Discerning God's Will

Being in my last year at uni ever (for the second time...) I have been listening to some sermons on and reading about discerning God's will and making decisions. Here are some notes:

From a Campus Crusade for Christ conference series.

Right decisions come from right perspectives.

How did God guide his people in the past: Spoke audibly, dreams, visions, angels, spiritual leader: prophets to speak to kings etc., servants of God saw a need and took action. Many different ways.

#1. Don't ask "what is God's will for my life?" - this is inherently self-centred. Ask "HOW DOES MY LIFE FIT INTO GOD'S WILL?" Be a good steward of the life He has given you, take part in what He is doing all over the world. Happiness will follow =)

#2. Pray. Grow in Wisdom slowly as you begin to see God's will revealed in His scriptures. Pray "Lord, would you direct me to specific scriptures that will help me discern your will?"

#3. Signs are HELPFUL but NOT AUTHORITATIVE.
-Peace: Is it from God or my desire to have less hassles?
-Impressions: ASK "Is this God's voice I'm hearing or is it my inner desire?" - TEST IT: against the Scriptures. If it doesn't fit, it's not from Him. TEST IT: against WISE counsel.
-Circumstances: Is this closed door REALLY a closed door or is it an opportunity to trust Him more and bring Him MORE glory? Red Sea: considerable closed door, no? No! OPPORTUNITY TO BRING HIM THOUSANDS OF YEARS OF GLORY! Ask, "Lord, do you want me to go even when others will oppose me?"
-Look for the "calm, inward, persistent sense that you should go."
Use your SANCTIFIED, SOUND MIND: Let the Spirit of God work through the Word of God to your mind. ASK: Who am I? How has God created me? What are my gifts and strengths? What are the needs around the world? How do I fit in?


From "Right People, Right Place, Right Plan: Discerning the Voice of God" by Jentezen Franklin

God made you in His image. You don’t need to try to be somebody you’re not because what God wants is you and all of you. With the fall, mankind went from speaking with God in the garden to being afraid of His voice. NO! You must hear Him! You must be familiar with His voice and recognise His voice!

God made you extraordinary and He desires to use you in extraordinary ways. He's given all believers the extraordinary gift of an internal compass to guide and discern things about the people around us, our careers, our finances, etc. This discernment is not from human wisdom; it is from God.

1 John 2:20 says “but you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth” (NIV).

All believers have an anointing, a spiritual touch of God, that provides them with remarkable insight. Through the Holy Spirit, from whom flows all the gifts, graces, and superior knowledge of God, you have inside information on what God’s will is.

Proverbs 3:6 says “in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths” (NIV).

Our part is to acknowledge Him and God’s part is to direct us. Pray about things, include Him in everything and wait for Him. When you have God’s approval on your decisions, He will provide everything. For every vision, He has made provision! If God brings you to it, He’ll bring you through it! If it’s God’s will, it’s God’s bill! What God initiates, He will orchestrate!

The author is, and now I am, convinced that the gift of discernment is a gift God gives to all believers. Makes sense! We all have His Spirit and His Spirit communicates to us. How wonderful it is that God lives inside us! Are you getting how BIG this is? God knows everything and He lets us in on it! The Spirit speaks to us and we gain insight into situations, people, difficult Biblical concepts... anything and everything... so that we may be able to make good decisions, provide wise counsel, see truth and generally speak and act in a manner that is holy and pleasing to God and that glorifies Him! Our awesome God is omniscient and He is not absent... He is alive and He communicates to us, so we need to listen.

"The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name... and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice." - John 10:3-4

Keep running to God, keep delighting in Him and spending time with Him because the more time we spend with Him and the better we know Him, the better we can recognise and hear His voice. We need to be able to tell His voice apart from that of our own, the people around us and even the devil so that we may follow God's voice to the right path. Recognising, hearing and obeying God's voice is so important and so powerful! We have this amazing amazing privilege - let's use it and glorify God!

Are You (Still) Growing, Spiritually?

So I just got back from MYC and basically, it was off the hook (off the hook, off the hook, off the hook!) While the conference is always a great time of revelation and spiritual feeding for me, this year was especially special. I thought I would share with you the experiences and lessons I got from it. My prayer is that it will bless your walk with God and spur you on in your own journey of Spiritual Growth.

I'll try to make this short(er than is characteristic of my writing). Basically, on one of the nights, God performed spiritual open heart surgery on me and His Spirit convicted me of neglecting my relationship with the Lord. I had been so busy doing things and crossing off lists and going through the motions that I actually forgot about spending time with the one I love. But God is ever merciful and His abundant grace overwhelms my brokenness, so I will rejoice in my salvation! But I want to move forward and put this lesson into action. Now that the problem has been diagnosed, let's get right onto the remedy.

Here are the lessons I learnt from John North's 5 MYC talks, in a nutshell:

Talk #1: The first step of Spiritual Growth is TOTAL COMMITMENT to the leadership of Jesus Christ in your life. - Luke 9:23
1. Deny yourself.
2. Take up your cross daily.
3. Follow Jesus.

Talk #2: Embrace kingdom values and you will naturally bear fruit.
1. Spiritual things are more important than material things.
2. God's desires are more important than your desires.
3. God's work is more important than your work (or fun).
4. Godly character is more important than personal comfort.
5. Love for God is more important than love for yourself (or others).

Talk #3: You are in Spiritual battle and must fight.
1. Identify the enemy: the devil, the world, your own sinful nature.
2. Understand the battleground: IT IS YOUR MIND! (Rom 12:2, 2 Cor 10:3-5, Eph 4:22-24, Phil 4:8, Col 3:1-2).
3. Do battle: pray, have Quiet Times, read and mark your Bible, memorise Scripture, journal, fellowship. Intellect, personality, willpower and organisation are table knives that don't get the job done. Get out your swords! Put on the armour of God!

Talk #4: Everything about Spiritual Growth is about your relationship with God.
All of your Christianity must be relational:
1. Relational Faith: KNOW GOD, know WHOM you believe (not what you believe), have a personal trust.
2. Relational Commitment: Talk to the one you love. Spend time with the one you love.
3. Relational Prayer: Real, conversational, constant.
4. Relational Quiet Times: Interactive, not legalistic. Let Him speak to you! Don't have QTs because you feel like you should, have QTs because you need to feed yourself!
5. Relational View of Sin and Repentance: Sinning is not "I failed, I suck" - it is "I HURT THE ONE I LOVE." Repentance is making up with Him - reconciliation.
6. Relational Worship: "You need to know God in a deeper way. The more you know Him, the more you will love Him. The more you love Him, the more you will glorify Him. The more you know and love and glorify Him, the more you will thirst to know Him even more" (from John North's new book, GrowthWorks).

Talk #5: It's all about God. YOU EXIST FOR GOD.
1. Your first priority in life is Spiritual Growth: your relationship with God.
2. Your ultimate purpose in life is to do good works, to be sent out, to play a part in God's plan.
3. Filter everything that comes your way in the grid of your sent-ness, just as Jesus did. You have personally been sent out by God as an ambassador for Christ into your relationship circles. Say, "yes, Lord" and be available for God to use you in the incredible story He has penned!

♥

Spiritual Growth is "moving consistently into a deeper love relationship with God, bringing Him greater glory, and more naturally expressing Jesus' chracter and life, through the work of the Spirit" (from John North's GrowthWorks). It is a PROCESS that takes time. Start now! Be "like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither" (Psalm 1:3)




Use this picture to help you lock in the principles. Again, it's from GrowthWorks. Seriously, just grab yourself a copy. It'll be the best $25 you ever spend at Koorong (after an ESV Bible).

Enjoy the journey of walking with our beautiful God!