There is so much that the Lord has done in my life and so much that He has taught me that I couldn't even begin to summarize it all, but there are some things that stand out. As I see it, there are three keys to everything the Lord has done in my life, and I believe these three things are a must in every believer's life if he wants to succeed.
First, you must have a revelation of God's unconditional love and grace for you personally. This happened for me instantly on March 23, 1968. I was overwhelmed by God's love for me. Instantly, I intuitively knew God was good and He loved me separate from my performance. There was a severe conflict between my head and my heart for a number of years until I began to gain some understanding through the scriptures. But I experienced God's unconditional love for me in a tangible way and I couldn't or didn't want to get away from it.
Second, you must make an absolute and unconditional surrender to God. This happened to me the same night God revealed His love to me. I believe that anyone who gets a real glimpse of God's infinite love for him will just naturally submit to Him. I don't see how you could do anything else. The only explanation I can see, why people live their lives independent of God is because they don't know what they are missing. They have never really come face to face with God and all His love for them. When they do, they will never be the same.
The third essential for a successful Christian life is to know God's will. How can we ever expect to accomplish God's will for our lives if we don't know what it is? This is a crucial element of the Christian life that many believers are unsure about.
In my own life, I can say without a doubt, that knowing I'm in the center of God's will has been like an anchor to me. We all have storms that come against us, but if our anchors hold, we'll still be in the same place when the storm passes over. Jamie and I have been through things that would have shipwrecked us if we hadn't known we were exactly where God wanted us to be.
From the very beginning, after the Lord revealed His awesome love to me, I began to experience God's leading in my life. He definitely led me to quit college, which in 1968 meant an automatic, all expenses paid, trip to Vietnam. I could have buckled under the pressure at times, but I had an all consuming assurance that I was directly in the center of God's will. That kept me in peace. I knew God's infinite love for me would only will good for my life and I didn't have to understand it. I just trusted it. What a blessing!
Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." The Lord actually spoke this through the prophet Jeremiah to the children of Israel who had been taken captives by Nebuchadnezzar. They were in a terrible situation. Their homeland had been destroyed. The temple had been defiled and they were captives in a foreign land. Yet the Lord had good things in store for them. Despite their disobedience, God wanted to prosper them. That's true for every one of us too. In spite of what we've done or not done, the Lord has a perfect plan for every one of our lives. Our future is so bright we have to squint to look at it. All we have to do is believe.
So, how do we discover God's will for our lives? The answer is found in the first two things I discussed. We have to know experientially, the goodness of God and make an absolute surrender to Him, and then God's direction for our lives will come effortlessly.
Romans 12:1-2 says it this way, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye 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 ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."
These verses are actually saying that God's will for every one of us is to be totally surrendered to Him as a living sacrifice. Then and only then, as we renew our minds, we will prove what His direction is for our lives. The word "prove" means, "to make manifest to the physical senses." If we become a living sacrifice and renew our minds, it's impossible to miss God's direction. He wants to use us more than we want to be used. The biggest obstacle is our unusableness.
God's primary will for my life isn't to be a minister of the Gospel. It is to be completely yielded to Him. The way He chooses to use me is to preach the Gospel. There is a progression of events here. I am to be committed to the Lord as a living sacrifice, then transformed by the renewing of my mind, which comes through the Word of God, and then I experience God's direction for my vocation. If I preach the Gospel without being yielded to Him, I'm not fulfilling His will.
I believe that people do sometimes discover God's vocation for them. Their gifts lead them in that direction, but if they aren't totally committed to the Lord and if they haven't aligned their thinking with God's Word, they are likely to ruin the whole thing. I think this is what has happened with some very visible media ministers. They entered into God's vocation for them, but they lacked the character that comes from being totally surrendered to Christ, and their own success destroyed them.
In many cases, I believe it is actually the mercy of God that prevents us from discovering His vocation for us before we make a total commitment to Him. Trying to get godly results in our own strength is frustrating to say the least and most of the time it is down right painful. He is more concerned about us than He is about using us. He doesn't want us to try and serve Him in our own ability. We need to come to the end of ourselves to come to the beginning of Him. That's done through this absolute surrender.
As we yield ourselves completely to the Lord, He will mold us into who He wants us to be, and then He will use us. God wants to use us more than we want to be used. We should never pray, "God use me." Instead we should pray, "God make me usable." The moment we become usable, the Lord will put us to work.
A ship builder never builds a ship to leave in dry dock. Manufacturers don't make cars just to sit around. The Lord doesn't work on us and then never use us. Our focus shouldn't be on seeking the Lord to use us, but rather on making ourselves usable. We don't have to kick the doors open. When the time is right, the Lord will make a way.
Notice that Romans 12:1-2 states two things that we have to do before we prove the perfect will of God. Verse one says that we have to make a total commitment of our lives to Him and verse two says we have to renew our minds. I believe it is possible to be committed to the Lord, yet fail to renew your mind through God's Word. This will keep you from experiencing His best for you.
Verse two says we will be transformed by the renewing of our minds. The Greek word for "transformed" is "METAMORPHOO," which is the word from which we get our English word "metamorphosis." That describes the change that takes place when a worm spins a cocoon and then emerges as a butterfly. If we want that type of transformation in our lives, we have to change the way we think. It's insanity to expect different results without changing our thinking because "For as he thinketh in his heart, so [is] he. . . " (Pro. 23:7).
The renewing of our minds is nothing more than thinking like God thinks. That happens as we study God's Word and take heed to act accordingly. God's Word contains His thoughts. We exchange our opinions for His opinions as revealed in His Word. As we think differently, we will act differently and will begin to experience God's best in every area of our lives. That will certainly include having our steps directed by God.
Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart." That doesn't just mean that the Lord will just give us whatever we want. He's saying that when we delight ourselves in Him, God will put His desires in our hearts. That's essentially what Romans 12:1-2 is saying. A person who is truly delighting in the Lord is surrendered to Him and once his mind has been renewed, his desires change. He will see things differently. God's wisdom changes our desires to His desires because we recognize that His ways are better. Once this process has begun, then we can basically do what we want to do because our desires are now ordered by the Lord.
I was taught in the church I grew up in, to do the opposite of what I wanted to do and that would probably be what the Lord wanted. That's only true when a person is totally carnal. We can come into a relationship with the Lord through absolute surrender where our hearts have been changed and channeled to flow in the same direction as the Lord's. We may not obtain perfection in this life concerning this, but we certainly don't have to have our desires always oppose God's either. When we delight in Him, He puts His desires into our hearts.
Certainly all of us have witnessed or experienced people whose desires were not godly before they got saved. Yet after salvation, they completely changed. They no longer loved the things they once did. God put His desires in their hearts. That's the way it should be.
So, once a person has made a total commitment of his life to the Lord and started renewing his mind through studying God's Word, he can basically do what he wants to do. That's one way to discern God's will. What do you want to do?
I must caution you that this is a dangerous principle for anyone who isn't really committed to God and seeking Him with all his heart. If you aren't in that place, you should get there soon. Until then, you can't be led by your desires. Once you are truly delighting yourself in the Lord, you can let your heart lead you. I've done that many times and found it to be God's leading.
Finding God's will should be a very important issue for every Christian. We are even commanded not to be ignorant, "but understanding what the will of the Lord is" (Eph. 5:17). It's not hard. It just takes commitment. There is a lot of information in God's Word about this. He wants you to experience His best.
(written by AWM)
