Gods Will

Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come unto Thee. Hide not Thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble. Incline Thine ear unto me In the day when I call, answer me speedily.

That call may be in the form of a falling tear, or a whisper, or even a sigh. God knows the sincerity of that heart, and He'll hear the slightest whisper from that heart of yours. Father God, answer that call.

Answer that one's cry. Be real to that one. For Jesus' sake we ask it.

Amen. For a few minutes, you and I are going to have a little heart-to-heart talk about something that's most important to all of us. And that is the will of God.

And sometimes I feel that the hardest thing in the world to discern is God's perfect will for you and for me. I mean that. There have been times in my life when I have to admit I absolutely did not know just what was God's perfect will.

I had come to the crossroads. I knew that two things could not be His will. One was His will, and one was not His will.

And I have stood right in the middle of those crossroads, afraid to go frontward or backward or to the right or to the left, for fear that I would miss His will. So for just a few minutes, I want you to sit there with open hearts and open minds, and let's discuss this thing. Very freely about the will of God and how to ascertain God's perfect will.

One thing that I have learned from experience, and it was one of the greatest lessons that I have had to learn, and that is that in seeking God's perfect will, I must not have a will of my own. I have got to get myself to the place where I have no will in the matter of my own. I seek at the very beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to the given matter.

Anyone know something? Nine-tenths of the trouble with people is just here. Nine-tenths of the difficulties are overcome when our hearts are ready to do the will of the Lord, whatever it may be. And when one is truly in this state, it's usually but just a little while before you'll know His perfect will.

But do you want to know why sometimes you and I have such a hard time ascertaining God's will? Do you want to know why many a time we weep and we are so uncertain, we're so perplexed, we're so doubtful as to what God's perfect will is? It's simply because we've never gotten to the place where we have fully surrendered our will to the will of God. We want to do exactly what we want to do. And it's just like that.

We're made that way. Human nature is just like that. And I don't care how deeply spiritual you may be this very hour.

I don't care what marvelous experiences you may have had in the Lord. One of the hardest places to get to in the Christian experience is that place where you are so surrendered to Him that you have no will of your own. And it's just like that.

Our trouble, nine-tenths of that trouble, in knowing God's perfect will is that we fight against His will, whether we know it or not. For a person wants to do exactly what he wants. You know, when people come to me for advice, I know good and well that even though I may take a full hour and sit there and try to give them advice, they may be perfectly honest in coming to me, perfectly sincere.

I wouldn't doubt their sincerity. They may have come to me really wanting to know my opinion and wanting my advice. And I sit there and I pour out my heart and I give them all the wisdom that I know.

When they leave my presence and go their way, regardless of what I have said, what I have advised them to do, I know that as they turn from my presence, they're going to go out and do exactly what they want to do. And it would be a good idea if you'd learn that too, when folk come to you. They'll take your time.

Oh, sure, your neighbors will come to your house. They'll take your time. They'll spend half the morning.

They'll spend all afternoon talking the thing over with you and asking your advice. But I'm going to promise you something. They're going to leave your house doing exactly what they want to do.

That's right. And that is our trouble. When we come into the presence of the Lord, we look up and we say, Dear Jesus, I want your perfect will.

I want your will more than anything in the world. And when he whispers his will to us, and mentally we know his will, sometimes it takes us days, sometimes it takes us weeks before we'll get to the place where we will submit our own will to his will. Even Jesus had a will separate and apart from the will of the Father.

That's the reason I told you so very often that really the victory of Calvary was fought and won in the garden. Think that over. There would never have been Calvary if in the garden Jesus, who was as much man as though he were not God, and as much God as though he were not man, if in the garden his will had not been submissive to the will of the Father.

The victory of Calvary was fought and won when he looked up and cried, Nevertheless, Father, not my will but thine be done. I promise you something. That when you are seeking the will of God, in that moment when you can get your heart in the state where his will is your will and your will is his will, it'll not be long before you'll know the will of God.

Now, having done just this, there's something else. I do not leave the result to feeling or simple impression. If I do so, I make myself liable to great delusions.

I can be easily deceived if I leave myself open to feelings and depend on feelings to lead me. Because sometimes feelings can be very deceptive. That's right.

God never gives feelings to enable us to trust him. God never gives feelings to encourage us to trust him. God never gives feelings to show that we have already and utterly trusted him.

We walk by faith, not by appearances. We walk by faith, not by feelings. God never intended that his children walk according to their feelings.

Why no self may want to, and a great many of us do. Haven't you met that somebody that one day, how are you? Oh, I'm just fine. Oh, isn't the Lord good? And they're way up on the mountaintop someplace.

But the next day you see them and, well, how are you? Oh, I'm just awful. I tell you, Miss Truman, I'm just awful. Things are going to the dogs.

And really, nothing has changed but their feelings. It's like that. Maybe they weren't feeling as well physically today as they felt yesterday.

Or maybe a disappointment came. Maybe they were counting on something and it didn't materialize. And then they feel as though the bottom has dropped out.

And when you meet them on the street, they look as though God was dead and they were one of the pallbearers. It's just like that. But God had not changed.

He was just the same when you met them the second day as when you met them the first day and they were on top of the mountain. God's word had not changed. One would have thought that God had altered His promises by the way they acted.

But God never alters His promises. God never gives His power to anyone else. It's just the same.

A person like that is governed by their feelings. Remember something. God gives feeling only when He sees that we trust Him apart from all the feeling.

He only gives us feeling when He knows that we're resting on His word, on His faithfulness to His promise. And it's just like that. Our feelings may be as uncertain as the sea or the shifting sands.

We stake everything on God's word. And God's facts are as certain as the rock of ages. And so in seeking God's will, never rest on your feelings but His word.

For His will will never be contrary to His word. Amen.