Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Walking In The Will of God Pt.3

Okay, the external revelations, and we said that those could manifest at a couple of different ways. Remember we were talking about terminology, and we were wanting to use that terminology of external revelations rather than one that becomes familiar or has become familiar to us, called a "fleece." We’ve heard that referred to many times, "I’m going to put a fleece out before the Lord." We realize that God, through external means, can minister to us, and it doesn’t have to be us initiating a fleece. It could be God speaking and initiating different signs that are external to show us or to give us encouragement, confirmation of the word that He’s already spoken to us, okay? So these are the three of the main categories that we are dealing with, and as we are looking at the subject of the will of God and walking in that perfect will of God, I’d say it’s probably a very important subject; amen?

Every one of us has prayed. How many of you have never prayed: "Oh, Father, I want to know your will"? Every one of us that are believers have prayed that, haven’t we? "Father, is it your will for me to take this job?" How many of you have ever prayed that prayer? How many of you ever prayed, "Lord, is it your will for me to marry this women" and you found you missed God? No, no no… [joking] We realize that—we’ve prayed that "Lord, is this the person that You want me to marry, is this the job that You want me to have?" So we look at wanting to know and understand God’s direction for our lives, and He will speak to us concerning those things. He is interested and will reveal these things to us as we are walking in obedience to Him. But most importantly, God is concerned with our character, isn’t He? You know, there is a phrase that we use many times; and I’ll share it with you again that if we can get how God wants us, He can get us where He wants us, and that’s important. If He can get us sanctified to the place where we can have spiritual ears and hear what the Spirit is saying, there won’t be any problem in Him getting us to the right job, and He’ll get us there on time. There won’t be any problem with God leading us into the right relationships, because we’ve already determined that when God speaks we are going to be obedient. So it’s very easy for God to reveal, then, to us these externals as we’re building character, because the Bible says—and we’re going to get into this Wednesday in detail—but the Bible says, "The steps of the good man are [what?] ordered by the Lord…" (Psalms 37:23).

We realize then as we begin to build character and we begin to establish righteousness in our lives, our steps begin to be ordered of God. We don’t have to ask Him, "Father what do you want me to do?" He’s speaking this thing and clearly leading and ordering our steps, externals, inward voices, audible voices, revelation from the Word of God; whatever is necessary. When our hearts are right, God will communicate with us and lead us in the path of righteousness. So He is concerned about this. We are going to look as we continue on in our study at some of the spectacular visitations of God—audible voices, angelic visitations, how about handwriting on the wall? That’s pretty slick, isn’t it? If God needs to, He’ll reach in and write on the wall. And then the kids will get a spanking if He does it in crayon, right? What is this "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin" [A reference to Daniel 5:25]? What is this? It’s not English. It must be the kids over here scribbling on the wall. We realize that God can speak and reveal Himself to us in many ways.

Now, as we were looking this morning, we saw we were dealing again with the primary method that God has chosen, the Word of God. We saw that everything that God does in revelation: angelic visitations, audible voices, inward witnesses, whatever it is—it always has to be in line with His already revealed will; amen? God had no new revelation that He’s going to give us. This is it. [Holds up Bible]. This is the revelation that man needs. Everything that pertains to life and godliness has already been revealed to us in Jesus abiding in us through the Word of God. He has given His will to us, praise God! So we need to study to show ourselves approved in it. Now, as we saw in Peter this morning, God, regardless of the externals, has given us the "yardstick," the more sure word of prophecy. So everything has to be held up against this.

Then we saw over in the Kings passage—and we aren’t going to go back and spend a lot of time—the prophet of God who heard the word of the Lord clearly, he was following the Word of God, he prophesied against Jeroboam, he prophesized against the altar, the altar broke in pieces, and Jeroboam tried to buy him off, saying, "Come and fellowship with me," and he said, "No way, it was charged me"—the thirteenth chapter, ninth verse—"…it was charged me by the word of the Lord, saying, eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest" (book of 1 Kings). Now, get the phrase and check this thing out, the magnitude of what’s being said in this ninth verse of the thirteenth chapter: "it was charged me by the word of the Lord."

As we finish a little bit of our review, we saw this morning that many of us won’t be caught up in the worldly cares. We won’t go and prostitute ourselves with the world’s system, the king, as is the case right here. We know clearly to stay away from those things and won’t compromise the word of the Lord with worldly principles. Yet, as we went on in the story, we saw, then—as the man of God was walking in clear obedience—then one of the graduates of the school of the prophets shows up and has this new revelation. He comes rolling in, and he says, "I’m a prophet also, and an angel appeared unto me, and God said through this angel that you’re to come to my house and eat" (1 Kings 13:18). Now, the man of God had already spoken to him and given him the same answer that he’d given the king. We saw that, even though many of us would not prostitute ourselves with the world’s system, we’re so susceptible to spooky revelations, and the deception that comes through someone who is a "prophet of God" that’s speaking a new revelation, that’s had spectacular results and yet is speaking contrary to what we know to be the Word of God. People are so easily deceived by these things because we lose sight of the fact that it doesn’t have to be spooky-spectacular. We have to come to the more sure Word that we can always measure this up against.

Remember, as we ended this morning, we said the reason the man of God was deceived [was]: God said, "Do not go back the way you came, do not stop in this land, and don’t partake of anything that this land is offering you." He would have been safe if he had finished his journey. Okay, now, that’s where we left off this morning; and as we pick up on that thought, I want you to turn to the book of Genesis. I want to marry this revelation of this prophet of God into the spiritual direction that Abraham’s servant was walking in as he went to get a wife for Isaac. Abraham is speaking to his servant, and he tells him, he said, "Look," he said, "I’m getting old, and it’s time to for Isaac to get on with things; there’s a word that has to be fulfilled." In Genesis 23, there’s an interesting statement that’s made. If you’ll notice, this is just following—in revelation, just following Abraham having offered Isaac up. We don’t want to get into that story. We realize that as God, then, makes this last comment in this twenty-second chapter of Genesis, around verse 17, it says: "…in blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thy seed…" and then he makes a statement [in] the last phrase of verse 17. He said, "…and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed [verse 18—Isaac] shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice." There’s that word obedience again. Now, I don’t want to get—if I go back, I’ll bog down—I don’t want to go back to Abraham’s offering up of Isaac, the obedience factor. But obedience is always the cornerstone of finding the will of God—an obedient heart, a heart that is willing to go contrary to circumstances.

And we know how that story fits in. Now, I’m saying all that to say this about the statement made to Abraham that "in his seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." Now, if that’s the case, this must mean, as we go on into this story, that Isaac is going to have to, somewhere along the line, get him a woman. Okay? Because this thing has got to progressively go on. There’s going to be seed and the perpetuation of this people. How many of you think that’s probably a pretty simple revelation? How many of you know that we don’t need a lot of discernment on that? Okay. So therefore, it’s not a hard thing when we sit here and hear Abraham’s desire over in Chapter 24 and says, "Look, it’s time, I want you to go out and find a woman for my son." It has to happen. It’s the will of the Lord. Isaac is going to get him a woman. Now, nothing is going to stop that, because God has promised it. That has to fit in line with all of these things that have been happening. I want you to see the simplicity of this. Can you catch ahold of this thing?

How many of you think that there’s been some bizarre, miraculous, spectacular things that have led us up to this point in the call of Abraham, in the establishing of the people, in the establishing in the lineage of Messiah? Do you see that’s what we’re doing right here? Do you realize that for Messiah to come, Isaac needs a wife? Do you think he’s going to get him a woman? I’m saying all that to say this: We sometimes—because we get so caught up in the details, we lose sight of the big picture, that God’s will is going to be done. We have to come to understand that God’s will is being done; there’s a number of ways that God can arrive at getting His will accomplished; amen? We’ve seen that.

So we realize that the will of the Lord is going to be done. I want to paint that big picture for you, first of all, so you don’t panic. God’s will is going to be done! The key is being able to walk in discernment and understand in certain areas of specifics that, as the will of the Lord unfolds, He’s going to put limitations and guidelines upon the steps of the good man as they’re ordered of the Lord. So He makes this statement in Chapter 24, and he [Abraham] says, verse 2, to his eldest servant—he put him in charge of everything. He says, "Put, I pray thee, your hand under my thigh,"—it’s a way of making covenant, commitment that he was going to have, and he said, "I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven, the God of the earth, that thou shall not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell." Do we now have some revelation coming into the situation? You will not take a wife for Isaac of the Canaanites, thus saith the Lord. Okay, we all got ahold of that? Now, as that statement is made, he comes, and he makes another statement and says, "But thou shall go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac." What did he tell him to do? Go into my country, bring out a woman. And the servant said unto him, "Peradventure the woman will not be willing to follow me unto this land: must I needs bring thy son again unto the land from [which] thou camest?" He’s already beginning to look at the logic of this thing. "What if it doesn’t work out the way that you’re thinking, Abraham? Should I then take Isaac back into Mesopotamia? Is this what you want?"

Watch what he says. "And Abraham said unto him, Beware that thou bring not my son [again into that place]." Now, check this out. "The Lord God of heaven, which took me from my Father’s house, and from the land of my kindred, and which spoke unto me, and swore unto me, saying, Unto thy seed will I give this land; he shall send his angel before thee, and thou shall take a wife unto my son from [there. Now,] and if the woman will not be willing to follow thee, then you shall be clear from this my oath: [but don’t take my son back there again]."

Now, on whom does this put the responsibility, then, to pull this thing off?—the servant? God, you see? And so many times we get ourselves under the pressure of having to "do" the will of God and "perform" the will of God. "If we don’t, this thing is not going to come to pass." Listen, all God wants you to do is follow His directives, and if it doesn’t work, then the responsibility is God’s, it’s not yours; you’re no longer guilty under this situation. Amen? That ought to take some pressure off of you. That ought to take pressure off of you in "trying to get healed." How many of you have tried to get healed? How many of you didn’t do real good at it? You can’t do that! But if we walk according to His statutes, and we confess His word, and we stand in the light of the revelation that He’s given us, and we speak His commandments, praise God—and all we do is walk in obedience, we’re not responsible for anything other than that! It makes it easy; it makes life easy when you’re walking in obedience to the commandments of God.

So the will of God, then, is manifested in our obedience, not necessarily in the manifestation of our healing. Now, I don’t want to get off the subject here, but I want to tell you, regardless of what you experience, it will not change God’s revelation on redemption that says, "By the stripes of Jesus we are healed," amen? Whether you or anybody else ever experiences that, it’s an established fact. I believe that the Word of God has revealed it to us, and we walk in the light of it. So you’re not responsible to make it true. I’m not responsible to make it true. It’s truth; we’re responsible to believe it!

Now, when the Spirit of God begins to reveal some of these things—look at a couple of things that are interesting—let me see if I can establish a couple of practical things for us here. First of all, the statement: "…thou shall not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites…" (Genesis 24:3). Can I take this over and put it into something that we can grab ahold of for today? "Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers…" (2 Corinthians 6:14), thus saith the Lord! So for any of you that are believers here and you’re single, I want to tell you something. You are not to have any relationships built in dating or in commitment or in covenant with unbelievers. There is no such thing as evangelism dating! "I’m going to win them to the Lord." You are not! You are compromising the Word of God, you’re already living in sin by compromising the Word of God, and you’re going to be defeated, because God’s not going to fight for you.

So we begin to see, then, that as we start, "Yeah, but I’ve prayed about it, and I believe that this is the person that God has for me, and I believe that I’m going to win them to the Lord." You’ve got revelation, all right, but it’s coming from your glands, it’s not coming from the Word of God. Because the word came and said you can’t marry the Canaanite, that’s all there is to it! There’s no sense in praying about it. There is no sense in getting "revelations." We are not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers, thus saith the Lord, period! So, as some of you that are older singles and some of you that are having your children that are growing up, there is no exception to this rule—thus saith the Lord. It is the will of God; don’t waste your time praying about it!

Isn’t it easy to get revelations, walk in the will of God? See, this is simple. He said "Don’t!" He makes another interesting statement. He said, "If I go in there and this woman won’t come out, do you want me to take him back?" God took Abraham out of there, and He told him, "Don’t you go back." He said, "I’m taking you into a new land. I have brought you out that I might bring you into a new land." He didn’t say I’m going to take you back. There was nothing back there worth returning for.

Now, let me take you into this. As I said, I’m going to try to put some practical things. Let me take this to you in a way of your new birth. You see, many of us in our new birth, we came out, and we’re not even talking about a returning back to the world’s system. But we’re talking about returning back or digressing into certain ways that we walked even as believers, rather than in the new revelation and walking into the land of promise that God’s taking us to, praise God! He says, "Don’t go back and think that you’re going to marry or have a relationship back here." Don’t allow that spouse to bring you back. You expect God to bring them out to where you are, praise God! Amen. I’m talking about believers. I’m not talking about unbelievers. I’m talking about believers! We don’t go back to where they are. The Spirit of God is going to bring them out and bring them to us, praise God. "…come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you" (2 Corinthians 6:17); amen?

So the Spirit of God is speaking to us here, and He says don’t ever return back to that carnal lifestyle, now that you’ve been set free and you know the walk of holiness. You’re getting ready to partake of the promise. Don’t ever turn back. Don’t allow anything to take you back. So, therefore, even Christians in relationships that are trying to take you back, don’t go back. There’s no place back there. There’s nothing for us to marry back there. God’s going to bring us into a new land that is flowing with milk and honey, praise God! He’s going to let us live in houses we didn’t build and drink from wells we didn’t dig, praise God, if we’ll be obedient! The Bible says, be willing and obedient, and you’ll eat the good of the land; amen?

So I want to do that. I want to walk in the full revelation of what God has for me. He said, "Don’t you take my son backwards; and if the woman won’t come out, then let her stay. My son knows the revelation that’s been given to him." Now, the servant, then, put his hand under Abraham’s thigh and swears concerning this matter.

Now, check this thing out, this is interesting! We’re going to spend a little bit of time in this story. I want you to catch some of the details, because they are interesting, and they give us revelations that are practical for where we are today. So the servant gets this message and he heads out to Mesopotamia. It says in verse 11, "And he made his camels to kneel down without the city by a well of water at the time of the evening, even the time that women go out to draw water." Now, what he’s doing here, you’ve got to understand. This isn’t necessarily anything that’s great revelation. How many of you think that this would probably be a good place to look for women? So he’s looking for a woman, that’s all there is. At the time of evening the women would come out, and most of the time, it would be the young women that would come out; this was part of their chores. They would come out to the well and would draw water for the household and whatever. So the guy realizes this, he knows the culture, and this is where they are hanging out.

So he goes down there and has the camels, they all camp out, he’s sitting there and begins to check out the women. But he has a problem. He says, "How am I going to know which one this is? There’s going to be all kinds of women coming out here. I need some guidance. I need something from the Lord." He said, "Lord…" Now, I want you to understand something; check it out, first of all. He’s going to the right source. You see this? He didn’t go to Christian dating association, if there is such a thing, I don’t know. But he didn’t go to that. He’s not looking for computer dating. He went to a place, "and he said, O Lord God of my master Abraham…" See, he knew how Abraham got things done, so he figured it’s going to work for him. He said, "…send me good speed this day, and show kindness unto my master Abraham" (Genesis 24:12)

Now, look at his motive here. His motive, you’ll notice he’s praying here, again, for someone else. He’s praying for the good of someone else. He’s believing God for ministry to take place here. He’s got a job that he has to do, but he’s seeking Father on behalf of Abraham, on behalf of the covenant that was cut. He says, "Father, show kindness unto my master, Abraham. He’s getting old, this is something that is on his heart, it’s the fulfillment of the promise that’s come to him." He said, "Behold, in case you don’t know where I’m at, Lord, here I am, see me down here by this well of water?" Have you ever prayed a prayer like that? Have you ever thought that God lost you somewhere in the shuffle? He said, "Yo, Lord, it’s me down here, whoo, the guy by the well! I’ve got a need!"

We need to pray specifically. Many times, we don’t know what God’s doing in our lives, because we don’t pray specifically enough; and many of the times we don’t pray specifically enough is because we are afraid that if we pray too specifically, we won’t get a specific answer. We usually like to say that it’s God, whether it’s God or not. "Oh, look how the Lord blessed me." Everything is "The Lord blessed me. The Lord blessed me." A lot of times, it’s not God blessing you. A lot of times, it’s natural circumstances that come our way, and it may be good. A lot of times, what we’re calling "the blessings of the Lord" are temptations. It’s bait of the enemy. We need to begin to pray specifically; that’s another teaching. We won’t get off on that, right now. But he’s going to pray specifically here. He says, "Here I am, check me out down here by the well." He says, "Look down here, the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. Let it come to pass, now, that the damsel to whom I shall say, ‘Let down your pitcher, I pray thee, that I may have a drink’… and she should say, ‘Well, that’s fine, and let me get some for your camels, also.’ Let this one be she that You have appointed for thy servant Isaac" (Verses 13-14).

So, now, he’s looking for some confirmation. We can read a lot of things into this. I don’t know why he didn’t say, "Let the woman that walks in front of me and trips and pours water all over me be the one." Well, why didn’t he say that? Because he doesn’t want a klutz for Isaac! [Chuckles] I mean, wouldn’t that have been just as good a sign? How many of you would think that would have been just as good a sign? Well, sure, it could have been. Let her trip and spill the water. Let the one that says "Who do you think you are, Jack? I’m not interested"—he didn’t want some old sassy thing for Isaac. So he’s looking for a woman, here—that’s one—that’s willing to serve, one that’s a woman of kindness and grace. How many of you know that not all the women at the well would have acted that way? Huh. "For you and your camels? Forget this, Jack. I’ve got to lug this thing all the way home. I’ve got these brothers and a father at home that I’m having to wait on all the time. I’m just holding out for women’s lib. I’m tired of serving all the time!" [Laughter] There were some of them hanging down at the well. He wasn’t looking for that for Isaac.

So as you see what’s going on here, we need to see, then, that when we’re looking for guidance from the Lord, it’s not something that’s random, pulled out of the sky. There are reasons for some of these things that are taking place. We’ll see this gracious woman and how this takes place in Rebekah as we go on. But he is looking for some confirmation. The confirmation, however, isn’t going to be the thing that solidifies in the mind of this servant that the will of the Lord has been done, and you’ll see that as we go on. He prays, he asks for confirmation, he sets the standard out here, and then we begin to go through the scenario, and verse 15 says, "It came to pass, before he had been done speaking…" How many of you would like to have your prayers answered like that? They are not even done, and all of a sudden you just finished and say, "Amen!" and poom!—the thing comes to pass. He’s not even through speaking, and it says, "…Rebekah [then] came out [into his presence], who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother,…" and she comes out with this pitcher upon her shoulder, and she’s a "fox." That’s paraphrased, that’s verse 16, see it? It says, "And the damsel was very fair to look upon..."

Oh, and unless we bypass it, there is another requirement: a virgin. I would suggest, fathers, that this be a requirement for your children. Yes, boys and girls. So she comes out and she’s a [very attractive woman]. "No man had known her, she went down to the well, filled her pitcher and came up. The servant ran to meet her." Hmm… there’s a lot of women down there. He has an external revelation and he’s looking for confirmation, and yet, there’s something about this woman that he ran down there to check her out.

Do you know what I like about this, if we are going to draw some truths out of this? Once you get things in the works and God’s moving, go for it. Amen? I mean, things are moving. This guy is saying, "Praise God, this thing’s rolling. I didn’t even finish speaking, and here she comes; I’m going down there to see if this is God, man." So he runs down there to check this thing out.

Acting on the direction of God, don’t wait, don’t hang around. If it appears that God is moving this way, then let’s move in that way. He’ll stop you. We’ll study that as we go on later with Paul, right? Paul’s heading down to Asia going wide open, preaching the word, revival is taking place, praise God! All of a sudden, he’s just rolling; and all of a sudden, boom, the Holy Ghost forbids him. Do you all know that God can put the brakes on? So don’t be afraid. "Wildfire! Wildfire! It’s out of hand!" God’s got a fire extinguisher, if things get out of hand. I don’t think we have to worry about that in our day and age. We’re not dealing with people that are out of control and fanatical for God. We are living in the day of the "frozen chosen," it seems, and we need to see some people get on fire for God!

Anyway, the servant runs down to meet her, the Scripture says, and puts out his little spiel to her. "Please let me have some water." She responds, "Drink, my lord." She hasted and let down her pitcher upon her hand and gave him drink. When he was finished, she said, ‘Let me draw some for your camels, also’" (Verses 17-19). Not a sip, until they finished drinking. How many of you know these camels can put down some water? You know, "fill her up," "one hump or two" [Laughter]. (Two humps is a Bactrian camel, and a one-hump camel is a dromedary]). So we have these camels down there, and she’s filling these things up, and they are—slurp, slurp—slurping this stuff up until they were finished; and they all go glub, glub until they are done. No telling how many of the pitchers she hauled up there to water all of these camels. You see, this little girl is working, just serving, going along. Doesn’t seem to be any complaining taking place here. This guy is watching this thing and says, "Whoo, look at this. She’s good looking, too. I wonder if she can cook?" I’m sure that entered his mind. [Laughter]

"And she hasted, and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again unto the well to draw water, and drew for all his camels. And the man wondering… [he said, ‘Yeah, I’ll marry her’—] held his peace…" (verses 20-21). Now, check this out. Here’s the point that I want you to get real clear, right now. The confirmation that he was looking for is coming to pass, isn’t it? But look at what his statement is here. I want you to get ahold of this. It’s very important for us to get ahold of this twenty-first verse. "And the man wondering at her held his peace, to wit whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not." Now most of us, right here, would have had this thing signed, sealed and ready to deliver, right? You see, it’s not done yet. The fact of the confirmation wasn’t sufficient. The man realizes this; you’ll see it as we go on in this study.

But it does lead us, now, into the next step, doesn’t it? So he makes another interesting statement, and it says, "…It came to pass, as the camels had done drinking, that the man took a golden earring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold; and said, Whose daughter art thou? Tell me, I pray thee: is there room in thy father's house for us to lodge in?" (Verses 22-23) Oh, there’s another step that’s going to come here. You’ll notice that he didn’t just grab her up, throw her on a camel and head back for Isaac. You see, even though this was the will of God that was unfolding, there was some authority. You’ll notice that he doesn’t break designated order, does he? God is not going to bypass the authority in this household. God is going to begin to work; and you’re going to find that, in this working, not only is He going to deal with the heart of Rebekah, but He’s going to have to deal with the family situation a little bit. He’s going to begin to deal with hearts as the will of God is unfolding.

Many of us—you see, we get so excited about these things that we forget that God sometimes has to deal with people and get them in line. How many of you know that it’s people, many times, that are slowing down the process that you’re believing God for? They’re the weights, He’s dragging them along. It might be an employer, it might be a spouse, it might be something. But somewhere along the line, you’re praying, "Oh, God, I want your will, Lord, bring it to pass in my life, Lord. I know this is your will, praise God! Everything seems to be going this way. But why is it happening now?" Because God is still dealing with other lives, other than yours. Do you believe He can get them in line? Don’t you wish they were as rapid to obey as you are? Or are you thankful that they are more rapid than you are? But God is dealing with other people. Now, check this out; you see what’s happening here. You’re going to see a couple of things that are going to take place that are interesting. We will analyze this, like I said, in detail as we go along. He didn’t just throw her on the camel and head back—I mean, "Well, praise God, this is the will of God, that’s what I asked for. I asked God, she did it"—phew!—"we’re going back to Isaac." No, he asked, "…Is there room to lodge at your father’s house? And she said unto him, I am the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, which she bare unto Nahor. She said moreover unto him, We have both straw and provender enough, and room to lodge in. [‘We are blessed, praise God! Yeah, come on, let’s go back and share what’s going on here with the family.’—] And the man bowed down his head, [and I want you to see something:] and worshipped the Lord" (Verses 23-26).

You see, we can’t wait until it all comes to pass the way we had dreamed and planned it out before we begin to give thanks to God. This thing isn’t finished yet, and yet he sees the hand of God moving, and he begins to put in the ingredient of praise and worship, because he knows his steps are being ordered of the Lord, praise God. Things are being clarified for him. He’s beginning to praise God. "God’s leading it. This is the will of the Lord, I can see it coming to pass. It’s not finished yet, but I know God’s moving." He’s praising the Lord and having a good time.

It says, then, in verse 27, "And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who hath not left destitute my master of his mercy and his truth: I being in the way, [grab this phrase ‘I being in the way,’ what?] the Lord led me to the house of my master's brethren." Pretty good guidance going on here; amen? Now, he just gets into the land, and God leads the man down to the place, specifically into the household that He wants him to go. You remember that Abraham made a statement back there, and he said, "You just go, my angel will go before you and prepare the way." Isn’t that slick? Do you realize that the angels of God are out right now, ministering on our behalf? The Bible, says they are ministering spirits—ministering to those of us that are heirs of righteousness; amen? [Hebrew 1:14]

So they are out there ministering for us—praise God!—ministering to them. They are out there wheeling and dealing on your behalf right now. That’s good news if you’ll trust and believe God. Putting things in proper order, so the will of the Lord will be done. He’s worshipping, and he says, "Praise God, I being in the way, I’m just walking in the way. I walked not knowing where I was going; generally I knew that I was heading to Mesopotamia, but here I am. I believe, now, that the Lord has led me, praise God!" Now, the damsel then runs back to the house and tells her mother—tells them of her mother’s house all of these things that have taken place (verse 28).

Rebekah had a brother named Laban. Laban ran out unto the man hanging out at the well, and it came to pass when he saw the earrings and the bracelets and heard what Rebekah had said, he said, "I’m going to go and check this guy out." I can see him right now looking at those bracelets, saying, "Whoo, this is fine stuff! We are getting ready to marry her off into some money, man. This has got to be God!" Huh? Now, we look at the other side of the story. Isn’t it interesting how God’s giving us both sides here? How many of us—you know, "We’ve got our sights set, praise God—and we know who it is that the Lord’s going to bring into our household." How many of you when—your wife brought you home and introduced you to her parents and they went, "Oh, God! I spent all that time and money raising them for this? Oh, God!" No, I know they wouldn’t do that—but you know… [Chuckles]

We have standards, things that we would like to see. I don’t know how many of us measured up. I would say probably, truthfully, none, because nobody is ever good enough for your little blessing. But Laban was interested. So he runs to check this thing out. I mean, after all, if she’s going to go, she might as well marry money. I mean, it says that. It says he saw the earring, the bracelets; he said, "Where is this guy who said he had how many camels?" There are servants with him, "Let’s go check this guy out." Laban would probably have let her marry the servant! No, we’ll give them a little break. You’ll see some things change here later, but—I want to show you—this spirit that I’m talking about of Laban, here, is evident, and you’ll see it as you read the narrative, as it goes on here.

"This must be God." We’re talking about the will of the Lord, aren’t we? We’re talking about hearing from God. "This must be God, I mean, after all"—the first thing he looked at—now, we are going to see it reversed, as it goes on. He is going to, then, begin to get a spiritual perspective. Laban is, later, but his first response was material. Abraham’s first response was spiritual.

Let’s check Rebekah out. You know in a day when, culturally, supposedly, the women have no say. Do you understand, as this message goes on, this woman is going to have a little bit of say in this thing, contrary to culture? Because, you see, God doesn’t force His will on anybody, regardless of culture. Now, watch; here’s what is taking place. So Laban runs out, and—we’ll try to work through this part of it swiftly here—he runs out and greets him. It says in verse 31: "Come in, thou blessed of the Lord, what are you doing staying out here? I’ve prepared the house for you; there’s room for your camels. We’ve got a ten-camel garage." So it says, "The man came into the house and ungirded his camels and gave straw and provender for the camels, water to wash their feet [the people, not the camels], and the servants that were with him, meat was set before them, and he said, ‘Now, tell us what’s up.’"

He says in verse 34, "I’m Abraham’s servant. And the Lord has blessed my master greatly [and I know Laban is going, ‘Whew, that’s what I wanted to hear; this is good news, Hallelujah!’]. He has become great, given him flocks, herds, silver, gold, menservants, maidservants, camels. And Sarah, my master’s wife, bare a son unto my master when she was old, and unto him hath he given all that he has. [‘Oh, it’s getting good!’] My master made me swear, saying, ‘Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of the Canaanites. But you’ll go to my father’s house and take a wife unto my son.’ And I said, ‘What if the woman won’t follow me?’" He said— Now, check this out: Abraham’s faith. I want you to see in the will of God being revealed, the purpose of God; it works upon in direct correlation to our faith and what we are trusting God for.

Now, watch: verse 40, "And he said unto me, the Lord, before whom I walk, will send His angel with thee, and prosper thy way; and thou shalt take a wife for my son of my kindred, and of my father’s house." Hmm!—specific, here, isn’t it; a little more than we knew when we first started into this thing. [Compare verse 7]

Do you realize that some of the things that are taking place in our lives, that are directing our paths, are in direct response to people’s specific prayers and believing God? Oh, not against your will. But the fact that we’re good men and our steps are ordered of the Lord and we are willing to be obedient, God will take certain vessels and lives and direct them in response to specific requests and faith, and what God is moving—is working through the lives of individuals who’re believing Him. This is exciting to see right here. This prayer is being answered specifically; we, then, can’t determine it. Where did this come from? Did this come from Abraham, or did it come from God? So in our prayer, we can’t begin to pray and just begin to throw things out at random. We need to, first of all, spend time, like Abraham did, hear from God the direction of the Lord, then begin to decree these things and then watch the angels of God and the servants of God go out and bring these to pass.

Now, let’s finish up, we are just about done for tonight. I can’t believe time has already gotten away.

It says to us, as Abraham had spoken these things, he says, "Then shalt thou be cleared from this my oath" (Verse 41), et cetera, and he comes down and says, "So I came to the well, gave him the story that was taking place, before I’d even been done speaking in my heart, Rebekah came forth, she fulfilled the circumstances that I was believing for" (Verses 42-46). Verse 48 says, "And I bowed down my head, and worshiped the Lord, and blessed the Lord God of my master Abraham, which had led me in the right [path] to take my master's brother's daughter unto his son."

Then verse 49, look at this. We’ve got two more things, and we’ll just unhook for tonight. We’re not through. "And now…" verse 49, look at it; the third word is a big word, see it? "And now [what?] if you will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me: and if not, tell me; that I may turn to the right hand, or to the left." This is an opportunity for you to obey God, that this thing doesn’t hinge on you, maybe. If you don’t want to do it, God’s got somebody else who will. Tell me. If you’re not willing, I’ll go to the right hand or the left. I don’t have any way determined. God led me here, He’ll lead me to the left, He’ll lead me to the right. It doesn’t make any difference. But this is the opportunity for you to be used of God. Are you interested?

Do you see, then, in determining the will of God and walking by faith—do you see, right here, that if we’re going to deal with just the externals, He would have gotten locked in, and says, "This is the only way it can happen. This is the will of God. She must be the woman," and God’s not saying that right here. How many times have you locked God in—in something like this—and failed to realize that His will and His purposes, many times, are far bigger than the temporal circumstances that we’re caught up with? And then even though something you’ve believed God for and you’re sure you heard from God, and the circumstances proved it, and all of the things were confirmed and said, "This was the will of God," and then, for some reason, it didn’t come to pass. "I must have missed God." No! Somebody else missed God! You just allow Him to keep leading your paths, praise God. It will come to pass. Amen?

If you’ve done everything God told you to do, and it didn’t work out, you didn’t miss God! Yet, how many of you have been beaten by the devil over these things? "You missed God, you missed God." "Well, if it was God, it would have happened that way." No, there were other people involved in this thing. And [the servant] said, "Do you want this thing to happen? If not, tell me; and I’ll head on out of here. God will lead me, that I may turn to the right hand or to the left. And Laban and Bethuel answered and said, "The thing proceedeth from the Lord: we can’t speak any bad about this thing." Or, "Hmm. We don’t have anything to add to this. What do you want us to say?"

You see, they’re finally realizing here [that] they’d better not toy with this. How many of you think, in the natural, Laban and they would have said, "This is a good opportunity for Rebekah, after all. Look at this. The guy is back there, he’s blessed of God. This is great." They caught this revelation that they were dealing with something bigger than their natural understanding and natural desires. They said, "This thing [is of God], we [aren’t going to] speak unto thee bad or good." "Behold, Rebekah is before thee, take her, and go, let her be thy master’s son’s wife, as the Lord has spoken." As they heard this, the authority had subordinated to the will of God, they worshipped the Lord. "And the servant brought forth jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment, and gave them to Rebekah: he gave also to her brother and to her mother precious things." They partied. Then it says: "…they rose in the morning, and he said, Send me away unto my master."

Now, we are going to end here down in verse 60 or so. We’re going to unhook for tonight. I want you to see something here. "And the brother then said, let her just hang out here for a few more days, at least 10, and then she’ll go. We want the will of the Lord, but not right now. Oh, yeah, we’re willing to give it all up, but not right now. Let us hold onto it just a little bit longer."

Now, check it out. He said, "Man, don’t hold back. God has prospered my way, He has ordered this thing very precisely with great rapidity; I want you to see that this is the hand of the Lord." They said, "Okay, well, let’s call her in and inquire at her mouth." Rebekah came in and they said: "Will you go?" She said, "Yeah, I’m ready. Bring me a camel."

This was happening, see? They loaded her up. She was ready to do the will of God. See, this is the kind of woman that God was looking for. This is a woman that, as the will of God was unfolding, the spirit of God was moving upon her. It says, "And they sent away Rebekah their sister, and her nurse, and Abraham's servant, and his men. And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her…"

Now, look at this prophetic word that comes out of their mouth. Look at this statement. "…Be thou the mother of thousands of millions..." She said, "Forget this stuff, man! [Laughs] God, what are you talking about?" What a prophetic word—"…and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them." Prophetic word, the lineage of Messiah—"I’ll bless those that bless you and curse those that curse you," and she was injected into that Messianic lineage by her obedience, her willingness to go and pursue God now when the opportunity was there, praise God! A young lady willing to leave everything that she knew as security, the roots that she had at home, to be able to go out and follow the will of the Lord.

It’s exciting to watch a young woman moving in this particular area. Let’s just finish it with Isaac out meditating. God’s revealing to him—I mean, if he didn’t have anything else to be thankful for, he was thankful he got off that mountain. Right? I mean, it wasn’t long ago that dad was going to offer him up. He said, "Oh, thank you, Jesus." He’s worshipping the Lord that he got free. Isaac, verse 63 says, "went out to meditate in the evening, and he lifts up his eyes, and he sees this caravan coming. Rebekah lifted up her eyes and saw Isaac, jumped off the camel." This is an excited woman. "For she said unto the servant, ‘Who is this guy walking up in the field?’ The servant said, ‘It’s my master.’ Therefore she takes a veil and covers herself, and the servant told Isaac all things that had been done." Now, notice she’s still got the veil on.

Do you remember how, scripturally, as we look at this thing with the veil on—do you understand the magnitude of what’s being said here? It could have been a Leah. Okay? You see, the coming together here and the physical aspect of it, many times, these were veiled—there wasn’t all this dating. At this particular time, Isaac didn’t really know exactly what this woman looked like. It was the will of God; the will of the Lord had brought them together. They came; the marriage was consummated physically, verse 67 tells us. He "brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death."

It wasn’t until the next morning that he realized he had him a "fox." But he knew he was in the will of God. How many of us govern our lives by the outward appearances rather than the spiritual character and obedience and willingness to serve God? This young man, who had had given himself solely over to the Lord, and this young woman that believed God, both of them got blessed in this particular area in their lives; and the will of the Lord was accomplished.

As we finish up for tonight, and—I’m just going to have to stop here, we are not done. I want you to go back, and I want to hit two major points that we dealt with here. I want you to see it. Verse 21—write it down in your notes, if you don’t have it—verse 21, "…the man, wondering at her actions, held his peace..." Right before his eyes, the circumstances were confirming the external revelations that He had put out, and yet, he held his peace about this thing. Verse 27, knowing that, having been "in the way, the Lord led" him; and verse 49, "if you’re going to be obedient, tell me; if not, I’m going to follow the direction of the Lord, and He will lead me to the right hand or to the left." The will of God isn’t going to be hindered by your disobedience.

If you can grab ahold of some of those basic principals, it’s going to give you some safety in being led by the Spirit in seeing you don’t have to "work out" the will of God. He’s the one that’s working it in us to will and do His good pleasure.

Father, we thank you for the Word, and we just ask that you would begin to direct our paths. You’re as concerned about us as you were about Isaac. You’ve ordered our steps, You’ve ordained, Father, for our lives, blessings to come upon us, to overtake us. Father, we just ask that, if at all possible, it would become the reality to us that if we would be willing and obedient, we would eat this good of the land.

Father, the thing that we were beholding with our eyes tonight, I ask that it would become revelation in the hearts of your children. That’s as we started seeing this revelation unfold. You said we cannot marry the Canaanites, nor can we return to the land of Mesopotamia that you’ve called us now out. You said leave your natural family. Leave all of your natural trust, strength, association, and come and follow me. Don’t ever return back to the land of the natural once I freed you to walk in the supernatural. Do not prostitute yourself with the Canaanites. I’ve called you out to be separate unto me, and I’ll make of you a people, a nation, a holy nation, a royal priesthood that should shew forth the praises of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. Let us be that people, Father, not looking back, not compromising in the land in which we live, but possessing it to the glory to God. Then realize accordingly that everything You direct us to will be the fulfilling of that mandate, possessing the land, possessing the land, possessing the land, coming out that we might be brought in, Father; and that understanding is what will cause us to see that everything that is direction of your Spirit will be leading us in that direction—the more sure word of prophecy of a righteous people, a victorious people, a holy people, not brought into bondage and not suffering defeat in Jesus’ name. Thank you for it, Father; Amen. Amen.

Let’s just stand before the Lord and rejoice in Him. Hallelujah! Just thank the Lord that He’s ordering your steps. Do you believe that you’re where He led you tonight? Stop being caught up with all of the circumstances and just know that where you are tonight, God’s brought you here; and just thank Him for it, praise God!

The servant just began to worship and said, "I believe that God’s ordered my steps, Hallelujah! I’m resting in that! I don’t understand it all, it hasn’t unfolded completely yet; the story—the scenario has not finished running itself out, but I believe that God’s ordered my steps. I believe He’s sent His angels before me. I believe that God right now is working for me and willing and doing His good pleasure in me, in the name of Jesus!" Hallelujah! Hallelujah! And I choose not to marry the world’s system. And I choose not to return back to weakness and trust in the flesh. But I believe that God will bring me into a land flowing with milk and honey, praise God! Oh, thank you for it, Jesus! For that is the will of God. That’s the will of God, that’s the will of God, but it’s going to be done supernaturally, praise God! I thank you, Father, for accomplishing it in my heart. Oh, thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Glory to God!

We’re just going to pray for any of the needs that are here tonight as we prepare to worship the Lord and just thank Him for what He has done in our lives, the guidance that He’s going to continue to give us. We’re going to start Wednesday off of this again and draw into the character aspects that I want to deal with on Wednesday. We’ve been looking here at the Word of God and the necessity of being obedient to it, understanding the revelation. You see, everything we’ve dealt with came off of, again, the general revelation to Abraham that "…in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed…" (Genesis 22:18). With that simple understanding of the will of God, all of these other things begin to unfold clearly as their steps were being ordered of the Lord. Oh, there were a couple of sideline trips up Mount Moriah and a couple things that took place, Ishmaels. But other than that, everything was going pretty smooth; God was guiding their path. We have to believe that’s happening in our lives.

If you’re here tonight, and you feel like maybe you’re up on the mountain being offered up, or you feel like you’ve got an Ishmael that’s got you by the neck, choking the life out of you—you think, "Man, how can this be the will of God? I mean, these things look tough, the circumstances are adverse, I’m little confused right now." "Lord, bless Ishmael," He said, "No, it’s not Ishmael, for of your own loins I’m going to bring forth." But it won’t be Ishmael, because it’s going to be from your loins and it’s going to be from Sarah. Out of your death I’m going to bring forth life. Every time we try to help the will of God out, we create Ishmaels. "Things finally begin to work out, and it looks like God’s in it, praise God! And this must be the will of God, the miracle child is born, and now God says offer him up on the altar, kill him. This can’t be God, I mean, it’s just working right, the thing is just looking good!" "Offer him up. Oh, don’t harm the child, now I know that you’re obedient and you wouldn’t withhold from Me, the most precious thing in your life. Because you’re willing to lose your life, I’ll let you take it up again." You see, it’s all is a process of walking in the will of God.

You might be in one of those circumstances. I want to encourage you tonight that God’s directing your path. He’s brought you right here to this time in your life, and He’s going to say, "Okay, now, are you going to be obedient to Me? Tell Me, if not. I’ll take it to the right hand or I’ll take it to the left, but My will is going to be done." You might be here tonight and say, "I missed God." Or you might be here and you say, "I’m confused, I believe I’ve heard from God that—I’m under such a burden and I’m under confusion." So was Abraham.

But you saw tonight that God’s will will be done in your life if you’ll be obedient to Him. So we are going to ask you to come, whether you believe you’ve missed God or you’re confused or you’re just under the burden and the cares of this world; you might need healing in your body, financial pressures, relationship problems; it doesn’t make any difference. God’s here to meet you right now, and when He comes to visit you, He’s going to give you that same opportunity and say, "Okay, here we are. Are you going to be obedient or not? Are you going to receive the will of the Lord or not, the word of the Lord or not?" Whatever your need is, as Gary begins to sing, you come. The brethren are going to come with you, and we are going to believe God to minister to you.

"In moments like these…"

Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Jesus. Just worship Him. Brothers, come.

"I love you, Lord…"

Just worship Him. Let Him come, just thank Him, Jesus, just minister to God.

"I love you, Lord. I love you…"

Hallelujah! Oh, I love you, Lord! I love you, Lord! Oh, Glory to God! Just agree right now, just extend your faith toward these. Believe God to bring healing, deliverance, understanding right now to the minds of our brothers and sisters. To know the way of the Lord, to choose to walk in it. Oh, Father, that you would bring all confusion, Father, bring all confusion out of the minds of the children of God, and let rest and trust—

[Audio ends.]

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