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God’s Way of Guidance
This series of messages
is based on
Bruce Waltke,
Finding the Will of God
a pagan notion?
God’s Way of Guidance
Followers of Jesus,
called disciples,
want to follow
the will and way of God.
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.
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.
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.
God’s Six Step Way of Guidance
6.
.
5.
.
4.
3.
2.
1. Read
.
.
Your
.
Bible
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.
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
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
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.
God’s Six Step Way of Guidance
Scripture Reading
Romans 12:1-2
God’s Six Step Way of Guidance
The first step
of
God’s plan of guidance
is
1. Read
Your
Bible
God’s Six Step Way of Guidance
The Second Step
of
God’s plan of guidance
is
2. Follow
1. Read
Your
Your
Heart
Bible
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
1. Read
Your
Your
Heart
Bible
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
1. Read
Your
Your
Heart
Bible
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
1. Read
Your
Your
Heart
Bible
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
1. Read
Your
Your
Heart
Bible
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
1. Read
Your
Your
Heart
Bible
God’s Six Step Way of Guidance
2. Are you desires in line with
presenting your body as a living
sacrifice?
2. Follow
1. Read
Your
Your
Heart
Bible
God’s Six Step Way of Guidance
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.”
2. Follow
1. Read
Your
Your
Heart
Bible
God’s Six Step Way of Guidance
“Offer your bodies”
=
Your whole self
Not just part of you
2. Follow
1. Read
Your
Your
Heart
Bible
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
1. Read
Your
Your
Heart
Bible
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
1. Read
Your
Your
Heart
Bible
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
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
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
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
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
1. Read
Your
Your
Heart
Bible
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
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
1. Read
Your
Your
Heart
Bible
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
God’s Six Step Way of Guidance
The Fifth Step of
God’s plan of guidance is
5. Make Sense?
4. God’s Providence
3. Seek Wise Counsel
2. Follow
Your Heart
1. Read
Your
Bible
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
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
God’s Six Step Way of Guidance
1. 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
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
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
God’s Six Step Way of Guidance
The Sixth Step of
God’s plan of guidance is
6. God Steps In
5. Make Sense?
4. God’s Providence
3. Seek Wise Counsel
2. Follow
1. Read
Your
Your
Heart
Bible
God’s Six Step Way of Guidance
God steps in
1. To reveal a great truth
2. To save us from an intolerable situation
3. 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
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
God’s Six Step Way of Guidance
The order of
God’s way of Guidance is important
6. God Steps in
5. Make Sense?
4. God’s Providence
3. Seek Wise Counsel
2. Follow
1. Read
Your
Your
Heart
Bible
God’s Six Step Way of Guidance
Story from
Adventures in Odyssey
Connie and Mitch seeking God’s Will
6. God Steps in
5. Make Sense?
4. God’s Providence
3. Seek Wise Counsel
2. Follow
1. Read
Your
Your
Heart
Bible