Help – Following God’s Guidance
I will ask the Father to send you the Holy Spirit who will help you and always be with you. John 14:16 (CEV)
Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will direct your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6 (NLT)
Where can I find help for daily living?
- Guidance comes from God.
I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you. Psalm 32:8 (NLT)
- Guidance comes from God’s Word.
Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path.
Psalm 119:105 (NLT)
All scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right. It is God’s way of preparing us in every way, fully equipped for every good thing God wants us to do.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NLT)
- Guidance comes from God’s Spirit.
When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth.
John 16:13 (NLT)
- Guidance comes from godly counsel.
For lack of guidance a nation falls, but many advisers make victory sure.
Proverbs 11:14 (NIV)
Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.
Proverbs 15:22 (NIV)
What do I need to know when trying to follow God’s guidance?
- God cares about the details of my life.
Don’t worry and ask yourselves, “Will we have anything to eat? Will we have anything to drink? Will we have any clothes to wear?” Only people who don’t know God are always worrying about such things. Your Father in heaven knows that you need all of these. Matthew 6:31-32 (CEV)
That’s an amazing verse to me because it says God’s concerned about what we wear.
God is concerned about what we drink and what we eat. God is far more interested in what’s happening in your life than you might think.
- God wants me to be specific.
When you’re looking for guidance from God ask a specific question.
“God, what do You think about ….?” What’s the next step? What should I do here? How should I do it? Over twenty times in the New Testament, God says “Ask.”
God wants you to ask for advice about your relationships, about your career, about your health, about your finances.
He’s eager and waiting to answer you. …So ask. He’s interested in the details.
If you want to know what God wants you to do, ask Him, and He will gladly tell you…. James 1:5a (LB)
- God wants to answer.
(God) is always ready to give a bountiful supply of wisdom to all who ask Him; He will not resent it. But when you ask Him, be sure that you really expect Him to tell you…. James 1:5b-6 (LB)
I’ve found that God is more willing to talk to us than we are willing to listen to Him. I want you to try something with me. On the count of three, breath out, completely exhale…ready, 1, 2, 3. Hold it…hold it…hold it…. Now, breath in. We need both, don’t we? Breathing out is our prayer, our talking to God, asking God for what’s on our hearts. Breathing in is our listening to God. Just like we need to both breath out and breath in, we need to talk to God and listen to God.
What do I need to do to follow God’s guidance?
I will climb my watchtower and wait to see what the Lord will tell me to say and what answer He will give to my complaint. The Lord gave me this answer: “Write down clearly on tablets what I reveal to you, so that it can be read at a glance.”
Habakkuk 2:1-2 (TEV)
- Withdraw
I will climb my watchtower….
This means: I’m going to get alone
That’s a Hebrew expression meaning, I’m going to get alone, get off by myself, eliminate external distractions, so I can hear God speak. Find a quiet place alone…and…that can be difficult at times, especially those of you who are mothers of preschoolers.
Susanna Wesley was the mother of 18 children. Two of her sons, Charles and John, shaped England in their day. Charles Wesley wrote several hundred songs. John Wesley was the founder of the Methodist denomination. Both men had a profound affect on the world and the work of God in the world. With 18 kids, how did Susanna Wesley ever find a quiet place to pray? This was her solution…Every afternoon she would sit in her living room and pull her apron up over her head. The children knew that when mother was in her rocking chair with her apron up over her head she was not to be disturbed. Where there’s a will there’s a way!
With 18 kids, if she could find a way to get alone with God, do you think you can? Sure!
Find a place where you can be quiet, get alone with God and listen. One of the reasons why you don’t hear God speak to you more is because you are surrounded by noise. The radio is always on, the TV is always on, the fax machine is always on, you’ve got your beeper on, your cell phone on, you walk with a Walkman — you’re surrounded by noise. So you can’t hear the still small voice of God.
Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. Luke 5:16 (NIV)
Jesus led a very active life, yet in spite of that it says He often withdrew. He made it a habit. If He needed to do it, we do too. We need to get away from the distractions.
If that’s all that was needed for you to hear God it’d be real easy. But AFTER you get in a quiet spot, then you need to quiet yourself, your own mind and emotions. And that leads us to the second thing.
- Wait
Contrary to our fast-paced, don’t delay lifestyles…waiting is sometimes a really good thing. Not necessarily easy, but good.
I will …wait…
This means: be still
It means don’t move, stay put, don’t run around – be still. God speaks to the person who takes the time to listen. The one reason why many of us don’t hear God is we’re just too busy. “God, I’ve got 30 seconds for you. Ready…Set…Go!”
Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10 (NIV)
I wait quietly before God, for my hope is in Him. Psalm 62:5 (NLT)
- Watch
I will…wait to see…
An important key to listening to God is to understand that God’s voice is often visual.
God often wants to speak through a mental picture. There are hundreds of examples in the Bible where people were praying and God gave those people a mental picture or vision. It’s all through scripture. It’s one of the primary ways God contacts people – impressions in your mind. He gives you a mental picture, image or vision inside your head.
Whenever you have an impression it needs to be tested.
Does it agree with the Bible?
Does it make me more like Jesus?
Is it consistent with how God shaped me?
Do I sense God’s peace about it?
Jesus said, “Watch and pray…” Matthew 26:41 (NIV)
There is a visual element to prayer. And if you’ll grasp it, it will open up a whole new area of your life in relationship to Christ.
I pray…that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you…. Ephesians 1:18 (NIV)
I thought my eyes were in my head? He’s not talking about physical eyes. He’s talking about spiritual eyes…Spiritual senses. When you were born physically you got a set of physical senses. Hear, taste, touch, smell, feel. When you were born spiritually you got a set of spiritual senses: spiritual eyes, spiritual ears.
- Write
Write down clearly…
Write out your prayers as you think them. Buy a spiral binder, a three ring notebook, it doesn’t matter what it is and as you’re praying, write out your prayer while you’re praying it. It’s called journaling. Almost every great Christian in history has journaled.
They wrote down their prayers, what they wanted to say to God. And then they’d wait.
When they felt impressed of God they’d write what God said back to them.
If you want an example of journaling, there’s a whole book on it…It’s called Psalms, the longest book in the Bible. In almost everyone of David’s Psalms, he starts with a question. God, Why are my enemies prospering when I’m trying to live for You? And then he waits, watches and writes down God’s answer.
Journaling gives your body something to do while you’re praying. It keeps you focused…Your mind won’t wander when you’re writing down what you’re trying to think about.
Another benefit is it allows you to remember what you’ve said to God and what God has said back to you. You don’t have to learn a lesson over and over. Because you wrote it down, you can go back and review it.
The word “write” is used nearly 100 times in the Bible.
- Worship
Oh Lord, now I’ve heard Your report, and I worship You in awe….
Habakkuk 3:2 (LB)
He says, now that You’ve spoken to me God, I want to express my love to You. When you have received God’s loving response, it’s going to make you want to love the Lord even more and draw you closer to Him.
Worship is so key in our full relationship with God.
Last week, we looked at eight ways to worship: singing, hearing the Word, praying, commitment, giving, baptism, Lord’s Supper, & Meditating.
I want to talk with you right now about baptism. Several of you have probably not been baptized since you’ve made your commitment to Jesus. In two weeks we’re going to be looking at baptism and what that means. But tonight, I want to ask you to begin to think about this. We’re going to be baptizing on: _______________________. I’d like for you to begin to think about the possibility of being baptized then.
How can a (person) keep his way pure? By living according to Your word. I seek You with all my heart; do not let me stray from Your commands. I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You. Psalm 119:9-11 (NIV)