Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - How Can I Know God's Will For My Life? Jonny Ardavanis

Episode Date: July 16, 2024

Jonny Ardavanis is the Lead Pastor at Stonebridge Bible Church in Franklin, TN and the President of Dial In Ministries. He formerly served as the Dean of Campus Life at The Master’s University and as a Camp Director at Hume Lake Christian Camps. Jonny’s heart is to see people understand and love the Word of God and more so, to love the God of the Word. Jonny is married to Caity Jean and they have two precious daughters.One of the most common questions asked today is: “How can I know God’s will?” Although we often desire to know God’s specific will for their life as it pertains to calling, marriage, dating, and so forth, many may fail to recognize that God’s will for our life is not something to be found, it’s something that needs to be obeyed. Only when we are walking in obedience to God’s revealed will can we expect to have any clarity on His specific guidance for our lifeIn this episode, Jonny Ardavanis breaks down the fundamental guideposts for discovering God’s will for your life.Watch VideosVisit the Website Pre-order Consider the LiliesFollow on InstagramFollow on Twitter

When your heart's accustomed to gratitude because you're giving thanks to God in every circumstance, when you're tempted by something that would be sexually impure, a radar goes off in your head and you're going, well, if it's not something that I can thank God for, it's not something that I'm going to participate in. All right, welcome in to the Dial-In Podcast Studio.

I'm sitting here with Johnny Artvance. Johnny, how are you doing? I'm doing well. I'm doing well. It's 94 degrees outside and humid. That's actually a critical thing people should know, is when we record these studios, this does not have good air ventilation.

So there's a degree of urgency to our conversations. Borderline the Middle East outside right now. So we're doing well. We're considering it all joy as we endure the times. Various trials. Yeah. You know, it'd be hard to categorize it as a trial, but all right, let's get rolling. So what I thought we might be able to do today, Johnny, is just start maybe considering kind of a two-part conversation, considering the will of God.

So I know you get a lot of emails and interests on social media, and we've even gotten it in the youth ministry, but practically maybe we can set the table. How do we discern the will of God? And then we can go from there. Yeah. I think answering the question regarding the will of God is really important. You know, for Christians, we are pilgrims or sojourners. We're here just for a brief time on earth. And I think the question that is rampant amongst the people of God is how do I know which of God is, how do I know which path to take? How do I know which career to pursue?

How do I know which person to marry? And thankfully, I think the Bible is the direction manual that the Lord has given to his children while we're here on this earth. He leads and guides us not along these paths of obscurity, but as the good shepherd, he's going to help us understand in many ways exactly how we are to live. There's a lot of people today that would say, yes, I want to do the will of God. I just don't know whether or not I'm supposed to marry Chad or Brad or Julie or Judy, which is the name we should maybe bring back.

And so on a quest of not knowing which decision to make, they end up making no decisions at all. I think there's also a lot of people that are looking to find the will of God and they're looking for fulfillment in every category. And they've lost the idea that we're pilgrims, you know, so they've been told that God's will for your life is that you're happy. And so they don't know what makes them happy. So they never make decisions at all. And they think that this life is the ultimate. So there's a lot of different reasons why it's important that we look at the will of God from a biblical perspective, because you mentioned students. I worked with college students in a university context. I still interact with them. And there's young people even at our church. But regardless of the age,

it's important because let's just consider a younger person. Not knowing the will of God is often an accomplice for not growing up and getting on with life because our lives are riddled with endless possibilities. And so we never know which possibility to pursue. And then we think, man, if I choose the wrong path or the wrong person, then that'll affect my grandchildren's grandchildren. And the whole, you know, tilt of the earth's access will be disrupted. Your lineage is at stake. Yeah, my lineage is at stake. Exactly. And I think it's hard because people also grow up hearing like, hey, you can do anything you set your mind to. The whole world is your oyster,

but they've never opened or cracked up a single shell because there's so many different things that they could do. They don't do anything. Understanding the will of God is important for a number of reasons. I wrote down a few. Number one, understanding the will of God

is a matter of worship. It's important for your Christian life because as we'll look at in a moment, we're called to do and obey the will of God is a matter of worship. It's important for your Christian life because as we'll look at in a moment, we're called to do and obey the will of God. Secondly, you need to know what the will of God is for your life as a Christian because you only have one life to live. You may be a young person, you know, depending on who you are, you could be 16 or you could be 76.

It doesn't really matter. The convictions that you establish now are going to really affect the way that you live until you meet Jesus Christ face to face. And then third, it's important to know and then obey the will of God because that's a matter of imitation to our Lord. You know, when we find Jesus at age 12 at the temple, he was determined at that point to obey the will of God. So if you wanna be like Jesus Christ and you need to do the will of God, but then I think the question still persists,

how do we know the will of God? And I think you would be able to speak to it. For many people, understanding the will of God feels like a mystery. Absolutely. I think at times it can feel like you're almost going on the secret mission and every single person is after this solving this riddle it's an elusive bullseye yeah 100

you know i we used to call like the you know the hunt for the white buffalo or the black purple yeah the snow leopard you know whatever it may be it's the will of god is hard to track and it's even harder to lay hold of and And so we get this idea that God is someone who's taunting us from his heavenly throne and teasing us saying colder, colder, warmer, warmer, as it relates to his will. But I think the encouragement from the scripture is that God is not a shepherd who taunts. He's a shepherd who guides us. And that's why I want to look to the word now. It says in Romans 12, 2, that, and you know the passage, that we're not to be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind. And then it says, so that we may prove what

the will of God is. This is really important. It says, so that you may be able to prove what the will of God is, that which is good, acceptable, and perfect. This means that God's will is something that can be proven. And this is what Paul is saying in light of all of the different realities of the gospel. Paul's exhorting us not to be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind. That means we become more like Jesus. And that's the will of God. Now I want to break down what the will of God is, and we can look at it in three different ways. We'll cover the first two in this episode

and the third one in the next one, but there's primarily God's will of decree, God's will of demand or desire, and then the third one would be God's will of direction, and that's the Chad or Brad, Julie or Judy one. But I wanna talk about God's will of decree, which is sometimes referred to as God's sovereign will. God's sovereign will is his absolute determinative rule and reign over everything that will come to pass, that his purposes will not be thwarted. It says in Psalm 115, verse three,

our God is in the heavens. He does what he pleases. God's not in this tug of war with Satan. Satan's a runt pawn. You know, R.C. Sproul used to say that the devil is God's devil. I think that's actually Martin Luther, but same guy, same guy, Kobe Michael, you know. But God has a predetermined plan.

That's his sovereign will. It says in Ephesians 1.11, in him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him, who's working everything in accordance with the plan of his will. It says in Daniel 4.35, all of the inhabitants of the earth are of no account, but God does according to his will among the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And no one can fend off his hand or say to him, what have you done? So there is a reality right now where God is 100% always accomplishing his perfect divine sovereign will. And he is superintending that will for his glory and for the good of his

people. And that ranges from the sun that brings us warmth to the sparrow that flies and dies. Jesus says, God knows when that sparrow dies. God is no more aware of Joe Biden than he is of Joe Schmo. And he's orchestrating every single person's life from the biggest city to the smallest jungle and the remotest village, according to this predetermined sovereign plan. So that would be the first one. That's God's will of decree that'll never, ever be broken. Yeah, absolutely. So it's also worth noting, I feel like as you set up the conversation, I'm being convicted in my own heart of oftentimes when I'm thinking about trying to discern the will of God, oftentimes I'm actually starting with myself. And so theologically, what you're doing from the get-go is actually, it's implicit in the question, but it's often overlooked, is you're starting with who God is and how he's orchestrating every act of creation.

And so first, God's decree was the one you mentioned. Now it's God's demand is second. Is that right? Yeah, God's will of demand and desire. And then even just to compound on what you're saying, when the Lord teaches us to pray, the fundamental prayer of a Christian is thy will be done, not my will be done.

And so I think, yeah, in understanding the will of God, we need to understand that God's will comes before our own. And that's why we submit to it once we understand it. So there's God's will of decree. That's his sovereign will. That'll never, ever be broken, never, ever be changed. And it cannot be thwarted. The second would be God's will of demand or desire. And that is God's will that is broken and rebelled against every single moment of every single day and every single place. God's will of demand would be like his commandments that he extends to us. This is something that he tells us to do that we often don't do. So it says in, you know, consider Matthew 7, 21, Jesus says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven,

but he who does the will of my father who is in heaven. So there are people that do not do the will of God on the one hand, because they're disobeying God's will of desire. And then ultimately, we also know that God's will is being function, you know, it's being carried out on the other hand. If we go back to Romans 12, 2, we see that God's will is being functioned, you know, it's being carried out on the other hand. If we go back to Romans 12 too, we see that God's will is to be proven. That means it's also plainly revealed

that we're not conformed to this world, but we're transformed by the renewing of our mind. So if you were gonna break down, what's God's will of demand and desire for you as a Christian? God's will of demand and desire is that you become like Jesus. How are you renewed into the image of God? Well, you're renewed as you behold Jesus Christ and his word.

We've talked about this when we talked about the renewing of our minds. So bottom line, if you're going to kind of go back to the basics, anything that you think is where the Lord is directing you that contradicts the familiar voice of how God, your shepherd, leads you into the conformity of the image of his son isn't the voice of God. You know, Psalm 19 reveals that all of creation represents the autograph of God. But if you really want to know what God is like and what he's wanting from your life, you need to look to his word. And when we look to the word of God, we see that God's will of desire for you is revealed in four main categories. The first of which would be God's will,

and this is in no particular order. The first one would be God's will for your purity. If you're a Christian, this is assuming you're already a Christian because God's will is for you to come to him in faith. But the first one would be God's will for your purity. It says in 1 Thessalonians 4.3, this is the will of God, comma, your sanctification. That is the process by which you become continually conformed

into the image of Jesus Christ. And then the first way that that is explained is it says that you abstain from sexual immorality. This is the will of God, your sanctification, and that you be pure. This is important. I think there's a lot of people that are looking for the specific guidance of the Lord in their life, but they're rejecting the explicit desire of God for their life, which is that they're pure. The surest indicator in the first rung of the ladder in discerning the will of God is that you are becoming a model of purity before the Lord, both from an external perspective and an internal perspective.

It says in 1 Thessalonians, again, it says that each one of you in verse four, chapter four, know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God, and let no man transgress and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger in all these things. And then it says, for God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. This is just getting at the fact that one of the reasons God called you, if you're a Christian, is to be pure. And it says, he who rejects this is not rejecting man, but is rejecting the God who gives his Holy Spirit to you. So you kind of mentioned it already. People put the cart before the horse in discerning the will of God. But Paul is saying, hey, if you dismiss that God's will is

for your purity, you're not just dismissing the words of man. You're not dismissing the human opinion of a pastor. You're rejecting God who gives his Holy Spirit to you. So I would ask just some questions for the person that's looking for the specific will of god in their life are you being sexually physically you know with your eyes your body your mind are you being pure because you cannot expect god to reveal any sort of specific direction if you're not living in obedience to his real revealed and objective will for your purity. Yeah. So to your point, it's almost the picture coming to my mind is almost like a photograph being exposed to the image that it's in the olden days. I'm no photographer

and this metaphor is clearly revealing that, but it's exposure to the word of God and the truth. And it's also, it's just remarkable to me. It's a constant reminder. We looked at this in our community group a few weeks ago, talking about the will of God and the fact that Paul writes a letter to the Thessalonian church and explicitly calls out, this is the will of God. So it's oftentimes to your earlier point, it's not a riddle to your point about the direction. Paul's making it very clear and the Lord's making it very clear through Paul.

So first purity. Yeah. You first, purity. You mentioned more. Yeah, the second one would just be God's will is for your gratitude. You know, I think, and maybe people are going, well, yeah, this is so basic. Give me the nitty gritty. But I find that these are the things that people are often the most disobedient in. So God's will is for your sexual purity.

God's will is for your gratitude because it says in 1 Thessalonians 5, 16, rejoice always, pray without ceasing. And then it says, in everything, give thanks for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. What's God's will for your life? Well, it's that in everything in your life, you give thanks to God in Christ Jesus. In this passage, thankfulness is described as an imperative command, even though it's the logical response of the redeemed because there's always this gravitational pull as long as we are in the flesh towards ingratitude. And really this is one of the hallmarks in distinguishing elements between a believer

and an unbeliever as well. One was sexual purity and this other one is ingratitude. It says in 2 Timothy 3, that in the last days, difficult times come, men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, and revilers, disobedient to parents. And then it says, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good. In the middle of this list that includes malicious gossips, haters of good, slanders, violence. You just have these

people that are ungrateful. And so the Christian is to do this. It says in every circumstance, it says in first Thessalonians in Greek, it just is in Ponte. Like you're not supposed to be thankful when good things are happening to you. You're supposed to be thankful in every circumstance because it's the will of God for our life. Now, gratitude is not just a thing we do. This is probably part, it's important to understand that gratitude is not just the response. It's a determined conviction that we need to obey. And it's also a weapon that God gives us against even other sin and temptation. For example, we talked about God's will for your

sexual purity. Thankfulness is actually one of the weapons that we employ as believers to combat temptation against sexual purity or any other sin like worry. So for example, it says in Ephesians five, be imitators of Jesus Christ, but then it says in Ephesians five, three, but immorality or any impurity or greed must not be even named among you as is proper among saints. And there must be no filthiness or silly talk or coarse jesting. So don't be sexually impure with your body and in the way that you speak. And then it says in Ephesians 5, "'But rather give thanks.'" This is interesting. Like he goes from, hey, don't sleep around,

don't be an adulterer and don't joke crudely. Instead give thanks to God for everything he's done for you in Christ Jesus. Which is, wait, how is that related? It's unexpected. Unexpected. Same thing could be said about people that are crippled with anxiety.

Obviously, like this is a subject I've worked a lot on. I just finished my book on anxiety. And one of the interesting things about Paul's prescription for anxiety is he says in Philippians 4, 6, be anxious for nothing, but in everything with prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. So when your heart is accustomed to gratitude, because so here's, here's the will of God, when your heart's accustomed to gratitude, because you're giving thanks to God in every circumstance, when you're tempted by something that would be sexually impure, a radar goes off in your head and you're going, well, if, if it's

not something that I can thank God for if it's not something that i can thank god for it's not something that i'm going to participate in you know furthermore if it's a scenario where you're feeling worried or anxious how do you begin to pray in a way that god would help you with that anxiety well when you're anxious you don't pray god take my anxiety away paul says let your request be made known to God with thanksgiving. So you pray in this way. You pray, God, I'm thankful that you're sovereign. God, I'm thankful that you love me.

I thank you that my name is written in the Lamb's book of life. I thank you, Lord, that there is no chaos around me that is outside of your control. So that becomes a big part even in our sanctification, that being our gratitude. Well, and I was going to ask the question. It seems like such a layup, but it's actually maybe worth vocalizing. Practically, as a Christian hearing this, how am I to cultivate a heart of thanksgiving? I think I heard a couple of things there. One was you were reminding yourself of God's promises throughout his book. And second was a consistent posture of prayer, an ongoing

conversation with the Lord. Is that accurate? Would you add anything? Yeah, I just think a spirit of meditation is an important thing. It says in Psalm 1, I was reading it this morning, that you're to meditate on this book day and night. And so I think it's a meditating on the goodness of God and the promises of God. I also think it's a recitation of what he's done. But I think, yeah, learning to pray is important because for, yeah, I said a lot of people that are anxious pray, God, take my anxiety away. But that's a very big difference between praying,

God, I thank you for your rule and reign over every single star, over every single sparrow, and every single leaf that falls to the ground today is working all together for my good and for your glory. Help me to believe that. That's very different. It goes back to the point earlier of the prayer, take my anxiety away, is dangerously close to back to like discerning the will of God. I'm worrying about it versus your point is you're reminding yourself of the characteristics of God.

Yeah, exactly. And it's God focused. Yeah, and even in regards to prayer, I think it was A.W. Tozer used to talk about many people approach prayer like a glorified grocery list, you know, like God's a vending machine. And so the posture of our prayer life needs to be first and foremost, adoration.

That's why Jesus teaches us to pray, our Heavenly Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. You know, like we're lifting up the name of God before we're bringing to him our needs. Obviously we cast our needs on God. That's important. We call on him in the day of trouble, it says in the Psalms. But so much of our prayer life is starved from this posture of gratitude that actually dispels the sexual temptation and dispels the anxious thought.

And, you know, one of the things that I'm practicing with my daughter, Lily, I ask her why did God create the world? And she'll respond, for his glory. But the question would be, well, how has God glorified Lily? And the answer would be through the gratitude of the redeemed. It says in 2 Corinthians 4.15, for all things are for your sakes, "'so that the grace which is spreading

"'to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks "'to abound to the glory of God.'" Which means that God is glorified by our gratitude. And if you're a Christian, God's will for your life is for your thankfulness. So that would be the second one. So you got sexual purity, gratitude, and then third, and this would maybe be interesting for people, but God's will is for

your suffering. People may not like that, but there's no hope in our suffering if it's not according to the will of God. And it's not just that God is allowing it. I think sometimes we like to kind of back away from God's involvement in suffering. And there are certain things like if something horrible has happened to you. And on the one hand, it's not according to the will of God because someone disobeyed God's will of desire and demand that maybe would have hurt you in the past. But on the other hand, there is an element where he's using even our suffering as the grand weaver to wield something that is for his glory and our good.

It says in 1 Peter 4.19, therefore those who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful creator in doing what is right. He says those who suffer according to the will of God. It says in Philippians 1.29, for it has been granted to me on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him. I think people sometimes think that, you know, the evil they have endured or the suffering that they have endured is kind of like the checkmate to the sovereignty of God.

And the Bible is very clear that when gold is purified, it is put through the fire and impurities and anything that is not gold is removed. You get what is called slag and that's just taken away. And so in order for it to be pure, it has to go through the furnace. And the Christian life is very similar. And God tells us that part of the will of God for our life is that we would go through the furnace of affliction so that he can purify us and so that he can detach us from the super glue of this world. And so God's great plan again is for his glory and our good. And then you have to think, well, what's my good? My suffering doesn't seem very good. Well, your good is that you be conformed into the image of Jesus Christ. And so people often forget that,

but I think it's important, not only because we see that clearly in 1 Peter, but Jesus himself was no stranger to suffering. And if that's the reality, then why would those who've been redeemed by his blood be any different? So God's sovereign over that, and that's part of the will of God for our life.

If you've never gone through something hard, if you're a Christian, that's very And that's part of the will of God for our life. If you've never gone through something hard, if you're a Christian, um, that's very unique. It's not the promise of God. Um, it says in Acts 14, 22, through many tribulations, we will enter the kingdom of God. Yeah. And so to your point, the goodness, God works things together for our good, our goodness being an eternal reality, the goodness not being a chapter in our life on this earth necessarily. Yeah, and I talk about this kind of in the book

on writing on anxiety, but like I think sometimes even people refer to Romans 8, 28, you know, God's working everything out for good. I remember when my friend's mom died of cancer, someone came up at the memorial service, slapped him on the shoulder and said, hey man, it's okay, God's sovereign. In 20 years, it'll

all make sense. And that's not necessarily true at all. There are certain things that we endure and walk through in this life where we will not understand what the Lord is doing and weaving until we meet him face to face and into eternity. So yeah, I think we need to look at the good that God is working all things towards from an eternal perspective and not from a 20-year timetable. So, and then there's just this fourth thing that I would say. So, God's will is for your, go ahead. Real quick, just before you move off that, I think it's also, as someone who's gone through suffering in our own life, I think it's also supreme comfort, actually, on the flip side. So, there's, I feel like there's two pits in the road. On one side, the Christian who goes through suffering, and these are, I'm not trying to

cheapen anyone's experience, but truly like life-altering, God-questioning experiences in your life. On the flip side, I've seen in my own life, those very same experiences, I actually can't imagine walking through without a faith in God, because it's God's sovereignty that actually carries you through those experiences, without which it feels like there's actually no mooring hope or anchor to walk through any of that struggle. And it's helpful just to know from a biblical perspective, that suffering is not a surprise to God. He's not calling audibles. And that's where I even,

in Genesis 50, Joseph doesn't say what you meant for evil, God turned into good. He's not calling audibles. And that's where I even, in Genesis 50, Joseph doesn't say what you meant for evil, God turned into good. He says what you meant for evil, God meant for good. Totally. Meaning that mankind has their evil intention and God has his perfect, divine, ultimate rule and reign, or he's taking even what humans are doing and he's not trying to call audibles. He is orchestrating all those things from his heavenly throne and he's not trying to call audibles he is orchestrating all those things from his heavenly throne and he's working that out for his glory and our good and we may not see that till we get the glory and it's again it's one of those that every world view in the world it's i'm

reusing the world world but every world view and every philosophy every faith holds suffering as a constant and so it's only it's backwards i feel like in constant. And so it's backwards. I feel like in our day and age, it's easy to think we're kind of solving for a lack of suffering. And then you have these great kind of broadly secular thinkers like Jordan Peterson, who are kind of re-bringing to the forefront of the conversation that no, suffering is actually to be expected. And then to your point, it gives us great hope. And we're not surprised when suffering comes along. No, we're not surprised as believers. We expect it.

That's what Paul says. You know, this life is momentary light affliction, you know, like in comparison with the glory that is to be revealed to us. And I think people get false ideas of the Christian life from false teachers. Yeah. And false promises and that God's, you know, God's will for your life is for human flourishing. Well, no, God's will for your life is for your flourishing in that you imitate Jesus Christ. So yeah, you got God's will for your sexual purity, your gratitude, your suffering. And then this last one would just be that God's will is for your service, your service to the body of Christ, your service to the people of god it says in romans 12

1 therefore you know i beseech you on behalf of the mercies of god to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice which is your reasonable service of worship then it says do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of god is so the proven will of god goes back to the reality that if you're a Christian, you need to lay your life down on the altar of sacrifice. You're here as an ambassador. That's why even at the beginning, I grounded in the reality

that if you're looking for the will of God, you need to fundamentally remind yourself that you're a pilgrim, you're a sojourner. This world is not your home. And if you have little interest in making disciples, then you have little interest in the will of God. If you have little interest in serving the body of Christ, then you actually have little interest in discerning the will of God. If you have little interest in making much of Jesus and reaching people and carrying their burdens,

you have little interest in the will of God. So that's another main pillar is just that God's will for your life is that you're a servant, that you're an ambassador. And I say all this again, because people still are wondering, well, hey, how do I know how to marry Chad or Brad? Well, you need to understand first and foremost that God's will for your life

is that you serve the body of Christ. And if Chad or Brad aren't those types of guys, then you know, right? So you have to get these preliminary rungs of the ladder in order so that if you're looking for, hey, should I take that job in that area? Well, is there a healthy church in that area that you can serve? You know, well, no, if it's 50 miles away from a decent church or a hundred miles away from a decent church, it might have an extra zero on the paycheck, but it's not God's will for your life. I can promise you that because God's will for your life is for your purity, your gratitude, your sanctification.

And if you want to take that job with an extra zero, but you don't know the local church that you're going to be a part of, that's not God's will for your life. And so I think people just get those things messed up. So that's God's will of decree, then is God's will of demand or desire. And then there's this third point, and this is kind of what we'll just tease for the next episode, which is God's will of direction. So how do I know if it's missions or business, seminary or venture capital? And the simple answer that we'll look at is, well, if you're being spirit-filled, you're word-driven, scripture-saturated, you're gleaning the wisdom

of other men and women in your life, you're eager for counsel, then you can't make a bad decision. Just go and do whatever you want. And, you know, I think there's truth in that. You know, delight yourself in the Lord. He's going to give you the desires of your heart. That doesn't mean that God promises to give you whatever you want, but what he does promise is that when your mind is renewed in the scripture, he renews your desire so that your desires are in alignment with his perfect will for your life, because you want to serve, you want to be sanctified, you want to be grateful, you want to be pure. And so you're going to be presented with different options before you, and you're going to be able to move forward with confidence because you're already living in alignment with the word of God. Now that's the easy answer,

but I still think that there's maybe specific questions along the journey that may be helpful to other people that were helpful to me in regards to ascertaining between the smorgasbord of options, right? I think that's the world we live in. When I was growing up, it was a blockbuster world. Now it's a Netflix world where, you know, you spend more time figuring out what movie to watch than you do actually watching the movie because we're,

I think it's Dan Ariely in that book, Predictably Irrational. We're crippled by opportunities. We're frozen by abundance. We're averse to risk. That's hitting a little too close to home. Yeah. And so I think in that next, kind of the next section, dolphin trainer, dentist, this person, that person, ministry, business, whatever it may be, and we'll pick up there. Yeah, that's helpful. So to kind of recap, just real briefly, we're going to look at how do we perceive maybe some of the more nitty gritty conversations or perceive the will of God in the practical kind of A-B test of our own life. But before we even get to that point, it's useful to be reminded of God's character, His decrees, His revealed word of God. And then maybe the main thrust of this conversation is are you being obedient to the revealed will of god as a prerequisite to then be kind of moving on to the the bigger helping of okay we live in you

know 2024 what am i to do tomorrow yeah well the answer first and foremost has to be are you obeying the commands that were laid out for us 2 000 years? Yeah, exactly. No, yeah, exactly. So that's, that's kind of the first wrong. And then we'll kind of advance forward with that the specificity of direction. So no, thanks, bro. Absolutely good to be with you.