In Touch Ministries

Dr. Charles Stanley: What is it in my life that doesn' fit who I am and my relationship to him that will hinder God from giving me clear direction? Direction without doubt. He will make it crystal clear, but you have to start with a clean heart, listen, clear mind. Heart's not clean, your mind's not going to be clean. So, you're asking God to show you direction for your life. The first thing you have to deal with is what is there in my life that would keep God from giving me very clear direction.

Guest (Male): Some decisions are easy. Others are extremely difficult. Today on Intouch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley will discover a clear outline that can guide us in making wise, God honoring choices. If you're at a crossroads and don't know what to do, stay with us for a lesson in finding direction without doubt.

Dr. Charles Stanley: I was in the process of making a decision that would affect me and multitudes and multitudes of other people. And I didn't want to do it because I felt very inadequate. Second, I was just afraid to do it. And so, I sort of pondered it off on another pastor friend of mine. And we'd been in a prayer meeting and praying about it and and I didn't want to do it and so I thought he would be a good one to do it and so I just suggested that he be the man. Well, he said, no, I'm not going to do it.

So, I thought another one of my friends might do it. And so, when I left that night, I went back to the hotel and I I woke up feeling fantastic that that was off my shoulder and I didn't have to do it. I got dressed and I walked to the door and reached for the doorknob. Loudly, not vocally, loudly God said to me, don't put your hand on that doorknob until you're willing to do what I ask you to do. It was so loud. I fell on my face at the bed, end of the bed, weeping before God and I stayed there till finally I said, Lord, I still don't want to and I'm still afraid.

But if that's what you want, that's what I'm willing to do. It became a very very momentous time in my life. That's not the only time. I'm just giving you that one example to say this. Are you listening carefully? Say amen.

Guest (Male): Amen.

Dr. Charles Stanley: God will speak to you about critical issues in your life that he knows is the right decision for you to make. Decision he desires that you make. Decision he'll help you make. Decisions that he will enable you to do whatever that decision requires of you. He's just as willing to speak to you, but you have to be ready for that. You have to be willing for him to. And so, I'm saying all that to preface everything else by simply saying God wants you to make the right decision. In every circumstance of life, God is not up to tripping you up.

He doesn't have a bunch of secrets he's keeping from you. He knows his will for you. Think about this. He created you for his purpose, with his plan in mind, the best plan possible. And therefore, why would he keep something from you which he knows you need to know? God is willing to reveal himself. He's willing to speak to you very very clearly, as clearly as is necessary if he knows your heart is right and he will know whether it is or not and that you're willing to do what he says do. Now, with that in mind, what I'd like to do is I'd like to give you six words.

They're phrases, but I want you to remember the six words. If you will follow this pattern, I can absolutely assure you, guarantee you, God will give you clear direction without doubt, no matter what you're facing in life. And here's the first word. If you'll think about it for a moment, if you're in the process of of making a decision, the first word is clear the pathway. It's a phrase, clear the pathway. So, the pathway is what we are talking about. Now, what do we mean by that? Clear your heart of any known sin, disobedience, whether it's an attitude or action.

You got to get rid of that. Think about this. You're asking holy God to give you his mind, to a sinful mind that is living in sin and intensely keep on living in sin and you're asking God to give you direction. He's not going to do it. So, when we say clear the pathway, we're saying look at your life and ask yourself the question, what is it in my life that doesn't fit who I am and my relationship to him that will hinder God from giving me clear direction? Direction without doubt. He will make it crystal clear, but you have to start with a clean heart.

Then of course, the second one is this and that is to exercise patience. Now, all of us want God to answer our prayer as soon as we get through asking because we're usually in a hurry for something. And we don't understand why God, for example, doesn't do it when we ask him to do it. And there always reasons for that. But let me just say this. When you have this sudden urge to jump and make a decision, back off. Ask yourself the question, does this look like God? Does this sound like God? Does this fit who God is as far as the principles of scripture concern?

Because we can all get in situations where people will want us to make a snap decision, a quick decision. To be patient means that I'm willing to trust God. Then of course, be alert to pressure. That's the third one. All of us have come to the decision making process in our life and we've made the mistake of asking our friend, what do you think? And usually they'll say, well, if I were you, this is what I would do. They're not you. You have to be watchful for pressure. And you have to be discerning enough to know that if your friends tell you something, it may be that you have a friend who'll tell you something that is exactly what God wants.

You have to be careful who you're listening to. And what you always have to ask is this, what are the consequences if I make this decision? Don't ever forget that word. Consequences always follow decisions. It may be good consequences or bad consequences. Consequences always follow decisions. And the reason people get in the mess that they're in, financially, relationally, you name it, they don't count the consequences. If I'm going to make wise decisions, then I have to deal with pressure. Then a fourth thing is this and that is persist in our prayer. Now, let's say you're asking God to give you direction about something and you've prayed about 10 minutes about today.

Well, you wake up the next morning and didn't hear a thing. You prayed all week long, didn't hear a thing. All month long, didn't hear a thing. God's not listening. Watch this. Because you don't get clear direction about something today does not mean that God is not listening. I remember praying for something for six solid months. I prayed for it every single day that God would give me direction. Well, what he showed me was he had tried to give me direction before and I didn't listen. You know why I didn't listen? Because I was afraid.

I was afraid I couldn't do what he was requiring of me. And I prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed. I remember six months when it got right down to the bitter end and the decision had to be made. I said, okay, Lord. It wasn't that he hadn't heard me. He was having to deal with me. And every single one of us, listen, have enough of self in us. We all have that. We have enough of what we want or what we are afraid of or whatever it might be that sometimes the reason we have to keep praying about something is that God in that prayer time is doing what, softening us up, helping us to see things in our life, for example, that ought not to be there.

Sometimes it's a fact that you're asking God to give you direction and the Lord knows exactly what he has in mind, but he also knows in your present spiritual state you're not ready for that. So, one of the primary reasons we have to keep praying is for God to work on us. Now, that's not always true every single time. Sometimes God lays something on our heart and it's out there in the future. He wants us to start talking to him about it now. Why? Because in the process of talking to him about it, even maybe several months or whatever it might be, God is in the process of drawing us close to him, intimately with him, sifting things out of our life, maybe the way we think or the it's not necessarily something bad you think, but the way you think about that given situation.

God has to work in our hearts. Most of the time we don't realize what God's up to. He's working in our life and we don't realize at the time because we can't see it. But then after the decision is made or time goes by, we look back and say thank you, dear God. Thank you that you didn't give me that when I asked for it. How many of you have asked God for something and had to later thank God that he didn't answer it? We all have. Okay, suppose he'd have given it to you the first time you asked.

You'd be in trouble. And so, we have to be patient. We have to be sensitive to the pressure of get what's going on in our prayer time. Uh, we have to be wise about how we go about it. Then of course, we have to rest in God's promise. Now, this is why the word of God is so very important. There are so many promises and you know so many of them. If I'm going to find out what God wants me to do in a situation, I have to rest in his promises. And one of them is he says asking that you'll be given you, seeking you should find, knocking it will be open to you.

That's the promise of almighty God. He says this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, we know that we have the petition we desired of him. And on and on and on we could go of promises. And so, if I'm making a decision and I'm coming to that point of asking God to make it crystal clear, here's what will happen. If you will open the word of God, if you just began to read in the Psalms and the Proverbs alone, you may say, well, you know, I don't know a whole lot about Psalms and Proverbs.

Just read and ask God to speak to your heart. Lord, is there something here that you need to say to me? Do you want to use your word to speak to my heart? So often he does. And I remember in one occasion, not too long ago, when I was trying to make a decision about something and I was just asking God to make it very clear because it was so critical in my thinking. The Lord just laid this verse on my heart. I I was reading along. And I thought, well, Lord, how you going to do that?

And probably two or three days later, no later, I was reading again in the book of Isaiah and it's like the Lord says, the zeal of the Lord will accomplish this. I knew I had my answer. I didn't know how to do it. What he was saying is you don't have to figure that out. You just trust me. Here's what I want you to do. Don't don't figure that out. Just trust me. And that is exactly what he did. There's something about the awesome word of God. He says his word is what? A lamp to our feet and a light unto our path.

God will show you in every single decision what to do. But sometimes it takes time. Waiting upon him, listening to him, getting into the word, saying God, what what is it in the word you're trying to say to me? This is why I say to you over and over and over again, listen carefully. Every day you should read the word of God every day because what you're doing when you're reading, you're putting the way God thinks into your mind so that things will be crystal clear. And I would say to any grandparent, when you can sit down with your grandchildren and talk to them about the Lord one at a time, one at a time and how you come to make decisions in your life.

You think, well, they're not interested in that. Yes, they are. So, when somebody says, does God speak today? Yes. And listen, this is better than the Old Testament. They didn't have this. We've got God's word. Listen, you have the mind of God in print. I don't think you can ask a single solitary question for which there is not a clear answer from God in his word. That why in praying and praying and reading and listening and saying God speak to my heart and here's what it'll do. You'll be asking about something and maybe a little time will go by and one day you not even thinking about it and all of a sudden crystal clear.

God, there's the answer because he loves you and because he wants you to know how to live out your life. Then I'd say one last thing and that is this and that is wait for his peace. And in Colossians chapter three and this 15th verse, listen to what he says and I love this. He says let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful. When he says let the peace of God rule, what does that mean? For example, if I'm asking for a decision, Lord, what would you have me to do?

Here's what he says. This is a finality with God. When you struggled and you fretted and you fumed about it all and you think you know what it is and he gives you this perfect, unquestionable peace. Peace is the rule of God. In other words, peace in seeking the mind of God is like the umpire. He calls you safe. When you can struggle with it and go through whatever you have to go through to find out what God wants, how do you know it? There'll be a peace in your heart and people may tell you no, they may complain, they may do all kind of things.

But listen, when God gives you a peace, there's nothing like that. You can face anybody anytime, anywhere about anything when you have the peace of God in your heart that you've asked him, you sought his direction, your heart's clean, you're saying I'll do whatever you say do. He says let the peace of Christ rule in your heart. Now, watch this. Because the peace of Christ means the mind of Christ. Here's what he says. Here's what he believes. Here's what he's saying about this. If you got sin in your life, there'll be confusion, frustration, questions, doubts, all kind of things.

But you can come to the most difficult decisions in life and you follow this pattern. And you're making a decision. God does not intend for you to have to make a decision. We're hoping and praying and I think so, I hope so. None of that. You know so. And you can face anything as long as you know that God has given you clear direction in your life. Direction without doubt. And the final proof is a peace. The Bible says it passes all understanding. Now, watch this. It passes your friends' understanding. It passes your enemies' understanding.

It will pass your understanding. You just know that it's there. Now, there's some things you don't have to ask the mind of God about. For example, somebody says, well, I'm thinking about being saved whenever the Lord leads me. The Bible says, behold, today is the day of salvation. You do not have to pray to ask God if you should be saved or not. The scripture's clear. You do not have to pray and ask God if it's his will for you to be baptized. It is. The Bible makes it clear. You do not have to pray and ask God if you should forgive this person for wronging you.

It is the will of God. There are many things that people so I've been praying about it. Well, sometimes they're just crystal clear in the scripture what the word of God is. If if something's crystal clear I have to pray about it, I just have to choose to obey him and disobey. But primarily what we've been speaking about those decisions that are difficult, what they demand of us, what it requires of us, what other people think and all those matters. You can know for sure the mind of God if you're willing to approach it in the right way.

Well, let's say for example that you're not a believer and you say, well, what is the will of God for my life? The will of God for your life is for you to confess your sins to him, repent of them, turn away from it, tell the Lord Jesus Christ that you believe he died on the cross for your sins and you're accepting his death as payment for your sin and surrendering your life to him. You don't have to say, Lord, save me if you can, he can. Save me if you will, he will. You don't have to ask any of that.

You ask him to forgive you of your sins and accept by faith that what he said is true. That if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. If you confess with your mouth Jesus Christ as Lord, believe in your heart that God's raised him from the dead, you'll be saved. There's some things you don't have to question. So, if you've never trusted him as your savior, you don't have to find the will of God. I can tell you what it is.

It's all through the word of God, all through the scripture. Trust him as your personal savior. Follow him. The Holy Spirit will come into your life and begin to give you direction for your life. That's the will of God for everyone. So, you listen, whoever you are, you're facing decisions in your life. I know you are. We all do. So, are you going to make decisions based on the guidance and direction of almighty God through his spirit speaking to you through his word, through prayer, listening to him, or maybe through some other godly person who has your best interests at heart.

Or you just going to decide I'm I'm going to make this decision. Watch this. Pride can destroy you. Pride, listen, here's what pride says. I can make the decision. I don't need any help. That's where a lot of people have lost it because they could make it without God. You can't make without him. I plead with you in Jesus' name for your own sake. Trust him as your savior. Surrender your life to him. Let him be your decision maker. Father, how grateful we are. I pray for people who are in the process of making critical decisions or even making an important decision or small decision or big decision.

They're all big in your eyes because they have to do with our obedience to you. Make it crystal clear, Father. As they follow through these steps, make it crystal clear so that they can say to others, God has spoken to me and made it crystal clear what I'm to do. We love you and praise you, Father, for not leaving it up to us, but helping us through these times in Jesus' name. Amen.

Guest (Male): Scripture warns us that pride leads to destruction. So, today's message on Intouch urge us to humble ourselves before the Lord and ask for his guidance before making decisions. And then commit to follow through and carefully obey. To learn more about seeking God's guidance, stop by intouch.org and listen to this lesson again at the link to today on radio. And you can order a copy of Dr. Stanley's complete message Direction Without Doubt from our store page. That's at intouch.org. You can also call or text 1-800 Intouch. If you prefer to write, our address is Intouch, Post Office Box 7900 Atlanta, Georgia 30357.

Life can be busy, hectic, and stressful, but believers should always be preoccupied with Christ. Today is moment with Charles Stanley is coming up.

Guest (Male): In our spiritual journey, we often have questions. How do I know God's will for my life? Does God hear my prayers? Why do bad things happen? The answers are found in the word of God. But how do we know where to start? The free Intouch devotional can help point you in the right direction with biblically based content from Dr. Charles Stanley. You'll gain insight and wisdom through daily devotions, Bible studies, and more. The Intouch devotional delivered monthly to your mailbox. Subscribe for free at intouch.org/daily.

Guest (Male): Intouch Plus is streaming on Local Now featuring all the best of Dr. Charles Stanley.

Dr. Charles Stanley: We're to have strong convictions based on the word of God. He's working out things that you and I would never know about in our future.

Guest (Male): Intouch Plus, your streaming network for quality Christian programming 24/7.

Dr. Charles Stanley: Now, watch this.

Guest (Male): Intouch Plus, streaming free on Local Now.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Intouch. The Bible says we're to delight ourselves in the Lord. What does that look like? With insight for believers, here's a moment with Charles Stanley.

Dr. Charles Stanley: What are you taking delight in? Your desires are in God. Do you know what it means to delight yourself? We're delighted in the truth that we'll filled with his spirit. We're delighted, Father. I'm delighted that you have redeemed me, sanctified me. I'm delighted that you've justified me. I'm delighted that you have glorified me in your mind already. Delighted in who you are, what you do, how you work, and the amazing, miraculous things, and how you control everything that is in existence, and how you in absolute control. Delighted to see what you've done, delighted to see what you're going to do.

Is that the emphasis of our thinking or we always just want something? You want the desires of your heart? Step number one, delight yourself in him. Now, listen, if you're honest, you'll have to ask yourself the question, God, have I really been delighting myself in you or have I been delighting myself in my desires and in myself? Lord, am I preoccupied with self or am I wonderfully occupied with you? Now, I know how people answer sometime. You'll say, well, look now look, let me tell you something. I've got I have I work 8, 10, 12 hours a day and I've got a family and all the affairs of life that I have to take care of and you tell me all to be preoccupied with God?

Yes. Absolutely. How can you be preoccupied with God when there's so much going on? Because he lives on the inside of every single believer. And as you and I are thinking about whatever we are doing in life, whether it is in our family, our finances, our relationships, the work that you do, 8 hours a day, it may be something that you do that's it may be a monotonous thing as far as the world's concerned, but you're doing it. But you know what? You and I can be thinking about the Lord. We should sift all of our thinking through him.

How we are doing it? Are we doing our best? Are you pleased with this, Lord? Is this the best I can do? Thank you for the opportunity. Listen, our whole life should center around not ourselves, but the Lord Jesus Christ. He is a generous God, ready and willing to give us the desires of our heart.

Guest (Male): Learn more about centering your life on Jesus Christ at intouch.org. How are you going to apply what you've heard today? We'd love to hear from you. When Intouch returns next time, we begin a series of messages helping us to understand and successfully fend off a satanic attack. I hope you'll be back again for Intouch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. This program is a presentation of Intouch Ministries Atlanta, Georgia and remains on this station through the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.