Finding Gods Will

God cares about your life. He cares about the direction of your life. The creator, almighty God who created you, designed you specifically to be in the family you're in, specifically be in this time of history and be here on this day in the place you are at. God wants to teach you something that will help you and that you're gonna need to avoid a life of confusion, frustration, and even destruction.

I want to reinforce the most powerful principle that you can learn today. I want to tell you why it is so important for you to commit your life, to following this principle all the days of your life. And it's because God will use this principle powerfully in three areas of your life. And that principle is, God's principle of authority.

The first area He'll use it for. He'll use this Principle to direct you into your life's vocation.

What I'm sharing with you is something you will want to share with others as you make disciples. And God will use this principle to direct your life and your life's work, whether it's gonna be business, or ministry or whatever it's gonna be.

The second thing that God will use this principle for in your life is that God will use this principle to direct you to your life's mate for you, not a life mate, but THEE life mate.

The third area of your life where God will use this principle is to protect you from many of his spankings and re proofs of life that you will experience if you ignore this principle. Let's look at three key areas of life and future through this principle.

The first area is that God will use it to direct you into your life's work.

The first principle that you must understand is in Isaiah 55:8, Where God says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts." God's thoughts, Gods ways, are higher. Even as the "heavens are exalted above the earth, so are my ways exalted above your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts." God's ways are the opposite of what we think. They're the opposite of our logic.

One thing that tends to go beyond our logic is that God directs our paths through our parents. Why does God direct through our parents? Why does God want to direct in these three areas of your life through your parents or your guardian, whoever your authorities are? Because he established the principle of authority. And he wants to operate through that. He will operate through that principle. He uses authority to direct our life and to protect our life.

Romans 13:1 tells us that all authority is established by God. Those authorities do exist. This is powerful. It defies our logic when we look at some of the leaders. And those authorities that exist do so by God's appointment. It means He appointed you to be in the family you're in. He appointed you to have the mother and the father or the guardian that you have. He put the spiritual gift that he wanted in them. Often you and I clash with their gifts. We look at life different. God knew I needed their gifts in my life. God knows exactly the parental or guardians to put over us. Proverbs 6:20-23 tells us, "My son, keep the commandments of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother. Bind them in thy heart continually, and put them about thy neck. When thou walkest, let them go with thee: when thou sleepest, let them keep thee; and when thou awakest, talk with them. Because the commandment is a lamp, and the law a light, and reproofs of instruction are the way of life". Or in my words, "my son obey your father and mothers counsel, keep their words in your heart. As you make life's decisions. In fact, tie them around your neck and wherever you go, their council will lead you and will give you protection and be like a light shining and dark path."

Proverbs 21:1 is a key powerful verse that can be used in your business. It can be used in your personal life and your family. Proverbs 21:1 tells us "the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord." The heart of the authority, your authority, the heart of the authority is in hand of the Lord. He turns it "whither soever he will", however he will.

We tend to react to our authority. We either don't like their personality or we react to their spiritual gift because they look at life a different way. But what I do is I would put a cross behind them. I would just see the cross of Calvary, just kind of behind their head. And I can look through that authority and not react to them because I could see the cross that God was working through this authority. This authority is in the hand of my God. Maybe I could react to the authority, and when we do that, I believe we miss God's message to us through the authority.

What if my authority is telling me to do something I know God wouldn't want me to do? What if my authority is out of God's will, living in sin. God still says I established all authority. There is no authority. That's still your mother or father, but God says, do not follow any counsel that comes through them that would encourage you to violate any of my principles. That's how you know, whether God's counsel's coming through those parents or not.

So the first area is God will use your parents to direct your life's work, and to encourage you in it.

The second area God uses your parents to direct you for in your life is to direct you to your life partner.

Let me share an illustration in another persons own words:

"As a young man, I was committed to finding God’s best in marriage. I had learned about the principles of courtship and was eagerly anticipating what God would do in this area of my life.

At about the time I was ready for marriage, there was a young lady named Joann in the church I attended. I was very attracted to her, and I sought every opportunity to be with her. I even designed projects that would allow us to be together. However, God seemed to close the doors to this friendship, and I met complete disappointment. By the time my younger brother was married, I was still single.

A Season of Disappointment

As I waited on the Lord, I began to sense the affection of another young lady. I thought that perhaps she might be the one God had been saving me for, and I redirected all my affections toward her. Then I found out that our friendship did not have the full blessing of our parents. Having my parent’s blessing in marriage was one of several foundational principles I had committed to keeping, and since this was not the case, I forced myself to end the courtship. This was a very painful experience, and I went through great emotional ups and downs during that time.

My mother was a widow and was very concerned about me. She wanted to see me married with my own family. Close family friends from church also expressed their personal concern, and they arranged several dating opportunities for me. I had to cut each relationship short, because each one required some form of comprise to the Biblical principles I held. Soon I began to withdraw from the thought of meeting new young ladies.

Waiting on God in Faith

One morning as I was seeking the Lord, God used a verse in a devotional book to speak straight to my heart. It was Psalm 57:2: “God that performeth all things for me.” In my spirit, I knew that God was speaking to me about marriage, telling me to rest from my own methods of finding a wife and to trust His almighty hand. I grabbed the book and ran to my mother to show her the encouragement God had given me, and she was comforted. God kept speaking to me through this verse for a whole week.

I also realized that my experiences followed the pattern of several aspects of God’s ways. When leading us through life, God often works through the birth of a vision, the death of a vision, and the fulfillment of a vision. Recalling the gracious young lady I was first attracted to, I could clearly identify with the initial excitement of a birth of a vision. God took me through the death of the vision when I lost the opportunities for a closer friendship with Joann. As the years went by, I had similar experiences in relationships with other young ladies. It was painful to walk through these disappointments, but I now had hope. I could rest in the promises of what God had for me and trust Him to perform His perfect will in my life. In His timing, I believed that He would bring a fulfillment of my vision for having a home and family. I looked forward with excitement to what God was going to bring about!

The Fulfillment of a Dream

A few months later, my mother told me that we were going out to lunch on the following Saturday. Deep down in my spirit, I sensed that this time had something to do with courtship. So, obeying what God had taught me through Psalm 57:2, I purposely did not ask for any details about it.

Saturday came and as we stepped into the restaurant, there was Joann—the same young lady I had first been attracted to. She was sitting at a table with her parents, waiting for us. My heart leaped!

Unlike the other courtship experiences I had been through, this one started out with a series of spiritual projects that built us up in the Lord. Our love for one another grew, and in God’s timing we were married a year and a half later.

Finding Blessings in God’s Will

God is so good! He has blessed me with a wonderful wife. Because I had to wait on Him and become satisfied with Him alone, He has now fulfilled my heart’s desires.

As the years have gone by, I have seen how perfect God’s plan has been. Looking back on the past, I can see that the wife God arranged for me is the only soul who delights in sharing the direction God has led me in. She has been a perfect companion, and has encouraged and strengthened me as we have sought God together.”

Again in Isaiah 55, 8-9, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are exalted above the earth, so are my ways exalted above your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts." God says my ways are not logical. If you're gonna try to live a life of logic, you might as well just put this on the shelf. Forget it. "Gods ways are Gods ways. And you live Gods ways by faith. You believe them. You obey first. You understand why later. Just like Noah. He obeyed first and built the ark. And then he understood why as the rain came down.

The third area God will use this principle of Parents directing you in your life is to protect you from the many spankings or reproofs that he will bring into your life.

We never make our own decisions. I still don't make my own decisions. My mother, before she died in her 60s use to tell me when, it was cold and raining. "Don't forget to wear a hat today. You know your bald headed and you can get sick and you can get a bad cold. She was right. If I don't wear a hat and it's cold, I get sick. So we never just make our own decisions. We always get input. Even when we leave the authority of our parents and we marry As a man, you make decisions with the counsel of your wife. Or we miss God's best. And as a wife, we just transferred from authority to authority. We're always under authority. Man's under authority at work, ministry, whatever.

God wants to save you from many of life's spankings and reproofs. One father used to say "Boys, you're gonna learn one of two ways. The easy way or the hard way. The easy way is to listen to somebody who's been through it, like your father, listen to what God says, and obey." He said, "Or you can learn the hard way. "And he said, "Do it yourself, ignore all the council and do it yourself. And one day you'll be one of those people who gives the council." The reason this principle is so import and is because, when we're looking at an authority that we don't want to obey or follow, we never leave out the fact that we don't obey authority when they tell us to disobey God's word. And, we have room for appeal,....we make appeals.

If we can understand this principle, it'll save us many a heartache. The reason this principle is so important is because Satan's platform of operation in our life, and what he launches from his platform into our life, is the platform of rebellion to authority. He started in the very front of the Bible with Adam and Eve. "You don't have to obey God. You don't have to listen to what He said" And they got consequences. They got spanked. They got reproved. And all the way through the Bible, he tells people, you don't have to obey God. You don't have to listen to God. He comes down to Jesus Christ. He told Jesus, you don't have to obey God, why don't you do this? Why don't you do it different than what God said. And all through the Bible, to you, to me, to our life, today, every day, he's trying to get us to rebel in some way against authority. Because he knows that if he can get you to rebel and not listen to the authority, you lose God's direction and you get off somewhere else and you lose God's protection. And you're totally exposed to anything Satan wants to bring into your life.

The key I found to being able to apply this principle in my life is in not reacting to the personality of the authority or to the spiritual gift. Because you have to determine what is my spiritual gift? What is thee authorities? They're gonna see it different. And I could sit back and say, "Well, they have just ask me to do this because that's the way they see life, so I don't have to do it." No, that's not right. God says I established all authority, the heart of the king, the heart of your authorities are in my hand. I turn it and tell 'em to say something to you and tell you what to do wither soever I will.

Do you want to know what God wants you to do for your life? Do you want to know who THE life partner is? Do you wanna be protected from God's spankings? If you do, follow God's principle of authority. In balance, not disobeying the Word of God, and making appeals. And God will direct you and protect you.