Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the importance of waiting patiently on the Lord, sharing insights from a dream that inspired his message. He cautions against relying on dreams for direction, instead urging believers to seek guidance through prayer and the Word of God. Beach highlights that while some moral directives are clear in Scripture, other decisions require waiting for God's specific guidance. He encourages Christians to trust in the Lord, commit their ways to Him, and acknowledge Him in all aspects of life, assuring that God will direct their paths. Ultimately, he reassures that waiting on the Lord may feel like spinning in a whirlpool, but it is part of God's process in leading us.

I'm going to truly enlighten, and it won't be long, it's only quarter after eight. God willing, it won't be long. I hope he doesn't make me a liar. He has done that before. But I'm going to share something that the Lord gave me a couple weeks ago. And it, believe it or not, the initial leading of the Lord for this entire message that God brought to me came through a dream. Now, I am not condoning basing your life on dreams. I am not condoning asking God to give you dreams and then toy with them. I am not condoning getting direction from dreams. The word of God and the Holy Spirit are the essential means, the means by which God leads and guides his dear children. However, I do believe that God is able and does speak to us in dreams. But they must be put in the right place. And I do not want to be understood as one who condones finding direction and making decisions based on dreams. You know, you could dream that you sold your car. So you wake up the next morning and say, well, the Lord showed me to sell my car. You know, forget it. Forget it. God's not going to speak to you in dreams unless you're ready and prepared. And he gives you an ability to understand what he is saying. But I want to share on the thought of what Barbara had shared. And I appreciate her testimony. It is true that God many times will permit us to take the counsel of a good hearted person. And it seems right, but it might not be his counsel. That's why ultimately we have to be able to allow people to come and share and help us. But ultimately we must get on our knees and we must seek God and let God lead us through his spirit. And we must never do anything that is being prompted by what someone else or another person's faith is telling us to do. Though someone might give us good advice, but the ultimate secret in being able to be led by God is waiting patiently for the Lord until he tells us what to do. And when he doesn't tell us what to do, then we just need to patiently wait on him. Now there are areas in the Bible where we don't necessarily need a revelation from God. For example, it is very clear that God doesn't want us to go out and get drunk. So consequently, we don't need God to speak to us and give us this great revelation. Thou shalt not go out and get drunk. That's clear, black and white in the Bible. Neither do we need God to necessarily come to us after a season of waiting and tell us, you shouldn't steal, or you shouldn't lie, or you shouldn't commit adultery. Sexual sin is wrong. God does not want us to be involved in sexual sin. So we don't need to be in sin and then say, well, when the Lord's ready, he'll reveal it to me. He already revealed it to us in his Word. So it's a matter of finding out what God's Word says. But then there's areas where God's Word doesn't specifically tell us. For example, does God's Word tell an 18-year-old kid that he's to go to Bible school? You know, 2nd Wisdom 3.4. Yea, thou shalt go to Bible school. You don't find it. You don't find it, you see. So, you don't do that. So what you do is, you learn to know what the Bible says on clear issues. That's why it's important to study the Word, to read the Word, and to be a student of the Word of God. Like I said, we don't need God to tell us, you shouldn't steal. You don't need to wait on God to tell you that. It's clear, it's in the Bible. You don't need to wait on God to tell you that you shouldn't murder, or anything like that. But there's issues where the will of God is needed to be understood, where there's not a clear word from the Lord as to what to do and what not to do. And that is when the believer has to learn the wonderful lesson of waiting upon the Lord for direction. And first of all, I'd like to read the scripture that Barbara quoted. That's found in Proverbs chapter 3. Proverbs chapter 3. The Bible says in Proverbs chapter 3, verse number 5, trust in the Lord. Now the word trust there suggests a leaning upon the Lord. Actually, in some instances, it suggests diving, a dive. So what we're to do is dive to the Lord. We're to dive upon Him. We are to rely upon Him. We are to trust Him. We are to depend upon Him to give us direction. As opposed to, and lean not unto thine own understanding. Now there is a great conflict in the world today. The conflict is this. People want to do things their way, and God has revealed in His word, His way. And this is one of the crises that need to be settled within the Christian church today. God's people need to realize that as redeemed sinners, now children of God, washed and sanctified and cleansed by the blood, it is no longer our right to live our lives according to the pleasure of our own good will. Of our own good desires. But it is essential that the Christian learn how to understand God's way and submit ourselves to God's way and not do things our way. It says, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. You see, the world teaches us that if it feels good, if it looks good, if it seems to benefit you, then do it. That's your own understanding. But God's word says not so. God's word says not so. So, the beginning of understanding the proper leading of God in our life is to settle it once and for all. My way does not work. No matter how good it looks, no matter how the odds seem to be for me rather than against me, no matter how luxurious, no matter how comforting it may be, no matter what kind of an imagination we can create as to how it will benefit us, if it is our way and not God's way, it is ultimately in opposition to God's will. And though God may even allow us to do it, it will not produce the fruit that God is looking for. So, the essential element that the Christian must be aware of in order to discern God's way is the word of God. The Bible says in Mark chapter 7, keep your finger in Proverbs chapter 3, but in Mark chapter 7, this is a very remarkable passage of Scripture. Jesus here is discussing some things with some of the Pharisees and I just want to read beginning in verse number 1. Then came to gather unto him the Pharisees and certain of the scribes which came from Jerusalem. And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say with unwashing hands, they found fault. For the Pharisees and all the Jews except they washed their hands often eat not, holding the, what are they holding? The tradition of the elders. Now, let's go to verse number 6. Jesus answered and said to them, Well, hath Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites? As it is written, this people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. How be it in vain do they worship me? Listen, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men as the washing of pots and cups and many other such things ye do. Now, do you understand there what he is saying? Verse number 13. Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered, and many such things do ye. This portion of scripture, I recommend that you read the entire story, but this portion of scripture sheds incredible light to our hearts. And this is what the light is. In following the tradition of men, which is contrary to the teaching of the word of God, we separate ourselves from what God says and we follow the tradition. And by following the tradition, we disannul the influence of God's word in our life. It is so essential that we know the distinction between tradition that is taught by men versus the word of God, which is not tradition, which is pure and true and never wrong. It's important that we allow God to direct our life, not based on tradition of what Grammy did and great Grammy did or what the church did that I grew up in. But let's go back to the word of God and learn what the Bible says and base our life not around the tradition of the world or the tradition of the church, but around the word of God. The word of God. If you are interested to do God's will, and if you are interested in God establishing in your life an obedient heart, prompted by love, empowered by the Holy Spirit, you should pray and ask God to give you an unquenchable thirst for the word of God. The more God causes His word to be hid in your heart, the more you will know God's will in every area of your life and the less you will find yourself going astray doing the things that you want to do. Now, going back to Proverbs chapter 3, just a little exhortation there in order for us to see the difference between the word of God and the tradition. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him. Now, you know what it means to acknowledge? Here's a real easy way to describe it. If Mr. Bush walked into the room and we were having a service and we were doing whatever, it would be proper to stop and what? Acknowledge Mr. Bush. So consequently, the Christian... Just lost my whole train of thought. Yes, I did. No, no, I was thinking of a word and lost it. Well, nevertheless, I won't say it that way. I'll say it another way. The Christian, when he's going about his affairs, should always stop and acknowledge Mr. Jesus. That's what it means to acknowledge Him in all your ways. In other words, whatever you do, fine, plan your plans, but at the end you'd better stop and acknowledge Him as being in your midst and say, Now, Lord, you see what I've done here? Now, I want you to establish in this mess here what's from you and completely destroy what's not from you. Now, how many are willing for that? Amen. That's what you do. You say, Lord, I acknowledge You. I acknowledge. I stop what I'm doing and I say, let's acknowledge our King. Lord Jesus, I acknowledge You. Now, here's what I've done, but you know what, Lord? It's hay, it's stubble if it's not Your will. So consequently, if this is Your doing, make it work. If not, Lord, burn it up. I don't want anything to do with it. Now, if you have a heart like that, God will indeed establish Your way. In all Thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall what? Direct Thy path. He shall direct it. You won't direct it. But there must be a willingness within our life to acknowledge Him. In other words, present your plans to Him and don't be so stiff-headed and so stubborn and so determined to do what you planned. But be willing to let God go. How many have ever had God go? Hey, listen, let's face it. It hurts at first, but it gets to feeling good after a while, doesn't it? And even in retrospect, we say, thank you, Jesus. Okay, well. Psalm 37. This is the end of the teaching. A little exhortation tonight. Boy, I appreciate the testimonies tonight. They were good, weren't they? Now watch this. Psalm 37. I'm going to write something on the board that's going to really shock you. No, I'm not. No shock. Psalm 37. I don't see it. Oh, there it is. Thank you. Psalm 37. Now watch this. Everybody there? It's going to be good. Fret not. The word fret there means don't get so worried. Don't get so worried. Relax. What do they say? Chill out. Chill, that's it. Boy, you should know the words I've learned. Awesome, chill out, intense. Boy, this is good. Huh? They're all in here. Fret not thyself because of evildoers. Neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. One of the greatest stumbling blocks, and this is a sensitive issue, but it's a stumbling block. One of the greatest stumbling blocks of a couple that's going through a divorce. Especially when it's a Christian and the unbeliever. It's when the Christian is going through the divorce and they're crushed and they're broken and they're in despair and they look at their partner and they just seem to be prospering along the way. Just going merry hallelujah. And it's exactly what it says here. Don't fret thyself because of evildoers. Neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. I'm working with a guy and his ex-wife appears on the surface to be just having a ball. And he can't handle it. He says I get so mad. Here I am so broken. Here she is like nothing happened. I said don't believe it. I said people put on good masks, but inside she's miserable miserable miserable dot dot dot. You know what that means? Infinity. That's what I was taught in math. That means miserable miserable miserable miserable miserable and there's no end to it. Unless her misery brings her to the cross. And then she'll find the oil of joy for the spirit of heaviness and beauty for ashes. So don't ever believe it when you're going through a hard time. You who have gone through divorce or are going through and you look at your couple or you look at your mate and they just got that smile and they're just going through life prospering. Don't believe it for a second. It's a lie. They're miserable and you should pray for them and ask God to lead them to the cross. Listen to verse 2. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb. Now here it is. Trust in the Lord and do good. So shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed. Listen. Delight thyself also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Here is a promise that we need to get a hold of. The Bible says here, delight yourself. In other words, the word delight there is to find pleasure. Find pleasure in God. Get to the place where you wake up as I was preaching a few weeks ago. Get to the place where you wake up and your pleasure is thinking about God. I wake up and all of a sudden I'm happy. Not because the cartoons are on or because I've got a pancake batter ready. Although you can get happy about that. Don't get me wrong. I don't want to get ascetic and weird where we have to deny normal, good, human feelings like I mean who doesn't get happy when they smell a pan of bacon cooking? Or a fresh pot of coffee? Especially when it's hazelnut or roasted almond. I mean I don't put a joy on anyone's heart. Not a lasting joy but there's nothing wrong with temporary joy. I mean who doesn't get happy eating a cheeseburger? But it's not lasting joy. But let's not suppress it and get weird. You know like the ascetics and the Hindus they think that you find God when you bring complete death to every human desire you have so that you end up I found him. Oh what joy. It's miserable. It's miserable. I mean here they are in a vacuum. I'm dead. I found it. Is this it? It must be because I don't feel nothing or see nothing. Oh God. Who'd want to serve a God like that? What's the word? Nirvana. Nirvana. Away with nirvana. In with Jesus. Jesus doesn't produce nirvana. He produces joy unspeakable and full of glory. Amen? So delight yourself in the Lord. And if you know God is causing your heart to say Oh I love you Jesus. Then here's your promise. God will give you the desires of your heart. Now understand that doesn't mean that any desire that comes up God's going to give you. What this means is if you delight yourself in God God will come from heaven and put into your heart his desires. And then those desires will prosper. This isn't a blanket promise. A believer says Oh I love God and I want to do this. That means God must want me to. Oh forget that. That's the kind of idea where everything I do is God because I delight in him. Forget it. What that means is God will give you from his own heart the desires in your life that please him. Now watch this. Commit. Now this is interesting. The word commit comes from a Hebrew word which means to roll. To roll. So the idea here is roll thy way. Roll thy way onto the Lord. Now don't ask me how to do that but that's what it means. Roll it on. Push it on. Roll it. I mean roll yourself on to God. Commit your way onto the Lord. Trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass. Now the word bring there means work. So another translation could be roll onto the Lord everything about yourself and trust in him and he shall work for you. He'll work on your behalf. That's a good deal isn't it? I trust him. I roll my burdens on him. I lean on him and then he works for me. What a deal. What a deal. Now he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light and thy judgment as the noon day. Now here it is. Rest in the Lord. Ah beloved. Listen. Real quick word of advice. Whenever you depart from rest stop where you're at and find out why. The greatest tragedy in the believer is this. They depart from rest and they just ignore it for days. Let me tell you something. Ask God to develop in you such a sensitivity. The moment your soul leaves rest stop and say now Lord what is causing the absence of rest? Listen. Am I worrying about something? Am I letting something bother me that I shouldn't let bother me? Am I overly concerned about something? Has this person said something to me and really inside it's making me angry? Don't wait seven years and then oh I'm miserable and find out it was because you should have dealt with something seven years ago. Deal with it immediately. A little word of advice here for couples, married, going together. If you have a quarrel with each other don't wait until next Tuesday at four o'clock and say well I think maybe we should talk about what happened last year. No! Stop! Right where you're at. You know what we used to do when we were first married? We made an agreement in the car or anything. A misunderstanding and we sensed that there was something happening in our heart pull over and talk it out. You think I'm going to go six hours knowing that I hurt my wife? No way Jose. That's a good way to hurt somebody. Stop. Learn to be humble. If you feel there's friction say whoa whoa whoa. What are we doing here? Let's talk it out. You practice this stuff and it'll change you. Now all of this for this one word. This is what you're really going to enjoy Barbara. Alright. Rest in the Lord. Wait patiently. You won't believe it. The word wait patiently. You know what it means? I like that. That's what it means. Wait patiently. Means to spin as in a whirlpool. To be in travail. Now let me ask this. You say I don't understand. How many have waited patiently on the Lord and experienced as if you're spinning in circles and it's like you're in travail? Here's how it all happened. See it makes sense. You know we say wait patiently on the Lord. We imagine some Shangri-La where we're sitting on a hammock with a lemonade and ice and we've got someone rubbing our feet and tickling our toes and we've got someone with a palm branch in here going I'm just waiting on the Lord until he's ready. No! You know it's not true. You know waiting on God is like spinning in a whirlpool. It's like being in travail. Oh God have mercy. Help me. Huh? It's true isn't it? Now watch this. This is how this all happened. I had a dream one night a couple weeks ago. It's exactly it. I had a dream and I was spinning in a whirlpool and then I woke. I knew it was from the Lord but I wasn't going to touch it with a ten foot pole because I said only God knows. And then you know what I did a few days later? I was reading this scripture. Wait patiently on the Lord. Huh. Wonder what that means. So I look it up in the back. Wow! And then the Lord put it together and said Phil when you wait patiently on me and you are waiting for me to bring my will to pass in your life, you're going to spin spiritually and you're going to feel at times like you're in a whirlpool and you're going to be in travail as if a woman was bringing forth. But he says relax. That's what it means to wait on me. Now is that encouraging? How many have spun and been in a travail and thought you must have been missing God on waiting on Him? Because you never associated waiting on God with spinning. But now for the rest of your Christian life, when God is leading you to wait and you know you're patiently waiting and spiritually you start spinning and spiritually you start feeling like you're in a whirlpool and you start going into travail, you'll say oh praise God I'm right where God wants me. Well I don't know if you'll say that but but you'll know that just because this is happening it doesn't mean you're out of His will. Amen? Now watch what it says here and we're going to close. Wait patiently for Him. Don't worry because of He who prospers in His way. Because the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Huh? Oh because of the man who brings wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger. Forsake wrath. Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. Wait upon the Lord because you'll inherit the land. That's it. Be encouraged. When God causes you to wait, you may spin. You may feel a sensation of of travail. You may be heavy in your spirit. But relax. That's what happens when you wait. And if you wait long enough and faint not what does Paul say? Be not weary in doing well. For if you faint not, you shall reap.