What is God's Will?

Wake up, everyone. It's time for The Steve Noble Show, where biblical Christianity meets the everyday issues of life, in your home, at work, and even in politics. Steve is an ordinary man who believes in an extraordinary God, and on his show, there's plenty of grace and lots of truth, but no sacred cows. Call Steve now at 866-34-TRUTH. That's 866-34-TRUTH. Or check him out online at thestevenobleshow.com.

And now, here's your host, Steve Noble. Well, it looks like the born-again Catholic, Mike Pence, is going to be jumping into the presidential race. I wonder how he came to that conclusion. I wonder how he made that decision. Maybe he put out an Indiana fleece.

I don't know about that. Maybe he felt led by the spirit. Maybe he had, he prayed about it, and he had an inner peace about it, so he's pulling the trigger. Maybe he saw some sign somewhere. He saw an open door, a sign, whatever the case may be. Maybe he was meeting with his small group, and because we're two or three are gathered, we know the Lord is in their midst. And so, how could your small group possibly lead you astray?

Maybe that was what happened. Either way, he's made that decision. That's not what we're talking about today on Theology Thursday, but it is generally what the topic is, as we do part two of God's will and decision-making, which I think a lot of us struggle with that.

For Donald Trump, I don't think it took any of the above for him to dive in or for DeSantis. But for Tim Scott, who actually is a very solid believer from South Carolina, I bet he went through some of the steps, hopefully the to-do steps as opposed to the not-to-do steps when it comes to making decisions. But we started this last week with our friend Dr. Stuart Scott at BJU Seminary, who's got an extensive and incredible career in calling and biblical counseling.

And this is part two. Stuart, good to have you back. How are you? I'm doing well, Steve. Thank you. It's good to be back.

It's good to be back live and on the video and all the other regular stuff as opposed to pre-recording, but thank you for your flexibility to do that last week. And again, I think just a reminder, I think most of us at some level struggle with this. I mentioned last week, Stuart, that even my wife and I right now, we go back and forth about this house that we bought two and a half years ago. Should we stay?

Should we go? Maybe, and my wife agonizes over this more than I do, which is not abnormal for men versus women, but maybe we should have waited longer. Maybe we should have prayed longer. Maybe it was the other house God had for us instead of this house. And then I'm like, well, Stuart said you're wrong and that this is actually the house that God wants. But we've seen God use this house that we're in and a lot of different ways and all things that I think glorify God, but it's still a struggle.

And here we are on the other side of the decision. I think a lot of people agonize over this, whether they're young or seminary students or older guys like us. Yeah, absolutely.

Is that generally what you've run into? I mean, you've done so much biblical counseling and stuff over the years. I would imagine a lot of people kind of come back to decisions they made here or there and questioning, well, maybe I made a decision that wasn't a part of God's will for my life.

I think we all would agree that we have done that. And the more we learn from Scripture, the more we learn from experience and wisdom, and we go, oh, we probably jumped the gun on that. But not every decision, depending on which one we're making, is a sin issue. It just may be it was not the wisest thing to do, but it wasn't sinful. And some things you can make second decisions, right?

Dr. MacArthur once in a staff meeting said good leaders make good second decisions. And that's true. You can go, well, I probably shouldn't have bought that particular item. I can return that. You can do that with stuff, but not always.

You don't do that with people. But you can't just be introspective and spend all your time examining everything and not be busy about what the Lord's called us to do. There are a lot of decisions that we shouldn't agonize over, just to use that word again, that it's clear it's either moral or immoral. That doesn't take a lot of work. That's why it's important that you know God's word and you know God's ethic.

And so those are simple. Daily decisions, not a big deal. Is there a way to kind of quantify or qualify, Stuart? Like when a decision is, okay, this one is one that we really need to work through and apply these principles that we're talking about today. Is there kind of a line of demarcation somewhere where you say, okay, that's not a big deal.

This is. Yeah, I would probably put the weight where the Scripture will put the weight, you know, on, I don't know, that have long-term effects. You know, a marriage, adoption, foster care, you know, some of the things that are going to involve people. People decisions are so much more important, it seems to God, than the non-personal, non-relational stuff. And so really trying to put more time and effort of thinking through the biblical commands and principles where we really get into trouble is when we rely on the subjective stuff, the feelings, impressions, and that's what usually gets us into trouble. And a lot of that will sound, and we talked a bit about this last time, a lot of that sounds spiritual, like being led by the Spirit, or I have an inner peace about that, or I asked God to give me a sign, and He did. I put out a fleece, I saw an open or closed door, even in a small group situation when, because we've got two or three gathered together.

But none of those are actually a good idea. Is that right, or am I oversimplifying? Yeah, on most everyone you just mentioned, those items were to avoid. Matter of fact, they're pulling from Scriptures and misusing them, like Matthew 18, where two or three agree on something, you know, be done for them, but that's talking about church discipline, not about a decision they'd want to buy a car. So I'm always looking at where are they, what Scripture are they alluding to, or mishandling even, in some of those items. Because even with the fleece, I mean, whenever I hear, I mean, early on in my walk, I would hear somebody say, well, we're laying out a fleece, and I look that up, and I'm like, because I didn't have a whole lot of spiritual wisdom at the time.

I was like, oh, okay, that makes sense. But once you actually study that, you realize that Gideon wasn't doing an act of faith or trust. He was actually not trusting what God clearly told him. Yeah, he was putting God to the test. But God's love and patience with his children is demonstrated there. He told Gideon what to do.

Gideon should have just done it. Well, hold that thought. We're up against a break. Hold that thought.

So if you have done the fleece exercise time and time again, you did not just sacrifice your salvation on a piece of wool. So relax. We'll be right back. Welcome back. It's Steve Noble. It's Theology Thursday with our friends at PJU Seminary.

Dr. Stuart Scott back in the house with us today. We're doing part two of our conversation on God's will and decision making. And so we just came out of the graduation period for some people graduating high school, going to college, they start in the fall. How confident are you that your son or daughter, grandson or granddaughter will actually be attending the correct college in August?

Did you put out a fleece? Were you or their parents led by the Spirit? Perhaps they felt an inner peace about that decision to go to UNC Chapel Hill, which could never be godly, really, if we're going to be honest. Maybe they were looking for a sign.

They saw a logo somewhere, some flag hanging somewhere. Or maybe these are Stuart's favorites, so to speak. You had to check in your spirit about going to NC State, so you ended up at Chapel Hill. Or God laid it on your heart that your son or your daughter is to be a wolf pack person as opposed to a blue devil, which I don't know why any Christian would go to Duke.

Or just God impressed it upon me. And I know I'm sounding tongue in cheek, but a lot of people agonize over that decision, Dr. Stuart Scott. They agonize over where to go to college. I've had many conversations over the years.

I'm like, okay, there's probably about 8,000 to 10,000 institutions of higher learning in America. Tell me one where God cannot operate. Any of those that are outside of his sovereignty or his providence. But people agonize over this stuff. Oh, absolutely. And the more subjective their means of making their decision, the more they'll second guess and agonize. The more objective on God's commands and principles, the more it builds trust because you're walking by faith, trusting God. And you're holding the whole mindset and outlook is I'm looking to God and his word and God's oversight versus my subjective feelings of kind of a pseudo spirituality.

And that's where those three come from. We'll talk about these. You can comment on these real quick and then we'll move into the God's commands and God's principles and how do we actually make good, godly decisions. But the check in my spirit, God laid it on my heart, God impressed it upon me. I'll sound really spiritual, but they might not be. Yeah, and I think it may have been on the last program I referred to Dr. Peter Gentry, a teacher up at Southern Seminary, who in a book with he and Dr. Wellum, he commented on any time we take God's name and we put it on something that God hasn't put his name on, it's a form of identity theft or taking God's name in vain.

So just rather than saying I had a thought last night, I had a desire last night, I just had an impression and I'm going to search it out or check it out. Fine, check it out with God's word and principles and commands. But when you put God's name on it, God laid this on my heart, God did this, then you're not in a good place because you're what he called taking God's name in vain.

It's stealing God's name and putting it and you have no sure way to know it is. When you leave God's word, you have no sure way to know it's God doing those things. And a case, an example, which really deals with impressions, check on your spirit and all of that, is I think the passage in 2 Samuel when David wanted to build a temple. And in the beginning of that chapter, he calls in Nathan. So now you have a godly, wise man, prophet. And he says to Nathan, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent. And then Nathan said to the king, go do all that's in your heart for the Lord's with you.

So you've got a desire, a good desire, to build a temple. You've got a godly man, Nathan, counseling you or advising you, but neither of them sought God on that one. And the next verse, the very next verse is, but the same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan and then had to correct Nathan. The whole rest of the chapter, the Davidic covenant is David's not the guy and now is not the time. So there's a good, even good desires, impressions, sometimes advice from godly people could be wrong. So it just all has to be checked out with what does God say and command some principles.

Yeah. And on that one, Nathan was off by a generation. Well, it wasn't going to be David. It was going to be Solomon, which is a whole other story. But that's such a great point.

And sometimes and again, I have to work harder, it seems, every year to keep my powder dry. Some people will say, will take that position, which is subjective. You say, well, God told me to and I'm like, well, prove it. God laid it on my heart. How do you know that wasn't you?

Or some blending of the two got it impressed upon me. And some people say it was so much vigor and confidence. They almost dare you to question them. And if you question them, you're somehow their spiritual inferior.

But a friend said to me years ago, Stuart, always be suspicious of yourself. Yeah. And so whenever we throw God's name in there, I think we talk about a check in the spirit.

You should probably have one at that point. Yeah. If a very popular book by Gary Friesen called Decision Making the Will of God, he says impressions could be produced by any number of sources.

It could be God, Satan, an angel, a demon, human emotions, hormonal imbalance, insomnia, medication or an upset stomach. You know, it's just no way to know. It just would be I don't know where this impression or this thought came from, but I'm going to check it out. I'm going to everything is tethered and mediated by scripture.

Yeah. And so that's one last thought on that just came to my mind. Be very wary of spiritual name dropping.

God told me to God impressed upon me. Be careful with that. OK, I'm going to leave that there. OK, let's move in the formal direction. We'll just set this up.

We've got about two minutes before we hit the break. And I really like this as we go. And by the way, several of you reached out last week. If you want a copy of this, basically a nine page with some of the references that Stuart is referencing last week and this week, just send me an email and I'll send you a copy. It's an excellent document. It's nine pages long with references at the end of it, by the way. Just send me an email.

Steve at the Steve Noble Show dot com and I'll send you a copy. Steve at the Steve Noble Show the Steve Noble Show dot com prerequisites for biblical decision making. I really like that word prerequisite. It's like, OK, I'm going to make a big decision here. I got a big one coming up. So there's some things I need to make sure I have in line. Here's the four that you mentioned.

So I just want to set this up and then we'll unpack this when we come back. Be rightly related to Christ. Pursue a life of worshiping and glorifying God. Recognize God's sovereignty over all and take responsibility for your choices.

It sounds like we really have to enter into a season of self-reflection and taking stock of where we're at in our own spiritual journey prior to making a big decision. Am I reading this right? Yeah, that's correct. So it's heart preparation, your own heart before God. And that should be our goal anyway, is to glorify God and to walk in a manner pleasing to Him. So that's that's what we focus on first.

Yeah. So when we come back from the break, we'll unpack some of those four and then we'll move from there into actual kind of the process. How do you actually work your way through it? And by the way, if you're praying for wisdom and discernment, there's some other scriptures that also talk about what might cause our prayers to bounce off the ceiling. Husbands might have something to do with the way you're treating your wife. If you're treating your wife poorly, if you're not loving and serving her well, don't expect your prayers to escape your house.

Things like that. Preparation. We'll talk to Stuart Scott when we come back.

Don't go anywhere. Welcome back to Steve Noble, The Steve Noble Show Theology Thursday with our friends at BJU Seminary, Dr. Stuart Scott back in the house today as we're talking about decision making and God's will for your life. By the way, tomorrow, I mentioned this yesterday, tomorrow, a unique pleasure.

We haven't been able to do this in a while. Our oldest son, Hayden, is the one that moved to San Francisco a couple of years ago. He got married to Macy, an incredible Christian woman back in March. So Hayden is going to be in the studio with me tomorrow. We're going to talk about life for a follower of Jesus Christ in San Francisco. It's not going to be what you expect. OK, so that's the only that's the only caveat I'm going to throw at you.

It probably is going to be what you expect. And and just to let you know, and I've said this on the air before, Hayden, our oldest, who will be twenty eight on August 1st, is probably the most intellectually rigorous Christian I know at this particular point in my life in terms of his study of the word and his study of church fathers and church history. He's he's just got an insatiable appetite for that. And so he's a very interesting person. And he's not like the hardcore culture warrior that his dad is, but a solid believer and living a fascinating life there in San Francisco. So we're going to do the show together tomorrow. So that should be really interesting. And he's really sharp and a deep thinker.

So if you have time tomorrow, check that out or grab the podcast later. But today, talking about decision making, I mean, that was a big one for him, Stuart, to quit his job in Florida. He had a good job in Florida, quit his job in Florida, come home for a little bit and then take off for San Francisco without a job because he had a just a deep heart for the city itself. And there is one particular church there called Reality San Francisco, which is an incredible church that the pastor's teaching had really ministered to him through some difficult, difficult season in his life. And he was just fascinated by the city. He's in the gaming business, gaming world, which is huge out there. And so he, at some point, he's like, listen, there's nothing standing in my way biblically from going there, except all of our conservative friends who thought you should just let San Francisco fall into the depths of the sea.

But they were wrong about that. And so it'll be fascinating. We'll talk to him tomorrow. But decision making is tough. But again, before you dive into it and make a decision, we'll talk about the nuts and bolts of actually making the decision. This is a list that's in your document here, Stuart, that I really appreciate.

If you guys want a copy of it, just email me Steve at thestevenobleshow.com and I'll send it to you. Prerequisites for biblical decision making. Be rightly related to Christ. Pursue a life of worshiping and glorifying God, recognizing God's sovereignty overall and take responsibility for your choices. So we really got to do a bit of an inventory before we even wade into the decision making.

Yeah, for sure. I mean, for an unbelief, for an unbeliever, someone who has not trusted in Christ, that would be the first step is to come to Christ. They're not even going to understand God or his ways apart from the gospel and being rightly related. So the natural man versus the spiritual man in 1 Corinthians 2. So be right with Christ. I mean, confess sin, trust in Christ alone for Savior, and then keep the goal right as a Christian, and that is to please Christ and glorify God each and every day. And you see that various references there that I listed. To be aggressive at that, not passive and coasting, but aggressively, zealously, intentionally pursuing to love Christ.

Right. Because that will stop you in your tracks when you're considering a decision and you go, okay, I think I'm pretty much only thinking about Steve here. Yeah, really thinking about glorifying God. And then this one, I think, should be comforting to a lot of us, recognize God's sovereignty over everything. Yeah, he declares the end from the beginning, everything in between.

Nothing happens apart from God, God's work and his ordained plan happening. So he'll redirect steps. He'll rework things. We can trust him. And he's in charge of that. And his providence is how he carries it all out. He'll move circumstances and people around.

He has no trouble with carrying out his plan. And that brings comfort to all of us who have made, you know, stupid decisions we've made, just we've sinful decisions. God is still faithful and will use us. We're all imperfect people. So we're wanting to grow in our love for him.

There's one little point here, and you just mentioned it. God's sovereignty works in sync with, never apart from, all his other attributes, goodness, wisdom, et cetera, and often makes me think of something I've had to teach myself. And I've shared that with others that, hey, listen, if you struggle with God's providence and his sovereignty, you need to study his character more.

Once you really have a hold on God's character, then his providence and his sovereignty shouldn't be much of an issue for you. Right. Which is why ultimately all of just about all of us will make the decision to leave the diving board and jump out into our parents hands. That's right. Because we're like, yeah, they're probably not going to let me drown.

That's right. So I'm going to jump. And then this one, which it might be, is it the other side of the coin, take responsibility for your choices? Yeah, to not choose is to choose, as they say, because people are passive.

They're waiting, they, quote, wait on the Lord. But that just that means trust God and move. So you can't be passive and you've got to be making decisions. And when you do, you know, there are consequences.

Yeah. And sometimes an unwise decision. Well, I reap the consequence of it. Take responsibility.

Don't blame people. So God doesn't obey for us. So we can't be passive and let go and let God kind of thing. We have to be intentional, studious with the scripture and then Lord, help me redirect my steps if it's not in keeping.

But best I know, everything I've studied, this seems to be the wisest decision that would bring you the most glory. And here I go. Yeah, the farmer doesn't sit on the porch and wait for God to move the boat. Yeah, the farmer doesn't sit on the porch and wait for God to move the plow. Yeah. Come on, Lord. I've been praying. I'm right with you. I mean, come on, get this done for me.

No, sooner or later, you have to make a choice. OK, so that's the prerequisites which are really helpful. And then methodology and process. This first one is a big deal. Submit, humbly pray for wisdom as you gather data.

So I think we all understand that. But when we talk about gathering data, what does that encompass? Yeah, depending on what the decision is, it might take you a while. You know, if it's a job change, getting married, you better spend some time checking out.

Jesus spent all night, one night intentionally up for prayer, and it was before he chose the 12 disciples. A very important decision. So the weightier the decision, the more time spent in gathering information. In a food aisle, I need a box of cereal, you know, if you don't have any allergies, which one, you know?

Yeah, what's your pleasure? Don't worry. Yeah, don't spend an hour or two there going over all the ingredients of every box. So that gathering information is important. You can't answer a matter before you hear it.

You shouldn't make decisions until you gather as much information as you can within reason. Yeah, because you can't always, you're not always, and this is probably normative, you're not going to be 100% there. Right, yeah. And at some point, okay. And I've done this with our children and with other people, myself included, and say, listen, just remember that God's already on the other side of your decision.

Yeah. So if you pick the wrong school or whatever, wrong career, God's already on the other side of that waiting for you. So even if you cross the wrong stream, He's on the other side of that stream too. Yeah, He's with you. He's with you, and He wants to grow you all the time. He wants to grow us right into the image of Christ to be more like Him. So even these kind of decisions and gathering information, you can always gather more, but I gathered as much as I could in the time I had, and this is the most in line with the commands and principles that I know in Scripture.

Ran it by a few people that I trust, got their input, because that's part of it. It's a wisdom principle. Yeah, yeah. And here I go. Yeah, and I seem to recall, I mean, asking for wisdom is pretty plain right there in James. I mean, we should be asking for that all the time, but particularly with decisions. And God said, if you ask for it, I'll give it to you. Spiritual wisdom. And then gathering data, which would include talking to other godly people.

And I usually would say, make sure you're talking to people who are usually older and wiser than yourself. Otherwise, it would be what my dad called the blind leading the blind. Right. Yeah. And even in wisdom, it wisdom is knowledge applied to a moral end. And so where's that knowledge coming from? Right. That you're praying for and should be from bring to my mind, bring to the other people's minds of godly people in my life, but from the Scriptures, bring all that wisdom in for this trial or decision.

Yeah, what a great point. When we come back, a command, study any direct commands in Scripture, and then the one that's a little squirrelly principles, study the applicable principles in Scripture, because you can't always find chapter and verses. This is Steve Noble with Dr. Stuart Scott on Theology Thursday. We'll be right back.

Back at Steve Noble, The Steve Noble Show. What is God's plan for your life? How do you make decisions?

That's what we've been talking about. This is a part two and with Dr. Stuart Scott from BDU Seminary and working our way through the kind of here's what you should do. We started with prerequisites. So before you even try to make a decision, you've got to make sure you're walking well with the Lord. Be rightly related to Christ. Of course, you've got to be born again. You have no access to the spiritual truth is spiritually discerned. So you've got to start there.

And hopefully everybody listening is already there. Pursue a life, worshipping and glorifying God, which kind of goes to motive. Recognize God's sovereignty over everything which interacts with all of his attributes, by the way, goodness and wisdom, which is why you can trust him, which is why you should never totally freak out about whether you're making a good or a bad decision, because God's sovereignty is on top of it all.

And his goodness runs it all. And so, like I said with Stuart a minute ago, God's already on the other side of your decision, and he'll never leave you nor forsake you. So take things seriously, but don't lose your mind over it, because that's a lack of faith. Take responsibility for your choices.

Sooner or later, you've got to step into the pool and get going, but take responsibility for that. That's ultimately on you to make a decision, but God's never going to leave you nor forsake you. Then we talked about the actual methodology and process, submitting, humbly pray for wisdom, continue to pray for wisdom, gather as much factual data as you can. And then also seek wisdom from other people and asking God, give me wisdom, give me wisdom from the Scriptures, give me wisdom from other believers.

Wisdom, wisdom, wisdom. And then the next part, which is pretty straightforward, Stuart, commands, study and direct commands in Scripture concerning this particular issue. Does the Bible screen yes or no, up or down about a particular decision, which should be relatively straightforward, assuming you actually know the Bible?

Yeah, correct. And any imperative, any command in Scripture for all of God's children is to be obeyed. So wherever there are commands, just about living character, treating people, loving people, those are all God's will. I mean, that's God's will for His children. So we don't want to neglect the commands in Scripture as we're seeking on a specific issue that we're trying to make a decision on. We don't want to neglect all of the clear commands, imperatives for God's children. Yeah, because I've said this before, the overwhelming majority, like 90 plus percent of God's will for your life, it's found inside God's Word. And so it's not to a certain extent, and this is where you can go to commands, it's not so much what job you have, unless your job is obviously immoral, it's unbiblical.

It's not so much what job you have, it's how you do your job. And it's the application of God's will for how we act as Christians and how we think to everyday life. But sometimes those commands are pretty obvious. Yeah, and what God wants for us, for all of His children, it's all set down in Scripture, what He's expecting us to do. And then we take all what is in Scripture and apply it to the various decisions that we're making through the day. But we don't need something else. We don't need a voice. We don't need more communication or more revelation.

We don't need it. And that's what we talk about sufficient, sufficiency of Scripture for His Word is His will for us. And then we apply it to whatever decision we're making.

Yeah. So oftentimes I would suggest to all of us, less feelings, more wisdom. Keep your feet on the ground because wisdom is something you can attain as opposed to over spiritualize everything. Then this last point, which I wanted to make sure we left plenty of time for, which I think is where it gets really squirrelly for a lot of us, is kind of principles. Study the applicable principles in Scripture concerning this issue when it's not necessarily, I can't point to chapter and verse that's going to get me across a line to make a decision, but we have to apply just biblical principles, which, again, requires us to, number one, like you said, Stuart, believe that the word is sufficient, but actually we have to be able to deploy it.

Yeah. And what I appreciated was Jerry Bridges, when he was talking about just the discipline of grace is that that was the book that I pulled these out of. Some of these are the categories of the decisions that you're going to make. How it's going to affect your walk with Christ, another category. How is it going to influence others?

Because we love our neighbor and some decisions may not affect others, but some really do, especially in families. And then the area of need. Is there a need? Not every decision, not every need is a decision for me to make that's out there. Every need is not a divine call on my life. I might get someone else to do something. So is there a need and is there an opportunity? Was another category. Paul wrote to the Philippians and he said, you didn't have opportunity to meet my need before, but then you did have opportunity now and you sent a gift.

So thank you. Is there an opportunity? There's opportunity in Galatians 5 or 6, I guess. We're in Galatians 6, 10. As we have opportunity, do good to all people, especially household of faith. So just categories are helpful to think through those questions. And then I gave a list of several, not complete, but several principles in scripture about stewardship. We're to be faithful stewards of what God's entrusted to us. So how much is this going to cost?

How much time is it going to require? Those are principles applying them and they're more of a compass. They give you general direction. They don't tell you turn right or turn left. It just says, generally go this direction. This would be more wise to go in that direction. It's principles. We have a lot of freedom, a lot of freedom in the principles. You put in the priorities and mentioned Mary and Martha, makes perfect sense. Rest and margin, which a lot of us mess up.

Exercise, eating, all that kind of stuff. I mean, I have a good friend that we met several years ago at a coffee shop and we're just hanging out, talking and catching up. And he lamented that. He's like, man, I need to do more of this. I just don't have any margins because he's got some big time clients and all kinds of stuff going on. He goes, I just don't have a lot of margin to do this.

And I pushed back on him. I said, yeah, I think you've got margin to do whatever you want to do. He said, I don't have time for that.

I literally don't have the time for that. Well, I think we make time for the things that we want to make time for. I certainly do. I'm guilty of that all the time.

And that's important. One of the things I wanted to ask about here, Stuart, was the notion of God orchestrating circumstances. I think we have to be careful with that. I don't think that's normative, that God makes something super duper obvious. But it does happen. There are times in scripture where it happened. You see that in the New Testament. You see it with Paul and missionary journeys. There are, you know, the Holy Spirit restrained me.

I had a dream about the man from Macedonia. But a lot of times you're like, why did he go here first as opposed to the other place? Just because that's what he decided to do. There wasn't anything super spiritual about it. But speak to that real briefly, because sometimes God does orchestrate circumstances, and it is obvious.

Yeah. And God is definitely, in His providence, orchestrating circumstances. But circumstances, and here's probably the catch, circumstances aren't to make your decision. They bring you up to maybe a fork in the road or a place where you need it. Now you need to make a biblically informed decision, but don't go with the flow. So circumstances shouldn't make your decision.

It should bring you up to a place. You go biblically, I'm going to make this decision in light of the circumstances. And even then, sometimes I'll share a quick personal story.

I had a pretty successful house painting company here in Raleigh for years, tried to sell it in 2006. I was getting involved in a bunch of other ministry stuff. I'm like, come on, Lord, release me. Let me do what I really want to do here.

But he didn't. But one of the guys that looked at the business in 2006 called me in 2011. He's like, hey, either I'm going to start my own or would you still be interested in selling yours?

And I'm like, well, and I'm such a type A person, I try to orchestrate way too much. And I'm like, well, I hadn't really thought about it, but sure, we'll get together. We met on a Monday. I met with a business advisor on a Wednesday.

We shook hands on a Friday. And 30 days later, he wrote me a check and I was out. Now I sold a house painting company. I didn't sell a software company. So we were like good from May 30th till the end of the year. I had some income from radio, but you cannot live on that.

Not even close. And so we prayed about it and we took great comfort in the fact that it wasn't something I orchestrated. I didn't try to pull this together. We both knew that if whatever we were going to experience for the next six or seven months, once we started getting really tight with finances, if God didn't bring something around that we're like, OK, here it is, then Gina knew, my wife knew if I have to, I'll do what I need to do. But it was so out of the ordinary that we were like, yeah, I think this might be the Lord and other people like, yeah, I mean, we've seen this trajectory for a while.

I think you go through with it. And we're like, OK, Lord, it sure looks like you orchestrated this. And we did it. And here we are. But that's not normative. Don't expect that every time, I guess is my point. Right. Yeah. But God does things like that.

And it's wonderful. It's just kind of you step back and you're amazed at what He can do if He chooses to do it that way. But you still have to think through the biblical principles and not just let, well, there's a circumstance, as they would say, an open door and just run through it. Yeah, because I also have to remember the scriptures also tell me a man that doesn't provide for his family is worse than an unbeliever. Yeah.

So you don't have a flight of fancy there. You better have a plan guided by wisdom. And so, I mean, we can continue to obviously unpack this, but it's been a great two classes.

I'm going to call him that, Stuart. So thank you so much for being with us over these two weeks. And this is an excellent document. By the way, if you want to go through this yourself and I would suggest that you do just email me Steve at the SteveNobleShow.com, Steve at the SteveNobleShow.com. Put more time into this yourself.

The way of wisdom is there. Stuart, thank you so much. As always, enjoy your family reunion. Have a great summer. I'll pray with you in just a second. But thanks for being here. This is Steve Noble on The Steve Noble Show, God willing. I'll talk to you again real soon. And like my dad always used to say, Ever Forward.