THE 7 WAYS TO KNOW GOD'S WILL! At the birth of the Family!--Huntington Beach, Calif., USA. GP829 Summer 1968!
1) The Word
2) The Voice of the Word
3) Direct Revelation
4) Godly Counsel
5) Open & Closed Doors
6) Burdens
7) Fleeces
1. EVERY TIME OF TESTING & TRIAL & SIFTING IS A TIME OF DECISION! Now how do you make a decision? For a Christian, what is a decision? What are you trying to find? The will of God! So the question is: How do you find the will of God? Can you think of a good verse on it--any good Scriptures on the will of God? The first one that comes to my mind is:
2. "I BESEECH YE THEREFORE, BRETHREN, THAT YE PRESENT YOUR BODIES A LIVING SACRIFICE, holy & acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Be not conformed to this world: But be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may know what is that good & acceptable & perfect will of God." (Ro.12:1 & 2.)
3. SO WHAT IS THE FIRST REQUIREMENT IN FINDING GOD'S WILL?: HAVING NO WILL OF YOUR OWN! Surrender your will, your body, your mind to the Lord. I thought you said that everybody has free will, free choice? Well, sure, up to the point of decision. But as Christians you're supposed to have already made that major decision. What is that? I choose Jesus! Amen?
4. YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO HAVE ALREADY CHOSEN TO SURRENDER YOUR WILL TO JESUS CHRIST & LET HIM MAKE THE DECISIONS!
"He knows, He loves, He cares,
Nothing His Truth can dim!
He gives His very best to those
Who leave the choice with Him!"
That may not be a Scripture, but it's Scriptural--one of my favourite little poems. "He knows, He loves, He cares"--do you believe that? "Nothing His Truth can dim"--is that true?
5. "HE GIVES HIS VERY BEST TO THOSE WHO LEAVE THE CHOICE WITH HIM!" If you're His child & you're letting Him do the choosing, what's He going to choose for you? He's going to choose that which is the best for you, which will make you happy, amen?
6. BUT YOU SAY, "YES, BUT MY WILL IS SURRENDERED TO GOD. I have yielded my life to the Lord, I am trusting the Lord, but I still haven't been able to find His will. I'm still confused. I can't even understand the problem, much less the answer!" It's a problem that some of you are having now. Some of you are wrestling with it now!
7. YOU EITHER HAVE SO MUCH FAITH THAT YOU CAN GO OUT & SERVE GOD & WORK HARDER FOR HIM FULL-TIME THAN YOU WOULD FOR A SECULAR EMPLOYER, & have the faith that God in some miraculous way will pay off those bills. Or get to work & earn it & pay'm!
8. DON'T SIT AROUND ON YOUR FAT FANNY EXPECTING GOD TO DO IT FOR YOU--when you're not willing to get out & work for Him! Some people think that living by faith is not working--is doing nothing, just sitting around...."I'm waiting on the Lord to tell me what to do."
9. GOD ALREADY TOLD YOU WHAT TO DO! "Go ye into all the world, & preach the Gospel to every creature!" (Mark 16:15.)
10. IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE TO GO OR HOW TO DO IT, JUST GET OUT & START, & HE'LL LEAD YOU! The boat has to be in motion before the rudder can take effect. Don't sit around on your southwest hemisphere & tell me that you're working for God & God's going to take care of the bills, when all you're doing is mooching off of somebody else!
11. I'M THINKING ABOUT SOMEBODY RIGHT NOW: THEY'RE SUPPOSEDLY CALLED TO THE MISSION FIELD--they've been sitting around, doing little or nothing for many months, "waiting on the Lord." They're not waiting on God! God's waiting on them to get busy!
12. HOW DO YOU FIND THE WILL OF GOD! What's the first requirement, according to that Scripture? That Scripture includes three things: Surrender your body, surrender your mind, & obviously, your will. When these are all utterly surrendered to God, God may make you wait a little while sometimes, to find out. But you'll keep busy while you're waiting!
13. I NEVER IN MY LIFE, GOD HELP ME, JUST SAT AROUND WAITING ON GOD--not for long, that's for sure! We may stand around here for a few minutes waiting for God to speak, but I never sat around for weeks & months on end. God isn't that slow! He doesn't have that hard a time telling me what to do.
14. THANK GOD, I'M NOT THAT DEAF THAT I DON'T KNOW WHEN HE SPEAKS, & have that hard a time to hear Him & find out what He wants me to do. There have been little times in between jobs that we've so-called rested on the Ranch, but we were busy every day--having classes, studying God's Word & praying--working hard!
15. SO DOING GOD'S WILL, FINDING GOD'S WILL IS NOT JUST SITTING AROUND DOING NOTHING!--Keep busy, keep active!
16. IF GOD FINDS YOU WILL OBEY WHEN HE TELLS YOU TO WASH THE DISHES or wash the clothes or vacuum the floor, & you keep busy doing something, then He knows He can trust you to tell you what's next. But if you're not willing to keep busy just picking up papers in the yard or whatever else it might be, He's not going to tell you anything else!
17. "WHATSOEVER THY HAND FINDETH TO DO, DO IT WITH THY MIGHT." (Ecc.9:10.) The trouble with some people is: They don't find anything to do because they're not even looking! In fact they've got their eyes shut & they're sound asleep & they don't want to see anything to do!
18. HOW TO FIND THE WILL OF GOD! UTTER ABANDONMENT, utter yieldedness to God--utter yieldedness of the mind, utter yieldedness of the body, utter yieldedness of your own will! Then you'll know! You won't have long to wait, when you really have no desires of your own!
19. I ASKED SOME FOLKS LAST NIGHT, I said, "Honestly now, if friends & family & church & money & position & health & nothing else were a problem, if you could do anything you wanted to do, anything, what would you do? Think it over!
20. "IF YOU HAD YOUR CHOICE TO DO ANYTHING you want to do for God, or even not for God, what would you do?" "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (Mt.6:21.) What do you want to do? What really is your choice?
21. WELL, I'M DOING EXACTLY WHAT I WANT TO DO, what I love to do, & what I know is God's will! I'm right where I belong. I can't think of anything I would like to do better. Hallelujah!
22. THE FIRST PLACE WE LOOK FOR THE WILL OF GOD IS WHERE?: THE WORD! Right here! This is the known, sure, absolute, revealed will of God! This you don't have to doubt about at all! This is it! If God never tells you another thing, if you just work according to this Bible, you'll get along great! TG!
23. IF YOU NEVER GET A REVELATION, if you never hear a voice, if you never hear a tongue, if you never get a prophecy, if you never have knowledge, if you never have wisdom, if you never have discernment, if you never have healing, if you never have miracles, if you'll just operate according to this Word of God, you'll accomplish a whole lot! And you'll probably get all the rest in the bargain, while you're at it!
24. BUT THE PEOPLE SITTING AROUND on their fat fannies waiting for the rest of it, before they go out & do what they already know--"the full He hath sent empty away," & they "lose even that which they think that they had." That's God's Word! The translation here is: "That which he hath," but the literal translation from the original Greek is: "That which he thinketh that he hath." (Lk.1:53 & Mt.25:29.)
25. SOMETIMES PEOPLE THINK THEY'VE GOT A LOT, WHEN THEY HAVEN'T! God will soon show'm up if they haven't got it! We're soon going to know whether you've got it or not!
26. GOD OFTEN PULLS US THROUGH A KNOTHOLE--JUST TO SQUEEZE OUT THE CHAFF, TO SEE WHO'S GOT WHAT IT TAKES! He never leaves us in the knothole very long, but it's a pretty painful process going through from one side to the other! Amen? God loves to chastise you! He loves to chasten you! He enjoys spanking you, in a way. Why? Because He watches it bring out the best in you!
27. GOD'S INTOLERABLE COMPLIMENT:--Chastisement, scourging. God's almost unbearable compliment! When God swats you in the rear, it's a compliment! When God beats you down & puts you through the ringer & through a test & trial, it's a compliment!
28. HE'LL NOT GIVE YOU ANYTHING MORE THAN YOU'RE ABLE TO BEAR. If He gives you a tough test & a tough trial, as a tough soldier of Jesus Christ, He knows you can take it! He just wants to show me & show you & show the rest of the world you can! It's a part of your witness. As dear old Brother Mitchell, a great saint of God, said, after his house burned down,
29. "GOD DOES SOME THINGS TO MAKE YOU HUMBLE, other things to keep you humble & yet others to make sure you're still humble."
30. SOMETIMES HE DOES THINGS TO YOU TO PERSUADE YOU TO SERVE HIM, & then He may drag you through the knothole to see if you're still willing to serve Him! Oh, I thought I'd passed the test. I had graduated when I forsook all & followed Jesus.
31. MAN, YOU JUST ENTERED SCHOOL! You just got accepted by the Lord, that's all! You just filled out the registration blank & received your notice of acceptance from God--because you were willing to leave home & come. You haven't even passed the first grade yet, some of you! And nobody here's graduated yet, or you wouldn't be here!
32. WITH EVERY GRADE IT GETS TOUGHER & the tests get harder & the examinations are more complicated & the choices are more difficult! The more God can trust you with, the more He can trust you to stand the test, the tougher it's going to be--just to show the rest of the world what you're made of! It's a part of your witness for God. It's a part of your witness to your wife, to your husband, to your children, to your loved ones at home.
33. THE 7 WAYS TO KNOW THE WILL OF GOD, 7 ways to find the will of God: Number 1, by the Word of God. Next, by the Voice of His Word. Now what is the Voice of His Word? He speaks not only in His Word, but He speaks about the Voice of His Word.
34. HAVE YOU EVER HAD HIM SPEAK DIRECTLY TO YOU WITH THE VOICE OF HIS WORD? You're reading a passage & all of a sudden some verse or Scripture or word just--pow!--Hits you like that between the eyes! "Wow! That's for me! Wow, that's the answer!" It was so loud that God couldn't have spoken any more emphatically if He'd yelled it out or screamed it in your ear!
35. THE VOICE OF HIS WORD SPEAKING THROUGH THE WORD. It may have been written for somebody 6000 years ago, & yet, all of a sudden, it hits you personally, between the eyes.
36. THE HOLY SPIRIT GRABBED AHOLD OF THAT ARROW & PULLED BACK HIS BOW & WHANG!--IT CUT YOU TO THE HEART! The Voice of His Word! PG! ("Bless the Lord, ye His angels, that excel in strength, that do His commandments, hearkening unto the Voice of His Word."--Ps.103:20.) Amen! PG!
37. FIRST THE BIBLE, THEN A SPECIFIC VERSE OUT OF THE BIBLE. What do you think would be next, as an indication of the will of God? A Direct Revelation--dream, vision, voice, message, prophecy, interpretation.
38. SOMETIMES HE SPEAKS THROUGH ONE PARTICULAR VERSE HERE, JUST TO YOU PERSONALLY, by His Spirit. Sometimes He speaks to you directly, even outside of this Book. I found out He usually uses Scripture. Whenever I ask God for an answer to a problem,
39. I SELDOM EVER HAVE GOD FAIL TO GIVE ME A SCRIPTURE that He's already got in here some place. "What more can He say, than to you He hath said? You who unto Jesus, for refuge have fled? How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith, in His excellent Word!"
40. SOME OF YOU DON'T APPRECIATE THE BIBLE LIKE YOU SHOULD. You've got to have it all spoon-fed. You don't know how to dig it out for yourself--the strong meat of the word. Some things you've got to work for! "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth. (2Tim.2:15.)
41. BE SURE THAT DIRECT REVELATION DOES NOT COUNTERACT NOR CONTRADICT, BUT IS IN LINE WITH THE WORD OF GOD! You have to measure it! Try the spirits! Make sure it is according to His Word, direct revelation from God Himself.
42. HIS WORD, THE VOICE OF HIS WORD, DIRECT REVELATION, what next? "In a multitude of counsellors there lacketh not wisdom." Godly Counsellors, Number 4.
43. I DON'T MEAN NECESSARILY SOME PREACHER OF THE OLD RUT THAT YOU WERE IN--some Christian or a member of your family of the former association--because they don't know where it's at! They don't even know where you're going, but they sure seem to know how to stop some of you!
44. HOW CAN YOU GO TO PEOPLE WHO DON'T EVEN UNDERSTAND THE PROBLEM! They don't know what the goal is! They don't even know what the will of God is!
45. HIS WORD THROUGH GODLY COUNSELLORS. Those who not only claim to believe the Bible, but you see are really practising it the way you know it ought to be done. Those who not only are hearers of the Word, but doers also!
46. SOMEBODY WHO'S WITNESSING & WINNING SOULS & DOING THE JOB & trying to get it done. Somebody that's got the fruit to prove it! If I want to know how to play the piano, I wouldn't go to Business College--I'd go to a pianist who knows how to play, amen? If I want to know how to cook, I don't go to a stenographer--I'd go to somebody that knows how to cook, & I've enjoyed one of their meals. Godly counsellors that bear fruit & produce the goods & you know they mean business.
47. I DON'T SAY THAT THESE HAVE TO ALL BE IN THIS EXACT ORDER, God may speak to you out loud first, & then you may confirm it with the Word. You may hear the Voice of His Word next, & then search the rest of the Scripture & see what generally He has to say about the subject.
48. WHAT WOULD YOU MAKE NUMBER 5? CIRCUMSTANCES!--A very poor judge of the will of God, but sometimes an indication. Some people have called this Open & Closed Doors.
49. WHAT ARE THE CIRCUMSTANCES? When they told me that I couldn't go, at that particular time, to Israel with my family, during World War II, the country had shut the doors to any new missionaries, no milk for the babies, & God didn't provide the money for a family passage, I looked at all those closed doors & I finally decided that wasn't the place for me to go. And right then God threw open the door real wide to Miami Beach, with a million Jews, waiting for the Gospel!
50. OPEN & SHUT DOORS--WHICH WAY DOES GOD SEEM TO BE LEADING? Where do you have open doors of service? Where have you got a possibility of a job? Which direction does it seem that God is providing the way & the means? That's one way to find out--the circumstances & the conditions, the open & shut doors. What would you take next?
51. TO KNOW WHAT GOD'S WILL ISN'T? That's a pretty good point, but a hard way to find out. I'd make that Number 8, I've just boiled this down to 7. But if you can't find the will of God, go ahead & do something. You will soon find out whether it is or is not! Like that old lady says, "I may not know what unction am, but I sure knows when it ain't!" (See 1Jn.2:20.)
52. THE HORRIBLE THING IS THAT SOME PEOPLE DON'T EVER SEEM TO WAKE UP! One couple that I was counselling--it's been six to eight months since he's quit his job & everything's going to pot, can't pay their debts, & not getting to the mission field. He still hasn't waked up! He still hasn't found out when it ain't! My God help us not to be deaf, dumb & blind! Help us to wake up when we find out it's not God's will!
53. WELL, THAT LEADS US TO NUMBER 6--THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT, BURDENS some people call it. It's kind of a feeling; I don't like to go by feeling, but that may be one of the indications. Sometimes it can be wrong! It can be the wrong feeling from the wrong spirit!
54. BUT IF IT'S OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD YOU'LL HAVE AN INNER CONVICTION--the Witness of the Spirit! In your heart you feel you just have faith. You'll just know that's the will of God! You have conviction that that's what you are supposed to do! That still small Voice in your heart--maybe not out loud, not an audible, visible sign of some kind, but that still small Voice in your heart!--That inner conviction!
55. THE WARNING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT or the checking of the Holy Spirit: "Stop, don't do it! Watch out!" Sometimes the Holy Spirit screams so loud in your heart, you don't hear a thing with these ears, but you know what He means!
56. FINALLY WHAT? SOMETIMES YOU CAN SPECIFY THE KIND OF REVELATION YOU WANT & THIS WE CALL A FLEECE. Like who?--Gideon! He laid it out & said, "Now Lord, if the fleece is dry & all the ground's wet, then I know it's You talking to me." But then he wasn't too sure, he wanted to make double sure. (Judges 6:36-40.)
57. CHECK & DOUBLE CHECK! He said, "Now Lord, if the fleece is wet & the ground is dry, I'll believe it." And it came that way every time! You say "Now Lord, if You'll do so-&-so"--like I did when I walked in here: I said, "Now Lord, if I open up right to that passage, then I know that's what they need & that's what I'm going to give'm."
58. I LIKE TO GET A SIGN FROM THE LORD. I LIKE TO GET THAT LITTLE FLEECE, that I'm on the right track. That's one way to find the will of God--ask for a sign, for a Fleece, some indication.
59. HOW TO FIND THE WILL OF GOD? SURRENDER YOUR BODIES AS A LIVING SACRIFICE, that ye may know what is that good & acceptable will of God. Be not conformed to this world & its systems & its usual way of doing things, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind--not the old way, if you're going to accomplish anything! (Ro.12:1 & 2.)
60. "THAT YE MAY KNOW"--YOU'LL KNOW! THERE'LL BE NO DOUBT ABOUT IT! If you do something without knowing it's God's will, it's sin! "For whatsoever is not of faith is sin." (Ro.14:23.)
61. GRANDMOTHER USED TO SAY, "WHEN IN DOUBT, DON'T!" That's Scriptural! "For he that doubteth is damned if he eat!" (Ro.14:23.) That means he's judged--doesn't mean he's lost. He's punished because he went ahead & did something he wasn't sure was the will of God.--Without knowing he was right!
62. KNOW YOU'RE RIGHT, THEN GO AHEAD! Nothing short of right is right! "He that doubteth is damned if he eat"; for "the double-minded man is unstable is all his ways, like the waves of the sea when they cannot rest. Think not that that man shall receive anything from the Lord!" (Ro.14:23 & James 1:6-8.)
63. CHOOSE YE THIS DAY WHOM YE SHALL SERVE: If God be God, then serve Him; if Baal be God, then serve him! For how long go ye halting between two opinions? As for me & my house, we're going to serve the Lord! Amen?--TYJ! (1Kg.18:21; Josh.24:15.) HALLELUJAH!
(We were only a couple dozen then, but with this kind of faith and conviction that we were right because God said so, we went out from one little home there & conquered the World--Now there are thousands of us in hundreds of Homes winning millions to Jesus around the world!--Did it work?
Yes, it worked!--Because we worked the works & will of God!--Are you?--If not, find His will TODAY!!--Don't wait!--Tomorrow may be too late!--You got this lesson today because someone did God's will & found this old tape & transcribed it for you!--Beth & Beriah of Wild Wind! God bless'm! PTL!--& somebody thought to tape it!--Because I obeyed & said it!--Will you obey God's will?!--And a lot of other somebodies found God's will for their lives & obeyed to make it all possible!: The typists, photographers, printers, mailers, receivers, givers, cooks, handymen, drivers, shoppers, mothers, businessmen, servants, shepherds, shepherdesses, teachers, writers, recorders & hosts of others!--YOU!!)
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family