access to get to know me that well. Learn my voice.

You'll know the difference. You know, when I was in college at the University of North Carolina, when I was in Chapel Hill, I had a dog named Noah, a big 90 pound German shepherd, and he was just voice trained. I never used the leash on him. And he had a collar with a little, you know, rabies tag with his name on it. And whenever I was in class, which was fairly seldom, he would wander around campus all by himself. And so everybody got to know Noah. But, you know, here's the interesting thing, my friends.

We could be out walking around campus. He could be running all over wherever and people would call to it. Hey, Noah. Hey, Noah. Hey, Noah.

Hey, hey, hey. And he wouldn't pay much attention to any of them. But when I said Noah and whistle for him, that dog came running, sat down with his tail wagging and his tongue hanging out of his mouth.

Why? Because he knew my voice. Why did he know my voice? Because I had raised that dog from a tiny little puppy and loved that dog and spent time with that dog. And he knew my voice above every other voice out there.

Friends, I'm not saying we're dogs. What I'm saying is we can get to know God that well by spending time with him where when God says, Hey, Lon, I know who's talking to me and you can too. So I hope this has all been helpful today. Next week, we're going to talk about how to pray with power. We're talking about prayer.

So one more message. We all pray. But how do we pray with power?

That's what we're going to talk about. But let me just say in closing, friends, many of us in our prayer life, we do drive bys with God. You know, we kind of just pop off the surface and say, Lord, good morning.

How are you? I hope you're having a good day. Bless me today, Lord, while I go. And God. Amen.

Folks, that's a drive by. That's not prayer. And no wonder we don't hear the Holy Spirit talking to us. No wonder we make some of the bad choices we do. No wonder we're not walking with with God as deep as we should be.

You can't. That's not that's not seeking God. So I want to give us a moment here. If you've been living a life of drive bys with God, man, this is the moment for you to say, if Hudson Taylor could do it and Moses could do it and Daniel could find time for it and Joseph could find time for it.

David could find time for it. Then I can find time to spend time with the Lord Jesus. And if you haven't been doing it, then this is a good moment for us to say, Lord, with your help, we're going to change this. Let's pray together. With our heads bowed and our eyes closed, this is your moment to tell God about making a change in your schedule.

So that you just don't fit him in, but so that you make him the priority. Lord Jesus, forgive us for our prayerlessness. It's really just a symptom that we're relying on ourselves instead of relying on you.

Trusting ourselves. Lord Jesus, make us desperate for you. Help us believe what you tell us that without you, we can do nothing of any lasting spiritual value. So, God, drive us to our knees. Drive us into the word of God. Drive us into time with you because we're desperate and we know we can't make it without those times.

Lord Jesus, may the drive-bys become only occasional. And may we give you priority in our life. We want to know you more, Lord. So help us take the steps to do it. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. God's people said, Amen. Amen.