God’s Way of Guidance

1. God’s Way of Guidance This series of messages is based on Bruce Waltke, Finding the Will of God a pagan notion?

2. God’s Way of Guidance Followers of Jesus, called disciples, want to follow the will and way of God.

3. God’s Way of Guidance We have noted that people of many religions seek the will of the gods, sometimes in very strange ways. The gods purposely hide their will from the people. The people have to perform certain rituals to convince, or trick the gods.

4. God’s Way of Guidance We have noted that the God of the Bible is different. He is a revealing God. God desires his people to walk in his ways. He communicates his ways to his people.

5. God’s Way of Guidance – Step One . . . How do we know what God’s will is for our lives? God gives a 6 step way of guidance. Each step builds on the one before. You must not take them out of sequence.

6. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance 6. . 5. . 4. . 3. . 2. . 1. Read Your Bible

7. God’s Way of Guidance Step One . . . Read Your Bible God’s will for your life is that you become a mature woman or man of God. That takes time! That is a growth process. That takes reading your Bible so you become more and more like Jesus.

8. God’s Way of Guidance Step One . . . Read Your Bible Waltke: “Divining is a shortcut to the future, and God offers Christians no shortcuts. Divination sounds pious, but it may actually be ungodly because it shortcuts the Spirit’s work in developing character. It assumes that you can know God’s mind without having his heart and His Spirit.” Finding p. 78

9. God’s Way of Guidance Step One . . . Read Your Bible Waltke: “But discerning the mind of God cannot be done apart from character development. You cannot divine God’s heart, but you have available to you a way to develop a heart like his.” Finding p. 78

10. God’s Way of Guidance Step One . . . Read Your Bible To make this clear: We don’t read the Bible for quick easy answers to life’s tough choices. We read the Bible to get to know God, and getting to know God enables us to know his will for our lives.

11. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance Scripture Reading Romans 12:1-2

12. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance The first step of God’s plan of guidance is 1. Read Your Bible

13. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance The Second Step of God’s plan of guidance is 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

14. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance Do you mean I can do what I want? John Calvin put it this way: “Love God and do what you please.” That can’t be right!?! 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

15. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance God is not a genie granting your every wish. But when you read your Bible, God shapes your heart, removes sin, and changes your desires. 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

16. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance Waltke: “When God is control of your life, He is also in control of your desires. The things that you long for in your heart are put there by the Holy Spirit” p.100 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

17. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself in the LORD  and he will give you the desires of your heart.” 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

18. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance Some questions to ask: 1. Are my desires in line with scriptures? “Within the framework of loving God and your fellow man, you are free to follow the desires of your heart.” p. 104 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

19. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance 2. Are you desires in line with presenting your body as a living sacrifice? 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

20. Romans 12:1-2: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” God’s Six Step Way of Guidance 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

21. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance “Offer your bodies” = Your whole self Not just part of you 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

22. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance Then you will not live as the world, but you will be transformed [metamorphosed] from the inside out. As you put your life in God’s hands, he keeps changing your desires. 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

23. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance 3. Are your desires in line with faith? Romans 14:23: “But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.” 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

24. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance 4. Are your desires in line with prayer? “When we pray, we ask God to create in us His character…. Then we will know how He thinks and what is important to Him – then we will know His will.” Finding, p. 113 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

25. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance The Third Step of God’s plan of guidance is 3. Seek Wise Counsel 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

26. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance We are not Christians alone. Hebrews 10:25 “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” 3. Seek Wise Counsel 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

27. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance Prov. 12:15 “The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice.” Prov. 19:20 “Listen to advice and accept instruction, and in the end you will be wise.” 3. Seek Wise Counsel 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

28. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance Seek advice from mature, Godly people that you trust. Share with them your desires and ask for their counsel. 3. Seek Wise Counsel 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

29. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance Waltke: “A call is an inner desire given by the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God and confirmed by the community of Christ.” Finding, p 128 3. Seek Wise Counsel 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

30. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance The Forth Step of God’s plan of guidance is 4. God’s Providence 3. Seek Wise Counsel 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

31. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance First, we read the bible for God’s way. Second, we follow our godly desires. Third, we seek wise counsel. But sometimes the opportunity is not there. 4. God’s Providence 3. Seek Wise Counsel 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

32. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance This happened to Paul Romans 1:13: “I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now). . .” 4. God’s Providence 3. Seek Wise Counsel 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

33. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance God works on our behalf because he cares for us. I Peter 5:7: “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” 4. God’s Providence 3. Seek Wise Counsel 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

34. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance Keeping our eyes open for what Erwin McManus calls “your divine moments.” 4. God’s Providence 3. Seek Wise Counsel 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

35. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance Eph 1:4 – 6 “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.” 4. God’s Providence 3. Seek Wise Counsel 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

36. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance Eph 1:9-10 “And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.” 4. God’s Providence 3. Seek Wise Counsel 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

37. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance “God says in essence, ‘I have a plan. Sometimes you won’t understand it. I have designed life that you cannot explain it or control it. But I have given you sufficient reason to trust me anyway.’” Finding, p. 147 4. God’s Providence 3. Seek Wise Counsel 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

38. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance Never put circumstances above God’s Word David and Saul in I Samuel 24 4. God’s Providence 3. Seek Wise Counsel 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

39. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance I Samuel 24:4-6 “The men said, "This is the day the LORD spoke of when he said to you, 'I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.' " Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul's robe.  5 Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. 6 He said to his men, "The LORD forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the LORD's anointed, or lift my hand against him; for he is the anointed of the LORD." 4. God’s Providence 3. Seek Wise Counsel 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

40. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance 5. Make Sense? The Fifth Step of God’s plan of guidance is 4. God’s Providence 3. Seek Wise Counsel 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

41. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance God calls us to use our heads and the sound judgment he gave us. 5. Make Sense? 4. God’s Providence 3. Seek Wise Counsel 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

42. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance The difference with the world: The world uses logic first. Christians use logic within the larger context of … 5. Make Sense? 4. God’s Providence 3. Seek Wise Counsel 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

43. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance Make your decision in light of the Scripture. We use our reason not against the bible, but within its parameters. 5. Make Sense? 4. God’s Providence 3. Seek Wise Counsel 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

44. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance 2. Make your decision in light of Giftedness 3For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Romans 12:3 5. Make Sense? 4. God’s Providence 3. Seek Wise Counsel 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

45. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance 3. Make your decision in light of Circumstances 5. Make Sense? 4. God’s Providence 3. Seek Wise Counsel 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

46. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance 6. God Steps In 5. Make Sense? The Sixth Step of God’s plan of guidance is 4. God’s Providence 3. Seek Wise Counsel 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

47. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance God steps in To reveal a great truth To save us from an intolerable situation To override his program of guidance 6. God Steps in 5. Make Sense? 4. God’s Providence 3. Seek Wise Counsel 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

48. God’s Six Step Way of Guidance Nowhere in the New Testament does God call us to “seek his will.” He calls us to seek his kingdom and do his will. Finding. p. 177 6. God Steps in 5. Make Sense? 4. God’s Providence 3. Seek Wise Counsel 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

49. The order of God’s way of Guidance is important God’s Six Step Way of Guidance 6. God Steps in 5. Make Sense? 4. God’s Providence 3. Seek Wise Counsel 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible

50. Story from Adventures in Odyssey Connie and Mitch seeking God’s Will God’s Six Step Way of Guidance 6. God Steps in 5. Make Sense? 4. God’s Providence 3. Seek Wise Counsel 2. Follow Your Heart 1. Read Your Bible