Live Free with Josh Howerton - Discover God's Will For Your Life | Ep. 112 | Tuesday July 11, 2023

Episode Date: July 11, 2023

When we think about God's will, our minds often jump to decisions, choices, and options, but God's primary focus is on who we are. God is not just a directional guide but rather a sculptor who wants to mold us into the masterpiece He has envisioned for us. Today's episode offers a powerful reminder that God is actively working in our lives, shaping us into the person He has designed us to be. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. Church slash daily drive. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, welcome to the Daily Drive podcast, man. I hope your summer is going great. My name is Mike and so grateful to be on this journey with you

as we're trying to just stick some truth, wisdom, and hope from God's word and to our hearts. In our last episode, we said that we're going to spend some extended time talking about discovering God's will, finding God's plan for our lives, how God leads us, how He speaks, how His Holy Spirit acts as our internal GPS. Yesterday, we saw how God really does have a plan for us, When he thinks of your life and mind, he sees a hope and a future.

He sees deep soul satisfaction. He sees straight and good paths. He really does want us to flourish in ways that we never, ever dreamed. So I'm just going to unpack a few foundational principles that have been really helpful to me with this whole discovering the will of God thing. And today I want to begin with a really big one. Here it is. God's will is much more about who we are than what we do or where we go.

God's will as it relates to your life in this very moment is far more about who you are becoming as a person than it is about what you do or for that matter where you go. Because let's be honest, when we start thinking about God's will, immediately our minds start thinking about decisions, choices, options, here, these people, those people, this thing, that thing, this situation, that situation. Because when we think about, quote-unquote, God's will,

we think about the agenda, the plan, the blueprint for our lives. And so immediately to us, God's will equals, okay, God, is this or that, is it him or her, here or there, which road do you want me to take? And I think God is trying to speak to each one of us saying, my will begins with you. My primary will, my major agenda, my really big focus right now

is not so much where you work, what college you attend, who you marry, or where you live, but it's who you are. I mean, what if God would miraculously intervene right now in the middle of this podcast, into your directional question, and somehow supernaturally you got your answer. And you just go, oh, my goodness, I can't believe it.

That's it. That's the direction that I've been waiting for. That's it. That's the right place. And what if you went to that quote-unquote right place, but all the while you had never allowed God to transform you into the right person that he wants you to be? You could be in the right place,

and the whole time you're there be the wrong person in that place and be completely out of it. of the will of God. Not because you were necessarily in the wrong place, but because you were not the right person that God intended for you to be. Now, you can take your Bible out, and I hope you do this and look through all the passages of Scripture that have the words connected together God's will, or God's desire, or God wants. And in most of those passages you'll find that they are not related to what choice you make or where you go, but they're related to who you are. For instance, let's just take a couple of them today. Romans 12, verse 1 and 3.000.

We've heard it many times on this podcast. 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. Now, the writer here is saying, give your whole lives to God, present all of you who you are as a human being to God. That's really what worship is all about. I mean, coming together and singing some songs at a church can be worship,

but the heart and soul of worship is just giving yourself completely to God every day, embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. That's your spiritual act of worship, and that's God's will for your life. He goes on, verse two, do not conform to the pattern of this world. Don't act like, think, like, talk like everybody else on the planet, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will.

So God's saying, would you like to know my will for your life? life and you go absolutely god i'm all ears i'd really like to know because i've been praying about this waiting for a long long time yes i want to know your will for my life god says okay well my will for your life is that you would give yourself completely and totally as a living holy sacrifice that you would no longer be conformed to the cookie-cutter mold of everybody else around you but you you would renew your mind transform your way of thinking to my word so you can realize your full potential as a person i created you to be that's my will for your life and if you do that You can lay down the night and know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you are living in the center of my will.

Now, I know about right now someone's getting frustrated and thinking, dude, come on, I already know all this kind of stuff. What I need to know is whether it should quit my job or not. That's what I need to know. I'm trying to figure out whether to sell my house. I need to know which bachelorette should get the rose. That's what I want to know. And, gang, that's what we want to know because that's a whole lot easier than saying to God, I just want to be in your will every day. discovering God's will for your life begins by saying to God, Lord, I just want you to make me into the person you want me to be.

So whether I work here or there, the man or woman who walks through that door every day is the right person. I love this scripture too. It's found over in 1st Thessalonians, chapter 5, verse 16. Somebody says, I really want to know God's will for my life. I'm searching, I'm seeking. I got a great word for you. Here it is. Be joyful always.

Pray continually. thanks in all circumstances for this is, guess what, God's will for you in Christ Jesus. So you know what God's will for your life is? His will for your life is that you would be full of joy, that you have become a man or woman who lives a lifestyle of prayer and dependence upon him, that every situation you get in, you give thanks just like Jesus did, because you know that God is working a bigger plan for your life. That's God's will for your life. And you can look through scriptures and find these passages where God's will is connected in the same sentence together, and you'll see that the focus is most of the time about the person he's making us to be,

not so much the place he's leading us to. You see, I think God would rather be a sculptor in our lives than he would standing out on the tarmac with orange flashlights, you know, pointing and directing us to the right gate. He would much rather be a creative watercolor artist than the answer guy who works at the info booth at the mall. God doesn't just want to be our personal Siri or Waze app helping us get to the places that we want to go. He wants to put his hands on us and mold us into what he wants us to be.

And you can ask any artist, any sculptor, anybody who's working on a beautiful, precious masterpiece, they're not as concerned if it ends up in the Louvre in Paris or a museum in London or the wall of somebody's dorm room. The great feeling of satisfaction comes when they take their hands off that piece of art and it looks exactly like they wanted it to look all along. And God says, my will for your life is much more about who you are than it is about what you do or where you go.

Man, I hope that today you will feel the skillful, loving hands of God on your life. And I'll see you back here tomorrow. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays at 6th. p.m. and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. Also, if this podcast was helpful to you, would you be sure to rate, review, and share this podcast to help get the word out. For more information about all digital ministries of Lake Point, visit lakepoint.comte.combe.combe.combe.combe.