In Touch Ministries

Guest (Male): We're all going to have natural strong desires. I don't mean they have to be sinful desires, but I mean we just have natural desires in life. Things that you want, dreams that you have, goals that you have. And so it may be that what we want, God wants us to have. But we have to have clear guidance as to how to go about it.

It may be that God has set a beautiful goal for your life, or he has something for your life that you really desire, that you really long for, something you've been working towards, and you want to know how God, do I go about this? He desires to give us clear guidance.

Suppose you have the chance to take an attractive new job. Should you stay where you are or go? How do you know what to do? Today on *In Touch*, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley, we'll see that one role the Holy Spirit has is to help believers in decision-making. Learn practical skills for following God's lead as you listen now to biblical instruction for finding clear guidance.

Dr. Charles Stanley: When you face those major decisions in your life, how do you feel? Where do you turn when those kinds of feelings come up? When those kind of feelings develop in your life and you know that you have a decision to make and it can be something very critical. There are all kinds of decisions in life. Some of them are very simple and seem to be very uneventful and very unimportant. Then there are those that you and I know that are very important. Some very crucial and critical. Some absolutely expedient. We have to make very, very wise decisions. Very important decisions. Where do you turn?

Well, that's what I want to talk about in this message because the question that I receive above all else is this: How can I be sure I'm making the right decision? How can I be sure I have very clear guidance about this? How can I be sure I'm about to do the will of God?

Listen to this one verse that I want you to notice in the 25th Psalm, verse 12. "Who is the man or the woman who fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way he should choose." Look at that. "Who is the man or the woman who fears the Lord?" That is, reverences God, respects Him, submits to Him, yields to Him, seeks Him, desires to know His mind, His will, and His way. Who is the person who fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way he should choose.

It's very evident from the scriptures that God is willing to give us clear guidance about every single circumstance of life. In fact, I can't ever remember God saying at any point in my life, "Here's what I want you to do, now you figure that out." That doesn't sound like God. "Well, I have some plans, you figure out what they are. I have a task, and just go do it." That isn't the way God operates.

God has given to each one of His children the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. One of His primary responsibilities is to give us clear direction for our life. God would not put us on this earth and expect of us to walk in His way, walk in His will, knowing that we would be bombarded with a thousand different ways and attitudes—the world's way, all down through the centuries. This isn't just a 21st-century thing; this has been going on since the beginning of time. And that is, how do we find clear guidance? God is, listen, He is willing to give it. He always has, He's willing now. The issue is, how do we go about it?

Well, I'm sure that there are probably other ways. What I'd like to do is to give you six short phrases. These phrases will take you from the absolute first part of the decision all the way to the last part of the decision of finding clear guidance. And I think if you will jot them down, they're simple, they're clear, they're plain, they're easy. Is it that they're always easy to follow? Not necessarily.

And I want to say to parents, listen carefully, mom and dad, grandparents. You'll be very, very wise. Your children will be very, very grateful if you will listen carefully. Take down these six phrases and at the right time with your children, sit down and say with them, "Let me go over something with you that's going to help you all the rest of your life." Well, they're going to want to know what that is. And then here's what I'd suggest.

I'd suggest you say, "Now look, why don't you write on one of those big flyleaves in the back of your Bible that hasn't got anything on it? I mean, it's absolutely plain. So what you want to do is you want to write at the top of it, 'Because I want God's best for my life, all of my life. Because I want God's best for my life, all of my life.'" And then what you might want to do is say, "You want to jot these points down and if you will follow them, let's see what God will do with your life if you'll make decisions based on these simple principles."

Well, what is the first one? As I said, they're very, very simple, but every single one of them is very important. Number one, and that is clear the pathway. Clear the pathway. Well, what in the world do you mean by clearing the pathway? Well, simply this, that God has to get us ready to hear His discernment—that is, His clear direction for our life. He has to get us ready. And so when I say clear the pathway, I mean clear it of two things here.

First of all, clear it of sin. That is, if I'm asking for God's mind—because that's what we have. When we're asking for clear direction, what we're asking for is, "God, what are You thinking about this?" If I'm asking for how God thinks about something in my life, I can't be tampering with, playing with, a part of, tolerating any known willful sin in my life. I'm asking for holy direction for my life with a sinful attitude.

So habits, attitudes, conduct that is not becoming to who we are in Christ Jesus, who we are as children of God, has to go. It has to be dealt with because here's what sin does. Sin fragments our thinking. Sin fogs our thinking. Sin sort of disintegrates what's going on in us spiritually. And so what happens is, we find this bit of confusion. And this is why some people seemingly can't make wise decisions.

They're frustrated, they're confused, they're disheveled in their heart and their spirit, and they feel sort of mixed up and not exactly certain. And one thing sin always does, it absolutely cuts out from under you your assurance about most anything in life. And so the first thing that has to be dealt with is clear the path of sin because it absolutely will fog your mind. And you can't mix God's holy mind with this fouled-up mind of ours if it's contaminated with something going on in us that should not be.

So first thing I have to deal with is I have to deal with this issue of sin. But there's something else we have to deal with and clear the path of, and that's strong desires. We're all going to have natural strong desires. I don't mean they have to be sinful desires, but I mean we just have natural desires in life. Things that you want, dreams that you have, goals that you have. And so it may be that what we want, God wants us to have. But we have to have clear guidance as to how to go about it.

Here's what He does. We start out with our desires, whatever they may be, and He has to bring us to the place of what I call submissive neutrality. That is, I have to get my strong desires over here and let God begin to work in my life to bring them to the point that I'm willing to say, "Lord, not what I want, but what You want. God, this is what I want. This is my desire. But Lord, I want to be able to submit that, yield to that, and become neutral in my thinking and neutral in my desires because I really want what You want more than I want what I want because I know if what I want is not what You want, what You want is better for me than what I want."

And so when I'm able to bring those strong desires into a place of submissive neutrality, then I know that God is certainly at work. And that is the foundation—that is the bottom line and the foundation of clear discernment is a clean heart. A pure heart and clear direction go together. A pure heart and clear direction. A heart that has dealt with sin.

So the solution to the whole issue when it comes to sin is repentance. "God, this doesn't belong in my life, it doesn't fit. I'm dealing with this. I'm laying this down. I want nothing in my life that will fog my mind and confuse and mix and intermingle my mind so that I miss Your clear direction for my life." So when we talk about clearing the pathway, we're talking about clearing the pathway of sin, any kind of sin, whatever it might be. Those personal desires, bringing them into submissive neutrality.

Does that mean you give up your desire? No. It means that you're willing to lay it down and submit it to the will of God. It may be exactly what He wants. But what we want to know is we want to know that nothing is influencing that clear direction. The second phrase is this, and that is to exercise patience. Patience simply means I refuse to rush ahead of God. Patience here simply means I refuse to rush in until I have clear direction.

Patience says I'm willing to wait until I know that I've heard from God. Until I know this is His choice, this is His way, this is His will. Now most of us probably live hurriedly. We live on a fast track. Everybody I know lives in Atlanta, has to live on a fast track; you won't get anywhere. That's probably true in the whole world. Everybody seems to be rushing around. And if we're not careful, we'll rush right into something that God's not in.

We have to back off. And I want to give you two passages of scripture. Turn first of all to Psalm 27. And I want you to notice the two words that he involves in this 27th Psalm, the 14th verse. Listen. He says, "Wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for the Lord." Now why would he say be strong and take courage? Here's the reason.

Because if my desire for something is so strong, I have to be strong enough internally not to move ahead, even though I may think or I may desire, I may wish, I may want, I may dream. This may be my goal. Sometimes it takes a great deal of strength to stand still. A great deal of courage not to budge when everything around you is shouting, "Hurry, hurry, hurry, time is running out."

Patience. Now, I want you to look at this next verse because this is a verse of assurance when you and I are being patient. Turn back over to Psalm 25. Look at this verse now. Very important verse because all of us are challenged not to wait. Let's move on with it. And all of us can probably look at times when we've disobeyed God, moved ahead, and we were sorry. Listen to this verse. Psalm 25, verse 3. "Indeed, none of those who wait for You will be ashamed."

When people say to you, "But suppose..." and "If this..." and all of this, He says, "Look, if we wait for the Lord, we won't be ashamed." In other words, you don't ever have to be embarrassed waiting upon the Lord. You don't have to worry about being ashamed waiting upon God. Does it take courage? Yes. Does it take faith? Yes. Does it take strength to wait at times when you don't know what to do next? Yes.

And there are times when He says, "Move." And sometimes it takes courage and strength to move when He has said very clearly, "This is what I want you to do," but we don't know all the details. And so that's why you just can't line it up with pros and cons and maybe this and maybe that. We're looking for clear direction. That is, we want direction that's so clear, so plain, so evident that we can move in that direction.

Listen, we may have to move in fear and trembling because we don't know what—we know God's going to work it out. We don't know how He's going to do it. And we move with confidence, but at the same time on the outside we're thinking, "Oh, dear Lord, now I know You're going to work all this out." Absolutely deep down inside, an awesome sense of blessed assurance.

Patience. Very, very important because this is where we get in trouble. We've got to have it today. We want to move now. And especially, listen, much of that depends upon the strength of our desire. It depends on how strongly we want this. And so the stronger my desire, the more difficult it is for me to be able to wait until I have absolutely clear direction, no matter what. It may be that God has exactly in mind what you desire, and yet He has a reason for causing you to wait, which we'll get to in a few moments.

All right, the third step, which is so very important, very important step: Be alert to pressure. Be alert to pressure. Whenever you're in the process of making a decision, be alert to pressure because pressures will be there. Now there are two primary forms of pressure that you and I have to deal with. And the first one is exterior pressure. Something on the outside. What is that? Well, people.

People will tell you what you ought to do, how you ought to think. And they'll give you their advice. And they'll tell you, "Now this is exactly what I would do if I were you." And I want you to listen to this carefully. You think about how unreliable that is. This is not to say that godly advice should not be adhered to, but think about people who want to tell you exactly what to do and how to do it and when to do it.

You think about this. First of all, they are coming from their personality, their background, the way they think. You don't know about their fears. You don't know about their anxieties. You don't know what drives them. You don't know what motivates them. You don't know what governs their life. And they don't know you. They don't know God's will and plan and purpose for your life. So here's what they do. They say, "Here's what I think you ought to do." What they're doing is they are projecting on you a plan that fits them, and you are not them.

The interesting thing to me is that people are so willing to give advice who know nothing about scriptural principles. They take a verse of scripture and say, "Well, here's what God says, here's what you ought to do." Well, the question is, what's the will of God? What's God's guidance? You want clear guidance for your life. That's why you have to be careful.

And let me say to parents: Parents, before you say to your children, "Now I'm telling you right now, this is what you must do," be sure that that isn't just your opinion. Now I'm not in any way discrediting your authority in the home. I'm simply saying this: if you make decisions for your children simply based on your opinion and not seeking God's guidance, what you're doing is you're laying a track down for your children to make decisions based on their feelings.

You don't want your children to do that. You want them to make decisions based on godly principles. You want them to make decisions not based on anger at the moment, fear at the moment, uncertainty at the moment, but clear guidance. If you do that to your children, they're going to grow up doing what? The same thing to their children. And they'll do the same thing to their children, and to their children, and to their children.

So you've got generation after generation who are living knowing nothing in the world about getting clear guidance from God because how did they learn? They learned it from their parents. That when you get upset, you go do what I tell you to do. Why? Just because I said so. The only person who really has the right to say that's God. He's the only perfect one. Everybody else should at least have some kind of an explanation.

So one of the things we have to watch out for is the pressure of people. "Here's what you ought to do." And listen, it can be one person or everybody in your office may think so, or everybody in your home, or everybody in your church. It makes no difference what it is. What you have to ask is, "I want God's guidance." Where do I get clear guidance? Not listening to everybody's opinion.

Now you have to watch this because this is extremely effective because a lot of folks can't stand the rejection if they say, "Well, you know, they've given me this advice and surely all these folks couldn't be wrong." Listen, you'd better sift all the advice you get through the Word of God. Sift it all on your knees before the Lord. Because sometimes God will tell you to do something that doesn't make any human sense with somebody else, but it's God's plan for your life.

That's the decision He wants you to make. And you'll walk away one of these days looking back and thinking God, you made the right decision and nobody agreed with you. Nobody seemed to agree with you. You want clear direction. You want godly direction. You have to be sensitive and have to be alert to pressure because it's going to be out there.

Now, that pressure is going to come from the outside. It can come also not only from people, but it can come from circumstances. "Well, these are my circumstances." Now watch this. "These are my circumstances and I have to make a decision and time is running out." And so you're prone to move ahead. Remember this: time never runs out on God. You can get all kind of pressure, but listen, no matter what the circumstance is, if God hasn't told you, if He hasn't given you clear direction, if you don't have a sense of guidance from Him, do not step into something because of pressure of the circumstance or somebody's pressure on you. It is an unwise thing to do.

And so we have to be careful. Be alert to pressure. Now that's external pressure. The pressure from circumstances, the pressure from people. But there's also internal pressure. Well, what is this internal pressure that would hinder me from getting clear guidance? Here's what it is. Number one, fears, anxieties, a fear of loss, fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of disapproval.

And so what happens oftentimes, people are driven by, motivated by, compelled by other people's attitudes. But sometimes compelled by these exaggerated feelings they have. These exaggerated expectations they have of themselves. "Well, I must, I should, I ought." And shoulds, oughts, and musts will get you in a lot of trouble. Shoulds, oughts, and musts are pressure points in a person's life. "I should, I ought, I must."

God isn't saying you should, ought, or you must. He will give us very clear direction, and that clear direction will come. But if I submit and yield to the pressure, whether it's external or internal, I'm going to get in trouble. God nowhere says you make a decision based on the majority. God says you listen to Me. And if you can drill that into the heart of your children, "You must learn to listen to God. Listen, you don't do what your peers are doing. You don't engage in the things they engage in because if they don't, they will reject you. So what?"

So what is the rejection of the world as long as you have the acceptance of Jesus? There's a lot of difference. You know what? There's no real assurance in the acceptance of the world. There's a whole lot of assurance when you have Jesus' acceptance. And so you want to be careful about the pressure. External pressure, internal pressure. It can come from all kinds of different people, situations, and circumstances in life. And we have to be careful we don't listen to the wrong voices.

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us today for *In Touch*, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. God reveals His will to His followers, but we need to make sure we're listening to the instructions He gives. As we learn to seek His guidance, we'll find our course far easier to navigate. To study more about how to apply the Bible to the things you face, be sure to stop by intouch.org or go back over this message a second time by following the link to today on radio.

And if you go to the bookstore page, you can order a copy of Dr. Stanley's complete message, *Finding Clear Guidance*. Again, that's intouch.org. To call or text, it's 1-800-INTOUCH. You can write to us at In Touch, Post Office Box 7900, Atlanta, Georgia 30357. No matter how successful you may be, if you're not a follower of Jesus Christ, you're missing real life. Today's Moment with Charles Stanley is coming up.

We're not the first to seek a life of purpose. The Bible tells of many who followed a specific path step by step with courage, with surrender for a deeper purpose, a stronger passion, a lasting peace. Introducing *Your Path to Purpose, Passion, and Peace*, a new 90-day devotional inspired by the timeless teaching of Dr. Charles Stanley. Available now at intouch.org/store.

Dr. Charles Stanley: Let your time and your schedule and everything about you revolve around this: that you and I are to develop and continue to develop this ongoing, intimate, wonderful, exciting, satisfying, indescribable, wonderful, incomparable relationship with a personal God.

Guest (Male): Dr. Stanley devoted his entire life to helping us get closer to Jesus, as we all want to do. You can learn how at charlesstanleyinstitute.org.

Dr. Charles Stanley: You're listening to *In Touch*. We give a lot of attention and effort to meeting the demands placed on us, but are you prepared to meet God? Here's a Moment with Charles Stanley.

So no matter how gifted you may feel like you are and how adequate you are, you need forgiveness because the Bible says it is appointed unto man once to die, and after this the judgment. We'll all stand before Him and give an account for our life. So the moment you recognize your sinfulness, your need of Him, and you're willing to ask Him to forgive you of your sins and that you're turning your life over to Him, and you want the best for your life, and you're accepting His salvation, His eternal security, His forgiveness, and a whole brand-new beginning in your life, the moment you do that, everything changes in your life.

There'll be a sense of peace and contentment and joy and confidence that comes from Him and not something you sort of make up for yourselves. Because apart from Jesus Christ, you have no peace, no matter how talented and skilled you may feel like you are. And you can pray this simple prayer: "Father, I recognize my sinfulness. I'm asking You to forgive me of my sins. I'm surrendering my life to You, and I give myself to You today here and now. And then I'm going to watch You work in my life as I live out this awesome gift of Christ and His wonderful gift of eternal life. In Jesus' name, Amen."

You can pray that prayer any way you want to. It doesn't have to be in those words. And my friend, life will change, and you'll be greatly blessed all of your life.

Guest (Male): To learn more about receiving Jesus Christ as your Savior from sin, visit us at intouch.org. Are these truths impacting your walk with Jesus? Tell us your story. Tomorrow on *In Touch*, we'll learn three more essential principles for helping determine whether we've heard from God. Join us Thursday for *In Touch*, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. This program is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia, and remains on this station through the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.