Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

What's God Up To? Pt.1

Hallelujah! Lot of exciting things going on, as we've been sharing, with the outreach in Africa. Hopefully you've been praying. We're believing God to speak to us, to give us understanding. As I was sharing in service, also in the Men's Breakfast, this is apparently gone beyond anything that we were expecting. We want to always be available for God's purposes. We've got a plan. We always do. We have to stay very amendable to the will of God, and understanding that His eternal perspective goes far beyond the limited insights that He gives us. God speaks to us and says, "I have something for you to do." We say, "Here am I, Lord, send me" without any knowledge of what it's really going to entail. It's never what you imagined.

How many of you found that to be true? You hear from God, and He's taking you in a direction, and it just never is quite what you imagined it to be. It's either far beyond your expectation to where eyes have not seen, and ears have not heard, and it hasn't entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those that love Him. He does exceeding abundant above anything that we could even ask or think.

Sometimes the avenue's a lot different than we would expect. Israel, when they came out of Egypt, expected an A to B line into the promised land. It was A to Z circle around the mountains and trials and forty years of temptations. It's just not always what you think it's going to be. The promise that came to Joseph and his great revelation of God exalting him, and his brothers bowing down before him. He was sporting his coat and really thinking that he was God's elect in a way that the natural mind has a tendency to do, and never dreamed of the pit. Never dreamed of the prison. Could have never in his wildest imagination have concocted the circumstances that would cause his brethren to finally come and bow down before him in the time of famine as God took him from the pit, took him from the prison, and finally set him upon the throne. We just don't know where it is that this course is going to take us. We need to pray constantly, not my will, but Thy will be done. It's so vital in every area. As I've been prayerful about this and trying to be very conscious of what we're entering into in this outreach that we don't over-extend ourselves in the natural, and, yet, rationally don't in any way prohibit what God wants to do in the supernatural. Amen? It's important. We try to walk in that avenue.

One thing that we've done over all of the years here in this ministry is, and I've talked over the years to a lot of pastors. Everybody really thought we were kind of strange. As long as we've been overseeing the fellowship here, we've never had a budget. We've never had a budget. We never sit down and say, okay, this year this much is allotted for this area of a ministry, and this much is allotted for this area of the ministry. I'm a firm believer that what God calls you to, He'll provide the resources. Aren't you? Supernaturally, God's always provided what we've had need of.

I've seen a lot of problems over the years, especially with different ministries that were involved in media ministry like we were years ago with the radio for how many years we were on radio, over twenty years. Never missed a payment to any radio or television station, but we also never extended ourselves beyond what we believed God had told us to do or where our faith was. These stations will give you credit. They'll say, come on, and for ninety days, we'll work this with you and whatever. So many of the ministries in their outreach extend themselves for extension and expansion purposes beyond, really, where their faith is. We need to become realistic with where our hearts are and what it is that God is calling us to do and what God has gifted us to do. It's something that's very important that we establish that in our lives. Each one of us here has to establish in the course that God's set for us, in the vocation, in our interpersonal relationships, all of these different areas.

I want to share some of these principles here over the next number of sessions. Basically, what I'm going to be doing is speaking to myself, and you can listen. Let's see what God has to say to us as we get into these particular areas. Turn to the book of Proverbs, if you would, to start with. When you're looking for wisdom, that's a good place to go. Wouldn't you say? The Word of God, of course, in general. Proverbs gives us some practical understanding of how we operate in this world and what it is that God is speaking to us. We need to approach this course that we're on with the heart and the spirit of our Master. The servant is not greater than his master. Our Master said that I haven't come to do my own will, but the will of He that sent me. He said, I have meat to eat that you don't really understand. It's to do His will. So often we're looking to be encouraged by circumstances. Whatever it is that God's called us to do. If the circumstances become favorable, then we say, well, praise God, this must be the will of the Lord. Favorable circumstances are not always the will of the Lord because many times, as we saw with Joseph, there can be opposition, things that are adverse.

As we saw with Jonah, there could be very favorable circumstances. The ship is there. "I mean, this must be God. It's perfect timing," and you're sailing in the opposite direction that God wants you to go in, just because of favorable circumstances. This is peace. This must be the will of God. I wasn't real comfortable going to Nineveh, and Tarsus was just on my heart. You know, my will, and the ship's available. The seas are calm, but God has a way of changing our course. Doesn't He? How many of you have experienced the great fish as you followed what you were believing was acceptable to God, but was not, in fact, the perfect will of God?

What I want to share with you and have you to see and have confidence in is: God's in charge of this thing, and He will put you on course. Amen? He'll blow your ship in the right direction. He'll sink it if necessary. He'll send a great fish to swallow you up and vomit you into His will, praise God. So, He's concerned with our fulfilling His promises. He's concerned with His will. Not my will, Thy will be done. We're going to talk for a little while on the subject of, "What's God Up To?" Seeing if we can, in looking at our own lives, answer the question, am I on course? Am I really with God's program for my life; what God's called me to do? Or have I somehow wandered off into these things that have been preferences, have been courses that were set by the natural? Now, remember, and this is important as we go on in the study, everything that we're going to share, you need to understand this basic principle, or you're going to get messed up.

The basic principle is that, first of all, God, in this process of our spiritual growth and in His mercy and in His longsuffering, in His knowledge of our frame being dust, God allows His revealed will to be broken while we're on course. There are things that we know in the Word of God, and we don't fulfill them all for one reason or another. God allows us to move contrary to these things. He will then, in the process, through chastisement, through and from His eternal perspective, set us back on course. He'll not allow us to continue in that direction, but He allows that to take place. The thing we have to understand is this in our confidence in God: We are not subject to fate. The God that we serve is sovereign, and the sovereign will of God is absolutely immutable.

The sovereign will of God cannot be altered in any way. That's when God supernaturally moves in your life and in mine to bring about the fish, to bring about life- altering circumstances. Either in the natural to where He circumstantially opens doors that couldn't have been opened or supernaturally closes doors, or whatever it might be. Life-altering circumstances in the opposition and persecution and tribulation, whatever it is, but the confidence we can have this morning is this: God loves us. He has a plan. So, some would say, God has a plan for your life. No, God has a plan and will bring you into it.

The focal point is not you. God has a plan for your life. God has a plan for the planet. God has a plan for humanity, and individually, God will incorporate you into His plan. In the process, when we're affecting His will, we're at peace, and we are very confidently able to say, I always do those things that please the Father. Isn't that the desire of your heart this morning?

The Scripture, as we begin to look at it, unfolds and brings about these truths. Three basic trues, get this in your notes. Number one: God is completely sovereign. Completely sovereign. Number two: God is infinite in wisdom. Infinite in wisdom. Number three: God is perfect in love. If you can get those three principles, meditate on them, you're going to be a long way down the road in being able to understand spiritual guidance, and allow the Lord to direct your course.

Over the next number of weeks, we're going to deal with these different principles. We're going to be dealing with understanding the will of God, and we're going to be dealing with spiritual guidance. That's what's going to take up the next probably three weeks of our study. You can begin to meditate on these things and study accordingly as we're going to go down the road. It's so important that we understand what God's saying to us and where He's taking us.

So often, we all being human, we want to know the beginning to the end. We want to--okay, God, if you've got something for me to do, just give me A to Z, man, I'll go after it. God doesn't order that way. Does He? We walk by faith and not by sight. We start the course, and God just directs us from His infinite wisdom through circumstances to affect lives and purposes that we have no previous knowledge of.

The confidence is that as we're being directed by His infinite wisdom through the power of His sovereign will, we are confident that He is then also completely perfect in His love. Everything that's happening in your life and those around us are the benefits of God's love. Doesn't that bring a confidence to you now? In life's circumstances now, we're not tossed to and fro by circumstances and by all that natural men seem to take as God ordering our steps. Something bad happens, I must be out of the will of God. Something good happens, it must be a favorable blessing cause I'm in the will of God. We see it as a reward program or a demerit. Bad things, punitive.

You're going to see, as we go on into the study, that bad things happen to good people and for good purposes. Being in the perfect will of God does not make bad circumstances go away. We begin to rest in the sovereignty of God, but we're not comfortable in that as humans. We want to be in control, since our parents ate the fruit, and their eyes were opened to know good from evil. We want to know. I mean, I want to understand. I have the capacity because of my father Adam, to understand this and to analyze this, and I want some answers.

We're not comfortable walking in faith without knowing. We're not comfortable not having a little bit of say and control of the circumstances. We'd really like God to answer to us and give us a little more information. "Hey, if you want me to go over there, you're going to have to give me a few more facts. 'Get outa the boat' ain't getting it!" When we begin to look at things this way and understand how prideful we are, how self-sufficient we are, how fearful we are, we have to see that the only way to combat that is with the understanding of God's love, His wisdom, and His sovereignty. It brings rest to us. It causes us to be able to function then in true Biblical faith.

Proverbs 16 says it this way. As you look at this sixteenth Proverb, and I want to read a fairly lengthy passage here. So, let's start at verse 1. "The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord. All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord weigheth the spirits. Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established. The Lord hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished. By mercy and truth iniquity [sin] is purged: [out of your midst] and by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil. When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right. A man's heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps." We begin to see this principle, and we've talked about it in the past, a man's heart devises his own ways. Interesting here, we understand that this word "devise," it means that he invents or he creates.

We have that creative capacity through our eyes having been opened from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Man has been brought out from under that subordinate position of God and that dependence. Man, now, is independent. So, we're able to create and set our own course, and so we imagine. How much emphasis today in the business world, in athletics, is on what? Imaging. You have to envision it, see it, and all of these things that become part of the motivational process today. Even in motor functions, you begin to have these videos.

There's a great golf video out, and all it is, is just a picture of guys making perfect swings. You're watching this guy, and it's getting into your eyes. You're just seeing this swing and this natural fluid motion. You watch him strike the ball, and it shows its flight going straight down the fairway. You watch it, and you watch it and you watch it, and you go out and back and slice it. So, you go back, and you watch it some more. You watch the fluidity and the natural moving. You see the hips turn, and then you [pantomimes slicing the ball]! Eventually, it does work. To a degree, I mean, you got to have some kind of motor skills. If you're not wired properly, things don't work that well.

Anyway, it does help. It really does! You begin to see this, the flight of the ball. When you get out to play actually, and you're looking at your shot, you're actually envisioning that shot. When I played a lot, it got to the point where now you could know what to do, and you could envision the shot. If you had a branch or something, and you had to move the ball right to left, or you had to keep the ball down. You knew where to get, and you knew to get up, move up on the ball, and how to strike the ball and how to make the ball, but you envisioned the shot before you made it. It's amazing what we can do.

In our lives, we begin to get these visions. These great plans. We set them up and we begin to imagine this. Everything now is geared in that direction. Interpersonal relationships. We get our eyes off on a certain person, and it's amazing now, we begin to, and this is a very dangerous thing, we begin to now transfer our vision upon these people, and make them something they're not. We can't see them, and somebody comes up and says, "You know, you might ought to think about that," and you don't receive this counsel. You don't receive this direction, because you've already envisioned. You've now transferred your will onto this object, and it's not even the object any longer. It's the pride and the will, self-will, that's the real issue that has to be dealt with. We have to understand then what's involved when we've set a course. Now we're thinking about having to alter it, pride becomes a real issue because now it's not the circumstances that are being questioned, it's my intelligence. It's my perception. It's my spirituality that's the real issue.

God forbid I might have to say, "You know what? I was w-w-w...(wrong.)" Whew! Isn't that hard to say? How many of you have trouble saying that? Let me see your hands? Hold them up, truthfully, how many of you have trouble saying that? How many of you don't have trouble saying that? A few of you, because you guys get a lot of practice. It's us people that aren't wrong very often that have trouble saying that. You guys are wrong all the time say, "Yeah, I was wrong. Yeah, yeah." Not really. Anyway, most of us do. Because of that, this becomes a real issue.

When the Scripture says a man's heart devises his way, we set this course, and because we are the creator of this thing, there's an investment in this. This is my soul. This is my thought processes. This is my will. This is my intelligence. Not a lot invested, but it's all in there. We become very protective of these things, these courses, our will, against anybody that might want to challenge. The thing that we have to understand then is, that's natural to man. We all have that tendency.

As the Scripture goes on here, it says what we need to really understand is this, you can set all of the course you want, but God directs our steps. That word "direct," I think is, as we shared with you awhile back. Years, couple, year ago, or however long it's been that we've dealt with this. I think in the study when I really understood this, it brought a lot of peace to my life. To understand that you don't have to get it right the first time. The Lord directs your steps. If you don't lean to the left hand or the right, but in all of your ways acknowledge God, He will direct your path. As you're praying and saying, "God, what is it that you're wanting me to do here? What is the course that you've set for me?" You wait, and you pray. You don't really have the full understanding at this time, and so what do I do now?

Many of us will take the approach, unless I understand this thing and really have a hold of it, I'm not going to go out there and make a fool out of myself. I'm not going to do anything wrong. I'm just going to wait until I get more information. Others of us are more presumptuous, and we thought, well, something's better than nothing. Based upon our personalities and who we are, we can take those different courses. The confidence that we have is that though we devise, in our natural, we say, "I think I know what's happening. Here's the decision that I've made, and this is the course that we're on." The blessing that we have in this ninth verse, I just love it. "...the Lord directeth his steps." It doesn't mean that He will just speak to you, and you will hear so clearly every step and every one is clearly understood. It means, literally, that He will set it right, which tells me that we might not get it right periodically.

Now, those of you who were the minority that raised your hands, you understand what I'm saying. You don't get it right a lot. Those of us that are more perfect, we expect it to be right. Pride becomes a real factor in this. I hate being wrong! I hate making mistakes! Hate losing! All of these things that are just the makeup of who man is. Yet, the fact of the matter is, in these spiritual areas, there are times that we are going to be wrong. We have to be able to have matured to the place of having spiritual, Biblical, humility in letting God order our steps. You won't have to be redirected as often if you'll be humble before. If we humble ourselves, what will happen? God will exalt us. He'll put us in a place of being able to glorify Him and be on the right course and be at peace and victorious.

When it comes to spiritual guidance, when it comes to understanding the will of God, one of the first things we have to deal with is humility. We have to learn to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. We have to realize that there is a timing of God, and in due time, He will exalt us. You see, one of things that gets us off course more than anything else is, wanting things to happen in our own timing. We want to force things through.

Some of us are more patient than others. Sometimes it's not patience, it's just less aggressive. I don't battle with that. I have another problem. I have a tendency to be aggressive. "What you think? Think we ought to do that?" "Yeah." "Well, let's do it!" "Well, what about lunch?" "No, let's do it!" "It's midnight." "Let's finish what we're doing, because tomorrow we get to do something else!" Anybody that's hung around me for any length of time, realizes that I have a tendency to go that direction. Not too extreme, but that's a tendency that I have.

When that happens, you start getting into, instead of "due time," the "you time," and you can miss, possibly, something else that God's wanting to be done. You think, well, we're just being diligent. We're just getting this thing done. Yet, God may be speaking in another course, but you're so focused on what you're doing that you're missing possibly the still, small, voice. You have to work on then, while you're moving in the known will of God, the revealed will of God, the acceptable will of God, you have to always be willing and ready to hear the redirecting of our steps; because He will set us, the Scripture says, right. You don't always get it right. It might be the right thing, wrong time. So, we're always praying, not my will, but Thy will be done. We're always praying, Lord, don't let me bring this into my own understanding, but let me acknowledge You in all that's taking place, that you could order my steps. The one thing you can be confident in is this, I don't care which personality you are, God is sovereign, and His will, will manifest itself. No matter how stupid we are, no matter how carnal we are, God can put you on course. Can you say praise God for that?

He has a will, and He's wanting us to be involved in it. Ask yourself the question this morning, okay, we understand God has a will. We have to understand something else. We have a will. Now, the trick is getting our will to involve itself with God's will. You thought I was going to say, get our will to agree, to coincide. Those are other ways of saying it, but the thing I want you to understand is this. You only use your will to divest yourself of your will and to begin to attach yourself to the meat that others don't know anything of. I don't have any satisfaction in the great accomplishments that I orchestrated. You know, the only thing that brings me satisfaction is knowing I did what God wanted me to do. It doesn't matter how glorious this thing is that we build in our own strength, it's wood, it's hay, it's stubble. Only the things that are done in the purpose of God are going to last. They're the only things that can satisfy us.

We sang the chorus, "Earthly things have left me dry, only You can satisfy." We all know that's the truth. How many of you believe that's one of the most truthful statements you've ever heard experientially, you've experienced that? Do earthly things leave you dry? How many of you found that out to be true? Okay, but we still want them, don't we? All the natural things. You say, "Let me have some of that dry stuff and some of that dry stuff, few of those dry things." "What are you going to do?" "Oh, we're just going to go out and have a dry evening." "You know what we ought to do, man, we ought to go out and do something for the kingdom, man, and pray and fast and study, let God speak to us and be satisfied." "Yeah, we should." Whew! Coughing up dust.

It's the battle that we're in because of our flesh and who we are, but God will direct our path. Amen? God will take your old parched appetite and bring rivers of living water. Praise God. Out of your innermost being as the Holy Spirit flows and brings the refreshing in these seasons. It would be nice to ride the flood at all times, but the fact of the matter is, we don't. So, in that process, we have to have confidence in Father to put us back on course.

Now, the person that's bound by works, thinks it's his responsibility to get back on course. "I've got to do this, and I've got to do that and I've got to do this. Then once I bring myself back, then God, then I'll now be eligible to hear from God again." Not so. God can speak to us in these other circumstances. If you don't hear, He will alter the circumstances. He will alter natural law. He will alter the wills of men. God's will cannot be thwarted in any way. God's intention for us is good. We have to understand that and be confident. We find out this particular--look over at Chapter 19 of Proverbs, verse 21. "There are many devices in a man's heart..." Many devices in a man's heart. This word "device" as we're looking at it here. We're talking about the word devices means a setting forth of a project.

How many of you have lots of projects going on? Let me see your hand? How many of you have lots, how many of you are project starters? Let me see your hands? How many of you are project finishers? Not as many. Okay, some of us finish.

The Scripture tells us here that there are many devices in a man's heart. We've got things we're doing, man. I've got this thing that I've got set and I've got this business that I'm starting. I've got this project at home. Some of us, we really set these things, and we get involved in them. Others are just dreamers. [Gazing upwardly dreamily.] Nothing set, no course. "If it's God's will that my lawn be cut . . . God's sovereign. The neighbor's going to have a heart attack, fall off his mower, his driving mower will cut our lawn." But most of us don't operate that way. Most of us set forth projects. We have some things that we're going to do.

We talked about that in Men's Breakfast yesterday. Every once in awhile you hear different things. "We're so busy. There's so many things going on at church, and I've got these projects that I want to do. We're just so busy." We said before you make that kind of an analysis of the circumstances, be very careful. "I've got this project. We're working on this thing. We're painting the fence at home, but there's this involved at the church, and there's Young Adults, and there's Home Fellowship, and there's Men's Breakfast. There just doesn't seem to be enough time." But what about the two hours you watched TV? What about the time you were on the Internet? It doesn't become a matter of time; it becomes a matter of priorities. "There's just not enough time, you know. This is interfering with the fact that I want to go out with my best friends and sit for three hours at a table in a restaurant with a bunch of noise and spend too much money for food." You can see I like going out to eat. I don't say there's anything wrong with that. All I'm saying is, don't say you don't have enough time. You've just chosen that over this. That's all we're saying. We set our projects. Each one of us has them and devices that we have in man's heart.

Some of them are temporal. They don't have anything to do with the Kingdom. It's just our everyday course, and there's nothing wrong. That's who we are. That's what we are as humans; we're involved in these different things. Tragically though, if you'll read Ecclesiastes and Lamentations and contrast them with Proverbs and how natural man is perceiving his environment and his operation within the will of God, you'll find out that there's some interesting things that are said. As these projects begin to increase and things begin to increase and our opportunity to be distracted increases, and we set these courses and these little projects, we forget the Lord. We have to be very careful as we're analyzing these set projects that each of us would be involved in, whatever they might be, recreational activities, setting at the restaurant, forms of entertainment. "Hey, man, I don't waste my time doing that kind of stuff. I'm working on my home, my investment, my dwelling, my..." I was going to say "idol," but we won't do that. What makes that any more important than sitting in a restaurant? "Well, you got to have a place to live!" Yeah, you do, but it doesn't have to take that much time. Now, don't misunderstand what I'm saying. I'm not saying there's anything wrong. All I'm saying is each one of us has to contrast these things to the eternal.

The things that we've devised, the plans that man has, has to be held up against, look at the next phrase in verse 21, "...the counsel of the LORD that shall stand." It's the counsel of the Lord that stands. It's the purpose of that Lord that is going to prevail. Now, God's merciful. He's long-suffering. We understand these other things that we involve ourselves in. We set our projects, and we have all of these things that we're about, but we need to be about Father's business first. It's always the priority. If you can say that, then you're in pretty good condition. "I'm about Father's business." That can be affected in numerous ways. Don't stereotype it. Being about Father's business is not just passing out tracts. Being about Father's business is not just being in prayer. These things are all important.

Being about Father's business is being where He wants you and how He wants you. You might be involved in your little project at home, and all of a sudden, you feel this compulsion. This would have to be God, on Saturday to go to Home Depot. God's got to send you on Saturday. Nobody in their right mind would just go down there. As we're in the way, God directs our course. You just, it just, "I think I'm going to go down there." You might not even give it a lot of thought. You're involved in something, you just drop it, and you go on. You're halfway down there, you're thinking, why am I going down? I could do that tomorrow. We're in a place where our hearts are open to do the will of God, to be sent, to touch lives as God sovereignly is orchestrating it. Because He's perfect in love, and He's infinite in wisdom; and His will is immutable.

When you find yourself doing those things--how many of you ever experienced something similar to that, something along those lines? That's God directing us. It's not always as we're just praying and studying. It's in the course of things. We have to have confidence that God's doing that in our lives, and that He's causing us to touch this life and that life, that might not otherwise be touched. We have many devices, nevertheless, the counsel of the Lord will stand. It's vital that we have that confidence as God moves in our lives.

Look over at Chapter 20, verse 24, "Man's goings are of the Lord; how can a man then understand his own way?" In other words, you don't know what God's doing. I find, as I look back in my life, I find that the most effective times of ministry that I've had, have happened exactly like this. It's not been when I've been in prayer for a prolonged period of time, and God speaks to me and tells me to go do something. It's when I'm about His business of being about life, but always ready for a change in the course. The lives that are touched and in ways that you would never have imagined. You couldn't have in your wildest imagination concocted what's going to come from that visitation. It's important then that we begin to see the sovereign moving of God in our lives. Though we have many devices, it's the counsel of the Lord that stands. We cast the care on Him, and we understand that He cares then for us.

Twenty-first Chapter of Proverbs. Look down at verse 30. "There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord." Basically what this is saying is, once you understand that the project you're involved in, God's not in it, quit because it isn't going to work. The Lord resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. You see right here that He's saying that there's no counsel or understanding. You can't work against God. Now, it doesn't have to be something evil. We need to be open to what the Spirit of God said.

I'll give you an example of this passage right here: School of the Prophets. No question, God ordained it. No question in my mind, God ordained that ministry. Don't know exactly what will ultimately have come from it, but there's obvious fruit that's in our midst. It affected what we believe is the purpose and the will of God, if only for a few people, it has eternal consequence. Then God said, "it's over." How many of you know we could have kept going? You could have gone through the classes, and you could have gone through all of the different steps to affect this ministry, but it was over. To try to somehow then think that you could affect some wisdom to make successful what God said had been sufficient for you and I as spiritual believers, it's foolishness. No plan is going to succeed that God's not endorsing and is not the origin of.

John 15, without me you can do? [Nothing.] Then why keep trying? When you realize, "hey, you know, I'm doing this." Stop. [Hitting himself in the head.] "Who hit me? Oh, I hit me." Stop! Don't do that! Now, that looks stupid. That looks foolish. Why do we do it in other areas of our life? I'm doing this. God's not in it. Stop! As we begin to analyze what has God ordered in my life in these areas, and we are faithful in the things that God has not ordered, it won't work. If the Lord isn't building the house, the labor's in vain. Stop!

What would keep us from stopping? Pride. Self-will. Lust. If you don't stop, what's going to happen? Big fish time. God will stop you. God loves you enough, He will stop you. Aren't you thankful for that? "Well, that's not my theology. If I just continue to go against the will of God, He'll kill me." Ultimately, but He's merciful, and He sends big fish. He sends famines and pestilence and sword to those who don't receive counsel. Isn't God good? Have your ever thought of pestilence, sword, and famine as being the love of God? His love is perfect. We have to understand that. He's perfect in love, and the Lord brings about the chastisement and the directing of our course.

We're confident, man, that unless we're absolutely stiffening our necks against Him and broken without remedy that He's bringing us into the course. So, be teachable. Be open. Be ready to hear what people around you are saying. Receive their wisdom and their counsel. Don't trust in your own perception alone if we're going to move in this course.

I shared with the men yesterday at breakfast that the Lord directed me just the other day as I was in prayer to have Chuck accompany us over to the trip in Africa. In the natural, I was looking at the budget, and I'm thinking, "Man, we're spending a ton of money over there. It's just like there's no end in sight." Trying to really discern, is this good stewardship? Is this a good use of the finances that are at hand at this juncture? As the Lord was speaking to me, a number of these principles were being applied, and I realized that we're going to be making some very, very strategic decisions that will be of major consequence for this whole opportunity that's at hand. We don't know what's God and what's man at this juncture because both are involved. The flesh is a big part of what's causing all of this hoopla, but so is the Spirit. You need to discern and see what's being birthed of the Spirit.

As I was sharing with Janet, I said, "I'm looking for another perspective. I know what my tendencies are. I know what the tendencies of the men that are over there are, and they're involved in all of this. I'm going to be on double duty over there. I'm going to be teaching as well as trying to perceive and discern exactly what's going on, so wisdom would always look for a multitude of counsel. Some other perception. I've got a pretty good idea of what I think we should do, but, very frankly, it's on a much smaller scale than what's apparently being set before us. So what's God doing? What is it that God wants us to do at this juncture. We set course, and we think we have an understanding, but the Scripture tells us, it's the counsel of the Lord that will stand. The Lord will set right our steps.

As I shared Wednesday night, you don't know what's going on. I think I have an understanding. Things can be as extreme as like I shared Wednesday. We could go over there, and the Lord say, "stay," and we stay. If that's what God says, then that's what we'll do. That's the spirit that we're talking about of the Lord directing our steps, that the counsel of the Lord stands. You have an idea, but you don't know. As we go on into the study, we'll see then, especially as we get into the details of how to be led by the Spirit, we'll see that principle that we've shared with you before, being in the way the Lord directs us. You go with the knowledge that you have, and then God continues to unfold it.

Let's finish with this for this morning, and we'll pick it up tonight. As God's setting that course then, we have to humble ourselves, and we have to be prepared in obedience to affect His purposes. Seeing that God is that source, without Him, John 15, "we can do nothing." Lamentations says it this way. Turn over to Lamentations for just a second. In the book of Lamentations, there's an interesting statement down in Chapter 3, verse 37, you read, "Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? Out of the mouth of the most High, proceedeth not evil and good? Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord." Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord. Let us search and try our ways and then realize that we turn to God, we may not be exactly, but the Lord directs our steps. Verse 37, look at it. "Who is he that saith, and it [shall] cometh to pass..." In other words, who can speak and have it happen if God hasn't decreed it? We have to see Him then as that source for the course of our lives.

What's God speaking to you? As I shared, so many of us are planners. We've got projects. Beloved, as I was sharing in counsel with someone just the other day, listen. If you've got so many projects going now that all of a sudden you're confused, what's the principle that we've taught you in the past? What do you do? Go back to...? [Bethel.] As you go back to Bethel, you go back and say, "This is the last time I know for sure I heard from God." We've stepped back from all these other projects that we were confused in and say, I know that I heard from God here. Now, I start afresh. Who knows what it is that you just stepped back from: new job, the dream house, all of the leisure time, recreational activities. All I know is up here I'm confused; back here I'm at peace. Now, where does God want me to go from here? The one thing that's a constant: regardless of the environment, you're at peace in the will of God; regardless of the environment, you're confused outside the will of God. I'm not sure. I don't know. What if this? What's the last thing God said to you, and it's important to walk in that because who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it.

Ecclesiastes, Chapter 7, if you take a look at Ecclesiastes and in the seventh Chapter of Ecclesiastes. This will be it for this morning. Verse 13, "Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked?" Now, in the context of that, you can read up a few verses. Start at verse eight. It's kind of fun. "Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools. [You know, people that go off all the time and they're so touchy.] Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days [and they] were better than these? for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this." We're going to talk about that tonight. You know, "the better days. These were better times." This is, I'm in adverse circumstances, this must not be God.

We're going to see that the statement is, hey, you're not inquiring wisely. You don't understand. These are the better days. Today is the day of salvation. The Lord gives. The Lord takes away. The whole thing is, am I where God wants me at the moment? Verse 13 is where we were headed in this thing. "...wisdom [verse 12] is a defence, and money is a defence: but the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them that have it. Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked? In the day[s] of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him." We need to realize that circumstances will change, but the will of the Lord is immutable. God is sovereign. God is infinite in wisdom, and God is perfect in love.

Father, we thank You for the Word. We just ask that You would continue to speak to our hearts, and cause us in this hour, when the prophets have said, "Men will be running to and fro, knowledge will be increasing that a man's ways are right in his own eyes." We need wisdom to know the purpose and the will of God. All that we are in our fallen state that causes us to be creators and gods, the ability to invent and set course and have vision, is constantly held up against, the dynamic force of self-will against the wisdom of God. Bring us into humility. Bring us into faith. Give us ears to hear, "This is the way, walk in it," and we'll give You the praise, Father, in Jesus name. Amen.

Let's stand, and allow the Lord to speak to us as Gary plays. We'll take a moment. Lot of things we shared, condense it, not my will, Thy will be done. We have a lot of plans. I'm going to go to this city. I'm going to go to college. I'm going to get married. I'm going to make a million. I'm going to have a white picket fence. I'm going to have two and a half children. I'm going to have whatever it is, and here's the dream. Thy will be done. We have the doctrine, but do we live in the light of that wisdom? If the Lord wills, I'll do thus and so. That's the real expression of His lordship in our life. Let's sing this together, and worship Him this morning. Thank You, Lord. "I worship You, almighty God. There is none like You..." Sing it one more time. Just magnify Him. Hallelujah! Lord, we just thank You for Your working in our life, and we ask that You would give us understanding. Give us confidence in Your love and Your wisdom and Your might. Because of that, we can say, "God's will is being done in my life." We thank You for it, Father, in Jesus name. Amen. Praise God. Before you go, turn to somebody and say, "The Lord's directing my path." Go and peace. God's love go with you.

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