(Sue is Thornleigh's Church Pastor)

Walking with God (Part C)

 
I was so excited. My family had decided to move from our wheat and cattle property into the township of Narrabri and we were going to live just one block from x. Now x for those of you who don't know him (and there's nobody here who possibly could!) was the boy I'd had a crush on since Year 7. :) I'd met him in Science and even though we rarely spoke, I was so besotted I hoped that he would be the one for me.

This I sought to determine a number of times over the next few months. Sometimes after school and sometimes on a Sunday, I'd ride my pretty pink bicycle down to the corner store and as I did I would pray, "Dear Lord. Please Lord. If x is the one for me, please can I see him today?" Well to my delight there were a number of days when I did see x. But to my horror and increasing confusion there were a number of days when I did not. How could this be?!

A few years later I met Mister Tall, Dark and Handsome at Avondale College and hello, if x wasn't the one for me, it no longer mattered! :) Eveything made perfect sense. He was this and he was that. He was that and he was this. Everything I could possibly dream of - except, of course, the fact that he didn't like me. :) But that didn't matter at the time. I was sure he'd come to see what I could see and that being so, my completely naïve thoughts were of happy ever after.

A year or so later however, Mister Tall, Dark and Handsome had still not shifted in his regard for me and desperate to know God's will on the matter, I looked out my window one night and prayed, "Dear Lord. Please Lord. If this is the man for me, please send a shooting star." No shooting star. That's okay, I decided. I could live with that. But I'd better put out the fleece just to be sure. "Dear Lord. Please Lord. If this is not the man for me, please send a shooting star." Still no shooting star. That's okay, I decided. God mustn't want to reveal His will just yet. :) But I'd better put out the fleece just to be sure. "Dear Lord. Please Lord. If you don't want to reveal your will just yet, please send a shooting star." Still no shooting star, no shooting star, no shooting star! :)

I don't know if anyone else has silly stories like mine? Well actually, I should say I know too many Christians who have silly stories like mine - which is the only reason, I'll have you know, that I'd make myself vulnerable by sharing my own! For your sake! :) So many Christians I know genuinely want to do God's will but oftentimes we don't know what God's will is or we don't know how to find out. This is the very reason I decided to add a Part C to this series. I realized that there's no point telling you obedience is the key to a dynamic personal relationship with God if you don't know what God's will is and you don't know how to find out.

Let's take a moment to recap my last two sermons. In Part A of this series, I said that if we want to have a living relationship with God; if we want to have an alive, full of life, vibrant and transforming relationship with God,

1. We will need faith to believe God wants to have a living relationship with us. Unless we truly believe Jesus came to this earth to restore our relationship with God/that God wants to walk and talk with us just like He did the great men and women of faith, we will only ever know about God from what we read in the Bible or what others say. We will never know God personally.

In Part B of this series, I said that if we want to have a living relationship with God,

2. We will need faith to believe we can trust God because unless we can trust God, we will not obey Him, and unless we obey Him, we will not come to know Him. It is as we obey God that we experience Him, and it is as we experience Him that we move from knowing about God to knowing Him personally.

That brings us to Part C of this series and my premise for today's sermon is that if we want to have a living relationship with God,

3. We will need to know how God speaks to us today. Unless we know how God speaks, we won't know God's will, and if we don't know God's will, we won't be able, by His grace, to obey Him. If we don't know how God reveals His will today, we are likely to look in the wrong place!

As is obvious from my silly stories, I used to believe God spoke through miraculous signs, and I still do. There are a number of examples of God providing signs upon request in the Bible and the story of Gideon putting out the fleece is just one of them. What I've come to realize however, is that there are other examples of people asking for signs in the Bible and God not giving them. In fact, Jesus went so far as to call the scribes and Pharisees "an evil and adulterous generation" when they asked for a sign (Matthew 12:38-39) and these different responses from God tell me that while God does sometimes speak through miraculous signs, we can't simply presume that He will.

Something else we can't presume is that just because a door is open, it must be God's will for us to walk through it, or just because a door is closed, it mustn't be God's will for us to walk through it. I know from my own life that there have been times when I've had multiple doors open at the same time and there have been times when a door has appeared closed and I've been convicted to wait for it to open. Had I not been watching for God to reveal His will in other ways at these times, I would not have known which door to walk through or that I was supposed to wait. What this tells me is that we can't simply rely upon open and closed doors to reveal God's will.

A further thing we can't rely upon is the age old name-it-and-claim-it method of determining God's will and I presume I'm preaching to the converted on this one. This is the one where you open your Bible and pick out a verse that could be relevant to your situation and hope you've received a word from God. As sincere as we may be in seeking God's will through His Word, we can't simply take a verse outside of context and apply the detail to our lives. I believe the Holy Spirit can, and I've had that happen, but we can't. Big picture/moral principles yes, but specific details no. We cannot, void of the Holy Spirit, presume to find God's specific will in the Bible.

So where does this leave us? If we can't rely upon the three most common methods Christians use to try to determine God's specific will - open and closed doors, miraculous signs, picking and choosing Bible verses - how can we know what God's will is?

In Testimonies to the Church, Volume 5, Ellen White says there are three primary ways God reveals His will to His people and I personally believe it takes a combination of these ways, plus a fourth, to discern the will of God. Before I go any further however, it may be helpful to explain that I'll be doing something this morning that I don't usually do and that is use Ellen White's teaching as the framework from my sermon. I usually use the Bible as a framework for my sermons and if Ellen White has something to say that adds clarity, I will sometimes quote her. Because a number of Adventists are nervous about the idea of God speaking today however, and because these people are often the people who most trust Ellen White, I figure it may be helpful to use her teachings this morning and I'm comfortable doing so because I believe they're consistent with the Bible.

So back to the topic . . . How does God usually speak to His people today? How does God usually reveal His will so that by His grace we can obey Him and come to know Him?

1. God speaks through the Bible. That God does speak to us through the Bible we can be sure. The Bible is called God's Word for a reason. It is a record of how God works with humans. It has many teachings and commands. It is our big picture guide. In God's Amazing Grace, Ellen White says, "God speaks to us in His Word. Here we have in clearer lines the revelation of His character, of His dealings with men, and the great work of redemption." In Reflecting Christ she also says, "The Holy Spirit is beside every true searcher of God's Word, enabling him to discover the hidden gems of truth. Divine illumination comes to his mind, stamping the truth upon him with a new, fresh importance."

Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever been reading the Bible and suddenly realized you have a new or fresh understanding about a text or passage? That is God speaking to you. When you come to understand a spiritual meaning or application, God has revealed His Word to you in a personal and real way. You have encountered God. This is very different from someone trying to decide if they should move to Melbourne and finding a verse about moving south and hoping it is relevant. As I said before, the key here is the Holy Spirit. When God applies His Word to our lives ie not us, this is God speaking to us and for this to happen we will need to be spending time in God's Word.

2. God speaks to us through providential workings. Just as we can be sure God speaks to us through the Bible, so too we can be sure God speaks to us through circumstances or open and closed doors.  Again in Testimonies to the Church, Volume 5, Ellen White says, "His (meaning God's) will is also revealed in His providential workings; and it will be recognized if we do not separate our souls from Him by walking in our own ways, doing according to our own wills, and following the promptings of an unsanctified heart, until the senses have become so confused that eternal things are not discerned, and the voice of Satan is so disguised that it is accepted as the voice of God."

What I believe Ellen White is saying here is that while ever we are living in relationship with God, the Holy Spirit will be able to show us what circumstances are of God and what are not. This is very different from us presuming God wants us to walk through a door just because it is open or that He doesn't want us to walk through a door just because it appears closed. Again, the key here is the Holy Spirit. Our ability to discern what is of God and what isn't is completely dependent upon our relationship with Him. We simply cannot know if a door that opens is of God if we are not in relationship with Him and in the same way we cannot know if we should wait for a door to open if we are not in relationship with Him.

3. God speaks to us through impressions of the heart. We're going to labour a bit longer on this point this morning because I believe it's where many Adventists get stuck, or at least it's where I got stuck. Of impressions, Ellen White says in God's Amazing Grace, "It is the privilege of the watchmen on the walls of Zion to live so near to God, and to be so susceptible to the impressions of His Spirit, that He can work through them to tell sinners of their peril, and point them to the place of safety." This clearly tells me that Ellen White believed God speaks through impressions; individually, personally. But so can Satan, she says in Maranatha. ". . . impressions and feelings are no sure evidence that a person is led by the Lord. Satan will, if he is unsuspected, give feelings and impressions."

I have to say it was an emphasis on the dangers of impressions that saw me stuck in my relationship with God. It was largely because I was so frightened of deception that I begged God not to speak to me individually, personally. When I finally decided I would put my trust in God, God was so patient with me! And He still is! I could tell you a number of stories about times when God impressed me to do something and I humbly asked Him to tell me in another way, just so I could be sure it wasn't the devil. Like the time when I was driving up to Newcastle and I was impressed to stop off and see someone in Cooranbong on the way. I had absolutely nothing to say to this person at the time so I humbly asked God to confirm if I had understood Him correctly and immediately the words "Exodus 4:12" came into my mind. Having no idea what Exodus 4:12 said at the time, I opened my Bible, which was sitting on the front seat of my car and found, "Now go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to speak." Unbelievable!

Having said that, I have to admit I still get nervous about teaching that God speaks through impressions because I don't want anyone to be deceived or deluded. But neither do I want anyone to miss out on the kind of intimacy I now know is possible with God so again, I teach this within the context of relationship. It is only as we are in close relationship with God and studying His Written Word that we will be able to discern the difference between impressions that are of God and impressions that aren't. Unless we are drawing close to God through prayer and Bible study, we will not be able to discern the difference.

4. God speaks to us through other Christians. A fourth way I believe God speaks to us is through other Christians and even though Ellen White didn't include this in the quote I've based today's sermon on, I'm confident she would agree with me because elsewhere she speaks about the importance of seeking counsel from others. (eg Testimonies to Ministers)

Ephesians 4:15-16 tells us that it is by speaking the truth in love that we grow up into Christ and edify the body which means we cannot know God's will, specifically with regard to our role in the body, apart from the counsel He provides through others. Without the eye, the hand does not know where to touch. Without the ear, the body may not know how to respond. Every member needs to listen to what other members have to say. All members need each other. As Proverbs 12:15 says, "Fools think their own way is right, but the wise listen to advice." To know God's will we definitely need to consult other Christians which is not to say we will never have to stand alone. I've had to stand alone on a number of occasions but at such times I've always had the Bible and providential workings and impressions to back me up. Wherever possible, it is always wise to wait for all four ways to line up before proceeding.

1. The Bible. 2. Providential workings. 3. Impressions of the heart. 4. Other Christians. These are the four ways I believe God primarily reveals His will today but this is still not a formula and why do you think that is? If God wants us to obey His will, why doesn't He just make it easy and give us a formula for knowing it?

I believe the answer to that question comes back to our relationship with Him. Why are we talking about how God speaks today? Because we want to know His will. And why do we want to know God's will? Because we want to obey Him. And why do we want to obey God? Because we want to know Him/have a living relationship with Him. Why then would God shortcut the process of us knowing His will by giving us a formula?!

The fact of the matter is that some Christians do try to bypass a relationship with God. They want the security or blessing that comes with doing God's will but they don't want to spend the time it takes to get to know God so they ask for miraculous signs or try to determine God's will in other ways. The reality is that we will never come to know God's specific will outside of relationship with Him. It will only be as we grow in our relationship with God that we will come to know His voice and know where He is leading us.

This is why Jesus said in John 10:2-5 and 14-15, "The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers . . . I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father."

John 8:47 says something similar, "Whoever is from God hears the words of God. The reason you do not hear is that you are not from God." In other words, those who do not belong to God do not hear what God is saying. They can't. They don't know Him so they don't know His voice. To know God's will we will have to walk closely with Him.

Want to know what that the best indicator of your closeness to God is? It's actually your prayer life. If you're not praying very much, it is likely that your relationship with God is cold or cool and it will be difficult for God to reveal His will to you whilever that is the case. If you choose to make prayer a priority however, I can promise you that with time you will come to know God's voice and you will come to know His will!

In my next two sermons I'm going to be talking about praying like Jesus prayed but between now and then, please give some consideration to your spiritual disciplines. Are you spending as much time in prayer and Bible study as you need to be to know God and know His will? Might it be helpful to join a prayer group or a Bible study group? What are some other ways you could get to know God better between now and Christmas? Do you need someone else to pray for you?

In case you aren't aware, we have eight pastors/elders at this church along with a Prayer Ministries Coordinator and a number of other people I know would be happy to pray with or for you. We also have a prayer meeting and four Bible study classes here every Saturday morning plus a number of other people I know would love to help you come to know God so please, if you want someone to encourage you in your walk with God, just ask!

References (extra)

Blackaby, Henry and Richard. "Hearing God's Voice," (Broadman and Holman Publishers, 2002).

Blackaby, Henry and King, Claude V. "Experiencing God," (Broadman and Holman Publishers, 1994). 

Home > Church Family > Sermon Summaries > 24 Jul 2010, Pr Sue Redman - Walking with God (Part C)

 
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