Ron Dunn Podcast - The Truth About Knowing God's Will

Episode Date: May 10, 2023

Ron Dunn speaks on knowing God's will for your life

Well, to recognize that which is good. The word good means good in and of itself. That which is beneficial. That which is helpful. That which is good for you and good for others. That which is acceptable, well-pleasing to God. That which will please God. That which is perfect, and the word perfect simply means mature.

How a mature Christian will behave. How a mature Christian will act. You see, I need to know the will of God every day of my life. Every day of my life, I need to be able to recognize that which is good, which is beneficial,

which is worthy of my time. I need to be able to recognize that which is pleasing to God. I need to know how a mature Christian will act. You see, day by day, every day that I live, I need to know how a mature Christian will act. You see, day by day, every day that I live, I need to be able to discern the will of God in any given situation. And every day that you live, you're confronted with all kinds of alternatives and decisions, and you must be able, if you're going to be usable at all to God, you must be able to recognize that which is good, that which is pleasing to God, and that which is perfect and mature.

Here is the formula. Three words. Presentation plus transformation equals revelation. It's right there. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. Verse 2, Be ye not conformed to this world, but be it transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may be able to recognize the will of God.

So you have these, presentation and transformation equal revelation. The only person who is really capable of receiving the will of God, receiving the revelation of his will, is that Christian who knows what it means to present his body and to be transformed by the renewing of his mind. So we're going to take these, and then we're going to talk about some practical ways in which we recognize what is the will of God. So let's take the first step, presentation, presentation. In verse 1, the apostle says, I beseech you therefore, brethren,

by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. Now, it is highly significant that God starts here. He starts here. Listen, a person cannot recognize the will of God until after he has committed himself to the will of God. I'm afraid that most of the time we want to operate like this, Lord show me what you want me to do. Show me what is your will and then I'll commit myself to do it. Friends, that is never the divine order. And I simply want to say this morning, if you are living in the dark as far as the will of God is concerned, it means that you have not totally committed your life to do that will before you know what it is. You see?

First of all, you commit yourself to do that will even before you know what it is. You say, but how can I do that? Friends, don't you believe the will of God is always best? Don't you? Don't you believe the will of God is always best? Are you afraid? Are you afraid to sign the blank check and let God fill it in? Are you afraid to say, all right, Lord, whatever you want me to do, I don't care what it is, I'm going to do it. Are you afraid to do that? As I said Sunday morning, if you are, it's because you don't trust him. And the reason you don't trust him is because you're not convinced that he loves you. You don't have to be afraid of the will of God. It's the best thing for you. The will of God is good. It's well-pleasing. It's perfect. The will of God. You never have to be afraid of it. This is why Paul says at the outset,

I want you to commit yourself to do that will. I know there are people, I've talked to young people like this, and older ones alike, that feel that if they were to ever just totally, unreservedly commit themselves to the will of God, God would do something dirty to them. Just treat them mean.

God might call me to go to Africa as a missionary. No telling what God might do to me. Do you think, do you think that if my son were to come to me and say, Dad, Dad, I know, I know that you want the best for me. And, Dad, I'll tell you what I've done. I've been thinking about this, and I have decided from now on to obey you immediately without questioning. I'm never going to disobey you again. I'm just going to commit myself to you 100%. And, Dad, whatever you want me to do,

whatever you tell me to do, I'm going to do it. Do you think I'd say, Ah, I finally got that kid where I want him. Boy, am I going to give it to him now. Do you think I'd do that? Of course not. Well, we think that's what God would do. We think that if we were to ever just totally sell out to God

and take the hands off our life and say, God, here it is, do with it what you want to, there's no telling what mean thing God might do to us. I want you to understand that it is absolutely essential before you have the ability to know what is the will of God in your daily life, you must commit yourself to that will. He starts off by saying, I want you to present your bodies.

Present your bodies. Now that word present is a temple term, a sacrificial term used for bringing a sacrifice to God. You can translate that word different ways. For instance, you can translate it like this, to yield or to transfer control or to place at the disposal of another. Here's what he's saying. I want you to place your body at God's disposal. I want you to transfer control of your body over to the Lord. I want you to bring that body as a living sacrifice and yield it up to God. Yield it up to God. One of the most tremendous illustrations that

I ever read concerning this matter of yielding. I read in this little book, They Found the Secret. In it is the story of Dr. Walter Wilson. Maybe some of you are familiar with the man. He was a medical doctor from Kansas City. God called him into a lay ministry, and he pastored a Bible church there in Kansas City, founded a Bible college. He was a tremendous, tremendous witness. I heard him when I was a teenager. He's now in glory. But in this little book, he shares his testimony.

Now, Dr. Wilson was a fine Christian man, but he recognized that there was something missing in his life. That life just didn't have a plus. One night, he went to hear Dr. James Gray, who was then president of the Moody Bible Institute, and Dr. Gray preached on this very verse. And he preached that we're supposed to yield our bodies to the Holy Spirit so he can use them as he wants. And the Spirit of God so dealt with Dr. Wilson's heart, he went home and made that commitment.

And I tell you, when I read this testimony, I said to myself, that's it. That's what real commitment is. Let me read it to you. There in the quiet of that late hour, I said to the Holy Spirit, My Lord, I have mistreated you all my Christian life. I have treated you like a servant. When I wanted you, I called for you. When I was about to engage in some work,

I beckoned you to come and help me perform my task. I have kept you in the place of a servant. I have sought to use you only as a willing servant to help me in my self-appointed and chosen work. I shall do so no more. Just now I give you this body of mine. From my head to my feet I give it to you. I give you my hands, my limbs, my eyes and lips, my brain,

all that I am within and without. I hand over to you for you to live in it the life that you please. Now listen to this. You may send this body to Africa or lay it on a bed with cancer. You may blind the eyes or send me with your message to Tibet. You may take this body to the Eskimos or send it to a hospital with pneumonia. It is your body from this moment on. Help yourself to it. Now, folks, that commitment, that is commitment.

You see, most of us would be willing to commit our bodies to be another Billy Graham. And what so struck me by that testimony was this. Lord, it's your body. Do with it as you please. If you want it to be a missionary, all right, but if you want to put it on a hospital bed, all right. It's your body. Do with it as you please.

You see, what so convicted me when I first read that is this, that I have yielded my life, my body, my family, everything I have to God, and then I complain with some of the things he does with it. It's his. It's his. And Paul says the first step, the first thing is this, I want you to bring that body of yours, and I want you to lay it at the altar and transfer total control of that body over to the Lord Jesus Christ. Over to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, notice he says, I want you to present your bodies. Your bodies.

He doesn't say, I want you to present your soul. I want you to present your spirit. I want you to present your body. Now, that's important. When he says, I want you to present your body, he's saying, I want all of you there is. I want all of you there is. You see, if God has my body, he has my spirit and my soul because that's where my body lives. You see?

That means he wants every bit of me. But I'll tell you something else. It means that he wants my everyday life. This is to be a practical sacrifice, you see. He's not saying that he simply wants me to present my body to be in church on Sunday morning and to preach the gospel, but he says, I want your body. And that means that everything you do in that body,

I want to control. I want to control. You see, everything I do, I do with my body. Every time I go out, I go out in my body. I don't remember the last time I went outside and didn't take my body with me. When I eat, I eat in my body. When I sleep, I sleep in my body. When I brush my teeth, I brush my teeth in my body.

Everything I do. You see, it is the everyday practical life. And the Bible says whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do it all for the glory of God. Well, I thought eating and drinking was my business. No, it's his. It's his. Whatsoever you do in word or in deed, Colossians 3, 17 says, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 14, he says, No man lives unto himself, no man dies unto himself. If a man eats unto the Lord, he eats. If a man doesn't eat unto the Lord, he does not eat. You see, what he's saying is this, that the Lordship of Jesus Christ touches every area of your life,

however insignificant you may think. You see? He wants all of you there is to have, and the fire of God never falls on a partial sacrifice. It has to be told him he wants your body. There's something else about this. This word, this verb translated present, is in a tense that literally means to present your bodies once and for all. In other words, he is talking about a once-for-all commitment never to be repeated, never to be taken back.

Friends, he is not talking about rededication. I will tell you what I think is wrong with most rededications. They are rededicating something that has never been dedicated. He is saying, I want you to once and for all bring that body to my altar and say, Lord, here it is. It is yours forever. I refuse to take it back. I give up the right to take it back. It is yours forever. From now on, you do with it as you please. And by the way, did you know that's the only way to beat sin and the devil?

Let me show you what I mean. When I was in college, one of my professors, a government professor, had been in the Second World War. And part of his—he had been in the European theater and been in France and some other places. And I remember one day while we were in class, every once in a while he would get off and chase the rabbits. And we were glad for him, too, because that meant less to be tested on. And exam time came around.

And he liked to talk about the war experiences. But I'll never forget one thing he told us. He said, you know, one of the most difficult things we had was training the American soldier to make a once-for-all decision to kill. The American boy was brought up on Mom's apple pie and the American flag and Mother's Day and the Golden Rule, and the psychology of the American soldier made it very difficult for him to make a once-all decision to kill. And then he said this, I have seen more than one American soldier die in battle because he could not make that once-for-all decision.

Suddenly he would find himself confronted by the enemy, and every time he killed he had to decide all over again whether or not he was going to kill. And many a time, he said, while he was taking that fatal second or two to decide whether or not to kill, the enemy who had made a once-for-all decision shot him. He said, more of our soldiers would have come home if we could have gotten them to make a once-for-all decision to kill. I thought that was tremendous. True. once-for-all decision to kill. I love that. It's tremendous. It's true. You see, the reason some of the folks in our churches are not really faithful to the house of God is because they've never made a once-for-all decision to be there.

You see, they decide all over again every weekend, well, we're going to church, well, I don't know, what do you want to do? And if Aunt Susie drops by for a visit or if you wake up one morning and it's raining, why, naturally you don't want to risk your life. Well, what do you want to do? Do you think we ought to go? Well, I don't know whether we ought to go or not. I want to tell you something. I never one time asked my parents, are we going to church on Sunday? I never even asked them, are we going to church on Wednesday? I knew. I knew that in our house there had been a once-for-all decision. And friends, I don't care what happened. We were there. That's the only way to be faithful. And if your children come up to you on Saturday night

and say, we're going to church tomorrow, I tell you, you failed somewhere in letting them know. Sometimes it's difficult for a young person to maintain their christian standard you know why because they've never made a once for all decision that their body belongs to jesus christ and every time they find themselves in a tempting situation they decide all over again now am i going to yield or am i going to honor christ and uh when you act that way when you operate that way you're more vulnerable to the enemy. The only way is to make a once-for-all decision that your body belongs to the Lord, never taken back, never taken back. When I was a little boy, here in the summertime, we'd, every Sunday afternoon or so, drive down to see my grandmother and grandfather.

I was about eight or nine years old, and I tell you there is nothing worse on an eight- or nine-year-old boy than old Sunday scratchy woolly pants. And we'd go down there, and everybody would sit, you would sit in the living room. They'd say, Oh, how much he's grown since I last saw him. And there I'd sit. I couldn't understand why those adults just wanted to sit around talking. It looked like they wanted to be out playing cowboys and Indians or something. There I was in those old woolly, scratchy, Sunday pants.

My grandparents had an oscillating fan that sat in the middle of the floor. You know what an oscillating fan is. It's a fan that oscillates back and forth. I want you to know I hated that oscillating fan. I'd sit there just burning up in that August heat in that little house, just burning up. Couldn't go outside and play because I had on my Sunday pants. And I'd look at that oscillating fan and it would blow over that way. And friend, I'd catch that fan just as soon as I could and I'd follow it just as far as I could. And I'd come back the other way. And then it would just burn up when he

would turn over and face the other people. I'll never forget one Sunday afternoon, the adults decided to go out and sit in the backyard and talk. And I went and rummaged around and me a screwdriver and I de-oscillated that fan. I made it stationary and I just sat there and let that fan blow me. I have often thought, God must feel that way about oscillating Christians. One time they are doing this, and one time they are favoring God, and one time they are favoring the world, and one time they will do this, and for a while they will be faithful, and for a while they won't be faithful. I tell you, folks, I don't mean to be irreverent, but God certainly would like to de-oscillate some of you.

Present once and for all. Take hands off your life. I think what it means is simply this, to choose and advance the will of God for the rest of my life, even before I know what it is. Have you ever done that? Now that's the kind of person that can recognize the will of God. All right, that's step one. Now let's move on to verse two. He says, And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds.

Presentation, not enough. Presentation plus transformation equals revelation. Now the starting place is presentation, but you don't stop there. He says, be not conformed to this world, that's the negative, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. All right. Now, let's very quickly look at this word transform.

It's the word, as you know, metamorphosis. It's the same word that is used of the transfiguration of Jesus. He was transfigured before them. Metamorphosis is that act whereby that ugly caterpillar turns into a butterfly. That's exactly what metamorphosis is. That's what the word transform, that's what the word transfigured means. It's that same word that is used of a caterpillar when it sheds its ugly appearance and is transformed into the shape of a butterfly. And when Jesus stood on the Mount of Transfiguration, he was

transfigured before them. What that means is that that glory that was always his but was hidden suddenly burst forth and displayed itself to those who were watching. The glory had always been there, but it was hidden, invisible, shrouded by the veil of human flesh. But in that moment, there was a preview of what Jesus was going to look like in glory, and that inner glory just immersed itself and burst forth from that hidden place, and they saw his glory. He was transfigured before them.

And Paul says you're to be transformed. In other words, that hidden glory, which is ours, because of our union with Jesus Christ, is to express itself in our human personality. We are to be constantly being transformed. This is a present tense verb. It means that the practice of my life, every day I am to be constantly being transformed. This is a present tense verb. It means that the practice of my life every day, I am to be transformed, made more and more, as we said last night,

into the likeness of Jesus. Now, the astounding thing is how this transformation takes place. You'll notice he says, be transformed by having a great experience. Wait, I read that wrong. Well, I thought you were transformed by having a great experience. I thought one day you'd go to a meeting and you'd come to the altar and you'd pray and suddenly you'd hear angel wings flapping and you'd have goose bumps playing leapfrog up and down your back and you'd have such an ecstatic experience that you'd walk out transformed. But notice what he says, you're transformed by the renewing of your mind. Isn't that interesting?

By the renewing of your mind. What is it that transforms a Christian? What is it that enables a Christian to be able to recognize the will of God? By the renewing of your mind. What is it that Jesus said, as a man thinketh, so is he. By the way, do a study on the mind in the Bible, New Testament. You will find, I think to your surprise, that the Bible teaches that your spiritual life depends more upon the condition of your mind than even upon the condition of your heart. More prominence is given in the Bible to the mind, to the thought life, than to the heart.

We are transformed by the renewing of your mind. As a man thinketh, so is he. As a man thinketh, so is he. All right, what does this mean, to renew your mind? Let me illustrate it like this. The mind is like one of these computers, IBM computers. The computer is a marvelous thing. I don't understand it.

We've got a number of folks in our church that are computer experts, and they've tried to explain it to me, but I don't understand it. But I do know it is a marvelous thing. But it has a weakness. You see, if you have a problem or a decision, you feed certain facts into that computer. And upon the basis of the facts you feed it, it computes and makes a decision or gives you an answer, right? Now, they have a phrase, garbage in, garbage out.

In other words, if you feed that computer inaccurate facts, then every decision, every answer it gives is going to be inaccurate because its weakness is it is at the mercy of the facts of its programming. So if there is garbage in, there is going to be garbage out. No way about it. Now, my mind, your mind, is like a computer. And all of our lives we are being programmed.

We are being fed facts. And when you are confronted with a decision, a problem, your mind begins to compute. And it takes all the facts it knows anything about and it makes a decision based on the facts that it has. Are you with me? All right. Now, if you do not have sufficient facts,

you can't come up with the right answer. The renewing of your mind is simply reprogramming the computer and feeding the computer a new set of facts. For instance, when the twelve spies went in to spy out the promised land, they came back and they computed. They had been fed certain facts. Let's look at those ten who said, we can't take the land. Now, their mind, their computer had been programmed to believe that grasshoppers can't lick giants. They had been fed a set of facts that says a giant can wallop the daylights out of a grasshopper, and if you are a grasshopper, the best thing to do is to stay out of the giant territory. So on the basis of those facts, they computed and

they came up with a decision, we can't possess the land. But there were two other spies. They had some additional information. They had some additional facts. They knew also that a grasshopper couldn't whip a giant, but they also had been fed this fact that God is able and that God is trustworthy. And so they made their decision based on that additional fact, you see. All right. You take when Simon Peter makes that declaration concerning the Lord Jesus, says, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And then immediately Jesus said,

I'm going to the cross. And Peter says, no, you can't go to the cross. Jesus turns around, and the King James, I think, reads like this, Thou savorest not the things of God. But one translation very accurately renders it like this. You're thinking like a man. You're thinking like a man. You see? You're thinking like a man.

Therefore, you can't recognize and discern the will of God. When they came for him in the Garden of Gethsemane, what did he do? Simon Peter pulled out his sword and started to fight. Jesus said, put your sword up. Put your sword up. He told Pilate, if my kingdom were of this world, then would my men fight, you see. He said, I'm operating on a different set of facts than you are. Come to Acts chapter 10.

Cornelius, a Gentile man, is ready to be saved. So God says, now I need a messenger to preach the gospel. I want to use Simon Peter, but Simon Peter is so prejudiced, he doesn't believe a Gentile is fit to be saved. So in Acts chapter 10, Simon Peter falls asleep on that housetop, and he has a dream, and he sees this sheep coming down with these beasts on it of unclean animals. And a voice says, Peter, rise, kill, and eat. And Peter says, Lord, I've never taken anything that was unclean. God says, don't call unclean what I have called clean, what I have sanctified.

He did that three times. When he got through, the messengers were at the door, and they said, Cornelius, who is a Gentile, wants to hear the gospel preached. And Peter said, well, I'll be. Did you know that I had a dream up on the rooftop, and God told me that I wasn't to call any man unclean? I can go and preach to him. Do you know what God was doing up on the housetop? He was reprogramming Peter's mind. He was reprogramming Peter's mind.

Peter had been programmed to believe that only a Jew could be saved and a Gentile wasn't fit to have the gospel preached. And so God was feeding him a new set of facts and a Gentile wasn't fit to have the gospel preached. And so God was feeding him a new set of facts, a new set of facts, until he began to see things God's way. He began to see things from God's viewpoint. The two spies saw things from God's viewpoint. The ten saw it from man's viewpoint. Peter finally saw things from God's viewpoint. And to renew your mind means that you start to see things from God's viewpoint. And to renew your mind means that you start to see things from God's viewpoint. You're feeding your mind a new set of facts, and you compute everything on the basis of

those facts. And that's what transforms you. Now you say, where do I get those new set of facts? I'm glad you asked. Right here. Right here. That's where you get them. First of all, the believer is to present his body,

commit himself to do the will of God, whatever it is, even before he knows it. And then he is to daily live a life of transformation, of allowing the Lord Jesus Christ to express himself through that human personality. How does this happen? By renewing his mind, by seeing things from God's point of view, by filling his mind with the Word of God. By filling his mind with the Word of God.

And as a man thinketh, so is he. And as he fills his mind with the word of God, you know what happens? A transformation takes place, folks. I mean this literally. A transformation takes place. I don't mean the fellow looks differently. I mean he starts thinking differently.

He starts thinking differently. Suddenly, when he's confronted with a decision or a problem, the word of God that has been lodged in his mind and heart begins to minister to him, and he starts thinking in terms of the word of God. He gains the ability to see things from God's point of view. Presentation plus transformation equals revelation. Now Paul says that kind of person, that kind of person who has yielded himself to God and

who is constantly trying to renew his mind, filling himself with the word of God, wanting to see things from God's point of view, that person can recognize the will of God. Now, let me make two or three suggestions on recognizing the will of God. How do you recognize it? What are its characteristics? I want to share with you about three things that I have found. I think the Bible bears them out, and I have found them to be true in my own experience. When I began to recognize the will of God, I think there are three areas that you need to check when you are dealing with the will of God. Number one is the word desire.

If today I presented you with two things, and I said one of these is the will of God, one of them is the will of God, one of them is not. One of them was pleasant, the other was unpleasant. One of them was easy, the other was hard. Which one do you suppose would be the will of God? You know, it's amazing how many people, when they are given that test, choose that which is unpleasant and hard and difficult. Because there is something about us that just finds it difficult to believe that the will of God would be a delight and a pleasure. They think like this, well, if I want to do it, it must not be God's will.

If I want to do it, it must not be God's will. I have people come to me time and time again saying, preacher, I'm trying to find God's will in this matter, and I don't know what to do. And I always shock them by saying, well, what do you want to do? What do you want to do? What do you want to do? And nearly always they know what they want to do, but it never occurs to them

that what they want to do is the will of God. Now, I want to tell you something. The will of God will always lie in the direction of your desire. Psalm 37, verse 4 says, Delight thyself in the Lord, and he shall what? Give thee the desires of thine heart. Friends, I have news for you this morning.

God leads you through your desires. That's natural. Hey, did you know that if you'd ever make a study of the natural laws, that you'd learn a great deal about spiritual laws? Did you know there's no conflict? By the way, how does God get you to eat? By giving you a desire. Is that unspiritual?

How does God get you to sleep? By giving you a desire to sleep. Hey, how does God get you to sleep? By giving you a desire to sleep. Hey, how does God get you to marry, fall in love? By giving you a desire. You see, everything in life, why do you have children? Why do you want children? Why do you want to have a little baby in your arms? Why? You have a desire to have that child, you see. Why is it that we say, well, everything else in life follows our desires, but when it comes to spiritual things, it doesn't. I said a moment ago, some people are afraid to surrender their lives to God, afraid he'll call

them to Africa as a foreign missionary. I want to tell you something. If God calls you to Africa, he will put such a desire in your heart to go that if you can't find a boat, you'll swim to get there. You say, Wait just a minute, preacher, what about Jonah? What about Jonah? He didn't want to go to Nineveh. No, you're right, and he wasn't yielded either, was he? You see, I said, when you present your body and all you want is the will of God, he will work through your desires. Jonah had no desire to go to Nineveh. Why? Friends, he wasn't

yielded at all to God. But God will always work in the direction of your desire. And so when I am faced with an alternative, I always, first of all, assume that if I'm yielded to God, if I'm yielded to God, if the Holy Spirit is filling me, if Jesus Christ is living his life through me, then I have the right to assume that what I want to do is what God wants to do, you see, because he works through my desires. A man came to me and he said, I have a job, but I've been offered another job. And he said, I don't know what God wants me to do. I said, what do you want to do?

What do you want to do? He said, well, I want to do this. I said, well, then want to do? What do you want to do? He said, well, I want to do this. I said, well, then do it. Do it. So the first thing is to look at your desire. At your desire. You know, I think that's good news. I really do.

For a long time, I just thought, well, there's never any fun in doing the will of God. And it came as a great news to me to discover that I could enjoy the will of God, and it came as a great news to me to discover that I could enjoy the will of God. Your desire will be your first indication of what God wants you to do. You follow your desire, follow your desire. But that's not alone sufficient. Secondly, not only must there be desire, there must be opportunity. There must be opportunity. How do you know there are times when that desire is not a sanctified desire, when it is a carnal desire? How do you know? Well, when there's no opportunity to do what you want to do. The will of God, the will of God, first of all, there'll be the desire placed in your heart. Then there will be the opportunity to fulfill that desire. To fulfill that desire.

Now, let me illustrate with my own experience. I said the other day, I believe it was yesterday morning, for years and years, I wanted to be a flaming evangelist. I surrendered to be another Billy Graham. I had the desire, but folks, I nearly starved to death. You know why? I didn't have the opportunity. God wasn't opening the doors.

God wasn't opening the doors. Well, that desire I had was a desire that arose out of my own carnal feelings. You see, I was not really yielded to the will of God. I was yielded to the will of God if he wanted me to do what I wanted to do, you see. So I knew finally, it dawned upon me just about three days this side of starvation, it dawned upon me that this was not the will of God because he had not supplied the opportunity. Now where God guides, he provides. And when God wants you to do something, it is his responsibility to open the way to do it.

So there will be opportunity. Open and close doors, it's really that simple. So if you have a desire to do something something and there is the opportunity to do something, then do it. But there is a third thing. Desire and opportunity are not sufficient. I don't know of any other way to word it, I just say barrier. At first I said donkey, and I'll tell you why I said it that way. Balaam's donkey. All right, let's suppose I'm

trying to decide what God wants me to do in this situation. All right, I have the desire to do it i really have the desire to do it secondly i have the opportunity to do it all right here's what i do lord i believe this is what you want me to do i believe this is what you want me to do the way is open lord I'm going to start heading towards that door. I believe that's where you want me to go. I have the desire. You've given the opportunity. Somebody's given the opportunity. It's there.

I'm going to head in that direction. But Lord, I only want your will. And if this isn't your will, I want you to stop me. I want you to put the barrier in the way. I want Balaam's donkey to talk to me and keep me from going where I'm going. Now, I want to make this statement. I do not believe that God will let that kind of Christian ever, ever make a mistake about his will. If you get outside the will of God,

you will do it deliberately and willfully and knowingly. But I do not believe God will ever, ever let that kind, notice that phrase, that kind of Christian be deceived about the will of God. If I am committed to that will, if what I want above everything else is the will of God, and I'm heading in that direction because it seems to me that is the will of God, but that's not his will, then I believe with all of my heart, God will let me know. He will let me know.

He'll put a barrier there. Several years ago, three years ago, four years ago, a church called me as pastor. Well, they started talking to me in August. They called me on the phone and said, we believe you ought to come. I said, I'm not interested. I have some very dear friends that I feel like are some of the finest Christian people in all the world. I have great respect for them. It was interesting that every one of them told me that God had told them I was supposed to go. It seemed that God was telling everybody but me. They started talking to us in August, and we said, No, no, no, no. They flew us down in October.

Just come down and look it over. So we came down and looked it over. We said, No, no. Come and preach for us in view of a call. I said, No. Come on and preach for us. I said, No. We just really believe you ought to come down and at least preach for us. I said, no. We just really believe you ought to come down and at least preach for us. I said, well, all right, I'll come and preach, and you have a call. They said, all right, good. I called them back the next week, and I said, I can't come. I don't believe it's right for me to come because I know God isn't leading me, and there's no use in my coming. They said, listen, come anyway. Your family needs a vacation. We'll fly your whole family down to sunny Florida, and no strings attached.

You preach for us. I said, well, all right, but I want you to know that the way I feel right now, if I come and that church calls me, I'll say no. They said, all right. We understand.

Well, I went down, preached. Sunday morning, Sunday night, they gave me a unanimous call. Three days later, I told them no. They called me up on the phone. They said, you't believe God is leading you? I said no. Then they asked this question. They said, Can you say that God will never lead you to our church? I said, I can't say that. They said, Good, we'll wait. Well, this thing's been dragging on, dragging on, dragging on.

Now I want to tell you something. I had sort of a desire to go. And I had sort of a desire to stay. I had the opportunity to go and I had the opportunity to stay. And I just want to tell you something, folks, I got flum confused. Everybody was saying you ought to go. It's a church twice the size. Our church was running about 7, 800 in Sunday school.

Their church was running about 1,600. They had a $90,000 parsonage, 4,500 square feet parsonage, right next to one of those beautiful rivers in Florida, orange trees growing in the front yard. And I kept having preacher friends that I had a great deal of confidence call me up and say, brother, I believe God's leading you there. I see you there. I just feel God leading you. Well, I want you to know I just got plumb confused. I got to the place where I didn't know. I wanted to go because I love those people. I had just fallen in love with those people. It was such an opportunity. So here's what I did. I checked into a motel one day and I got on my knees and I said, Lord, I don't know what to do. Lord, I have a desire to go

but I have an equal desire to stay. The Lord, common sense tells me I ought to go. And everybody else says I ought to go. Lord, it looks like you want me to go. And so, Lord, I'm going. But, Lord, I don't want to go if you don't want me to go. But I don't know anything else to do. And so I'm going to start walking in that direction and God, if you don't want me to go, you're going to have to stop me. You're

going to have to make it plainer than you've been making it. You're just going to have to stop me. But if you don't stop me, Lord, I'm going. And that's the only thing I know to do. So I told them to call me on a certain Wednesday night and I would give them my answer. I was going to say, Yes. Wednesday night at six o'clock they called, long distance. We exchanged a few greetings and then I began to say what I had prepared to say. They were going into the prayer meeting and they were going to tell the Church what I had prepared to say. See, they were going into the prayer meeting, and they were going to tell the church what I said.

When I opened my mouth to speak and accept the church, I couldn't talk. I literally could not talk. And there was just dead silence. After a moment, I said, Jim, call me back in 30 minutes. And I hung just dead silence. After a moment I said, Jim, call me back in thirty minutes. And I hung up the phone. I looked at my wife and said, I don't know what in the world is the matter with me.

I said, I just couldn't speak. And so we prayed. Thirty minutes later they called back up. Boy, I had the speech all rehearsed. I was going to tell them I was coming. And I started to say, Jim, I, and I, folks, I literally couldn't speak. I couldn't get the words out. And finally I said, Jim, I'm not coming.

This just isn't God's will. God doesn't want me to come. And after that, folks, I just had the greatest peace, and I've never doubted one moment that it was the will of God. I did the will of God. Now, what am I illustrating? I'm saying this. I did what I knew to do, and God did not let me make a mistake. God did not let me make a mistake.

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