In Touch Ministries

Dr. Charles Stanley: God knows what's in every person's mind. God knows that the person who wants a relationship with you is either good for you or not good for you. He knows that every deal that gets offered you is either good or bad. He knows which way you and I are to walk. He knows when we're coming to the fork of the road. He's willing to show us which way to go.

We all need guidance every single day. It is a very foolish person who attempts to live their life without the guidance of Almighty God.

Guest (Male): When you start out on a trip, it's good to know what to expect along the way. Your journey with the Lord is like that. Today on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley will continue our focus on walking in step with God, as Dr. Stanley's message lists several things that are always available to us when we obey the Lord.

Dr. Charles Stanley: Well, there's a whole lot more to the Christian life than most people realize. Oftentimes when a person gets saved, they either fill out a card or walk down an aisle or go in the back room somewhere and finally they're baptized, and so they just sort of leave them there. Most of us would probably say that's what happened to us. No one sat down and said, "Now that you've received Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, here's what you can expect."

So, let's say, for example, that you've trusted Jesus as your Savior, and here you are maybe a young Christian or you've been one a long time. The only thing you've ever done really is sort of go to church, maybe read your Bible a little bit, pray some, and maybe give a little bit. But what should you be able to expect? What should you be able to anticipate when you trust the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior? When you become a Christian, what can you anticipate? What does God say?

That's what I want to answer in this message. What can you anticipate? How God can work in your life once you trust Him as your Savior. He says He's saved us, so He's our Savior. He's our Lord and our Master. He's our guide. This is what you and I can anticipate once we receive Him as our personal Savior. The first word is an intimate relationship. That is, when He saves us, what is it He's after?

He says, for example, that He predestined that you and I would be conformed to the likeness of His Son. He says several times in different ways, "I and My Father are one." You remember, for example, in Mark the first chapter and the 35th verse, the Bible says a great while before day, Jesus was out in the mountain praying. What was He doing? Talking to the Father, listening to the Father, sensing the Father's love, sensing the Father's guidance in His life. They had that awesome sense of oneness.

The Father and the Son had that kind of relationship. He prays, for example, that you and I would have that kind of relationship with Him in His prayer in the 17th chapter of John. Intimacy is an awesome thing because it really reaches the stage of being beyond our description. How do you explain love? If you can explain love, more than likely you've never been loved and never loved anybody. It's beyond human explanation.

And to think this, that God loves you and me—and watch this, this is a sinless, holy, righteous God who's perfect in all ways—that He loves you and me perfectly, sinlessly, absolutely, totally, eternally, and unconditionally. You can't explain that. Those words just give you aspects of it to say how impossible it is to put in words the Father's love. So what does He want? He saves us in order to develop this relationship with us.

Why else did He create the world? He didn't have to create it. He could have thought it all in His mind. Why did He create us? He didn't need us. He can do anything and all things. He created you and me because He wanted to express His love. He had something within Him, He wanted to express it. He wanted us to understand who He is and to worship Him and to love Him and in likewise to love one another.

So what can you and I expect? We can expect when we trust Him as our Savior to begin developing this awesome sense of intimacy with Him. The second word I want you to notice is this: clear guidance. Because every single one of us needs it every day of our life. You and I face decisions daily. Sometimes the decision is rather simple, many times it's not. Sometimes we have to make big decisions, life-changing decisions.

We need guidance beyond our understanding. We all need guidance every single day. It is a very foolish person who attempts to live their life without the guidance of Almighty God. So when you and I walk in step with Him, we have the right to anticipate, to expect, because He's made some promises. Let's turn to a few of them. Let's go back to a verse that you know well in Proverbs chapter three.

Sometimes it's good for us to look at a passage of Scripture. I do this for myself. I may know the passage by heart, but sometimes I just want to read it because I want to look at the words again. You know this passage in Proverbs chapter three, verses five and six. Listen to what He says, but look in your Bible and look at these words. Here's what He says. He says, "Trust in the Lord. Not just hope in Him, trust in Him. Trust in the Lord with what? With all your heart.

Not just here today and gone tomorrow. Trust Him with all your heart. Not trusting Him a little bit and go call your friend. Trust in Him with all your heart. Lean not to your own understanding." If you lean to your own understanding, you're going to reason things and you're going to make mistakes because we don't have all the facts. Only God has all the facts and all the truth about all things. "Lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways, in every circumstance," He says, "in all your ways acknowledge Him.

Seek His wisdom, seek His guidance, listen to Him, wait upon Him, and He will direct your path." Only wise men and women, anyone who is walking with the Lord, is going to be continually seeking His guidance and direction. You meet someone, for example, they ask you a question, and oftentimes instantly I find myself saying, "Now Lord, show me exactly how to answer this," because it's a crucial question to them or something that they believe that oftentimes is not true.

I'm seeking God's guidance. There are those instantaneous times when we need His guidance. Then there are those big questions that we may ask for a week or a month or whatever it might be, seeking His guidance and direction. There are some decisions people say, "Well, I'll just flip a coin." Sometimes that can be suicide. But listen, first of all, when I hear Christians say, "Well, it's just a matter of luck," I want to say, "Brother, you're out in left field somewhere."

Because for the believer, there's no such thing as luck. The Bible says that God rules all things. So if you and I are going by luck, what that means is I'm just floating around out here, just depends on how things happen. We have the promise of clear guidance in that Scripture. Look if you will, the fourth chapter of Proverbs. I want to give you a couple of verses here. Look at this tenth verse in the fourth chapter of Proverbs. Here's what he says.

He says, "Hear, my son, and accept my sayings, and the years of your life will be many. Listen to what I'm saying. The years of your life will be many. I have directed you in the way of wisdom." Remember what we said in passages before: He says wisdom will guide us to do what? Make our days profitable and our years more fruitful. "And the years of your life will be many. I've directed you in the way of wisdom. I have led you in upright paths.

When you walk, your steps will not be impeded, and if you run, you'll not stumble." That is, He says when you walk in Him, nothing's going to be able to hinder you. If something slows you up for a reason, God has allowed it for a reason. When you and I walk in step with Him, He's going to guide us every step of the way. Now, you're seeking God's guidance and you already have your mind made up, you're wasting your time.

Only He knows what's at the end of the path you're about to take. Only He knows what's going to happen in your marriage if you marry the wrong person over here. Only He knows where you're going to be financially if you do something that's foolish in your finances. God is the one who has wisdom to show us what to do, where to do, how to do it, and when to do it. He will never lead you to go the wrong way.

He will never direct you in such a way that is not pleasing to Him. He's not going to lead you along a path where you're going to trip and stumble and fall and destroy your life. We can anticipate His divine guidance in every single aspect of our life if we're walking in obedience to Him. The third word I want you to notice here is His adequate provision. So when we think in terms of walking in step with Him, what does that mean?

Well, in the sixth chapter of Matthew, if you want to turn there for a moment, because a lot of people are worried, they're anxious—suppose this happens and suppose that happens. So listen to what He says. You say, "Well, that was a long time ago. That was hundreds, a couple thousand years ago." Listen, it was worse for them then than it is for us now, by far. Here's what He says in the 25th verse: "For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life as to what you'll eat or drink, nor what you're going to put on, what you're going to wear.

Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They don't sow nor reap nor gather in the barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?" Then He talks about the flowers of the field and so forth. Then He says in the 31st verse: "Do not worry then, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What are we going to wear?'

The Gentiles, that is the unbelievers, eagerly seek all these things, for your Heavenly Father knows that you have need of these things. But seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." That is, walk in His will and His way. Don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. What is He saying? He's saying He's going to provide for us.

I want you to see something here. He says He's going to provide for us. The second thing I want you to see here in this same area is what He says through the Apostle Paul: "My God will supply how much of your needs? All your needs. All your needs according to His riches in glory." Well, most of the time we want to put that in a monetary capacity. All my needs are not financial. We all have physical needs, emotional needs, financial needs, needs in our relationships.

We have all kind of needs. He says, "My God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory," which means this: First of all, His resources are inexhaustible. But He says according to His riches. Now, how do we tap into His riches? I only tap into His riches when I follow Him. That is, when He's my Savior, I have the right to tap into His riches, whatever it is.

If it's something emotional that I need, something physical I need, something material I need. According to His riches in glory, His riches in glory can only be tapped by His children. And when you and I are out of step with Him, it's like your credit card's run out. You begging and pleading for God to do something and you're walking in sin, forget it. The reason God doesn't bless—somebody says, "Well, I know some folks who are being very blessed and they're living in sin."

You don't know what else is going on in their life. You only know what's on the surface. It's after they have a calamity, it's after all you know what breaks loose in their life that all of a sudden you say, "Oh yeah, well, they weren't getting along so well after all." He promises this. He promises that He's going to meet our needs, but then He goes a step further. I want you to look in Second Corinthians chapter nine.

Most people not interested in this, but this is when you and I have a right to expect and anticipate this when you and I are walking in step with Him. Not only is He going to meet our needs and He's going to meet them adequately, but look in Second Corinthians chapter nine, verse six: "Now this I say, he who sows sparingly is going to reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully is going to reap bountifully." That is, if I give more, I'll receive more.

If I give less, I'll receive less. "Each one must do as he's purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." Then He says, "And God is able to make all grace abound to you so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed." Which is saying you're going to have enough to give to others to help them. That's the promise.

That's what you and I can anticipate. Somebody says, "Well, I can't afford to give anything because I don't have anything." The reason you don't have anything is because you're not giving anything. Unwise people don't get that. They don't understand that. They think, "Well, now, how can I give something when I have almost nothing to give?" Here's what He says. You sow sparingly, you reap sparingly. You don't give anything, don't expect God, don't anticipate God blessing you when your excuse is, "Well, I don't have anything to give."

Everybody has something to give. Everybody. You say, "What?" I bet you have a dollar. You say, "A dollar's not much." That's not the question. The question is I give something. And it isn't just money. I give of my time to help this person. I give my love for them because they're going through a difficult time. I give my encouragement to them because they're very discouraged at this point in their life.

Give and it shall be given to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, He says. You and I have the right to expect God to supply all of our needs. Now, remember this: I have the right to expect Him to supply all of my needs, but it's none of my business by whom, through whom, or what way He supplies them. And oftentimes, it's ways that we never expect. So He's ready to provide our needs, but we have a responsibility as He says here.

We have a responsibility to give. Give and it shall be given to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together. If I was sitting here this morning and I had some need and I heard this, I could do one of two things. I could say, "Well, now, He doesn't have any needs." You don't know whether I do or not. Secondly, "He just doesn't know how bad off I am." I don't have to know, God knows.

You see, the truth is, we argue with God. You're going to lose every time. You're going to lose arguing with a God who loves you, who wants the best for you, who wants a relationship with you, who will guide you, who will provide for you. Why argue with Him? We can expect Him to provide our needs. Well, not only that, the Holy Spirit, our Helper. Now think about this.

When you trusted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, the Holy Spirit came into your life and sealed you forever as a child of God. You can't be lost. You say, "You mean to tell me that I can live like the devil and go to heaven?" Listen, if you are a believer and you're living in sin, the chastising hand of God is coming. If it hasn't already arrived, don't look over your shoulder because it is coming.

Is that God being mean to us? No, it's God loving us. He chastises us to get us back in line so we can walk in His will so He can bless us. And so the Holy Spirit is there to do a number of things. A number of Scriptures I could give you here. For example, in the eighth chapter of Romans, He says if you don't have the Spirit of God, you're none of His.

And then He says, for example, in Romans chapter eight, verse 26, He said oftentimes you and I don't even know how to pray. Situations and circumstances we can't explain. So He says the Holy Spirit, He will pray through us and utter through us groanings which we don't understand. When we cry out to God and ask for His guidance and direction sometimes when we don't really know how to pray, He says the Holy Spirit is there to help us.

He says, for example, in First Corinthians the second chapter, that He's the one who gives us discernment. Now listen, discernment is the ability and the capacity to see things as they are, not as they appear to be. When we hear some of these people talking, then listen, the Spirit of God within you will give you discernment to know: are they telling the truth, are they not telling the truth? And when you and I, for example, get in the Word of God, who is it that helps us understand the Word?

It's the Spirit of God that gives us discernment to understand what He's saying. A discerning spirit is a gift of God, and it's the discernment of the Holy Spirit, whether it's interpreting the Word of God or listening or interpreting what somebody's really saying and what is their heart. Lip service is cheap. Heart, soul, body in what you believe is something entirely different. That's the work of the Spirit.

He says also in John the 14th, 15th, 16th chapters, He says that He is our Teacher. He's the one who teaches us the truth. It may be the voice of a man, a physical messenger, but it's God who does the teaching. The Spirit of God within us gives us understanding and helps us to know how to apply it to our life. Here's one of His responsibilities—here in John also, He says—is to convict us of sin.

When you're a believer and you start sinning against God, the Spirit of the Holy God that you and I serve is going to convict us of that sin. Now, you can sin and sin and sin and sin until your conscience becomes quieter and quieter and quieter. Then you're in real trouble. The Holy Spirit is our Helper. You and I are dependent upon Him every single day of our life.

He is the one who gives us divine spiritual and physical energy to do what the Lord Jesus has called us to do. You can't do without Him. You can't understand John 3:16 apart from the Holy Spirit. When you got saved, who do you think helped you understand what it meant to confess your sin, repent of your sin, and receive Jesus Christ, and how His death at the cross could provide for your forgiveness? It was the Spirit of God. What we can expect, we can anticipate the awesome work of the Holy Spirit in our life.

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us today for In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. God promises to meet your needs in His way and on His schedule. If you're experiencing a gap between your prayer and His answer, trust that God has a plan to provide what you need in His perfect time. To hear this message again, visit Intouch.org and click on the link to Today on Radio.

And you can order a copy of today's complete message at the bookstore. The title is What to Expect, or order Dr. Stanley's entire In Step with God teaching set. 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. Are you living in your own strength or in the power of the Holy Spirit? Today's Moment with Charles Stanley is coming up.

Dr. Charles Stanley: When did feelings convey the truth? Not very often. Here's how rich you are. The God who spoke the worlds into being, the God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills—He says the silver and gold is Mine, says the Lord—every single thing in existence is owned and possessed in totality by God. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ, who owns it all, lives within you and has chosen to live and express His life through you.

What in the world are you worried about? And if you yield to your feelings, you'll never do too much in life. Christ is living within you. He who owns it all, has it all, and He knows exactly how much to release in your life and through your life. Your Father owns it all. Your Savior owns it all. The one who indwells you and loves you and loves you enough to have died for you has chosen not only to sit at the Father's right hand and intercede for you, He's chosen to come live within you to see to it that everything you'll ever need will always be there right on time.

Remember the next time you look in the mirror and you get a sad face, you just remember who's on the inside of that body of yours. Christ in you. He says Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Guest (Male): Learn more about the hope that can be yours when you put your faith in Jesus Christ. Visit us at Intouch.org. If today's program fueled your excitement about Jesus, tell someone, and then share your story with us too.

When In Touch returns next time: provision, guidance, and help for life's journey. These are just some of the things we can expect when we walk in step with God. Dr. Stanley's message will add to that list on the next edition of 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.