June 8, 2013
“A person’s steps are confirmed by the Lord.” (Psalm 37:23 Berkeley)
THE NINTH STEP: Look for confirmation as you seek God’s will.
At times on our journeys of faith when we come to a fork in the road there is no verse of Scripture that tells us to go to the right or to the left and we have no prompting or leading of the Spirit. We do our best to make the proper choice, while acknowledging the hard reality that we simply do not know which direction is the will of the Lord. Having done everything we can to discern the will of God, we journey down one side or the other of that road.
The verse quoted above means we should sometimes move forward into what we perceive to be the will of God, praying and looking for a confirmation. That confirmation may be positive or negative. If everything works out and the direction we have chosen obviously has God’s stamp of approval on it, we can say God has given us a confirmation of His will. We have the conviction of God saying to us, “This is the way, walk in it.” (Isaiah 30:21) We see evidence of the reality Jesus described, that when He calls His sheep to follow Him, He goes before them. (John 10:1-4) After we commit to a direction, we see evidence that the Living Christ has gone before us and prepared the way for us.
Sometimes, the confirmation is negative and the results are the opposite of those just described. When that happens, we should be humble enough to go back to that fork in the road and choose the other direction. We see an example of this in Acts chapter 16 when Paul wanted to go into Asia and was directed instead by illness into Philippi.
2 Comments | 
Uncategorized | Tagged: decision making, faith, Following Jesus Christ, humility, knowing God's will, prayer, Psalm 37:23, religion, Spiritual Discernment, spirituality, Trusting God | 
Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
June 6, 2013
“I see very clearly clearly that God doesn’t show partiality. In every nation he accepts those who fear him and do what is right.” (Acts 10: 34-35 NLT)
THE EIGHTH STEP: Look for a pattern in the way God reveals His will.
In chapter 10 of Acts we read that the Apostle Peter had a vision of a sheet with animals on it, animals which the Law of Moses would not permit a devout Jew to eat. Peter was told three times to kill and eat those animals. He refused each time. Then, he heard knocking on the door. The Spirit told him to go with the men who were knocking, asking no questions about why they came looking for him. Peter soon learned they were not only Gentiles, but the servants of his enemy, a Roman Centurion. When he arrived at the home of this Roman army officer, he was asked to speak to the Centurion’s entire household. The first thing Peter told them was that God had shown him not to call any man common or unclean.
Peter did not think this series of events was a coincidence, but saw these happenings as a pattern of divine guidance. These events depict the way the Great Commission of Jesus, to preach the Gospel, crossed over a tremendous barrier of prejudice. Peter’s experience ultimately revealed the glorious reality that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was not for the Jew only, but for every person in every nation on earth.
Since our God is a God of order and the “thumbprint” of God can be seen in the extraordinary design of His creation, we should expect to see order and design in the way God reveals His will for our lives.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Acts 10, Divine Guidance, faith, knowing God's will, religion, Saint Peter, Spiritual Discernment, The Great Commission, theology | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
June 3, 2013
“I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord.” (John 1:23)
THE SEVENTH STEP: Evaluate and surrender your natural and spiritual gifts.
Once you get a good evaluation of your gift inventory, a principle application to the will of God for your life is to accept the limits of your limitations and the responsibility for your abilities. John the Baptist is a good example of a man who implemented this application. John knew who he was and he knew who he was not. He said, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness… ” That was who, what, and where John was to be. He knew it was foolish to try to be more than he was called to be. He also knew that life was too precious to be anything less than that voice crying in the wilderness.
I have known parishioners who experienced needless pain because they would not accept the limits of their limitations. However, when we are evaluated at the judgment seat of Christ, most of us will suffer agonizing shortfall because we did not accept the responsibility for our abilities. Like the unprofitable servant in The Parable of the Talents, some of us believe we are not gifted and we bury our talents (Matthew 25:14-30).
Your natural gifts are the result of your genetic heritage. Your spiritual gifts come with the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12). How are you utilizing them for God’s Kingdom?
2 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: faith, Jesus Christ, John 1:23, John the Baptist, Kingdom builders, parable of the talents, religion, Spiritual Discernment, Spiritual Gifts, spirituality, theology | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
May 31, 2013
“When the Lord comes, He will bring our deepest secrets to light and will reveal our private motives. And then God will give to everyone whatever praise is due.” (1 Corinthians 4:5 NLT)
According to the Apostle Paul, before all our works are evaluated God is going to reveal the private and secret motives of our heart. Since that is an ultimate and certain reality it would be the better part of wisdom for us to pray about the motives of our heart on a regular basis. We should also touch this issue of motives as we consider the will of God for our life.
THE SIXTH STEP: Examine the motives of your heart as you seek to know the will of God.
Why do you want to know the will of God for your life? That is an important question. We are incredibly egocentric and self-centered creatures. We naturally come to every situation with the inherent question in our hearts, what is in this for me?
The Word of God associates our motives with our hearts and the Bible tells us that above all things our hearts are deceitful. Jeremiah tells us our hearts are so deceitful only God can know them (Jeremiah 17:9-10). Do you want to know the will of God for the glory of God, or for your own glory and personal gain? Your answer to that question will be very important to God and to you when your works are evaluated at the judgment seat of Christ. The motives of your heart should therefore be very important to you today and every day that you live.
We should all pray with David: “Search me, oh God, and know my heart… and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:23-24)
4 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: Divine Guidance, faith, glory of God, knowing the will of God, Psalm 139, Spiritual Discernment | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
May 29, 2013
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
STEP NUMBER FIVE: Be completely open and unbiased about what the will of God for your life might be.
A well paid consultant told me that much of the time when he earns large fees, his clients do not want his consultation. They simply want him to affirm what they have already decided to do. The will of God is often just out of our reach because we have our agendas in place when we come to God seeking His will. If our minds are set like concrete before we converse with God regarding His will for our lives, we are not really seeking His will when we pray or open His Word. We are actually asking God to bless our will, our agenda, and the way we have decided to go.
We must have the faith to believe the verse quoted above. It is tragically possible for you to miss the will of God for your life because you do not have the faith to believe that God can make you a new creation in Christ. Your extraordinary potential as a new creation in Christ is one reason why you must be completely open and unbiased as to what the will of God for you may be. Seeking God with your mind already made up could rob you of the will of God for a life that is good, perfect and the only life acceptable to your God. God loves you too much to let you live a life that is only a fragment of the life He has planned for you.
2 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: 2 corinthians 5, faith, God's love, God's will, Jesus Christ, new creations, religion, Seeking God, Spiritual Discernment, spirituality | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
May 25, 2013
STEP NUMBER FOUR: Spend much time in God’s Word.
Let me tell you why. In chapter 55 of his prophecy, Isaiah tells us there is as much difference between the thoughts and ways of God and the way we think and do things as the heavens are high above the earth (vv. 8-9). He then goes on to describe one of the many supernatural functions of the Word of God.
The Word of God establishes an alignment between our thoughts, ways and wills, and the thoughts, ways and will of God.
I once heard Billy Graham tell of boarding a plane before he was famous. He spoke to an old pastor friend who was sitting in an aisle seat reading his Bible. The old pastor completely ignored Billy. When they had been in flight for about an hour, the pastor came back to where Billy was seated and greeted him enthusiastically. He apologized for ignoring Billy earlier. He said, “When I pray, I am talking to God, but when I open God’s Word, He talks to me. He was talking to me when you spoke to me and I could not interrupt God just to talk to Billy Graham.”
Thomas à Kempis opened his Bible every morning with this prayer: “Let all the voices be stopped. Speak to me Lord, Thou alone.” If we sincerely want to know the will of God, we must be in relationship and in conversation with God. We should speak to our loving heavenly Father in prayer and expect God to speak to us as we open the Word of God. That is why two of the bases we must touch when we seek to know the will of God are prayer and the Word of God.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Bible Study, Billy Graham, faith, Isaiah 55, knowing the will of God, listening to God, prayer, religion, Spiritual Discernment, spirituality, Thomas a Kempis | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
May 23, 2013
“One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” (Luke 11:1)
When the disciple’s asked Jesus this request they were not just asking Him the ‘how to’ of prayer. They were amazed at the large amounts of time Jesus prioritized for prayer. They were asking something like ‘teach us what you know about prayer that we obviously do not know that causes You to spend so very much time in prayer.’
STEP NUMBER THREE: Spend much time in prayer.
When you must know the will of another human being, what is the first step you take? Our first thought is usually that we must meet with that person and have a conversation with them. When a man is in love and decides he wants to marry a woman, his first thought is that he must meet with her and have a conversation with her.
When we seek to know the will of God, our first thought should be that we must meet with God and have a conversation with Him. Prayer is a conversation with God. If you do not know how to pray, think of prayer as simply meeting with and having a personal conversation with God.
Jesus responded to the apostles with a prayer that was not as much a prayer as it was an instruction about how to pray. When you are alone, use that prayer as an outline for your conversation with God. You will find yourself applying the second and third steps I have shared with you for knowing the will of God when Jesus instructs you to pray:
“Your kingdom come; Your will be done.”
2 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: conversation with god, Disciples Prayer, Divine Guidance, Faith trusting God, Jesus, knowing the will of God, prayer, religion, Spiritual Discernment, spirituality, the Our Father, the will of God | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
May 20, 2013
“If any man wills to do, he will know.” (John 7:17)
STEP NUMBER TWO: Be willing to do the will of God.
When Jesus taught His disciples how to pray, He taught them to say, “Your will be done.” When Jesus modeled this, He sweat drops of blood as He prayed, “Not My will, but Your will be done.” (Matthew 6:10; 26:39; Luke 22:42-44) Jesus gives us a principle that shows us how we can know His teaching is the teaching of God. This principle also applies when we are seeking to know the will of God in the marketplace.
The principle is simply this: If any man wills to do, he will know.
The Living Bible paraphrases Psalm 139: 16 to say God had every day of David’s life scheduled before David existed. David writes there that God is with him in such a way that it is impossible for David to escape God’s personal interest in every move he makes. This intimacy with God is obviously not only the experience of David, but can and should be the experience of every child of God.
According to Jesus and Paul, knowing the will of God for our lives does not have to be complex. God does not deliberately obscure His will. The complexity is not in the will of God, but in your will and my will. As Paul tells us how we can know “the good, acceptable and perfect will of God,” he begins his prescription for knowing God’s will by telling us to throw up our hands and offer an unconditional surrender of our wills to the will of God (Romans 12: 1-2). Our unconditional surrender to God will significantly un-complicate our quest to know the will of God.
2 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: christianity, Divine Guidance, faith, God's will, intimacy with god, Jesus Christ, knowing the will of God, Psalm 139, Spiritual Discernment, spirituality, surrender to god | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
May 18, 2013
“Prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all His demands and moves towards the goal of spiritual maturity.” (Romans 12:2 JB Phillips)
When someone questions me, a pastor, about the will of God, they might be referring to a fork-in-the-road decision or sometimes the issue has been the broader question, “How can I know the will of God for my life?” While answering that question many times over many years, I have come up with twelve steps I believe you should take when you are seeking divine guidance. These twelve steps are not a precise formula that will immediately and clearly lead you to the specific will of God, but they do focus some issues that should be visited, or bases you should touch, when you are trying to establish an alignment between your will and the will of God.
THE FIRST STEP: Believe there is such a thing as the will of God for your life.
“Every time a tiny sparrow falls dead from a tree, God goes to the funeral!” Observed a preacher from another generation, referring to the teaching of Jesus that not one tiny sparrow falls dead from a tree apart from the Father’s plan. The application Jesus makes is that since two sparrows are sold for a penny and we are of far greater value to God than a sparrow, if God has a will regarding the details of the life and death of a sparrow, then we can be sure He has a will regarding every detail of our lives (Matthew 10: 29-31).
According to the Bible, God is our Shepherd and our Father. God is personal and has a plan for our life we can know and experience.
2 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: faith, God's will, knowing God's will, living by faith, religion, Seeking God, Spiritual Discernment, spiritual guidance, spiritual maturity, spirituality, the will of God | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
May 14, 2013
“Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?” (Galatians 4:16)
We can be a philosopher and love truth. We can be a sincere seeker after truth and never find the truth we seek. According to Jesus when we come to know the truth by relationship, He himself will make us free (John 8: 30-36).
Jesus said in a prayer to His Father: “Thy Word is truth.” (John 17: 17) This means we should read the Bible as a lover and seeker of truth. Jesus made the claim that His teaching is the truth of God (John 7: 17). He even told us how we can prove that claim. The doing leads to the knowing. If we will personally do what He teaches we will know that His teaching cannot be the teaching of a man. It has to be the teaching of God.
There are times when we can devastate people with the truth. There are also times when the truth can cut through the denial of people and set them free from problems that are isolating them from reality and destroying them. It is then that we must speak the truth in love and ask if we have become their enemy for doing so.
When we are facing those kinds of challenges we must pray that: “God will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; and that they may recover themselves” (2 Timothy 2: 25). To repent means to think again and have a change of mind will and direction.
May your search for truth not only end but begin with the One who said, “I am the way, the truth and the life and no one can come to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6).
4 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: Faith in God, God's truth, Jesus, John 14:6, prayer, repentance, seeker of truth, seekin truth, truth of God, Word of God | Permalink
Posted by Dick Woodward
4SpiritualSecrets 