From His Heart

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I like to talk to people that I really believe in my heart are godly folks. I like to talk to them about situations and things in my life to get their insights, to get their opinions, and to see what they had to say about a matter.

In a multitude of counselors, there's victory, and God uses other people. God will show you what He wants for you as you just obey Him, as you are willing, as you seek Him, as you listen to Him, and as you get godly counsel.

I believe with all my heart God has a great and wonderful plan for you, and He wants you to know.

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It.

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Can heal every scars.

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Is it really possible to know God's will and plan for your life? Pastor Jeff Shreve says yes, it is. It most certainly is. As an example, God wanted Paul to know God's will, and he told Paul in Acts chapter nine what that plan was.

This is from his heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, who today will share what scripture says about identifying God's path for your life with three steps to this important insight. The message is called "How Can I Know God's Will?" We're in part two today, and it's one of seven from the series that we're airing this month called "Now That's a Tough Answering the Difficult Questions of Life."

For a list of the questions that are answered in this series and to learn how to get your copy, go to promisheart.org where I'll tell you more later. Now though, open your Bible to the ninth chapter of the Book of Acts. Here's Pastor Jeff with the answer to this question: How can I know God's will?

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Anybody that desires to please God has prayed that prayer: "Lord, show me what you want me to do." That exact prayer is found in the Book of Acts, uttered by Saul of Tarsus when he met the Lord on the road to Damascus. Look in Acts chapter 9. You'll notice in verse 6 are written these words: "So he, meaning Saul, trembling and astonished, said, 'Lord, what do you want me to do?'" Two questions Paul asks: "Who art thou, Lord?" And the Lord answers him, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting." Then comes the second question: "What do you want me to do?" The Lord showed Paul what he wanted him to do in Acts chapter 9. Thus, we have the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul, the great Christian—arguably the greatest Christian who ever lived.

Now, there are three steps to knowing God's wonderful plan and will for your life. Step number one is to understand the parts to the will of God. The will of God is not just one thing, although we often think of it as such. There are several different definitions of the will of God. First of all, God has a sovereign will. A sovereign will. We talked about God being the sovereign king this morning, and that means He is the ultimate and final authority. God's sovereign will is always done—without exception, without excuse, without delay. There's nothing you or I can do or not do to forestall God's sovereign will. It's like trying to prevent the sun from rising in the morning; there is no way to do that. God's sovereign will will always prevail. Daniel chapter 4, verse 35, says this: "And all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing before the sovereign God. But He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, 'What have you done?'" That's God's sovereign will.

God also has a moral will. God's moral will is written in this book, where He tells us things that we are to do and things that we are not to do. God wants us to obey Him. He wants us to walk with Him and to follow His commandments. Jesus said, "If you know these things, you're blessed if you do them." Many people know a lot about what God wants them to do, but they don't act on it, and they miss out on the blessing. God doesn't bless you for knowing the things; He blesses you for doing them. In God's moral will, He wants you to obey the commandments He has set forth. The scripture says in 1 Thessalonians 4:3, "For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality." In God's moral will, He wants you—and He wants me—to be pure sexually, to abstain from sexual immorality.

Then, God has a particular will. A particular will. God's sovereign will is the same for everybody, and God's moral will is the same for everyone. However, God's particular will is the one that we really latch onto. That's the one we say, "Lord, what is that for me?" Because God's moral will is written in His word. It's easy to find out, "What's God's moral will concerning lying?" "Thou shalt not lie." "What's God's moral will concerning stealing?" "Thou shalt not steal." But when you get into the particular will, you might ask, "God, what do you want me to do? I have a job offer in this city and a job offer in that city, and I don't know which to choose. God, what do you want me to do? What is your will? What is your particular will for my life?"

In Saul's case, the Lord was going to bring a man into his life named Ananias, who would tell Saul what he must do. Remember Saul's prayer: "Lord, what do you want me to do?" In verses 10 through 15, the Lord comes to Ananias and says, "Hey, there's a guy named Saul on a street called Straight, and you need to go and talk to him about me." Ananias responds, "I don't want to do that. That's Saul of Tarsus, Lord; that guy doesn't like you. He breathes out threats and murders against the disciples of the Lord. You want me to go talk to him? That's like sticking my hand in the garbage disposal. I don't want to do that." The Lord said, "Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel." That was God's particular will for Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul, the great apostle.

Now, that's the will that we want to really talk about tonight: the particular will of God. We often get confused about it. "God, what do you want me to do? I don't know; I seem fuzzy on that particular will." And you know why we get confused? Because oftentimes we have myths concerning God's will. This brings us to the second step: recognize the myths concerning the will of God. I want to share with you four myths, four lies concerning the will of God.

The first myth is that God will give you a roadmap. That's what most of us want. When we pray, "God, show me what to do," we want a roadmap. If God had shown me at 22 what I would be doing at 45, there would be things I would have bypassed because I would have thought, "You know, Lord, you're going to call me into the ministry when I'm 33 years old. Let's just call me into the ministry now." But God would say, "No, I'm not going to do that because I'm going to teach you things from 22 to 33 that will really prepare you for the ministry." He just shined more light on my feet as I trusted Him and walked with Him. So that's the first myth: that God will give you a roadmap. God doesn't do that.

Myth number two is that God does not want you to be happy. Sometimes people get that idea: "The will of God? Well, that's probably something good for me, but it's not going to taste good, and it's not going to be something I'm going to like." The will of God is like taking bad medicine to get well. That's how a lot of people think about God and His will. The truth is, the will of God is what you would choose for yourself if you had the sense to choose it. It's a good thing, it's acceptable, and it's tailor-made for you. So that's a myth: that God doesn't want you to be happy.

Myth number three is that God has a special plan only for select Christians. Sometimes people think that. "Well, you know, we're reading about Saul. Saul's not just any old Jake-leg, run-of-the-mill guy. I mean, he's Saul. He became Paul. He's written most of the New Testament. Sure, God's going to call him, but I'm not Saul. I'm Susie. I'm not Paul. I'm whatever your name is. I'm Philippe. I'm something else. I'm Pedro. God doesn't call me, and He doesn't speak to me." Yes, He does. Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord." You need to know that God still has a plan. I don't care how old you are. Maybe you're here tonight and you're 90 years old. God still has a plan for you. When God doesn't have a plan for you anymore, then He takes you home. So it's a myth to say that God only has a special plan for select Christians.

Finally, myth number four is that God makes His will hard to find. Many of us believe that it's very hard to find the will of God. We think God hides His will like you hide Easter eggs from little kids. That's what God does with His will, and we're searching all over while God is hiding it from us. That makes absolutely no sense. Why would God do that? What if I said to my daughters, Jill, Amy, and Sarah, "Dad has something very, very special and important he wants each of you to do, and it's going to be wonderful when you do it. If you do it, you're going to be so blessed, and if you don't do it, there are going to be consequences. You're going to miss out." And then when they ask, "Dad, what do you want me to do?" I respond, "Well, I'm not going to tell you. I'm not going to tell you. Don't think I'm going to tell you. It's under which shell? You try and figure it out." That would be crazy. It would be sadistic if I did that to them. God's not sadistic. The Bible doesn't speak of God hiding His will; it speaks of God revealing His will to His children as they walk with Him and grow in their relationship with Him. "For the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn that shines brighter and brighter until the full day."

So how can you and I know God's will and plan? Step number one: understand the parts to the will of God. Step number two: recognize the myths concerning the will of God. Step number three: apply the principles necessary to discover the will of God. To discover the will of God, let me mention five principles.

Principle number one is the principle of obedience. Obey God's revealed will. Obey what you already know to do. There's a little maxim that says, "To know the will of God in all things, do the will of God in the small things." Whatever God has already shown you to do, do that. A lot of times, we disobey God in many different areas that He has made blatantly clear to us. "I want you to do this," and we say, "Well, no, I'm not going to do that." "I want you to do that." "No, I'm not going to do that." We read about God's moral will: "This is the will of God, your sanctification, that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality." We might say, "Well, Lord, I don't want to do that." The Lord has made that very clear: "I want you to obey my moral will." When you blow that off and then go to God and say, "God, show me what you want me to do," the Lord might respond, "Well, what for?"

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What for?

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When I showed you this, that I wanted you to do, you didn't do it. So there's this principle of obedience. And God is really, really interested in you obeying him and in me obeying him. 1st Samuel, chapter 15 and verse 22, the Prophet Samuel said to the disobedient King Saul, "Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to heed than the fat of rams." The principle of obedience.

There's also the principle of yieldedness. Yield your will to his will. If you want to know what God wants you to do, if you want to discover that, yield your will to his will. See, Paul did that. He said, "Lord, what do you want me to do?" and he was willing to do what God wanted him to do. They led this tough guy by the hand into Damascus, and he was willing to be led by the hand. He was blinded by the light of God, willing to be led by the hand to find out what God had for him and what God wanted him to do. And you and I have to be willing. We have to yield our will to his will.

George Mueller was a great man of faith, a great man of prayer. He lived in the 1800s in England. And George Muller was talking one day and writing about how to know the will of God for your life and how to discover that for your life exactly what the Lord wants you to do—his particular will. He said this: "I seek to get my heart in a state of no will, no will of my own. All my will completely divested to where I can honestly say before God, 'God, not my will, but yours be done.' I just want your will in this matter." Maybe he was facing a situation where it was, "Do I go in this direction or do I go in that direction? Do I choose choice A or do I choose choice B?" He said, "Lord, I just give my will up. If you want me to have choice A, then that's what I want. If you want me to have choice B, then that's what I want. But I divest myself of all my personal will in this decision."

John, chapter 7, verse 17, Jesus said this: "If any man is willing to do his will, he shall know of the teaching whether it is of God." So much of the time we already make our minds up about a situation and then we bring it to the Lord and want him to rubber stamp our decision. And God said, "Well, just do whatever you want then, because you're going to do whatever you want anyway, so don't even talk to me about it." But see, when you come and you say, "Lord, I don't know what to do, and I'm willing to do whatever you want me to do," God will answer. And God will show you, "If any man is willing to do his will, he shall know of the teaching whether it is of God."

The principle of yieldedness. Then there's the principle of prayer, of seeking the Lord. Jeremiah 33, verse 3 has been called God's phone number: "Call to me and I will answer you," God says, "and I will tell you great and mighty things which you do not know." In this story of the conversion of Saul in Acts, chapter 9, verse 11, the Scripture says this: "And the Lord said to Ananias, arise and go to the street called Straight and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul. For behold, he is praying." Verse 9 tells us that he was three days without sight and neither ate nor drank. Paul was fasting and praying for three days, "Lord, what do you want me to do?" God says, "If you'll call to me, I will answer you." And when you're faced with "I don't know what to do, Lord, in this situation," he says, "Well, seek me about it, talk to me about it, pray to me about it, ask me about it from a willing heart, from an obedient heart." And God says, "I promise that I will answer you."

And see, when you're praying about things, prayer is talking to God. And so then, not only do we need to pray, and not only is there the principle of prayer, but there's also the principle of listening. We need to listen—the fourth principle—to His Spirit. And God speaks through the Holy Spirit. And God's Holy Spirit takes the Word of God. So often, the Spirit of God takes the Word of God and speaks it to our hearts about a situation that we are struggling with, that we don't know what to do, a direction that we don't know where to go. So it's important to seek the Lord through prayer. It's important to keep in His Word, reading His Word, letting God's Word speak to us.

And Paul, in this story, Ananias went to him in verse 17. "And Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him, said, 'Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you are coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.'" And the Holy Spirit came into Saul. And the Holy Spirit began to guide Saul and showed Saul which way he was to go and what he was to do. I love that verse in Isaiah, chapter 30, verse 21, where the Lord says this: "And your ears will hear a word behind you. This is the way. Walk in it whenever you turn to the right or to the left." I had to listen to God's spirit. And you know what is convicting for me and something that I really have to do? I have to take time to just be quiet before the Lord so that I can listen. So I have to listen to the Lord. I have to spend time reading His Word and listening to him.

And then the last principle is that of godly counsel, and I need to seek godly counsel. Ananias was godly counsel for Saul. God sent him to Saul to speak to Saul about his life and about his situation and about God's plan for his life. And you and I can learn so much from other people. God uses other people to speak to our hearts and to give us wisdom and insight about things. Scripture says in the book of Proverbs, "For by wise guidance you will wage war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory." I really take that verse, Proverbs 24, verse 6, to heart. I like to talk to people that I really believe in my heart are godly folks. I like to talk to them about situations and things in my life, to get their insights, to get their opinions, and to see what they have to say about a matter. In a multitude of counselors, there's victory, and God uses other people. God will show you what he wants for you as you just obey him, as you just are willing, as you seek him, as you listen to him, as you get godly counsel. I believe with all my heart God has a great and wonderful plan for you, and he wants you to know it.

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We pray today's message. How can I know the will of God was meaningful to you? You can listen to part one from last time when you go to fromisheart.org, and you can also download a free MP3 of that broadcast or any broadcast, plus the sermon outline notes from Pastor Jeff. Again, go to fromisheart.org and click the Listen link.

The series is called "Now That's a Tough One: Answering the Difficult Questions of Life." All month long, Pastor Jeff has been answering the tough questions, the big questions that we all have—questions that need clear Biblical answers to guide us and assure us of His sovereignty. Earlier this month, we aired Pastor Jeff's six-message series, "Life's Big Questions," and that series is our special thank you gift for your support this month to From His Heart of any amount.

With the series available on a USB flash drive, CDs, DVDs, or MP3 download, you'll also get the bonus booklet, "The ABCs of the Christian Life," both for your support today of any amount. To request yours, call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-BIBLE) or go to fromhisheart.org. When you're there, we hope you'll leave a prayer request for us to lift to the Lord.

Listen to Pastor Jeff's Real Hope Minute and also sign up for his weekly Real Hope email encouragement letter. It's a devotional that'll come into your inbox every Friday morning. Again, go to fromhisheart.org and get started there.

We also trust that you'll be here tomorrow for the next message in this informative series, "Now That's a Tough One: Answering the Difficult Questions of Life," when Pastor Jeff will offer some keen Biblical answers to one of the age-old questions about the possible salvation of those who have never actually heard the name of Jesus. Will they be doomed to hell? Here's just a little bit of what's to come tomorrow.

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There are 6.8 billion people in the world. There are billions of those 6.8 who have never heard the name of Jesus.

So how does God deal with someone like that who's never heard the name of Jesus? Does God have a different program and a different plan for them?

What about the person who has never heard?

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Join us on Wednesday for the message. What about those who have never heard? That's when Pastor Jeff will open up God's word and share real truth, love and hope. From his heart.

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There is tremendous truth There is love is love There is hope that you always dream he can heal every scar Real Truth Real Love Real From His Heart.

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From His Heart is the listener supported broadcast ministry of Pastor Jeff Shreve who believes that no matter how badly you've messed up in life, God still loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Find out more at from his heart dot org.