Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Divine Guidance Pt.1

Hallelujah! Amen. We'll be sharing for quite a while, I think; I don't know how long it will be, but on a subject that's really evidencing itself every day of our lives, and really every moment of our lives. It has to do with a question that was asked Wednesday night, as we were talking about the sovereignty of God, as it pertains to guidance. We're going to take a little while and talk about divine guidance, and how to understand the ordering of our steps by the Lord. It's so practical, and yet it's something that I think many times we mess up because we we're concentrating so on specifics that we miss the general purpose of God working in our lives. We want to talk about those different aspects as we go on. A number of things that I've been meditating on since that time that I think will be beneficial to each one of us. I'll make a practical statement that I think will help us put it into a nutshell, and then we'll try to build upon it as we go on. We'll even look specifically into the life of Abraham, and some of the other great men of God, and how they were led by the Spirit of God, and then see if we can draw from some of these principles.

I think one of the biggest mistakes that all of us make is we think we're Abraham. Let me just give you a little something to think about as we get ready to start the study. How do you think all of those people who worked for Abraham got led? We don't see anything written about them, do we? How do wives get led, most of the time? How do children get led by the Lord, most of the time? Each one of us makes a mistake of thinking we're Abraham or we're Paul, and we miss the fact that God is able to order our steps from eternity by where He places us. How many of you have confidence in the sovereignty of God, and the eternal perspective of God? A lot of us get concerned, and we're wanting to hear from God, what's God saying, and He's basically telling us very generally to obey our parents, and to submit to our husbands. How many of you know that's one of the greatest forms of divine guidance?

Then the first thing that comes to our minds is, "What if they're...wrong?" No, what if you're wrong, by not submitting. What if you're wrong, by not obeying? How is it that we want to negate the obvious directives of God, and want to look to some specific loophole or exception when God has so specifically told us how He's going to guide us? One of the ways He guides us, most generally, is through what? The Ten Commandments. How many of you know you don't need to pray about a whole bunch of stuff if you keep the Ten Commandments, the Word of God? How many of you realize that if you keep the Levitical ordinances, then, we don't need to be praying about a lot of stuff because we're already about Father's business? We're already walking in the divine character that God is wanting to work in us, and most of us are concerned about what neighborhood we're going to live in, who we're going to marry. Do you know there are very few biblical examples given of someone being brought to a specific person to marry? So many of us, we want to know, "God, what should I do? Lord, how are you going to order my steps?" Some of you are hearing--Lord, we're such a close community, and I don't just mean Calvary Temple, I'm talking about people that are really zealous, and seeking God, there doesn't seem to be that many Christians. The directive has already been given that we're to marry how? In the Lord. So we already have a directive. Now, is He going to lead you to a specific person? Yes, but probably not the way you think. It's probably not going to be through a vision. It's probably not going to be through many spectacular supernatural functions; it's very likely going to be as you're "in the way."

We want to take a lot of the mystery out of guidance, and put back some of the faith into the sovereignty of God that He is ordering our steps, praise God, that He is able to get us from alpha to omega if we're willing to seek first His kingdom. Then, all of the other aspects of our lives are going to be orchestrated by His eternal perspective, and not our limited perspective. We worry about so many things, and we want understanding of so many things. "Lord help me to see what's going to happen if I do this, and this and this," and God already knows. The issue is not are you getting ready to purchase a new home, or are you getting ready to change jobs. The issues are, have you been witnessing to your neighbors, have you been a good testimony on the job, are you how God wants you; if you are, He'll get you where He wants you. If you'll study the lives of the different men of God, and we'll look at them as we go on, we'll look at Peter, we'll look at Paul a little. But as you look at the lives of these particular men you're going to notice that very few times God visited them, spoke in a spectacular specific way that they clearly understood, and knew the details prior to stepping out in faith. They were in fact "in the way." They were walking in obedience. They were moving by sanctified intellect, as we've shared many times before. They looked at Asia they were forbidden by the Holy Ghost, and then they received the Macedonian vision, "Come over to Troas, and bring us the Word of God." So many of us are seeking that form of guidance that we're actually living in anxiety, missing the peace of God, and not resting in the sovereignty of God that our steps already today, right now, are being ordered by God. How many of you can rest in the fact that, right now, you are in the perfect will of God? "Man I don't know, I think I may have missed the Lord over here, and I should have..." Let's see if we can answer those questions and put you at rest, and see if that thing that you're losing sleep over should be that big of a deal, or if in the things that really matter God is able to set us on course; if necessary, to transport you. Whatever is necessary to affect the eternal, God will administrate, and the rest, very frankly, He doesn't care about if you're how He wants you. That's something that we really have to come to understand. When I say He doesn't care, I don't mean that He's not involved, I'm talking about the fact that in our walking, and carrying out our lives, these are things that God uses to work His eternal purposes in us.

We'll look at the children of Israel as the Lord led them in the wilderness. Now, if God was leading them, at times it looks like God was lost. God's leading of them in the wilderness, and this is one thing that we have to realize, God's leading in the wilderness many times is a letting us wander to prove what's in us. Sometimes it's a chastisement and we're under the leading of God just wandering. But can I ask you a question tonight; can you wander in faith? Can you wander in assurance that He'll never leave you nor forsake you? Do you have confidence that He brought us out to bring us in? Do you believe with all of your heart that there's no power that can thwart the eternal purposes of God? Then we need to rest in this: the Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. In the journey of life, He refreshes, and He restores my soul. We realize, then, that any time anxiety is there, who is it that we've lost confidence in? Say it with me, who? The Lord, our Shepherd.

Divine guidance. Two things about that subject title we need to understand. First of all, we're talking about God, divine supernatural, spiritual, biblical guidance. Guidance itself, just talking about guidance, indicates one thing to us. God's involved in the course of our life. He's not just letting us wander; He is divinely ordering our steps. The steps of a good man are? Ordered by the Lord and He delights in his way. God's involved in everything that we're doing, and we're missing a lot of the joy of this journey by worrying about the things that, frankly, God has not set an eternal directive on. He can take so many of those things and work it out for His good to those that love Him and are called according to His purpose. Do you believe in the sovereignty of God? You see that's part of what we're talking about. We're being robbed in so many of these ways, and many of us are being robbed in not being able to rest in the Lord ordering our steps through our parents, or our husbands, etc.

We're going to talk about different ways of guidance. We'll talk about counsel, designated authority and all of these different things that are so important in setting us on course. You see, frankly, a lot of us don't like to even consider the subject that God can lead us through somebody else's counsel. "Hey, I don't need counsel, I need to hear from...God. No, I want to hear this from God. I appreciate your wisdom. I appreciate the fact that God's called you and placed you in my life. I appreciate the gifts that are working in you; I appreciate your love for me. I appreciate the fact that you're my husband, and that you've fulfilled a God given role, and you've done it well, you're not perfect, but you've done it well, all of these years, but I just need to hear from..." Who do you think that is speaking to you? The deception, then, that comes in so many times, of thinking that "unless God speaks to me, it isn't truth" is what keeps many of us from fulfilling the eternal purposes of God. In fact, we become candidates for deception. We begin to hear voices other than God's, because the moment you reject the revealed will of God, the moment you reject the general will of God, you will be confused in the specific directives of God. So, the foundation of the Word being the first place we look for guidance, and asking ourselves, am I in order? Am I in a position now of safety under the order of God as it pertains to family, as it pertains to the body of Christ? Am I in order as it pertains to my role in administering to society the call of God upon my life as a Christian? Am I seeking the eternal things, the spiritual things with all of my heart? All of these that become requirements for us being able to hear from God, because the fact of the matter is, if we don't have our hearts established in that kind of a condition, we're going to pervert everything we hear through our carnal filters. We will already have, as we've talked so many times before, an established agenda. Then, we're going to make the great, great mistake of number one, trying to get God to come and fulfill our will; or number two, causing that voice that establishes this will to become the voice of God, and another we won't hear.

We want to look at the general directives of the sovereignty of God, the Lord, who is our Shepherd. The Scripture says His sheep hear His voice and they're not going to follow another. Do not, do not listen for voices until you know everything there is about what He's already spoken here (Holds up Bible). You understand and listen to what the Shepherd has said, and then all other voices can be compared with the more sure word of prophecy. You understand and fellowship with Him in His Word; and then you'll understand whether those who are in authority over you are speaking the commandments of God to you or not. His sheep know His voice, and another they're not going to follow. These are just some of the things that we're going to look at as we go on into the specifics of this study. We want to deal with those practical things because very frankly, as I've listened, it concerns me just hearing some of the deacons come back, and many others, that it seems like the things that we're really concerned about, "Did I miss God on this business deal, did I miss God on the sale of this house, did I miss God..." and it's all temporal stuff. Why aren't you concerned about your spirit man to that same degree, or those that are around you? Don't misunderstand what I'm saying, and don't try to relate this back to the question that was asked by the individual, and think that we're addressing that.

I'm pointing out a trend that isn't to just this fellowship or to even this decade. This is something in all the years that we've been in ministry, it seems that people are so concerned about hearing God in these particular areas. As I've gone back and given some time in looking at this subject and I went to the Scripture and I thought, how much time is spent by God speaking to people concerning who they're going to marry, what neighborhood they're going to live in, what job they should have? Then, how much of God's visitations and specific guidance had to do with a call to holiness, and affirming of community, a preservation of the holy seed of God, and a call to ministry? Then we begin to understand when it is that God invades our lives, and gives us supernatural specific directives, and again to reiterate that one principle, when it pertains to those other areas, "Abraham I don't want you to live in Ur, I want you to live here." He wasn't just moving him up with the Jeffersons, there was a divine spiritual purpose, and we're not all Abraham.

Many of us get confused by trying to take principles that are biblical, that are specific, but the magnitude of why God spoke to that person in that way, and what it was affecting is different than you moving from the townhouse into a single-family dwelling. I don't see anything in the Scriptures where God is speaking about moving from a townhouse to a single-family unit. What I see in the Scriptures is that everything I put my hand to prospers, and every place I put my feet He gives it to me praise God. I'm not concerned with having to hear from God on this business venture. What I'm concerned about is having my heart right, knowing that I don't own either one of them, and God can have them both in a minute, and it doesn't make any difference. The real issue isn't where you live; the real issue is who owns it. Is it God's? The Scripture makes it very clear how much stuff we can possess: Nothing. There's that liberty of walking in the Spirit that frees us to be able to hear the Word of the Lord that's spoken behind us. When God spoke that to the people of God in Isaiah, Chapter 30, that you'll hear a voice behind you, "...saying, This is the way, walk ye in it..." He was speaking, and if you read the context of that in the whole chapter prior to that, He was talking about the trust in idols, and the trust in Egypt, and how God was going to forsake them, but there was going to be a remnant who would hear the voice of God. He was just basically saying, most of the people aren't interested in hearing the important things. They were caught up with all the glamour, and the glory, and all of the different things that was Egypt, and He's looking for a remnant whose treasures are in the heavens. A people that are seeking those things that are above, where Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father; a people that are willing to say, "Here am I Lord send me." A people, who occupy until He comes, content until He sends them, and not having to go out and try to prove a spirituality. Just the faithfulness, everyday mundane: just wake up, do your job, teach your children, keep the house, go provide by the sweat of your brow, be a priest of the home, train up your children, and hear "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." Content to do the revealed general will of God in His placing you, and not having to seek some type of spectacular supernatural encounter that, frankly, will cause you to continue to be frustrated all of your journey, and ultimately cause you to end up in error. Those are things that we want to address.

Let's go ahead and turn in our Bibles to Proverbs Chapter 3, and we'll just start off and take a look at a lot of the different biblical principles. That will give you a feel for some of the things we want to talk about, and see if we can get them down practical to where we're all living, and cause us to be able to rest in God's directive in our lives on a daily basis, with absolute assurance that the Lord is our Shepherd, praise God. Just trusting in the goodness of God and that all of our steps are truly ordered by Him. Proverbs, Chapter three, verse five. "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart [it's a faith issue]; and lean not unto thine own understanding."

We begin to find here some of the basic principles of divine guidance. You see, the first thing we have to do is approach God without any preconceived ideas. A lot of us get into trouble because we have a preconceived works mentality of what God wants us to do. It's based upon works, based upon performance, based upon our own righteousness, and because of that, many of us don't have the capacity to rest and let God actually work in our lives through circumstances to put us where He wants us. We're charging ahead to try to prove something to God. How committed we are, how diligent we are, bless God, how on fire for God we are. Don't mistake what I'm saying, by any means, into thinking we're talking about apathy or complacency. I believe that God will keep us plenty busy about His kingdom. I'm talking about the fact that most of us lean to our own understanding. Most of us have confidence in our own perception of the circumstances, of what truth is, of what it is to be on fire for God, and what happens is we get into different conflicts. We seem to think that unless somebody's doing exactly what we're doing, they're not on fire for God. "Well, God said to go into all the world and preach the gospel, praise God!" Yes, He did. He also said, "Be still and know that I am God." We have the revealed purposes of God to us and we get so caught up in the Martha, what we're going to do, instead of the Mary, who we're supposed to be, the communing, the greater portion of sitting at His feet and knowing the heart of God. I like what I read in one of A. W. Tozer's books, Needed: A Reformation Within the Church. He said that he greatest responsibility of the Christian is not to herald the gospel, but to be worthy to herald the gospel. I like that quote. Our time is to be spent to be able to be in communion with Him, and to know the heart of God, and if we're going to proclaim the gospel, praise God, to proclaim it in the same spirit, and the same compassion, with the same accuracy that it was proclaimed by our fathers who went before us. The passage tells us, then, that we're to trust in the Lord with all of our heart. We're talking about a faith in the sovereignty of God, a trusting that God can orchestrate all of the wicked kings, or wicked bosses, or feeble, fallible governments. Whatever needs to be moved, God will move nations (and homeowners organizations, even).

A guy came by the other day, he actually stopped up here and he said, "Oh, you didn't add on to the house down there. They wouldn't let you add the garage on?" I said, "Yeah, we finally got approval to add it on." He said, "After all that time, I didn't think they'd let you. You got approval?" I said, "Yeah, we did, and after they approved it, we decided not to do it." It wasn't that type of a thing of "I'll prove to them." It was just that after all of that, we really thought, you know, that's not the wisest thing to do. It was interesting that after we went through all of that and the different things we had to consider, and pray about, and seek God on, and in the process of that, search our own hearts, and be willing to humble ourselves. It went contrary to everything that was in me. The fact of the matter was, I signed a contract. I still disagree with it. It just absolutely drives me nuts that I own a piece of property and can't paint it without asking somebody, but that's what I agreed to. Nobody forced me to sign that contract and move in there. I could go live very freely in one of those neighborhoods where the guy next door is raising pigs, the pick-up truck's up on blocks, and the grass is this high, and nobody says anything about it. "Bless God; we're free."

The ordering of our steps, just believing that God's ordering steps, and trusting in Him to move on different people's hearts. Trusting in the Lord. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not to your own understanding. You see, the two are contrasted there because the moment we begin to lean to our own understanding, we're not what? Trusting in the Lord. The leaning to your own understanding is not just devising your own methods; it's really the frustration that's in your life because you just don't think that God's ordering your steps properly. "I am really upset here in the will of God." What are we upset with, then, the circumstances, or the One who put us here? "Well, I'm not upset with God, I'm just upset with the circumstances." Who authored the circumstances, do you think? God. You don't think God knew that that's what was going to be going on at that particular moment? You don't think that you're there for a reason? When adversity comes and pressures come, and we don't understand why for some reason the boss thinks we're an idiot? "Doh!" You don't think that maybe He's trying to reveal something to you? That those circumstances are coming about for an eternal purpose? "I just don't know if this is where God wants me." How many of you know that the moment we get under pressure the first thing we do is pray whether or not that's where God wants us? "Lord, is it time for us to go, Lord? You know, God does direct us through those things. Did you know that there's more evidence of Paul being accurately directed in the Scriptures by rocks than by voices? He received the direction of God more times by being beat up, shipwrecked, misunderstood, run out of town, or running for his own life, than God saying, "Go from point A to point B." Are you going to trust in the Lord with all of your heart and stop leaning to your own understanding? "I just don't know why this is happening." Because it's the will of God. "It can't be the will of God, it's bad." He works all things for good, the eternal good. I didn't say it was good. I said He works all things together for the good, to good, to good purposes, to an eternal end, to your spiritual maturity, to the salvation of a soul, to the testimony of faithfulness to God, to those that love Him and keep His general revelation; to those that love Him and keep His commandments. Don't lean to your own understanding. Are you going to try with your finite understanding to really unravel the eternal purposes of everything that's happening in your life? "Why did this happen?" You don't know.

I just got a call this afternoon; we were scheduled to go up to meet a guy from Canada. A lot of different things had gone on, and we'd finally established on a place to meet. I told him I wasn't interesting in coming across the border because the Taco Bells are on the other border. Right? So what do they have in Canada that's worth rushing the border for? He calls me just minutes ago and he said, "I'm going to have to change that meeting time. A young man that worked for me since high school," he said, "known his dad all our lives, he was just killed on his way back to work." He worked for this gentleman. He said, "So I'm leaving right now and going to the family, and I really apologize." I said, that's the first priority and I got to share the Lord with him a little bit; he's not a believer. "Well, that doesn't fit into my schedule." Here's a young man who's killed in an accident that affects my schedule. I don't even know the guy. Your first thought is how tragic it is for a young man, 26 years old, to be killed; just minding his own business. The guy said he didn't drink; no drugs; just a good kid just riding back to work on his motorcycle and hit by a truck and killed. Boom! You see the ripple effect of life? The point I'm trying to cause you to see is you don't know all of the eternal ramifications. Our lives are always affected through these ripple effects, and are you wanting to understand the why of all of these things?

"Well, I don't understand Lord; I had a dentist appointment that I had to fit into this schedule of mine. Now this guy died, and I have to make a new appointment." It's actually not a dental appointment that I have. I have to go see a doctor, who diagnosed me with this--What is it?--diverticulitis. I call it ridiculous. That's one of those things that you say, "Okay, you have diagnosed it, so now what do you do?" "Well, there's nothing we can do." "Okay, so thanks." There are different little things that they can do for symptoms.

What's the point I'm making? You're going to always be coming up against these things. Are you going to try to understand the intricacies of everything? "Now, I wonder, maybe he was killed so I could testify to this guy." Yeah, right. God doesn't say, "You know what, I think I'm going to get him testified. This guy's out of here." Now in the sovereignty of the way God does things, he can work all things for good. It's because he's not reacting. From His eternal perspective, everything has already happened. He's already present because of His eternal state prior to it's existence, so God never reacts. He's never trying to catch up, but He is not sovereignly going out and killing people, and causing people to go to hell, etc. God in His eternal foreknowledge is able to allow us to be free moral agents.

The guy was free to buy a motorcycle. You do not, let me just give you a fact of life, do not be on the motorcycle; be in the truck. You see, a truck and a motorcycle came together. Wisdom is being in the truck if these two are going to meet somewhere in time and space. "If he had been a Christian, he would have heard from God." Heard from God what? To buy the truck, not go to lunch, take another route? Steps are ordered of the Lord. Can you be at rest?

The other night we were in the toter home, the carbon monoxide alarm went off. We checked around, tried to figure out what it was. Finally, we got the thing to stop, and couldn't figure out what it was; it went off again at another point. Finally, I said, "Well, forget this, I'm going to sleep." Praise God, what a great way to go home, man. It shows kind of where I was, I said, "I'm tired anyway; man, I'd just love not to wake up. Goodnight Lord I'm coming home." Then I had to wake up again in the morning. I'm not talking about being presumptuous, but I'm talking about just resting. Hey, I did what I could do trying to figure it out, praise God; let's go. If you can get the spirit of what I'm trying to communicate to you: Trust in the Lord, don't lean to your own understanding, in all of your ways acknowledge God," look at it, "in all of your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall what? Direct your path.

I had a guy that I knew, just outstanding brother in the Lord, a great preacher, that died of carbon monoxide poisoning at the Rose Bowl parade. In Pasadena, the Assemblies of God Headquarters is on Colorado Avenue. Colorado Avenue is the route for the parade floats, and the Assembly of God Headquarters is there. So some of the officials there, the officers of the southern California district, would take turns and they would just stay in the parking lot area, and watch over the facilities, and make sure everything was alright. This particular brother was there in his Jeep. He's a better preacher than he was a survivalist Boy Scout type guy, because to get warm, he fired up his Hibachi...in his Jeep. Not a good idea. Once all the oxygen was gone and he had his Jeep running, he went to sleep. The interesting thing is that somebody got to him just before he died but he had just complete fried out brain damage. That was in the days when we were seeing so many miracles I was telling you about back in southern California. They called us, and as we went to prayer--a great testimony. I don't know if I've ever shared this or not in all the years. As we went to prayer, I told you about the prayer meetings where God was just doing a number of supernatural things. We prayed for our brother, and God totally restored all of his mental faculties. He went back to work, praise God, and was fine every since. I don't know if he's still alive right now but a great, great testimony. A great miracle of God that was seen there and people's lives were really motivated. This was a time, if you'll remember, back in the early seventies, when the supernatural was waning in the Pentecostal movement. There wasn't a lot of signs and wonders, and God was able to take this thing and turn it for good, praise God. To "not lean to your own understanding but in all of your ways acknowledge God," praise God.

We realize that in the midst of this, there was an acknowledging of God and the understanding that He was going to direct the course, the paths here, and signs followed in the name of the holy child Jesus, and we saw the miracle. Do you know to see a lot of the miracles, you need to have some tragedies, you need to experience some adversities? We have to understand that the direction of God in our lives is something that we won't always comprehend but we have to trust in the Lord, and not lean to our own understanding. Don't always have to have an explanation, but know that the steps of the good man are ordered by the Lord.

Can I ask you a question? How much time do you spend frustrated trying to figure it all out? The Lord's good. He works all things together for good to those that love Him, and are called according to His purpose. "This stinks, but God is good, praise God." "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want." "Things don't look real good now, but I haven't starved, praise God. I've not seen the righteous forsaken nor their seed begging bread Psalm 37:25). The Lord's good; the Lord is my Shepherd." Where are you really in your confidence in God? Or is your life directed in a way that as soon as there's adversity, or trials, as soon as things are a little bit uncomfortable, we begin to wonder where God went, instead of realizing that He's the One that's placed us at this time in our lives? "Well, did God place me here, or was it my stupid decision?" Yes. Because the steps of the good man are what? Ordered by the Lord. As we go into this subject, and we're talking about divine guidance; we're spending a lot of time here, but I'm trying to get you to see it's "divine guidance." I'm trying to get you to divest your understanding. I'm trying to get you to understand that God is guiding you whether you can understand it or not, whether you agree or not, whether you like it or not, the Lord is my Shepherd. Now you tell me when the sheep get together and vote. Is there a sheep union? "We've walked for 15 minutes, we need ten minutes of shade, thank you." Last union agreement. "Is this a wolf free zone? We can't stay anywhere there are wolves. You have to do something about these rocks. Fluffy won't let me use him as a pillow anymore. Can I talk to you about those goats?" The Lord is my Shepherd.

See, this is guidance, beloved. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart. This is the point we're trying to get home tonight. The removal of our own understanding. Lean not to your own understanding, in all of your ways what? In all of your ways, the good, and the bad, acknowledge God as what? As God, or as your Shepherd? He's not only God, He's a God who cares. He's a loving heavenly Father. He's the Shepherd who never leaves us nor forsakes us. He's the One that's working this for good, and the Lord led them to prove them in the wilderness what was in their hearts. Much of this guidance is just a way of toughening us up. Sometimes it's just to toughen us up. Sometimes it's to reveal our carnality. What's God willing to invest in to reveal your carnality? Let me ask you something. We were talking Wednesday night about the real estate venture; let me ask you something. Is God willing to blow a hundred grand to teach you something? You say, "Well, I don't mind Him blowing a hundred of His grand, but this is mine." That's the problem; it's not yours. I'll ask the question again. Is God willing to blow a hundred grand to teach you something about your carnality? It means nothing to Him, and it's all His. The cattle on a thousand hills are His. If He had a need, He wouldn't ask you. "Where were you, Job, when I hung the worlds?" Do you see where in guidance we need to maybe get another perspective of what's important? How many of you right now your computers' going, "Doesn't compute, doesn't compute, doesn't compute!" "A hundred grand just to reveal a little flaw in my life, doesn't compute doesn't compute! I don't understand, no." "Danger, Will Robinson!" You see, His ways are above our ways. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, lean not to your own understanding.

When Abraham was called out of the land of the Chaldaeans, he couldn't leave. There was no way that he could rationalize, justify this particular move; this made no sense. God specifically spoke to him and called him out and said He was going to raise up a people. Now not everything that Abraham did, you can read the account in Genesis, was God specifically speaking. The Scripture says that as he got there in the land, there was a famine that came. Now, famine in the land, food in Egypt. Famine in the land, food in Egypt, famine, food, famine, food. "Lead me." Food. Okay, that's a no-brainer. There was not a voice. It was a decision that was made that was practical, let's go down there and live. They go down there, in the process, trust in the Lord with all your heart lean not to your own understanding. In the process, "Man, I have got a beautiful wife, they're going to kill me, try to get her. Lie, tell them you're my sister, dah, dah, dah, dah." Pharaoh gets a word, "I'm going to kill you, put all these judgments upon you." "How did you deceive us?" "I thought you were going to kill me." "No, here's some food. Go away." God preserved them. God ordered their steps. He left wealthy. He left rich. He left blessed. Abraham now is going back into the land of promise and everybody that's of his house, they're just kind of going. "What's the Lord saying?" "Follow Abraham." "How do you know?" "Because I haven't heard anything else. Seems like God's talking to him." We understand then that in our lives we're making decisions that are not always spectacular. That decision to go into Egypt was a decision of necessity. Who's the author of establishing the environments of necessity? God is.

Heard something on the news just before I was getting ready to come to prayer; I thought it was interesting. It was a report on the stock market. I got a note from somebody the other day that said there was still a stock market. I finally heard a news report on it. I hadn't heard a lot of news reports lately. I caught a little bit of the news today and they were talking about the market. In the process, they were talking about the market and I thought it was kind of funny because in the process they were saying, "Now this would probably be a good time to get some gold." Well, you know, we all know about gold. The guy was saying, "It doesn't have anything to do with that there could at any moment be a nuclear exchange from India and Pakistan. We're really not talking about the possibility of more terrorist attacks. We're really not talking about the Middle East conflict, it's just a supply and demand thing." Finally after the Y2K balance and everybody, finally, that bought a bunch of gold dumped it, and there was a glut, and gold fell. As gold fell, more people dumped it, and there become more of a glut, and it's finally now balanced out. Now there's more of a demand than there is a supply, they can't get it sufficiently, and so now the prices are beginning to creep back up, and it's a supply and demand thing. So dah, dah, dah, dah. "Lord, should I buy gold? Maybe I'll liquidate my stock. Let's see, it was eighty dollars a share, now it's eighteen cents. For eighteen cents how much gold can I buy? "Can I have that gold fleck? Can you gold leaf my stock certificate?" It doesn't matter whether you've got stock or gold, who's our source? Is God going to tell you to buy the gold? I thought He told you to buy the stock. "Well, I did too when it was eighty dollars. Bought it for ten dollars, went to eighty dollars. It's eighteen cents; must not have been God." Have you learned anything? "Yeah, don't buy that stock." No, have you learned anything about your heart? What motivated you? What have you learned? Have you learned to not trust in silver because if you love silver you'll never be satisfied with it? Did you learn that maybe riches take wings and fly away? Have you learned anything? "Yeah, trust in gold." Wrong lesson. The only way I'd encourage to go out and buy gold at this juncture is if Jimmy Carter was going to be reelected. You all remember the good Carter days? Gold was 800 dollars an ounce. You say, "Man, that was great!" For those who don't remember, mortgage interest was 18 percent. What am I saying? "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord...[and] he turneth it whithersoever he will" (Proverbs 21:1).

Okay, there are ups, there are downs. What are you trusting in? Are you trusting in America? Are you trusting in supply and demand? Are you trusting in your own understanding of the market? Are you trusting in the arm of the flesh? Are you trusting in the broken reed of Egypt? Are you content that, right now, right where you are, with your eighteen-cent stock, you're in the will of God? In fact, you want your picture taken with your stock. Other guys are jumping out of windows and you're saying, "God's so good!" Really? "Yeah." Those guys are killing themselves, how can you say that God's so good? "He showed me I'm an idiot. I'm not as smart as I thought I was. I was just leaning to my own understanding; in all of my ways I was acknowledging me and E. F. Hutton."

As we close tonight, I want to ask you something. Do you really believe that you're exactly where God wants you? You say, "I don't think so because, man, I've got so much growing to do in this area, and I could do more over here, and there's still these areas in my life that are not disciplined." Is God working in you to will and do His good pleasure? Is your righteousness of Him? If so, then the steps of the good man, the righteous man, are what? Ordered by the Lord. Every step we take has a consequence, and God is able to work it to our good if we love Him and we're called according to His purpose. So this is a little bit of an introduction of where we're going as we get into the specifics. We're going to talk about the revelation of God, through the knowledge of His Word. We're going to talk about the will of God being revealed to us in the directives of God through the establishing of our character. We're going to deal with the facilitating or understanding the will of God, and the guidance of God through our communion and our fellowship with Him. Then we're going to talk about the twelve, there's more than twelve, but the twelve obvious means by which God directs us.

Let's get those in our notes for right now, and then when we start on Sunday, we'll be able to have them already. Let me just give you the different areas. First of, all these methods of guidance, one is the Word of God. Secondly, divine appearances whether it be theophanies, or the Shekinah glory, whatever it might be. Thirdly, audible voices. That's one that people really like, "The Lord spoke to me; everybody else heard it as thunder." We want to hear voices. You're the type guy we like to sell stuff. Fourthly, visions or trances. Dreams, prophecy, counselors, and intuition. So many times you hear, "I perceived." Conscience, angels. A whole book written on those, huh? There was some weird ones there. Dear Lord, you talk about people looking for guidance and angels showing up when the angel fad was going around. It's a biblical method, but you can really get in trouble if you don't use number one, the Word. Lastly, or the last two, fleeces. If you don't use that properly you'll get fleeced. Then twelfth, thirdly the fourth time, open doors or opportunities.

We're going to go through and look at each one of these categories and show some different times in the Word of God that these were methods that God was using, but at the same time, remember, these are specifics, specific visitations, revelations with specific purposes that had more than individual consequences. They were for eternal communal purposes. The main method that God uses in each one of our lives is the general revelation of the Word of God. "Is this decision I'm making going to violate any of the moral laws of God? Is this decision I'm making going to, in any way, cause me to compromise my spiritual character or my eternal purposes?" If not, then I make the decision. I consider all of the consequences, I don't see anything that's going to be contrary to the revealed will of God, so I comfortably make the decision. I'm not forbidden of the Holy Ghost and I make it in absolute faith that if it's not the right thing, the steps of a good man are what? Ordered by God. That word "ordered" means "set right." God will put you on course. Beloved, don't live in fear of mistakes. Live in confidence in the goodness of Father and His desire to put us on course and work Christlikeness in us. Let Him work in you to will and to do His good pleasure.

Father, we thank You for the Word of God, and we ask that as we go on into this study, You'd give us ears to hear, that You would give us understanding and a zeal to hear the voice of God. Not something spectacular or specific, a zeal to hear the still small voice, the general revelation, the more sure word of prophesy. I want to hear how to be a better husband. I want to hear how to be a wife. I want to hear how to be a better child in obedience. I want to hear how to be more effective in heralding the gospel, and being a witness, and shouting from the housetops this message that I've so freely heard. I want to hear how to walk in the spirit and not fulfill the lust of the flesh. I want to hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant." If we never have a specific encounter, if we never hear a word specifically about houses, and wives, investments, and divestments, we have plenty to hear about fulfilling Christlikeness in our hearts by just opening the Bible and being obedient, faithful in the small things to become rulers in the great. Make that our goal, Father, in Jesus' name, amen.

Let's stand before the Lord. As Gary plays for us, trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not to your own understanding. In all of your ways acknowledge God, and He will direct your path. In the over thirty years that I've followed Him now, I haven't had a plan. I don't have a plan today. I didn't die of carbon monoxide poisoning, so there must be something else for me to do. I wonder what today brings. You see, if you have a plan, you'll probably end up in Asia instead of Macedonia. It's hard to change course once you have a plan. My plan is to do the will of Father who sent me, wherever He sends me, whenever He sends me, however He sends me. First-class, hobo-express, doesn't make any difference. God's going to get me there, I have absolute confidence. He can suck me up like He did the prophet or He can swallow me and spit me out like He did the prophet through the great fish; just vomited right up into the will of God. How did he get there? By running away. How did he get there? By doing everything wrong. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart. He did everything wrong and brought about one of the greatest revivals in the Scriptures as that great fish just spit him up. He said, "Hmm. This must be God." See, we're pretty sharp. Do you have that much confidence in God that you can make every decision wrong? "Why? I'm tired. I'm afraid. I'm angry with God's working. I'm not going over there and being skinned by those people of Nineveh." God knows your heart better than you do. Do you have that confidence tonight? God knows your heart better than you do, and He'll work it for good. I believe in a sovereign God. I believe in a good God, Who's working things for good to those that love Him, and are called according to His purposes.

As we sing this together, just celebrate His goodness and thank Him for the ordering of your steps. "Hear my cry O God, attend unto my prayer..." Yes, Lord. Oh, yes Lord, a strong tower. We run into You, Lord, and we're safe. Oh, great is our God. Lord, our eyes are on You tonight, and we thank You that You will watch over us Father, that our steps are ordered of You, and we delight in that. You said You'd never leave us nor forsake us, and we're not comfortless. The Holy Spirit leads us into all truth. Our steps are ordered of You and all things are working for good, and for that we just celebrate the victory won, and the blood of Jesus, and we rest in Your divine authority, and we say, "You do good, Lord. The judge of all the earth does right." We acknowledge that, Father, and are so thankful for it, in Jesus' name, amen.

Before you go, turn to somebody and say, "Lean not on your own understanding." Go in peace, God's love go with you.

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