Ron Dunn Podcast - Knowing the Will Of God

Episode Date: July 3, 2013

You are listening to the Ron Dunn Podcast. Ron Dunn is a well-known author and was one of the most in-demand preachers during the latter part of the 20th century. He led Bible studies all over the United States, Europe, and South Africa. For more information and resources from Ron Dunn, please visit rondunn.com. And I want to speak to you tonight on the most intimidating phrase in the Christian vocabulary. At least it's always been that way for me, and I wouldn't be surprised if not the same for you. Romans chapter 12, I want to read the first two verses, very familiar verses to all of us. Some of you, many of

you could quote it from memory. Chapter 12 of Romans, the first two verses. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Now I want to read again just the last phrase of the second verse, that you may prove what that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. I think that the most intimidating phrase in the Christian's vocabulary is the phrase, finding God's will, or discovering God's will, or knowing God's will. I have no doubt that for most Christians,

the will of God, knowing and finding that will of God, is a terrifying thing. For some reason, we feel totally inadequate for making that decision or making that discovery. There's something about the will of God that when we find ourselves in a situation where we're going to have to discover what it is, find out what it is, all of a sudden we're overcome with great feelings of inadequacy. I remember through the years of my ministry, especially when you would speak at youth camps, and you would always announce this subject, knowing the will of God or how to find the will of God.

That's what everybody was interested in. That's what everybody wanted to know because nobody, it seemed, felt secure in their own ability to find out what is the will of God. I think one reason for that is that we have had a certain idea or a certain approach to the will of God that works something like this, that God has a will for my life. Boy, I hope I find it, and if I don't find it, then that means I'm going to suffer for it the rest of my life. If somehow or another I miss God's will, then it's curtains for you. I mean, you may as well just dig a hole and crawl in it because for the rest of your life, you're going to pay for missing God's will and you'll live second best all the days of your life. Well, when you put that kind of odds against that, I want to think twice about whether or not

I know God's will or can find it. And so it's always good if you can go to a preacher or somebody else and let them tell you what God's will is. We like for somebody else to tell us, what does God want me to do? It is a moment of panic when suddenly many of us realize that it's going to be up to us, I mean to us, to discover God's will for ourselves. And I just don't know if we can do that. What if I miss it? What if somehow I make a mistake? I mean, I'll pay for it the rest of my life. I want to talk to you tonight on that subject, not paying for it the rest of your life. I want to talk to you on knowing the will of God. There are a couple of misconceptions about the will of God that I think many Christians hold that cause us some difficulty.

One, I think we usually consider the will of God relevant only to vocation or occupation. In other words, the will of God has to do with whether or not you're going to be a preacher or missionary or singer or doctor lawyer Indian chief or whatever it is and so for most of us who've already decided what our vocations are and we're well into our occupation the will of God is no longer that important to us and knowing the will of God and finding the will of God has mainly to do with simply what kind of job you're going to work at and what is going to be your vocation. A second misconception concerning the will of God is that it is mostly for young people.

It's a young people subject, and that's what young people ought to be interested in, is finding God's will for their lives. But for those of us who are grown, and our lives have pretty well taken form of what they're going to have, then the will of God is not necessarily that big an issue, and is not that relevant to us. Now I say those are two misconceptions, and they really are, because the will of God does not have to do only or even primarily with your occupation or your vocation, and it does not relate only to young people or even primarily to young people. I need to know the will of God, not for what I'm going to do for the rest of my life, but I need to know

God's will and be able to recognize God's will a hundred times a day when I am faced with choices and decisions. The will of God does not have simply to do or primarily to do with what I'm going to do with the rest of my life. The will of God has to do with how I'm going to live today, what I'm going to do today, the path I'm taking today. I'm faced today with a lot of decisions. There are choices I'm going to have to make today, and I need to know what is the will of God in that situation. We're supposed to walk in the will of God. The Bible talks about being filled with the knowledge of God's will, and he's not saying there knowing that God has called us to preach. It is the idea that my life, moment by

moment, is lived within the boundaries, within the limits of the will of God, and that I'm walking in that will, and that I'm full of the knowledge of that will, which simply means that I recognize the will of God moment by moment in all the decisions and choices of my life. You and I today have exercised our ability to choose and make decisions a number of times. Did you make the right decision? Can you say tonight, I know today that I have walked in the will of God and that the choices I've made and the decisions I've made I knew that they were the will of God for me to make well that's what this passage of

Scripture is all about there is a third misconception though that I want us to deal with for just a moment I was speaking at Baylor University a lot of years ago, and one day after one of the sessions, a young man came up to me and he said, Preacher, can you tell me how to find the will of God for my life? I said to him, well, I didn't know the will of God was lost. And then I said, no, I can't tell you how to find the will of God for your life. I said, you don't find the will of God. The will of God finds you. Now, we use that phrase, finding the will of God, or discovering the will of God,

and I'll probably slip up and use that phrase tonight, so I'm not going to condemn us for doing it, but actually it conveys the wrong idea about it. The will of God is not something that we discover. It is not something that we find. The will of God, well, that makes it sound like the will of God is a green Easter egg hidden in tall grass, and God has it out yonder somewhere, and He says, all right, now, your job is to find it.

You don't find the will of God. The will of God finds you. It is not your responsibility to discover what God wants you to do. It is God's responsibility to reveal that to you. I have something I want my child to do I say alright here's what I want you to do and if you don't you're in big trouble and so my child says alright dad I'll do whatever you say what is it you want me to do not going to tell you you're going to have to guess

and if you guess wrong you're in big big trouble now is that the way it works no that's not the way it works if I have something I want my child to do, it's not his responsibility to try and guess what it is or figure out what it is. It is my responsibility to tell him what it is and to make it so clear to him that he cannot possibly misunderstand. His responsibility is simply to hear and obey. It is God's responsibility to reveal His will to us and to make that will unmistakably clear. I'll tell you, there have been a number of times, and even recently, when I've said, Lord, I don't know what you want me

to do, and you're going to have to make it clear. I mean, I feel real dense and dumb on this particular point, and you're going to have to really make it simple for me to understand. I believe that's God's responsibility. Mine is to listen and to obey. And that's what Paul is talking about in verses 1 and 2. And I want us to look at these two verses tonight. You'll notice that the latter phrase, that last phrase in the second verse is a purpose clause.

It says, in order that you may prove, and the word prove there means to discern or to recognize. It refers to an inner knowing, an inward spiritual intuition. We prove the will of God. The word means to test two or more things and approve which one is the right one. And moment by moment, day by day, you and I are facing multiple choices.

We need to be able to recognize, to discern by a spiritual intuition, an inner light, an inner knowing, to recognize which decision is the will of God. That's the word prove, to discern the ability to recognize. And as I said, it refers to an inner knowing, a spiritual intuitive knowing is what he's talking about,

that I may be able to recognize the will of God when I see it. Now, I said that's a purpose clause. Now, in verses 1 and 2, Paul is telling us to do two or three things. And he says, if you do these things, then you will be able to prove, to recognize the will of God. In other words, Paul is simply saying that the eye sees what it has been trained to see. The ear hears what it has been trained to hear. There are some people that could run into the will of God on the sidewalk and never know it. I think I know some Christians

who could stand in the middle of a lake and never get wet. Some of us are just so dense. Some of us are just spiritually so dumb, so dense, that we wouldn't know the will of God if we ran into it. It takes a special kind of person to be able to recognize the will of God when you see it. The eye sees what it has been trained to see. I may go out tonight and look up in the sky and see stars, and they are beautiful to me, but somebody who's been

trained in astronomy and knows all about that, they'll see more than I see. I can go to some museum and look there at the masterpieces of art, and I may enjoy them and appreciate them, but somebody who's been trained in that, they see far more than I'm able to see. I know what we get when I was in college. I came into the dormitory one night into the break room where they had the television, and there was only one person in that room watching television, and he was watching a ballet. Now, I'm going to be honest with you, folks. I know you're kidding me. I don't have the appreciation for ballet all to have. I just, somehow, I've just never really been able to get into it, you know? But this guy was sitting right there in front of

the television set, and what caught my attention was the fact, first of all, he was watching the ballet. But the second thing that caught my attention was that he was oohing and awing and clapping and going, bravo, bravo. And I said to him, I said, what kind of nut is this? I mean, that guy is so excited. I mean, he's so excited. And he was, bravo, bravo, bravo.

Well, I found out later he was a student from Germany and he knew all about that stuff. He was really into it. Well, now, he had an appreciation for it. Frankly, I didn't see much there to enjoy. But he was getting a great deal out of it. Why? Because the eye sees what it has been trained to see.

The ear hears what it has been trained to hear. The heart feels what it has been trained to feel. Not everybody has the ability to recognize the will of God. It's amazing sometimes how dense we are. And I'm always amazed at how some people can just so miss the will of God, and you'd think, how in the world could they miss that? So spiritually dense. Paul says, there are several things I want you to do, and if you do these

things, you will be able to recognize the will of God. There are three words that I want to give you tonight. The first word is found in verse 1. Paul says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Second word is in verse 2, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed, there's the second word, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Now notice what he says. First of all, present your bodies as a living sacrifice. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you will be able to recognize,

to discern the will of God. Now, here are the three words. Presentation, transformation, and revelation. Now, I'm not real big on formulas, but I want to give you a formula tonight because I believe it is genuinely a biblical formula. Presentation plus transformation equals revelation. Presentation plus transformation equals revelation. Present your bodies, be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you will be able to discern,

to know, to discover the will of God. So I want us to take those three words, this little formula, presentation plus transformation equals revelation. First of all, presentation. Now Paul begins with this in verse 1. He says, I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. This is the first step. This is the foundation of it all, that you present your bodies. Now the word

present here is a word that comes from the temple language, from the sacrificial language of the Old Testament and of the Jewish religion. It is a word that has a picture of someone bringing a sacrifice to the Lord, laying it on the altar. That's the meaning of the word. To yield or to present, to place at somebody's disposal.

It is a transaction whereby I transfer control over to another person. To yield, to submit. As Paul is simply saying, I need to bring my body and place it at God's disposal and say, Lord, here is my body. Do with it as you please. It is yours. I take hands off of it.

I present it to you. I make it a present to you I transfer control over to you present your bodies a living sacrifice and notice he says present your bodies now we Baptists are good

about soul winning but we're not real good about body keeping you know we major so much on your soul being saved but a lot of times we don't give much thought to how God wants to use our body.

Now, when Paul says, I want you to present your body here, he is emphasizing the practical aspect of this. He's saying, I'm not looking for some spiritual, elusive type of thing, commitment that you make. He said, what I'm asking is for you to take that body, that body that you live in, that body that you live in day by day,

that which is the most practical aspect of your life, and I want you to place that at God's disposal. We're talking about a very practical, pragmatic thing here. Present your bodies a living sacrifice. Now, it is important to notice the sequence of these things here. You notice that presenting comes first. You present your body before you ever know what the will of God is. Now, what most of us like to do, we like for God, first of all, to tell us what His will is, and then we'll make the decision whether or not to yield to it. I had a friend call me up on the phone. He said, Ron, I want you to do me a favor. I said, what is it? He said, oh, come on. I want

you to do me a favor. I said, what is it? He said, don't you trust me? I said, not much. I'm not about to agree to do something for you until you tell me what it is. And that's the way we like to operate. I mean, how many times are we going to sign a blank check and write our names at the bottom of a blank contract? First of all, you tell me what it is you're after, and then I'll decide whether or not I'll do it. And the truth of the matter is, that's about the way we come and listen to God. We say, Lord, first of all, you tell me what your will is, and then I'll pray about it. I'll talk about it.

We'll think about it. No, the key here is presentation comes before revelation. I do not believe God will ever reveal his will to you as long as you have not, first of all, yielded yourself up to that will. Now, I said the other day, I always like to say one profound thing in every message, and somebody came up last night and asked me what it was, and I couldn't remember which one. So I'm going to give you a profound thing tonight. The real key, I believe, and secret,

if you want to use that word, in knowing the will of God, is accepting that will before you ever know what it is. It is choosing in advance the will of God before you ever know what it is. That's what Paul is saying. Paul is saying, first of all, you present your bodies. Before we talk about anything else, before we talk about transformation or revelation, first of all, you've got to get

things right. Present your bodies, yield them up, place them at His disposal. The great key to knowing God's will, to having the ability to recognize God's will, is choosing it in advance, accepting that will before you ever know what it is. There's another interesting thing about this word translated present. It is in a tense that could be literally translated like this, present once and for all your bodies to the Lord. In other words, Paul is talking about a once for all decision. An act that is not to be repeated, but is to be done in the sense of settling it once and for all. And I believe that the only way really to be successful in living the Christian life

is by making these once-for-all decisions. When I was in college, we had a professor who liked to talk about the Second World War, and he loved to tell stories about it, and we loved for him to do so because he never tested us on that. And the more he talked about the war, the less we had to be tested on. But I'll never forget him telling one story that stuck in my mind. He said,

one of the most difficult jobs we had in the Second World War was to train the American soldier to make a once-for-all decision to kill. He said, in those days, you know, you were brought up on mom's apple pie and the American flag and fair play and justice and all that, you know, and the mindset was, he said, we just had a difficult time of training the American soldier, that young man, to think in such a way that he can kill without thinking about it. To make a once-for-all decision to kill, so that every time he faces the enemy, the decision's already been made. And he said something that really struck me.

He said, you know, a lot of our soldiers would have come back if we could have trained them to do that. But he said, I know, a lot of our soldiers would have come back if we could have trained them to do that. But he said, I've seen more than one soldier die because he was unable to make a once-for-all decision to kill. He said, in going through those little villages in France and cleaning out those towns, he said, you'd come around the corner of a building and suddenly you're face to face with a German soldier. And you, the American soldier, you who have not yet been able to make a once-for-all decision to kill, you who have to think about it every time, in that split second where you have to decide all over again whether or not you're going to kill, the German who's made the once-for-all

decision shoots you. And I believe that that is true in practically every phase of our life. You know, I don't ever remember my mom and dad talking about whether or not they're going to church next morning. I don't remember any Saturday night ever hearing mom or dad say, well, we're going to church tomorrow. I don't know. What are you going to do? Well, I don't know. It looks like it may rain. Well, what do you want to do? Well, I don't know. Aunt Sally may come sometime tomorrow. No, I never asked my mom and dad on Saturday night, are we going to church in the morning?

I knew that was a silly question because we were. I never asked them on Sunday afternoon, are we going to church tonight? I never asked them that. I never asked them on Wednesday night. Why? Because somewhere down the line, they may not have recognized it or not, but they made a once-for-all decision that they were going to be in church, and I knew that, and it was useless to ask. You make a once-for-all decision, because I tell you, if you have to decide all over again

every Saturday night whether you're going to church the next morning, half the time you won't go. Same thing is true about tithing. Now, I'm going to be very honest with you. There are a lot of times when if I had to decide all over again every week whether or not I'm going to tithe, I might just see if God couldn't carry me on the cuff for a couple of weeks. We never talk about it. We never discuss it. Why? We made a once-for-all decision a long time ago that the first tenth of all of our income goes to God. And I want to tell you something. If you have to decide all over again every Saturday or every Sunday whether or not you're going to tithe about half the time, you won't do it. The only way to win the victory of that is to settle it once and for all. Maybe

perhaps the reason some young people have trouble with temptation is because every time they face the temptation, they have to decide all over again whether or not their body belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, folks, you have to decide long in advance of the temptation. You can't wait until the issue is there and then make your decision. You decide ahead of time. My body belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. The tenth, the tithe, is the Lord's.

That's a decision once and for all made. This is what Paul is talking about. You come to that point in your life where you say, Lord, I choose in advance for the rest of my life Your will. The question is not, will I obey? The question is, what is it? And I'll do it. First of all, presentation.

And then we come to the verse 2. Paul says not only that, but in verse 2, and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. Now you'll notice there is both a negative and a positive there. First of all, Paul says, and be not conformed to this world. That simply means don't let the world around you squeeze you into its mold.

Don't fashion yourselves. Don't adopt your lifestyle from the world. Don't take the world's standards of values. Don't allow the world around you to shape you by its fashion, but rather be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Now, the word transformed here is the word we get our word metamorphous from. That's what happens to that ugly caterpillar when it turns into a butterfly. It's the same word that is translated

transfigured in Mark and Luke when Jesus is on the Mount of Transfiguration, and the Bible says as James and John and Peter stood there and watched, suddenly Jesus was transfigured before them. There was a metamorphosis, same word that's used here but translated transformation. What happened to Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration? What was the transfiguration? It was this. Jesus, His inner glory, that glory that He had before the worlds began, which has been hidden by the veil of flesh, suddenly in that moment burst through and expressed itself in a visible form,

and the disciples stood there, and they saw as the Lord was transfigured before them. It was really a preview of the second coming. That's what Jesus is going to look like when He comes again. All the glory, all the majesty, all that belonged to Him as God, a very God, which had been hidden by the veil of flesh, suddenly burst out, and you could see it. That's what it is. It is the inner nature, the inner life expressing itself visibly in the human personality. For you and for me, we're supposed to be transformed. For the moment we become a Christian, God takes up permanent residence in our life. His Spirit dwells within us. There is an inner life,

you see. There is an inner glory. There is an inner nature. And what ought to be happening in your life and my life is that bit by bit, day by day, that inner life, which is Christ, expresses itself in our human personality. So we're less like what we used to be in a sinful, selfish person and more like the Lord Jesus Christ in all of our actions and our attitudes and our dealings. Transformed, becoming like Jesus. And that's, I guess, what all of us want to be, to be transformed.

But what really catches my attention more than anything else is not the transformation but the method by which that transformation is accomplished how is a person transformed? I know that for the greater part of my Christian life especially growing up I knew that I needed to be transformed.

Preachers would talk about it, and I would want to be changed. You know, I want to be like Jesus. That's what you say. I want to be like Jesus. And I always thought that someday in some meeting at some altar somewhere or another, I would have such a glorious experience

that I'd walk away changed forever and ever. That if there was just some truth I could get hold of or some preacher I could hear, one of these days, I don't know how it's going to happen, but when everything is just right, when everything is just right, suddenly God's going to come over me and I'm going to have such an experience

and I'm going to walk away transformed. But you know, folks, that's not the way it happens at all. That's not the way it happens. Listen to what Paul says, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Now, frankly, that comes to me as a total surprise. Transform by the renewing of your mind. For some reason or another, we Christians, evangelical Christians, have bad feelings about the mind. We are so mystical.

We live so much in our experience and our emotions that there is a negative feeling and thought about the mind. I remember hearing one well-known, very well-known Bible teacher talking about this. He said, when God reveals something to us, He doesn't reveal it to our minds. He said, if you thought of it, God didn't reveal it. I thought, well, that's totally unscriptural. Do you mean to tell me that God, after He has made this marvelous machine called the mind, I mean this most marvelous of all machines called the mind, and then He saved it, and then He renewed it

and recreated it in Christ Jesus, do you mean to tell me that God is going to bypass the mind and He's going to do all of His great work in my life in the realm of the emotions, which is the most fickle part of my personality? We believe we're close to God when we feel close to God. When we walk out here tonight, we want to walk out having had an experience,

some kind of emotional thing. And yet the fact of the matter is that is the most fickle, the most undependable part of our personalities. I can wake up in the morning feeling great, and a phone call can plunge me into the pits. The Christian life is not lived in the realm of the emotions. It's lived in the realm of the will and thought life.

We have the mind of Christ. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Paul says we are transformed. Now, we are transformed not by some ecstatic experience. We are transformed by the renewing of the mind. Now, what does that mean? I like to think of the mind as a computer.

And a marvelous thing is the computer. I tell you, I marvel at them I'm buying a new one I bought a new one just don't have it yet and all I use it for really is a word processor it can do 7,000 other things that I don't even understand it doesn't do me any good to have the handbook there I don't know what it's talking about I don't understand bytes and rams and ruds and all of that. I don't know. I know on and off. That's what I know. But I tell you, it's amazing. It's really a little bit scary.

It's really a little bit scary, all these things that have to do with computer. I mean, now you go into a service station and and they take your credit card and they run through a little machine and somewhere way back on the east somewhere it runs in and finds out what age I am and who I bank with and whether or not my credits good and right there a zip I don't like being that accessible to people I don't know I don't know a great deal about computers but I remember the one of the first things I ever remember hearing about computers was a phrase called garbage in, garbage out. The computer, as marvelous an invention as it is, has a glaring weakness. It is at the mercy of its program. And if the program is wrong, flawed, then everything that computer is going to do

is going to reflect that. Garbage in, garbage out. If I put garbage into the computer, garbage is going to come out. It's at the mercy of its program. Now, the mind is a computer. It really is. And everything that we ever experience

is recorded in that mind. What you are tonight, as you sit here, you are tonight the sum total of everything you have ever heard or felt or seen or tasted. Every sensation you've ever had, every emotion you've ever had from the minute you were conceived

until this present moment, it is all in the bank of your mind, and you tonight, in the way you act, the way you talk, the way you think, you are the sum total of everything that's stored in your mind. And every time you have to make a decision, just like that, without even thinking about it, you think about it. And all kinds of wheels are turning in there, and suddenly it takes in everything you've ever felt or known or heard, and on the basis of that, you make your decision. Now, the problem is that we've been fed a lot of garbage through the years. And that's why we make a lot of wrong decisions.

That's why the Bible says the mind needs to be renewed. It needs to be reprogrammed. So Paul says we are transformed by having a new set of rules, a new set of ideals, and living by those, making decisions on the basis of the new programming. I think this is wonderfully illustrated in the Old Testament.

When the Israelites come to Kadesh Barnea, and they hesitate there. God has said, you can go in and possess the land I've given it to you, but they hesitate, and they send in 12 spies to spy out the land. These 12 spies come back. Ten of them say this. They said, it's everything we've all heard about it. It's a land flowing with milk and honey.

Oh, they've got grapes over there, biggest watermelons. It's a wonderful place, but there's something else over there too. They've got giants, and those giants are big. And we are but grasshoppers in their sight. We dare not go in. But there were two of those spies by the name of Joshua and Caleb, and here's what they said. They said, everything we've ever heard about the land of Canaan is true. It's a land flowing with milk and honey, and they do have grapes as big as watermelons, and there are giants over there, big giants, but they are but bread for us.

We just take along a little peanut butter and make sandwiches out of them. That's all we do. We can do it. Let's go in and possess the land. Now here's a remarkable thing. Twelve men all see the same thing. Ten of them come to one conclusion, we can't take the land. Two of them,

Joshua and Caleb, come to another conclusion. They say, we can take the land. Now why did they make that decision? Because they had been reprogrammed somehow or another. They had a fact that the others didn't have. That fact was, God has given it to us. They made their decision on the basis of what they had in their mind. They had a fact the others weren't computing, and that fact was the faithfulness of God. They said, we can take the land. The others said, we can't. These were transformed by their mind. These were defeated by their unrenewed mind. But the best illustration, I think, of all happens in Acts chapter 10. There's a man by the name of Cornelius who is a Roman centurion, a Gentile, who has been worshiping God, seeking the Lord. And one day the Lord says to himself, I'm going to honor his worship and his seeking. Cornelius has been

seeking me. I'm going to let him find me. I'm going to save him. Now, I need to find somebody who will go and preach the gospel to him. Who can I find? Well, you know Simon Peter. I bet there's something about Simon Peter many of you did not know. Simon Peter didn't really care that much for Gentiles. He really wasn't all that sure that Gentiles could be saved. And you read the book of Galatians, and you know Paul had to rebuke him about his prejudice towards Gentiles and such. Folks, I think God has a sense of humor. Here is Peter, the apostle, who really, really not all that keen on Gentiles being saved, not sure they can be.

And God comes along and says, the first Gentile is to be saved. I think I'll have Peter witness to it. But he'll never go in his present condition. He'll never do it like he is. I'd better renew his mind. I'd better reprogram him. And you remember he falls asleep on the housetop,

and he has this dream of a sheep coming down and having in it all manner of unclean animals and a voice saying, take eat. And Peter's saying, not so, Lord. I've never touched anything that was unclean. That happened three times. And every time the Lord said, don't you call unclean what I've called clean. He woke up, and there was a knock at the door,

and there was Cornelius' emissaries, and they said, we've come for the man who's going to tell our master about Christ, how to be saved. And so Peter goes, and he comes to Cornelius' house, and he preaches him the gospel. Cornelius believes the Spirit of God falls upon him so that everybody can know that what happened to them on the day of Pentecost is happening even to this Gentile.

And Peter says, let's get some water and baptize this fellow. And there are some Jews standing over here and say, oh, no, no, we can't baptize him. He's a Gentile. And Peter turns to him. He said, yeah, I know exactly what you think. I thought the same thing. But God reprogrammed me.

God renewed me. A renewed mind. God reprogramming our mind. Now, here's a new program. Here's the new set of facts. I want to tell you how I think this works. I read the Word of God. I study the Word of God.

I memorize the Word of God. I meditate on the Word of God. I study the Word of God. I memorize the Word of God. I meditate on the Word of God. I obey the Word of God. And I'll tell you, something gradually happens. All of a sudden, over a period of time, I'm starting to think differently about things. I really am. I don't understand it exactly. But you know, I find things that I used to believe, I just don't believe them anymore. There are a lot of things about life that I thought that I don't think that way anymore. I'm thinking differently about a lot of things. And what's happening is I'm reflecting the biblical view

in a lot of things. What's happening, my mind is being renewed. I'm filling it with the Word of God, meditating, obeying, living in it, loving it, and it's beginning to take hold and beginning to bear fruit, and suddenly I think differently. I see things differently.

My mind is being renewed, and that's when I'm able to recognize the will of God when I see it. Now, one last word, revelation. Presentation plus transformation equals revelation. How does God reveal His will to us? How do we discern and recognize the will of God? I want to give you three words.

First word is desire. Second word is opportunity. And third word is Balaam's donkey, which is really two words. But these three things, desire, opportunity, Balaam's donkey. And I just want to share with you how the Lord in my own life, how I've found and discovered, He reveals His will to me and He speaks to me. Three things. Number one, somebody says, what does God want me to do? What is the will of God for my life? What is the will of God in this situation? The first thing is desire. Man came to me and he said, preacher, I've had a job opportunity in Austin, Texas. And he said, I need to know what God's will is. I want you to pray with me. Help me to find God's will.

I said to him, What do you want to do? He said, Oh, I want to go to Austin. He said, I've waited for a job like this for years. He said, Man, I want to go to Austin, but I don't know if it's what God wants me to do. I said, why do you assume that what you want, what God wants, may be different things? You see, I believe the will of God lies in the direction of your desire. Now watch it. Be careful here. I'm talking now about a person who has presented his body to the Lord, has accepted that will before he ever knows it, and one who is being transformed, and by the way, the tense of that word indicates something not done once and for all,

but something that goes on all the days of your life. I am being transformed day by day, moment by moment, year after year. That person who accepts the will of God and says, Lord, I want your will, whatever it is, then I believe that I have the right to assume that the desire of my heart is the will of God. We'll talk about it tomorrow.

Psalm 37, 4, Delight thyself in the Lord, and he will what? Give you what? The desires of your heart. The will of God lies in the direction of your desire. The first thing I ask a person when they say, I don't know what God's will for me is, I say, what do you want to do?

What is your desire? And I believe that if I, as best I know how, have accepted God's will and have committed my life to Him, I think I have the right to assume that whatever desire is in my heart is God's will for me, unless He shows me otherwise. The will of God lies in the direction of your desire. That's hard for us to take.

I don't know where we ever got the idea that the will of God has to be something painful or horrible. If I were to stand up here tonight and offer you two choices, one was a lot of fun and really nice and pleasant, the other was painful and miserable, one was the will of God, one was not the will of God, which one and miserable. One was the will of God. One was not the will of God. Which one would you choose to be the will of God?

Most of the time we'd say, well, that one that's painful and miserable, that has to be God's will. I mean, if it's enjoyable, a lot of fun, that can't be the will of God. No. I have a friend who said that when he was in high school, he was afraid to yield his life to the Lord

because he just knew God would make him marry the ugliest girl in school. Now, where does a fellow get that? Where do we get that? Where do we get that? I was in Georgia. I believe it was Columbus, Georgia, several years ago. And the last night of the service, people were coming by shaking hands, and this young man and woman came by and introduced themselves and said a few words and went on,

and after a while, the young man comes back by himself, and he said, you know that girl that I was with a moment ago? I said, yeah. He said, I believe God wants me to marry her. I said, well, good. He said, I don't want to. He said, I'm not in love with her, but I believe God wants want to. He said, I'm not in love with her, but I believe God wants... I said, son, I want to tell you something. Quit trying to be so spiritual. If you don't have a hankering after that girl, don't you marry her. I surrendered to preach when I was 15. and I remember in high school we had vocation day you know where they separate the sheep from the goats and whatever you're going to do you go into a little room and there's a professional there to

talk to you about pursuing your career well there about three or four of us that were wanting to go into the ministry, be a preacher. And so we went into this room, and there was a Presbyterian minister there. And I confess that back in those days, I didn't think anybody saved Southern Baptist, and wasn't too sure about a lot of them. But I really didn't trust Methodists or Presbyterians or anybody like that. And I thought to myself, oh, I don't know if I can believe what this fellow's going to say or not. And so he got up, and he said,'t know if I can believe what this fellow's going to say or not. And so he got up and he said, now they tell me that you kids are thinking about going into the ministry.

He said, try not to do that. And I thought to myself, yeah, just exactly what I'd expect from some Presbyterian. He said, try not to do that. He said, listen. He said, guys, if you can do anything else and be happy, do it.

But he said, if you can't be happy doing anything else but preaching, he said, then God has called you to preach. Do you know the reason I'm preaching tonight? He said, well, you get paid. Well, no, I tell you what, I'd preach for nothing. Not going to, but I would if I had to. I mean, it's the desire of my heart. I tell you the truth, I cannot conceive of doing anything else. I'd rather be dead. If something happened where I could no longer preach,

I just, I don't know what I'd do. I'm preaching tonight. I'm in the ministry tonight because it is the desire of my heart. It's what I want to do more than anything else, more than anything else in all the world. I know sometimes young people, they're afraid of the will of God.

They've said, well, if I surrender to God's will, he'll make me go to Africa as a missionary. Well, I'll tell you this much. If God wants you to go to Africa as a missionary, he'll give you such a desire to go that if you can't find a boat, you'll swim to get there. Now, somebody is probably saying, yeah, but what about Jonah? He didn't want to go to Nineveh. Jonah wasn't yielded either, was he? Remember now, I'm talking about a person who has already come this far and has said, Lord, I accept your will, whatever it is,

and I'm being transformed by your word. I believe that you have the right to assume that the desire of your heart is the will of God. And I believe that if that is so, God will not let you miss his will without knowing it. Desire. Second word, opportunity. Now Now all these have to be taken together because sometimes our desire is not the desire of God. We can't always rightly read our desire. Sometimes we don't even know what we want,

as a matter of fact. And Kay and I have been talking about this this week. We're having to make some decisions. And she said today, she said, I don't even know what I want. Well, it's pretty hard to do that. It's hard to make decisions when you don't even know what you want. Well, it's pretty hard to do that. It's hard to make decisions when you don't even know what you want.

So the desire itself is never enough. I think there must always be the confirmation of opportunity. In other words, the door is open. Not only do I have the desire, but the opportunity is given me to satisfy, to fulfill that desire. When I was at Irving,

I had a young man in my church who came to me, and he was so upset, so terribly upset. And the reason why is because there was this girl that he knew God wanted him to marry, but she had married somebody else. And you know what I said to him? I said, son, God closed that door. That wasn't God's will for you. You may have had the desire to marry her, but the opportunity was not there. That is not the will of God for you. You may have had the desire to marry her, but the opportunity was not there. That is not the will of God for you. Now, it would be kind of ridiculous for me at 53 years of age to be going around

telling everybody God's called me to preach and never had anybody ask me to preach. One of the ways I knew God had called me when I was a young person was I kept having all these opportunities. I mean, the doors were opening. Sometimes I have this desire, and I think, I believe this is what God wants me to do,

but he shuts the door. There's no way to do it. There's no opportunity given, and so I back off from it. But if I have the desire and the opportunity is there, the door is open, then I assume this is God's will, and I walk through that door,

which brings me to number three, Balaam's donkey. Always have to be watching out for Balaam's donkey. Do you remember Balaam? Balaam was an interesting character. He had the unusual ability to convince himself that whatever he wanted to do was God's will. And he was intent on a certain course of action, and God just couldn't get through to him.

I mean, he just would not listen. And so you remember his donkey? His donkey ran him into a wall and his donkey talked to him. I mean, God had to use Balaam's donkey to get Balaam to do what he wanted to do. Now, I have always been on the lookout and always on the lookout for Balaam's donkey.

I mean, here's the desire, and here's the opportunity. And I say, Lord, as far as I know, this is what I'm supposed to do, and so I'm striking out. But dear God, if somehow after all this I'm still missing it, please stop me. I don't want to miss your will. If somehow after all of this

I have misread the whole thing, then Lord, stop me. And I'm always ready for Balaam's donkey to come up and let me know I've missed it. Now I'll tell you the verse that has meant more to me in discerning the will of God than any other verse in the Bible. It's Colossians 3.15 where Paul says,

let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. But then there is the peace of God, which is subjective and every Christian doesn't always have all the time. The peace of God or the peace of Christ is God's own restfulness, God's own tranquility. The peace of Christ is that inner calm that I have, that quietness of heart, that assurance of spirit. It is that. Now, Paul said, let the peace of Christ rule. The word there is arbitrate, to act as umpire. I believe it's the Williams translates it, acts as umpire. The Beck translation reads, let the peace of Christ be in your heart to make decisions for you. In other words, you see, I've got a heavenly referee running around with me with a whistle in his mouth, and every time I step out of bounds, he blows the whistle. You know what it is? It's

the peace of Christ. Anything that disturbs that peace, I back off from. For instance, in prayer, sometimes people ask me to pray for them or pray for something, and I try to pray, but I just don't have any peace about. You know, I just, I don't have any liberty to pray about that thing. There is a restraint. There is a check on my heart. I just, well, then I believe that's God saying to me, this is not my will. You're praying out of my will. Sometimes I decide on a course of action, and the minute I make that decision, all of a sudden, man, I tell you what, I'm troubled in here. Boy, I just don't feel good about this. I just don't feel right about this. I take that as the peace of Christ. I back off from it.

But there are things that I pray about when I have perfect peace about it. And it feels right. I feel good about it. There are things that I just don't feel good about. You say, well, what's wrong? I don't know. I can't tell you why.

It's just there. I don't know. I just don't feel right here. There's just a restraint. There's just some kind of check right here on my heart. And I say to myself, I will not do anything that will disturb the peace of Christ in my heart. And when that calm assurance,

when that inner tranquility is disturbed, I back off from whatever it is I'm engaged in. Because to me, that may be God saying, I have missed His will one way or another. There's a beautiful picture of this in the Old Testament when they were rebuilding the temple, building the temple. The Bible says that they built the temple without the sound of a hammer.

What they meant was that the stones were quarried so perfectly that when they brought them to the temple site, they didn't have to hammer at them, push them to make them fit. They were quarried so perfectly, they just fell in place without the sound of a hammer. And I believe that's the way the will of God works. I tell you, it worries me when I'm trying to make something happen, when I have to make it happen. You know what I mean? I mean, you've got to negotiate, maneuver here and squeeze in here and take up here and let out here.

Boy, I tell you what, I found out that when God's will is working in my life, everything just falls into place. I mean, you know, there's peace about it. I said a moment ago, I do not believe that God will let you miss His will without knowing it. Now, you may miss it, but you'll do it knowingly.

But I believe it is God's responsibility to make His will crystal clear to us. In 1972, I was pastor of the MacArthur Boulevard Baptist Church in Irving, Texas. But in August of that year, I was in Little Rock, Arkansas, in a revival meeting. And one day I got a telephone call, and it was from my good friend Jack Taylor. Many of you probably know him, heard him. Jack was calling from Titusville, Florida. He was down there with Peter Lord in a meeting. And he said, Ron, Adrian Rogers has just accepted the call to Bellevue Baptist Church.

And Adrian and Peter and I have been here praying about who God is going to lead to Merritt Island. And we're praying about, becauserian's concerned that whoever follows him is the right kind of person has the right kind of pastor and will build on what he's done and he said we've been praying about this and god has given to each one of us your name we believe that you're the one that god wants to come here to maryland i said well well that's interesting i that is interesting it is but i said said, I'm happy where I am. I have no plans to leave where I am.

I'm happy where I am. God's doing great things there. No, I'm not interested. Well, a few weeks later, I got a phone call from the pulpit committee down there, First Baptist Church of Merritt Island, and they told me that my name had been given and so forth, so forth.

And I said to them the same thing. I appreciate that. I think that's an honor that you'd call me and consider me, but I'm right where God wants me to be. This is where God wants me to be. I have no desire to leave, no inclination to leave. Thank you very much. Well, they would call over a period of time,

every week or so, a few days, they would call and check it out again, you know, and I'd tell them the same thing. No, God's not leading me to go anywhere. I'm happy. This is where God wants me to be. Well, one day they called me and they said, Brother Dunn, would it be all right if we came

to Irving and just listen to you? I said, well, sure. I mean, I'm not going to stand there at the door and keep you out. If you want to come to church, come on to church. They said, well, would you and your family go out and eat with us afterwards? I said, well, yeah, I mean, you know, I'm not totally rude. I mean, yes, I would go out anyway. Well, they came up, 10 of them, 10 of the finest people ever met in my life. We fell in love with them immediately. We went out to eat with them and we just had a

great time. But there was not a thing in my heart or Kay's heart telling us to go. We had absolutely no desire to go whatsoever. And we told them that. Well, they would call and call and call. And I would say, no, we're not interested. Let me go. They said, well, I want you to come down. I want you just to fly down here, and not on a Sunday,

but just on a Monday or Tuesday. Just let us show you around the church. I said no no they said we'll fly you down first class I said there are five of us so we rode first class only time of air ridden in the hump up there on that 747. But we flew down there to Orlando, and they took us, and they just showed us the town. Wined and dined us, I guess you might say. And I want you to know something. They're the most wonderful people in all the world.

That church was twice the size of the church I was pastoring. Their parsonage was over 4,000 square feet, 100 yards from the Indian River. Folks, that was not a call, that's a yell. But I felt nothing. Kay felt nothing. Not the slightest inclination that this is where God wanted us. So we went back.

And they would call and call and call, different ones. And they said, we want you to come down and preach in view of a call. I said, no, no, because God doesn't want me to go. I know that. There's no use talking about it. But what happened is this. I told Kay, I said, you know, I believe that we're never going to get this thing settled until I agree to go down there and preach. And what I'll do is I'll go down there and preach, and when I say no after that, then that'll settle it. But until I do that, I don't think they're going to leave us alone.

So the next time they called, I said, all right, we'll come down. I think we set January the 13th, I believe. I said, we'll come down there and give a call. I said, good. Hung up. I got to thinking about it. I said, that's not right. That's not right. I said, it'll upset my church. I tell my church that I'm going out and preaching in view of a call. I mean, they're going to find out anyway. I'd rather them find out from me than the next door neighbor. And I said, there's no use in upsetting my people by telling them I'm going down there. No use upsetting those folks in Florida. I know I'm not going. So I called them

back, and I said, hey, I'm not coming down to preach because I know I'm not going. It wouldn't be right to my church, wouldn't be right to your church. They said, all right. They hung up. They called back. They said, listen, I want you to come on down and preach, no strings attached, no obligation. I said, all right, here's what I'll do. We'll come down and I'll preach and I want you to vote on me that night. And if you call me, even with a unanimous call, I'm going to say no. All right?

They said, fair enough. Now you know what they were thinking, don't you? They were thinking, yeah, he'll get down here, and boy, the minute he walks into that pulpit, he'll be at home, and it'll all happen. And to tell you the truth, that's what I was thinking too. Because folks, I was beginning to get a little paranoid about this whole thing. See, all my friends said I was supposed to go. I mean, the most spiritual people in the world. Every time I'd see Jack Taylor, he'd say,

Listen, if you don't go to Merritt Island, you're going to ruin my reputation as a prophet because I said you're supposed to go. And I said to myself, I guess it's just, I'm just so dumb. I guess I'm so dense that I can't see it. And I know that when I get down there and walk in that pool, but it's all going to happen. Well, we went down there.

We had a great time. My, we had a great time. Preached at 8.30 and 11 o'clock. Had a bunch of people saved. Preached to a full house that night. They were running about 1,400 in Sunday school, 1,400 and 1,600. They gave us a unanimous call that night.

I said, well, I'll let you know Wednesday. We went back home. I wrestled with it. You see, it didn't happen. When I stepped in the pulpit, it didn't happen. I mean, I, I'll let you know Wednesday. We went back home. I wrestled with it. You see, it didn't happen. When I stepped in the pulpit, it didn't happen. I mean, I wasn't at home. I still didn't feel anything. So I called them on Wednesday, and I said, we're not coming.

About a week after that, one of the members of the committee called me, and they said, Brother Dunn, can you honestly say that God will never, never lead you to Mary Dala? I said, well, no, I can't say that He won't ever. They said, all right, then we'll wait until He does. I mean, they were convinced, folks. And I remember that committee would call me nearly every week. One man kept calling me all the time. He knew I loved to fish. And he called like this. He said, hey, Brother Dunn, how are you? I'm doing fine. Well, I just thought I'd call you. I just got back from fishing today. I caught two 11-pound bass. Thought you might be interested in knowing that. You know, little

things like that. And I'm going to tell you something. I really began to get confused. The only man who agreed with me, the only person who agreed with me was Manly Beasley. And Manly was going down there to Titusville to hold a revival in Peter Lord's church. And I said, Manly, when you get down there, you talk to that bunch over there, you talk to that committee and tell them the truth about this. He said, leave it to me, I'll take care of it. Well, he went down there. Two days later, I got a phone call from one of the members of that committee. He said, guess what? We met with Manly Beasley last night, and he believes you're supposed to be down here as pastor. About an hour after that, Manly called me,

and man, he was hot. Oh, he was angry. He said, I told those people not to say anything to you. I said, Manly, what in the world is going on? He said, son, you never believe. I've never seen anything like it. He said, you realize these people are having 24-hour prayer meeting for you. He said, I've had people come up to me all week saying, I'm from Brother Dunn's church over at Merritt Island. He said, as far as they're concerned, you're here. And that just pushed me over the edge. I didn't know what to do. I'd never been so confused in all my life. So here's what I said I was going to do.

I'm going to go down here and check into one of these hotels. I'm going to lock the door, and I'm going to pray this thing through. I mean, you know, I'd read about other people doing things like that seemed to me like the right thing to do. I had visions, you know, of praying through. And so I'm going to check into the hotel, and I'm going to, boy, I'm going to wrestle this thing through with God.

I'm going to walk out of there at the end. So I went in the motel room. I shut the door. I put my Bible on the bed. I knelt beside the bed, and I prayed. I prayed everything I knew to pray. It took about five minutes. And nothing was coming. I mean, nothing was coming. I said, Lord, what do you want me to do?

Lord, teach me. Lord, show me. Do something, you know. And I kept waiting. I don't know. I'd read the Bible for a while, then I'd pray for a while. I stayed there, I don't know, three or four or five hours. And nothing. I mean, absolutely nothing. I was never so depressed and so confused all my life. I did something that I'd never done before, and I've never done since. I shouldn't have done then. But I was desperate. I took my Bible, and I closed my eyes,

and I let my Bible fall open. And I took my finger and brought it down, and I opened my eyes, and I was in Ecclesiastes, and here's what it said. He who watches the sky will never sow nor reap. I said, that's it. But what does it mean?

It sounds real cryptic, you know. But, you know, you could look at that as meaning to go, and you could look at that as meaning to stay. Okay. So, here's what I did. I said, dear Lord, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. But Lord, all the facts tell me I'm supposed to go, ought to go. All my friends tell me I ought to go. It just makes sense to go. Lord, and I guess, Lord, you know,

I love those people and I'd like to pastor that church, so I guess I could say the desire is there. Lord, I'm going. I'm going to call them and I'm going to give them an answer and I'll tell them I'm going. But Lord, if it isn't your will, please stop me. I do not want to go if it's not your will.

Oh, dear God, I don't want to miss your will. And if somehow I'm missing it, please, please stop me. Well, I told them that I would call at 6.30 on Wednesday night, and I did they had the phone hooked up to the church and all the people were there in auditorium waiting to hear from me and I called them and brother Jim the chairman picked up the phone I said brother Jim this

brother on and I was going to say we're coming but I couldn't say anything I mean I just I couldn't make my mouth work I couldn't get any words out I looked at Kay and. I mean, I just couldn't make my mouth work. I couldn't get any words out. I looked at Kay and shrugged, and I said, Brother Jim, I'll call you back in 30 minutes, and I hung up the phone. And we talked. I said, well, I don't understand.

What's going on? We prayed, and we sat there and trembled and just kind of scared. I didn't know what in the world was going on. 30 minutes later, I called them back. Brother Jim answered the phone, and I said, Brother Jim, this is Brother Ron. I was going to say, we're coming.

But I couldn't get the words out. I just couldn't get the words out. My mouth wouldn't work. I mean, literally, physically, I couldn't speak. And then it dawned on me. God's answered my prayer. He's keeping me from doing it. I said, Brother Jim, we're not coming.

Not now, not ever. Thank you very much. We hung up the phone. I was trembling when I hung up that phone. We've never had a second's doubt since that day. And God, in many ways, through circumstances, shown that we did the right thing. Now, I believe the reason the Lord

didn't say anything to me during all that time, this went on from October to April, is because God gave me the answer in August 1972, and the answer was no. And the only thing I can figure out is that God just doesn't repeat himself very often. And he'd given me the answer to begin with,

and so he wasn't saying much the rest of the time. But the point I'm making is this. I do not believe that God will let you miss his will without you knowing it. It is His responsibility to make that will known to you. Your responsibility is to hear and to obey.

Now would you bow your heads with me for a moment? Ron Dunn's podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent. It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church. For more Ron Dunn materials, sermon outlines, devotions, and scanned pages from his study Bible,

please visit rondunn.com.