How to Discern God's Will for Your Life.

This morning we have the privilege of welcoming Pastor Joe Oby from Northside Christian Assembly, and we're super excited to welcome him. Those of you who don't know, Northside is almost a sister church to us, two churches in the same family. Pastor Joe and his wife, Crystal, have been amazing mentors and friends to New Culture over the years, and we're super excited to give him a great New Culture welcome. So welcome, Pastor Joe.

Greetings, greetings, greetings. Thank you so much. It's an honor to be here today. I appreciate each and every one of you. You made it out on this cold, cold day. At least it's getting colder and colder each year for me. I don't know about you, but thank God for being here. Good to see some faces I've seen before, and some new faces. By way of introduction, Josh, thank you again. I appreciate you for all that you do, your ministry, helping out here, all that you do in terms of serving in the kingdom of God. I think he deserves a good God bless you and a hand. Is that all right? You know what, if that was for me it would be okay, but give him a good God bless you and a hand. There you go, that's a little bit better. Amen.

I appreciate the praise and worship team. Wow, they brought us into the presence of God today. Thank you. Where are they at? Thank you, thank you. I was getting lost in the presence of God back there, just standing, getting lost in the presence of God.

The presence of God comes in, and it just creates a peace here. So often we need that as we're going through our busy lives, we need to stop, pause, worship God, and receive the peace and joy. The Bible says there's peace and joy in the presence of God. Amen? All right, now I'm an amen person, amen? All righty, Lord, you're going to get used to me real fast. Amen.

Worship is our response to God's goodness, mercy, and love toward us. And every time we worship, God's presence increases. I like to say it this way: God's presence, or what we see or experience, is his manifest presence. God's presence is everywhere, absolutely, but when we worship as a response to God's goodness, he shows up, he makes himself known. And that's what I experienced this morning here. I don't know about you, but the peace of God, the joy of God, the blessing of God, I almost didn't want to preach. I just wanted to stay back there and worship. All righty, let's get into the Word for just a few moments.

I still need to do a couple more things. As Josh said, my lovely, lovely wife of 34 years is not with me today. I love her, she is the apple of my eye, the joy of my life. I appreciate her so greatly. She co-pastors, co-leads at Northside Christian Assembly with me, and she's just a gem. We were actually going to try to do this together today, and I walk around a little bit too, just so you know, but some things changed at our church, in our ministry, so she's actually at our church, Northside Christian Assembly, ministering the word of God there. So thank God for her. Amen. I know she's not here, but can you give her a good God bless you and a hand? Is that all right? Amen, glory to God, amen.

Thank God for your pastor, Pastor Abbie. Almost on cue, almost on cue. I thank God for your pastor, Pastor Abbie. I appreciate her so much. We've known her for some years, and we thank God for her. She has a tremendous call of God upon her life. She has a vision. She has a love and a compassion for you all. She has a desire to see you all grow in the presence of God, know God personally, know God deeply, know God in such a way that your lives are radically changed, that you are absolutely creating a new culture in the city of Madison. You ought to give her a good God bless you one more time, and a hand.

I might get a little loud here. Somebody was asking me earlier, do I go to a Pentecostal church. I wasn't sure how to answer the question, and then he rephrased it and said, how expressive. We're very expressive at our church. Amen, glory to God.

Discerning God's will

Go with me in your Bibles, I want to talk for just a few moments. And hopefully the AV team, give them a good God bless you, the AV team and the folks over there. I believe in a culture of honor, and I believe we ought to honor people, because God is good, God has blessed people, and we just need it sometimes. Amen. Now we do this in our church, can you do it for me today, make me feel a little bit more at home. I feel at home already. Turn to your neighbor and say, God's a good God. And then tell somebody that you're blessed because they're here. Amen.

We're going to go to Romans, the 12th chapter, verses 1 and 2. We're going to read it out of the NIV. I'm going to read it, we're going to pray, and if I do my assignment today correctly, what will happen is at the end of this message, you and I will have a better understanding of how to discern God's will for our life. It's a tremendous thing that you and I must understand as believers: we need to know God, but we also need to know what God is saying, how God is directing us, how we make decisions. We also need to know about relationships, career choices, school choices. We need to know if this is the plan of God for our lives, because it's only in the plan of God, can I give you a secret? I'm a teacher, can I give you a secret already, that God is only required to bless you fully when you're in the plan of God. He will try to bless you, he will cause his grace to come upon you, he will cause his mercy to come upon you, and you will, as I like to say, get slapped over with blessings in your life. But I want you to understand, if you're going to fully experience the presence of God, the power of God, the joy of God, the blessing of God, the empowerment of God, which is God's grace and favor in your life, if you're going to fully experience that, you've got to be smack dab in the will of God for your life.

And please understand, as I begin to talk about this, this is not a right or wrong, up or down. Understanding the will of God, being in the will of God, is a process. It's a learning process. It's a testing process. It's a proving process. And you walk it out, and thank God, God is with us, and the Holy Spirit is leading us, guiding us, directing us, and will help us along the path. I appreciate that, amen. But the scripture tells us here how we are to walk in the will of God, discern the will of God. It says:

Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, this is your true and proper worship. Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will.

Romans 12:1-2

Somebody say test and prove. Say test and prove, or approve. Glory to God. What God's will is. Why? Because God's will is good. God's will is pleasing, and God's will is perfect, or complete. Can we pray?

Father, we do thank you, praise you, and honor you today for your tremendous love, your mercy, and your grace. We thank you for another opportunity to come together to hear your word. We've worshipped, and we thank you for your presence in this place, the peace, the joy we've experienced. We thank you for your word, because your word changes and transforms our life. Give us, God, today, as I pray almost every Sunday, every time I get up to pray, give us eyes to see, spiritual eyes to see, spiritual ears to hear. In fact, God, enlarge our capacity to receive from you. We'll be sure to give you all the praise, the glory, and the honor, in the powerful and awesome name of Jesus, amen.

A story: knowing God's will

When I graduated from Bible school, many, many years ago, I met a lovely woman while I was in Bible school. We got married that same year I graduated. She had one more year of school here in Madison, she was in law school, her third year, and she was going to complete that. We came here, we got married, we came here. I was just planning to be here with her for a short amount of time. We were planning to move to Minneapolis so I could go to school, further my education there. Once she graduated, we got everything together. We were living in an apartment. We canceled the lease, we said we're done. I quit my job. She didn't have a job, she started looking for one. We got everything set up. I got accepted into the school I wanted to go to. We began to do everything we needed to do to move. The only thing we had left to do was find an apartment. So one day we decided, let's go up to Minneapolis and spend the weekend, find an apartment, get that settled so we could eventually move in the next month or two.

We go up to Minneapolis, and the first day we get there, we find the most beautiful place we could ever imagine. We get this place, it's excellent, it fits all of our needs. The people were nice, the property manager was so nice, she came out, she was taking us into other people's apartments, introducing us to people. It was just an awesome situation, awesome circumstance, and we were like, yes, this is it, this is it. We walked in, we signed the lease, we were settled. And because that happened the first day, we're like, we've got the rest of the weekend, what are we going to do?

My wife and I said, I don't know who said it first, but let's just go home. We got back in the car the same day, started driving from Minneapolis to Madison. We said nothing. If you know my wife, that's a surprising thing, I'm not talking about her, she's just a talker, I like it, we balance each other. Y'all were kind of looking at me strange, like, well, we know your wife, don't say that. We sat quiet the whole time. By the time we got back, we knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that was not the right move. We didn't say anything to each other. We didn't try to figure it out.

By the time we pulled back up to our apartment, which we had gotten out of the lease, or not renewed the lease, we said, this is not the will of God, and not the timing of God. Thank God he gives you an opportunity to test and approve his will for your life. We knew it on the inside of us. We didn't hear an audible voice, we didn't hear anything spectacular, no bells rang, nothing. We didn't put out what we used to call in church a fleece, God, if this is your will, cause three people to come past me and say hello, hello, hello. We just knew that we knew that we knew. And we had to do everything we possibly could to stay. God miraculously worked out a job for me, worked out a job for her, found us a place, everything. It was his will for us to be here. Now, 33 years later, we've been pastoring for 28 years.

God's been blessing, healing, helping people, and we would never have experienced that had we not obeyed God. Life is tough, and we have to make choices that will impact not only our lives but the lives of others, possibly for the rest of our lives. And I say this with seriousness, because it's imperative that we not only know God, but know his will for our life.

What I want to talk to you about for the next few moments, and I've spent a lot of time on this, is to tell you how to position yourself to know God's will. There were many times after we had that experience that we had to go through, and continue to go through, this process of discovering and knowing and discerning God's will. And let me say it correctly: discerning God's will is a walk, a lifestyle. But you have to position yourself to receive, to know, to discern his will for your life.

The aspects of God's will

Now, the will of God, I haven't gotten to any of my notes yet, y'all pray for me today. Now, the will of God, there are seven different aspects of the will of God the Bible teaches. Let me mention just three of them.

There is the sovereign will of God. That means God is going to do some things without our permission. He doesn't need to ask us. He's not talking to us about it, he's not trying to figure it out, he's not trying to figure out what the enemy is doing, he's not trying to figure out anything else. He already has his will, his plan. This is what he's going to do, what's going to happen. Within the context of that, we have the ability to make decisions, either to follow the will of God or not to follow the will of God.

But there is the sovereign will of God. The second part of the will of God, which is important to us as believers, let me give you four. This is important to us as believers: we have the redemptive, or salvation, will of God, which is God saying, my will is that you all be saved and come to the knowledge of God's truth.

Then there's the moral will of God. The moral will of God, we find in scripture, is about how we should live, how we should act, how we should treat one another. That's the moral will of God. And the reason this is so important, as we get to the fourth one, is simply this: you cannot pursue your personal will if you're not doing the other wills. Did I make that clear? Hopefully.

The last one, as I referenced, is the personal will of God. What does he want you to do today? How does he want you to live? What job does he want you to take? What relationships does he want you to be in? Am I okay? Am I okay today? Just say amen for me. No, I know I'm okay.

So it's the will of God we must discover. Now I want to talk to you about discerning the will of God in terms of the personal will of God for your life. But please understand, it takes all aspects of the will of God to walk in what God wants you to do. You can't walk in the personal will of God without walking in the moral will of God for you. That's why discerning the will of God is not a one-off. It's not just you praying one time, saying, God, help me understand what needs to be done and I'll do it, and that's it. No, no. It is relationship. In fact, discerning the will of God comes out of your devotion, your relationship with God.

Surrender: the starting point

It is knowing him that you know what you're to do, as it says in Romans, the 12th chapter, that we ought to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is our first step, or better, our first position, if we're going to know the will of God, discern the will of God in our life: we must present ourselves completely to God. We must surrender ourselves completely to God. We need to get to the place where we're offering ourselves to God, saying, God, what is your will. We have to begin to pray the prayer Jesus prayed, not my will, but yours be done. It is in surrendering to God that we lose control of our lives, in the sense that we no longer lead our lives, direct our lives, and tell ourselves what to do. Now, you talk to yourself, just don't answer.

Amen, glory to God, God is good, amen. But we begin to discern. It's the surrender, where we get to the place where we simply say, I'm laying everything down, I'm losing my control, I'm giving it, not losing it and abandoning it, but losing it to give it to God. We say he is Lord, and, Savior. He saves us, right? He saves us from our sins, he saves us from many different things the Bible teaches us. But we also call him Lord. Lord, whether you like it or not, means master.

Lord, whether you like it or not, just turn to somebody and say, I'm okay with it. Come on, just say, help me preach, say, I'm okay with it. Lord means he runs your life, that our response to him now is, yes sir. But because he loves us and cares about us so deeply, because he cares about us so intimately, because he knows the very hairs of our head, and I kind of need some more up there, are you with me? He knows everything about you. We can turn our concern, our cares, our control, our life over to him. We can actually say what Solomon wrote in Proverbs: I trust in the Lord, not with part of my heart, but with my whole heart. I don't lean on my own understanding, because I'm limited in my ability to figure life out. Therefore, I'll go your direction, your way.

I don't know about you, but I've never lived this life before, so if I'm going to live it successfully, I need God's presence, God's direction, God's will. The first thing we need to do is completely surrender. I want to keep repeating this throughout my teaching: you discover, you discern, the will of God in your devotion to God, in your relationship with God. Amen, come on, say amen, better than that.

All right, so surrender is the starting point. It's the place where we give it all to God. It's the place where we offer ourselves completely to him. It's the place where we begin to daily, intentionally surrender to him. It's the place where we sacrifice, and then let go of everything, and simply say, we are following you with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength.

If you're going to know and discern the will of God, you have to get to the place where you're saying, I'm going to give it all over to you, God, I surrender it all over to you, and I'm going to follow you. So our time, our attitudes, our dreams must come to what we call the altar of God, the place where we lay them at the feet of God, the place where we say, God, I give it all over to you, because it is at that place that transformation begins to happen. God cannot use, let me say it this way, God cannot use a full vessel. He can only use an empty vessel. And what I mean by that is, when we say, God, I'm giving it all to you, we become empty. That's a good place to shout amen.

Transformed by the renewing of your mind

The next thing is that we must avoid the trap of conformity with the world. The first part of verse two says, do not be conformed to this world. The world at all times is trying to transform you into its image, social media, YouTube, TV. I'm not saying those things are wrong in and of themselves, but there's a voice in the world that's speaking to you, saying, this is how you live, this is how you act, this is how you behave. And if we're going to discern God's will, we have to become aware of the voices in our life, and be able to discern which voice it is. Because you can't do the will of God if you don't know the voice of God.

Let me explain the voice of God, because I don't want anybody walking away thinking God speaks to us only in an audible voice. Well, God can, but that's not the normal way he does it. God speaks to us in the quiet times. God speaks to us through his word. God speaks to us when people are preaching and teaching. God speaks to us when we have dynamic worship, like we had today, and begins to speak to our hearts through the song. Sometimes God speaks to us through a friend who didn't even know what we're going through, to help us discern his will and his voice. But we've got to make sure we're not walking into the trap of doing things like the world, moving like the world, walking like the world, or blending the world's voice with God's. Conformity to the world, to the voices of the world, brings disharmony and confusion to God's instructions in our life.

Let me move a little quicker. Once we begin to identify the wrong voices, and it takes the word of God to do that, we need to immerse ourselves in the word of God. We're going to go to point three: we immerse ourselves in the word of God, and we begin to be transformed.

The way to discern God's voice is to go to where his voice is, which is in the word of God. We have to immerse ourselves in the word of God until it transforms our thinking. Let me share some more with you. Can I go a little deeper? Not that it's deep, I just pretend it's deep so y'all think I'm deep. When you gave your life to the Lord, he changed you on the inside. Or let me say it this way:

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new.

2 Corinthians 5:17

I want us to understand we are a triune being. We are a spirit, we have a soul, and we live in a body. Are you with me today? Can we go a little further? The only part of you that changed when you gave your life to the Lord, accepted Jesus into your life, was your spirit. Because when you received Jesus, and hopefully I'm using the terminology you all use, being born again, is that all right, being saved, being a Christian, the only thing that changed was the inside, the real you.

Your mind didn't change, your body didn't change. Just the real you, your spirit, God cleaned you up, and his Spirit now lives inside you. But here's the process: the Bible says we have to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. We've got to take what's on the inside and put it on the outside. We've got to think differently and act differently. You can't think differently and act differently unless the real you is changed, and that's how you got changed, by being born again. That's why some fields of study can't really change people. They can make adjustments in people's lives, but they can't change them, because the only thing that can change you is an encounter with the living Christ.

And out of that, the Bible says we need to transform our thinking. Now let me give you a secret: God's not going to make you, or cause you to be transformed, unless you get involved. Is that all right?

That's why we can meet some people, we're not judging anybody's life, but we can meet people, and I say this for example's sake, who are Christians, and probably are, but their life doesn't match what the Bible says. Why? It's not that they're not a believer, it's not that they're not a Christian, it's that they haven't gone through the metamorphosis, the transformation, because you only get transformed by the renewing of your mind. You only get transformed as you put God's word into your heart and into your mind, and it's there that you're transformed, it's there you're a brand new person. Can I say it this way, now don't make this a theological statement, please don't go out there and say Pastor Joe was saying you get a ticket.

I'm going to say this: when you get born again, when you receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, you get your ticket to heaven. You understand what I mean by that? You get your ticket to heaven, you're going to heaven, you're on your way to heaven. But how are you going to live down here? We need the transformation to take place in our life. And that's why it's so important, the rule of life that Pastor Abbie and your church talk about. That's why it's so important to get into the word of God, into fasting, praying, seeking God's face, worship, contributing, giving, because it transforms you. Shout amen somebody. There's a process we must go through. That's why discerning the will of God is not a one-off, it's a process. We should never get upset with ourselves, or with somebody else, if they miss what God wants them to do, because God will bring them back around if they're open to it. It's a process, it's a lifestyle.

We must be changed from the inside out. That word transformation means metamorphosis, like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. You become a brand new person, not only on the inside but the outside, you start looking different to people. I like y'all, y'all are doing real good, just checking my time, is that all right.

So, to repeat, if we're going to know and discern the will of God, we must first, what? Surrender our lives completely to him. Second, we must make sure we're not being conformed to the world. Next, we need to be transformed from the inside out. We need to renew our minds through both the word and the Spirit.

The word changes you, but it's the Holy Spirit working with the word in your life that changes you. It takes the Spirit of God giving you the word of God. That's why sometimes you're reading your Bible, and you see a scripture, and you just can't get away from it, you keep reading it over. I'm seeing some heads nod, you've been there before. You've been on a schedule to read the entire Bible through in a year, but somehow that scripture keeps working on you. I'm not saying don't continue to read, but stop, and say, God, what are you saying to me, speak to my heart, you're saying something, you're helping me discern, you're helping me walk through this. Glory to God, hallelujah.

It is the Spirit working together with the word that changes and transforms our life. Surrender, come on, say it after me, surrender, not being conformed, being transformed. What's the next one? Come on y'all, discernment. How do we begin to recognize God's will? The scripture says in Romans 12, verse 2, then we will be able to test and approve what God's will is, it's good, it's pleasing, it's perfect, or complete.

As we are being transformed, it brings clarity to what God is doing in our life. As we surrender our lives, we begin to cultivate discernment. Psalm 25:9 says:

He guides the humble in what is right.

Psalm 25:9

Humble, as it relates to this, means the teachable, the humble, as it relates to this, means, God, I'll go your way, not mine. That's what it means in terms of being humble. He will guide the humble into that which is right.

Now let me give you something, if you don't get anything else out of this message, get this: God is more concerned about leading you than you are about making the right decisions. God is deeply concerned about how you go, where you go, who you connect with, what you do, because God's plan, can I give you a secret? Yeah, I know this already, but I'm pretending I'm deep, I'll give you a secret: everything God wants you to do doesn't just include you. It includes your family, your community, your church, everybody around you. Because when God uses and blesses you, he blesses your entire family, he blesses your community, he blesses everybody around you. People are better off when you're in the will of God. That's a good place to not just say amen, but put your hands together and give God some praise.

Testing God's will against his character

God's will is always good. It's always pleasing, it's always complete, or perfect, the NIV says. Can we get real plain on some things, so we can have a starting point for really discerning the things of God? The Bible says, I believe it's John 10:10, you're going to correct me if I'm wrong, right?

The enemy comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy. But I came that you might have life, and have it more abundantly.

John 10:10

Let's get real plain here, y'all get simple for my sake. Anything that's stealing from you, killing you, or destroying your life is not of God. You don't have to figure out, God, is this you, if it's taking your life. God, is this you, if it's stealing from you. God, is this you, if it's destroying you. He said, I came that you might have life, and that you might have it more abundantly. That doesn't mean you won't have tests, that doesn't mean you won't have trials, that doesn't mean you won't have difficulties. It simply means that through it, you'll do like Jesus, or we can learn to do like Jesus, when he was sleeping on the boat as the storm raged and all his disciples were out there saying, we're getting ready to drown, and Jesus is sleeping on a pillow. He had to be getting wet in the boat, and he's sleeping. Think about that, a storm, and he's sleeping through the storm. And they had to wake him up and say, don't you care?

Can I paraphrase? This is Joe Oby, paraphrase one one. He said, let me show you how much I care, storm, shut up, wind, stop. Peace. What I'm saying to you is this: in the midst of your trials, your tests, your tribulations, you're going to have them, but you have Christ with you in the midst of it. I say that to get real simple, because I don't want us trying to figure out, I wonder if this is God. You've got a relationship in your life that's pulling from you, that's negative, that's pulling you down.

You need to consider that relationship. You need to look at it and say, this may not be God, I don't think this is God, it doesn't look like this is God, it's pulling my life. Every time I get around this individual, it just seems to pull the life out of me. You don't have to spend a lot of time, just separate yourself. Am I still okay? Shout amen somebody, are you with me? God, is this you, if it's stealing from you, if it's killing, if it's destroying you, it's not the will of God. Thank you, appreciate the encouragement.

Five steps to discerning God's will

All righty, I didn't preach long, but I want to give you some practical steps. Let me give you five practical steps for discerning God's will, some of them we've mentioned, so I'll repeat them here, because I want you to have them all.

If you're going to discern the will of God, first of all, it takes time to discern the will of God, it takes relationship with him to discern the will of God. Now if you need to make a decision quickly, pray, God give me the wisdom, and he'll give you and direct you. But listen, the way you live this out is through a lifestyle.

Shout amen somebody. Number one, surrender. Daily surrender. How often? Daily surrender. As I said earlier, say, Lord, not my will but yours be done. Lord, this is your day, I give it over to you. You lead me, you guide me, you direct me, whatever you want me to do, I'll do it. This is what they used to say, when I'm a little older than all of y'all, Lord have mercy, pray for me, I'm older than all of y'all, oh Lord have mercy, oh my gracious. That's why you should stay on point and stay focused when you're getting my age. Amen, glory to God.

Daily surrender, that's what I know, daily, say daily surrender, committed to him each and every morning. Not my will, but yours. This is what they used to say: I'll go where you want me to go, I'll do what you want me to do, I'll say what you want me to say. Order my steps, order my life, order my relationships. Daily.

Second thing you need to do, and I need to do, is guard our mind. Do what? Guard our mind. Because anything you take in will eventually take root and become a part of you. You know why you're here today, in worship, in service? It's because of the decisions you made previously, and every decision you make leads you to a certain place. Are you with me? So you need to guard your mind, to make sure people and other things aren't influencing you the wrong way. Do what? Guard your mind. Watch social media, watch everything they say. I'm not saying don't watch it, don't listen to it. What I'm saying is, watch how much you take in, and filter what you take in.

Can I get real strong here, because what you take in may move you away from God, not closer to him. Let me say this again, I want to emphasize it: it's your responsibility, and my responsibility, not God's responsibility, to do that. He empowers us, he helps us, he strengthens us, but he will only do it when you ask him.

Third thing, immerse yourself in the scriptures. Do what? Follow the plan they have at the church, the Bible reading plan, or get your own plan to read, immerse yourself in the scriptures. And not only immerse yourself, but every time you read, say, Holy Spirit, help me understand what I'm reading. And pray this extra prayer: not only help me understand, but help me apply what you're teaching me from this text, from this scripture.

I could spend, number four, I could spend three months teaching on listening to the Holy Spirit, just on that one, but let me say this: the best way to learn how to listen to the Holy Spirit is to get quiet. Don't y'all journal? Journal, yeah, good way to listen. Begin to discern your thoughts from his thoughts, get quiet enough to hear.

Give me three minutes, and if I go beyond that, pray for me. How many of you are believers? I want to teach you how to listen to the Holy Spirit.

How do you know you're a believer? If you came up in my generation, you probably sung a song, the song would come to mind, that you know that you know Jesus because this is what the Bible tells you, or something like that, Jesus loves me, this I know, 'cause the Bible tells me so. Let me ask you another question. Most of us can say we know we're believers because the Bible tells us so, right? But tell me, how do you know you're a believer without the Bible?

By the fruits? Yeah, even closer than that. Let's go closer. By the fruits, that's outward, that's process. Let me tell you how you know: the Bible says when you become a believer, the Holy Spirit comes inside you, and he gives you, can I say this word, a knowing. You know that you're a believer, and nobody can convince you of anything else. How do you know you're a believer? Because I know. How do you know? Because I know. This is the way I like to say it: I know that I know, that my knower knows, and I know. Are you with me? You know it. That's where God leads you from, that knowing. Whenever God wants you to do something, particularly changing in your life, he'll give you a knowing. Some people call it a peace, but you've got to get quiet enough to hear it. It's not an audible voice, it's quiet enough to hear it.

Have you ever been in worship, and you're worshiping, and all of a sudden you lose what they're saying, you don't know what they're singing, but all of a sudden it seems like God's talking to you, not in an audible voice, but there's just something he's saying to you, and it's like, I needed that. It's a knowing. Come on, say it's a knowing. Come on, say it's a knowing. Did anybody get help by that?

Amen, amen, amen. Because, you know, the fifth one is, you walk in obedience. I know we don't like obedience, but you walk in obedience. What do I mean? Whatever the Spirit of God tells you, whatever you believe you're supposed to do, even going to the scripture and finding out what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to love people. God, should I keep this job or not keep this job? Well, make sure first you love your boss and pray for your boss. Are you with me?

And I'll say it another way, and I've got to close, I've got to close sooner or later, Josh is real nice.

I said this earlier, but I'm going to say it again: if you don't get anything else out of this message, get this. God always leads you in discerning his will. He always leads you from his known will to his unknown will. Let me explain that. The known will of God is in his word. We can't fully expect God to lead us personally into what we don't know about our lives, until we're doing what we already know to do.

Let me give you an example, and I'm closing for real this time. You say, God, I need to know what you want me to do, and all you sense is that you probably need to read the Bible some more. Well, don't keep going back to God saying, God, tell me what to do, when he's already told you, read the Bible. Or let me say it a different way: you're asking God, I need you to help me in this situation, and how you feel is, I just need to spend some time in worship. Well, don't keep asking God what you're supposed to do, go do what you know, so God can tell you what you need to know. Start where you are.

Closing prayer

Did anybody get anything out of this today? Has it helped? I've been preaching for 28 years, I've probably done over 3,000 messages, and I've gotten to the place where I realize, if what I'm saying isn't helping anybody, I'm just putting on a performance.

I pray that God ignites in you, very strongly, his voice, that you begin to discern what he wants you to do in your life. Maybe this isn't a season where you're making a major change, but you need to know what to do in your daily walk with God. I pray I stir up inside you that desire to fully and completely surrender to God, to go after God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, that nothing else matters, and I mean that in the sense that he becomes the priority of your life. God, if I'm not in the will of God, I don't want to be anywhere else.

If I'm not doing what you want me to do, God, show me where you want me to go, how you want me to do it, what you want me to do. I pray I stir up inside you a prayer that says, not my will, but your will be done. I pray I stir up a longing, as the psalmist said, I'm going to seek the face of God, I seek him as if I'm in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water, that I might know him, understand him, see him, and go after him with everything that I am. Pray God stirs your heart, pray God stirs your mind.

I pray that every time you come to a decision, at least a major decision in your life, you will pause and say, God, what's your will, what's your desire? I've been in the word, I've been worshiping, I've been in community, I've been fasting, what do you want me to do?

Can I do it this way, every head bowed, every eye closed. If you're getting ready to make a major decision, every head bowed, every eye closed, if you have a major decision you have to make in your life, just raise your hand real quick. You can put your hands down, you can look at me again. That's all I wanted to do, I want to pray for you, and I'll pray with you, that you would hear and discern what God's saying to you in this hour.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you, we praise you, we honor you. There were several hands that went up, making major decisions. I pray, Father, that you would help them discern your voice, discern your direction, know exactly what to do, when to do it, how to do it, where to do it. And if you've already spoken a word to them, because you want to grow them in the process of making a decision, I pray that word will come alive in them, and they would respond to it, and go after it with all their heart, and go after you with all their heart. Father, we thank you for it, we praise you for it, we worship you for it.

I want to pray for those today who are saying, I'm making a commitment, or recommitting, to fully going after God, to discern his will, to do whatever it takes to discern his will. I want to pray for each and every person who wants to make that commitment or recommitment today. Father, I pray for each person, right where they're sitting, as they're making that commitment, to know your will, and more importantly, know you. And out of knowing you, they can fulfill, and discern, and do your will. As they commit to you, God, may your grace increase, your power increase, your strength increase, and let this be a defining moment where they hear and discern your voice as never before. In Jesus' mighty name.