We today are finishing up the series called "New Look at an Old Book," right? And it's been an incredible series. Pastor Jerry's covered some incredible things. It's really hard to close a series that's about the whole Bible. Like, it's kind of a big deal, right?
We've talked about how you can trust God's Word. We've talked about how you can build your life on God's Word, how God's Word changes you. Today, the title is "Seeing What God Wants Me to See."
Have you ever felt like, or maybe you feel like right now, that the Bible is just hard for you to read? It feels confusing. I don't get anything out of it. It feels dry. Has anybody ever been there? I've been there. I've been in seminary, and I've been there. And sometimes I was more confused after I went to seminary. So it is difficult. There's a lot of difficult things.
The principle we're going to touch on today that I think is going to help you is the principle of illumination. And what do I mean by that? Illumination is simply allowing the Holy Spirit to show me the meaning of God's Word and how it applies to my life.
You know, we talked about that. James chapter one talks about how the Word of God is a mirror, right? You can look in it, and people will look in the Word of God and they'll forget what it says. They'll forget what it does. A mirror doesn't work in the dark, does it? Have you ever been in a bathroom and looked in the mirror in the dark? It doesn't do you any good. In order for a mirror to work, it has to have light.
That's why we install really bright light bulbs in our bathroom so we can see all the issues and we can fix them, right? We want to see them because brightness brings clarity. Brightness increases clarity, right? That's the same with God's Word. That's why if you look at the scriptures, God uses this as an analogy for his Word.
Psalm 119:105 says, "Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path." So God's Word is supposed to be a lamp for us. It's supposed to help us see the way forward. And the more illuminated our minds, the more we can see where we're supposed to go. The more we know of God's Word, the more we understand God's Word, the more we can see our path. How many need that in life, right? Everybody wants to know God's will for their life. We need to know.
Another great verse that's going to help us is John 14:26. It says, "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things I've said to you." I love this word because it's so straightforward, right? He'll teach you what? Say it again, he'll teach you what? And he'll bring to your remembrance.
How many need to remember some things, right? Like I will walk into a room, set my wallet down, and somehow I lose it in like three minutes. My wife is blown away by how quickly I can lose things. She bought me one of those Apple tags to find things. I lost that. But literally, the Holy Spirit has helped me find my wallet before. He has helped me.
But one of the multitudes of things the Holy Spirit does, besides helping me find my wallet, is he illuminates the Bible. He illuminates the Word of God for us. And if you're not in tune to him and aware of his presence, the Bible is hard to understand. You can miss a lot. You can even misinterpret it or misunderstand it just like the Pharisees. They heard, they knew a lot of the Bible, but they didn't have any illumination. They didn't have any of the light of the Holy Spirit. They needed the power of the Holy Spirit.
We need the power of the Holy Spirit in order to understand the Word. I'm reminded of a story or an example. My kids, one year, I got five boys. Many of you know that. One year they got a ton of RC cars, all right, remote control cars. And new parents, I'm just telling you right now, you might as well go ahead and buy a stock in Energizer and Duracell because you're going to spend a small fortune on batteries every Christmas.
The most terrifying words are "batteries not included." And I'm thinking like, how many batteries is this thing going to take? How is it possible that a $15 RC car can take $28 in batteries? Like this, it's wrong. Anybody with me? You know what I'm talking about, right? But you can't not buy the batteries because without the batteries, it doesn't fulfill its purpose.
You see this six-year-old come up, "Dad, I just need some batteries." And I'm like, "How many?" He said, "Well, I think like 6D batteries for the car and 16 AA for the remote." And seriously, we spent over $100 in batteries that year to load up all these cars for them to play with for about three weeks and break all of them. And then I got this stack of half-used batteries, right? I'm not bitter. It's fine.
But the point is that toy is still the toy, but it's not fulfilling its purpose. It can't do what it's called to do unless it has power. Everyone say power. The Holy Spirit is the power. He is the spirit of wisdom and revelation. He's the power to interpret. He's the power to understand. He's the power to see things you've never seen before in scripture. He does a whole lot more than that, but we're focusing today on what he does for us through the Word of God.
Listen to these verses to help you better understand what the Holy Spirit wants to do. John 16, I'm going to summarize verses 13 and 14. It says, "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into what? Into all truth." Everyone say it again. What? All truth. And he will take what is mine and declare it to you. This is Jesus talking. He's saying, "The wisdom I have, the wisdom that turned the world upside down, the wisdom that blew the minds of people." But when he spoke, he says, "The Holy Spirit has that. He's going to give it to you. He wants to give it to you."
Another one that's so good is Ephesians 1:17-19, which says that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, that's the Holy Spirit, in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your heart enlightened. Remember that statement, the eyes of your heart enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe, according to the working of his great might.
That's a pretty powerful statement. There's a lot of big words in there. How many people want hope in their life? How many of you guys want the glorious inheritance that God has for you in Jesus? Anybody? How many of you want the immeasurably great power of God towards us who believe? Come on, we want those things in our life, but he says it happens through the spirit of wisdom and revelation, the eyes of your heart.
So what are the eyes of your heart? That's a weird statement. We have our physical senses. Every one of us was born with physical senses, and most of how we perceive the world is through those senses. When you get born again, God awakens your spiritual senses. They were there to begin with because we are spirit. We have a body; we're a spirit. He awakens your spiritual senses. You begin to see things, have eyes to see things you didn't see before. You begin to hear things you didn't hear before. You begin to feel things differently.
That's what it means to be led by the Spirit. That's what it means. And so we have these spiritual senses because we live in two worlds: the spirit world where God, his angels, his demons. The Bible says our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities in the heavenly realms. How can you fight a battle in the spiritual if you're not spiritual? We are spiritual people. We just are so unaware sometimes.
And of course, we live in the physical world too, which we can see. But the spiritual world is more real than the physical world because it will last forever. This world's going to fade away. The Bible says this earth wears out like a garment. This building is going to crumble. The metal is going to rust. It will all be gone someday. But what happens in the spirit is more real than what happens in the physical world. But we can't see it unless God opens our eyes.
We can't see it unless he opens our eyes. So that's why he says, "I pray that the eyes of your heart be enlightened." What does enlightened mean? It means to shine the light on something. Pretty simple. So when you come to reading the Bible, it's that moment when you start to read and one day suddenly a light bulb goes on. You're like, "Oh my gosh, I've read that a hundred times and I've never seen that before. I've never read that. That was exactly what I needed at this moment."
Has that happened to anybody in this room where God gives you something that you needed? Man, he touches you and you're like, "I finally get it." That is the Holy Spirit. And some of you, that's never happened before. And that's okay. I'm not shaming you. I hope today I'll give you some tools to help activate. The X factor is allowing the Holy Spirit to work in your life. Some of you, it's happened infrequently. But today I want you to be hungry.
How many want more of God? How many want God to speak more? How many want more into their life? If you want more, if you want his Word to come alive, would you say, "I'm hungry"? Say, "I'm hungry. I want it." All right. I think we're in the right room.
So here's the question I want to ask you. What actually happens when God opens my spiritual eyes? What takes place? I want to share four examples from the Bible of how God opened people's spiritual eyes, and then I want to give you four ways to activate this in your life.
The first thing that happens when God opens your spiritual eyes is you see the solution to your problem. The story of Genesis 21 has a story about Hagar and Ishmael. Normally people talk a lot about Abraham and Isaac and Sarah in the story, but Hagar and Ishmael, God also created them. Hagar is Ishmael's mom, and they've been cast out of their community, cast out of their family. They're in the desert in a really difficult situation, and their water eventually runs out.
They get to the point where Hagar sets Ishmael down under a bush, and she goes a distance away because she says, "I can't bear to watch him die." And he's crying; she's weeping. And it says that God sees them in that moment, and listen to what happens. It says, "Then God opened Hagar's eyes, and she saw a well full of water."
Now, there was a solution to her problem right in front of her, but she could not see it. Maybe she thought it was an illusion or something or a mirage. Whatever the reason was, she had to have God open her eyes. All she could see was her problem until God opened her eyes, and she could see the answer.
Some of you guys have problems in life; you don't see a way around it. It's like that, or it's like the Red Sea where the Israelites are stuck against the Red Sea. They don't see a way through. They got an army behind them, and there's no answer to your problem except for God's answer. You have a natural problem, but you need a supernatural God to come through.
But we have to have our eyes open. We have to let the Spirit open our eyes to begin to see His solutions because when we take our eyes off the problem and put them on God, we're not going to be able to see His solutions. We realize that he is a God who makes a way where there is no way. Come on, he is a God that makes a way where there is no way.
Has that happened in anybody's life in here? Has God ever come through when you said, "I don't know what I'm gonna do, but God made a way"? I hope some of you, those people that cheer, those that have had that story, some of you will be encouraged today because if he did it for them, he can do it for you. He can move in that situation that you're in right now that you feel like you can't make a way through.
So the second thing that God does is when I open my spiritual eyes, I see the barriers to my progress. And this is the story I want to share here is the story in Numbers 22 of Balaam and his donkey. Anybody know that story? Balaam and his donkey. Balaam was a prophet. He decided to help the enemies of God's people for money, which is a great plan, right? Not going to work out too well.
So he goes on his journey to help them. God's angry. God sets this warrior angel in front of him with the flaming sword, but Balaam's eyes are blind. He is on his own path. He's in pride. He's going away from God, so he cannot see. His donkey can see it though, and his donkey doesn't want to die. So his donkey goes off the path. He does it three times. The last time, the angel stands in a ravine where they cannot get past. The donkey can't go around.
So the donkey's like, "Well, I can either die." Balaam's beaten him every time he's gone off the path because he can't see. He's like, "I can die or I can get beaten." So he gives up, just sits down. Balaam beats him, yells at him, all this stuff. The donkey talks to him. They have this whole conversation like it's normal, which is already another whole crazy part. I'm not going to focus on that.
But the point is, let's pick it up in Numbers 22:31. It says, "Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way with his drawn sword in his hand, and he bowed down and fell on his face." All of a sudden, his eyes were open, and he saw the barrier to his problems. He could not see them before.
This is a crazy story, but here's the point. Maybe there are plans in your life that aren't working out. You feel like you go this way, and you're blocked. You go this way, you're blocked. You go this way, there's a barrier. And you think, "Man, you're frustrated. You think it's people's fault. It's your boss that won't give you that promotion." Whatever it is, "My family, someone's holding me back." Or you're angry at God.
But what if God is blocking that issue? What if there's an area of pride? What if there's something that he's trying to keep you from that's a serious mistake? Something that he wants to do because he knows if you go down that road, maybe it's not his timing, or maybe it's just not his path. And if you go down that road, you're going to destroy yourself.
So when your progress is being blocked, you have two options. You can either beat the donkey or let God open your eyes. Beat your head against a brick wall and get frustrated at life and angry at everybody else, or ask God, "God, I can't see what's going on. Would you show me what's going on?" I would rather open my eyes.
But I think so many times in our life, we beat our heads against the brick wall, right? We go against the barrier. "God, I don't know why you're not. This is what I want to do. This is where I want to go." And God's like, "No, it's not where I have for you. My plans for you are better. My plans for you are better. Would you trust me and allow me to open your eyes?"
That's number two. Number three is this. When God opens my spiritual eyes, I see the defense for what's attacking me. This is the story in 2 Kings chapter six of Elisha and the Arameans. Elisha is a powerful prophet of the Lord. And this is a cool story because the Arameans are attacking the people of Israel, okay?
But every time they attack, God tells Elisha what they're going to do, so he goes to the king of Israel and says, "Hey, here's their plan." So the king of Israel goes out and whips their butts every time. We can't say "butts" in church; I don't know. Anyway, sorry. He whips their rear ends every time, and they get so angry. The king of Aram is like, "Man, I'm gonna go kill that guy that keeps telling." He finds out and he goes, "I'm gonna go kill that guy that keeps telling the Israelites my plans."
So you're going to go kill the guy that already knows what you're going to do before you go do it? That's an interesting problem. He's blind in and of himself, but so he shows up at the city, and Gehazi, which is Elisha's servant, goes out that morning and he sees the city is surrounded by troops, by chariots, by horses. He is having a panic attack. He is freaking out.
He goes back into Elisha. He's like, "We're gonna die! We're dead meat!" And Elisha is the coolest guy in the Bible, in my opinion. He just walks out chill, and he looks at the sunrise. "Man, what a beautiful day! Oh wow, there's 10,000 soldiers out here to kill me, one guy against 10,000."
So here's what happens: then Elisha prayed, "Oh Lord, open his eyes." Now I want to ask you, were his eyes closed? Gehazi's eyes closed? Were Balaam's eyes closed? Like his physical eyes, right? No, he was riding the donkey. Gehazi was seeing everything he could see. But God's... but he says, "Open his eyes."
The Lord opened the young man's eyes, his spiritual eyes, and when he looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire. Now that's pretty powerful. I want to see that DVD in heaven. I want to watch that replay. That would be incredible to see that story take place.
But the point is oftentimes we feel under attack in our lives, and we feel like God's not doing anything. We feel like we're not... we don't understand it. We feel like we're struggling financially. We're under attack in our job. We're under attack in relationships. We're under attack in our mind.
But God needs... when we begin to say, "God, I need you to come through in this situation." And we think we're alone, but we're not alone because God says, "I will never leave you or forsake you." So what's more true, your feeling of being alone or God's promise of saying, "I will never leave you or forsake you"? Which one's more true, your feeling or his promise? His promise, right?
So what needs to change? Me. And I need to begin to open my eyes to see God is for me, not against me, that he is with me, that there are angels around me all the time, that he promised to take care of me. He promised he'd be with me, that he would never leave me. So I'm going to hold on to his truth more than what I feel. Amen?
Come on. Can you give God praise for that? That he is with you at every single moment. When you don't see it, he's still working. And what needs to change is our viewpoint.
So we can see, like we were just saying, that we were worshiping from victory, not for victory, that we have the victory in Jesus' name. And when you see it from God's viewpoint, fear begins to disappear. You lose your fear when God is near because perfect love drives out fear. Perfect love drives out fear.
The fourth thing that happens: I see how God is walking with me. I love this story. This is the story in Luke 24 of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. It's the first Easter Sunday. Jesus had just been crucified and rose from the dead, and they have not figured out what happened yet. And they are so distraught. They're confused. They're sad. And they're actually leaving Jerusalem. They're retreating.
It says in Luke 24:15 that when they were walking and talking, discussing these things, that Jesus himself showed up in the middle of them. And it says God kept them from recognizing him. So Jesus shows up. He's like, "Why are you guys sad?" And they're like, "Don't you know? Everybody in Jerusalem knows what's going on."
So they tell him his story, tell Jesus his story, fill him in on what happened to him, right? And he's kind of playing dumb. They can't see; they don't understand it's him. And he's like, "Don't you understand?" And he begins to unfold scripture to them, explaining the resurrection, explaining the Messiah, right? He's pouring it all out.
They're like, "This is amazing." They get to their destination, okay? And they're like, "Can you come and have dinner with us? You are awesome. I don't know who this guy is, but he's awesome."
We're going to pick it up right there. Luke 24:30. And they sat down to eat. He took the bread and blessed it; Jesus did. Then he broke it and gave it to them. Suddenly their eyes were opened. Obviously, they didn't know what was going on. They didn't see; their physical eyes had been open the whole time. Their spiritual eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And at that moment, he disappeared.
That's so cool. They said to each other, "Didn't our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road and explained the scriptures to us?" That would be an incredible experience, right? To have Jesus begin to open the scriptures as their hearts burning. Like, man, because that's the spirit of God inside of them confirming the word, saying that is true. What he's saying is true. The spirit of God is true. And they're burning in their hearts.
But let me tell you this: The Holy Spirit has been sent. So you literally have the author himself sitting with you every single day, explaining the scriptures to you, opening up the scriptures, showing you what you need to see, highlighting, illuminating everything you need to see.
What other book can you read where the author sits right beside you and explains the whole thing as you're reading it? We have this right here. What they experience, you have with you every day. The Holy Spirit is with you, the author of the story. And we're like, "Ah, it's dry. It's dead. I can't get anything out of it." I think the problem is me, right? The problem isn't the Holy Spirit. It's not the Word of God. It's me.
And I need to be changed. I need to be filled with the Holy Spirit so I can receive. How many want their hearts to burn when they read the scriptures? How many want more of God's presence so that, man, every answer we have, God has an answer for. Every problem we have, God has an answer for. And I believe he wants to show us.
And something has to change inside of us so we can receive it. So how do we get this kind of illumination? How do we get this revelation? How do we cooperate with the Holy Spirit? How do we get this kind of illumination? How do we get what he has for us?
And the first step is this. And this seems really straightforward, really basic, but it's to begin with a relationship with Jesus. I don't want to move past that because sometimes we think, you know, we don't understand. But listen to what this says. This is powerful.
1 Corinthians 2:14 says, "A man without the Spirit," which means a man that's not born again, "does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned." What does that mean? You cannot understand the things of God; you can't understand the things of the Spirit if your eyes aren't open to the things of the Spirit.
We have to understand God wants... I'm not saying knowing about Jesus. I'm not saying having religion. I'm saying having a relationship with Jesus. Oftentimes I'll meet with people that are going through hard times. And one of the main questions I ask them is, "Tell me about your relationship with Jesus."
You know, one of the most common responses I get is, "Well, you know, I know I've been trying to go to church more. I've been trying to read my Bible more. I've been trying to pray more." I said, "No, no, no, I didn't ask you what you do. I didn't ask you what your religious activities are. I asked you, tell me about your relationship with Jesus."
It's not how much you go to church. It's not how many times you've checked what your streak is in the Bible app. It's not how many small groups you attend. It's none of that. It is, do I know him? Does he speak to my heart? Am I connected with him? Do I have a relationship? Just like any other relationship, relationships take communication. They take time. They take connecting with one another.
And if you don't have that relationship today, we're going to handle that at the end of the service and give you an opportunity because you're not going to have that.
2 Corinthians 4:4 says, "The devil who rules this world blinds the minds of those who don't believe so they cannot see the light of the gospel." They can't see the light of the gospel. God hasn't opened their eyes. And I pray that God would open your eyes today. You stop trying harder, stop trying to be good enough, stop trying to check boxes and know Jesus who wants to set you free.
The second step is this: be filled with the Holy Spirit. Some of you guys, when I read that statement, you get all uncomfortable. You're like, "Oh my gosh, what's he gonna do? Is he gonna tell me I gotta speak in tongues? I gotta roll on the floor? I gotta whatever?" Like you get all freaked out. I'm like, stop getting freaked out. The Holy Spirit is not weird.
Now, sometimes people that have the Holy Spirit do weird things. Okay, that's fine. But the point of this is, is God, the Holy Spirit is the one who opens your eyes. He's the one that fills you. He wants to do so much more in your life. Speaking in tongues is great. I speak in tongues. It's not the only gift. There's so much more he wants to do.
And Paul, I want to look at the conversion of Paul and the baptism of the Holy Spirit of Paul because everybody loves Paul, right? He was... he knew the scriptures. He was religious. He was the Pharisee. He was so religious yet so blind, wasn't he? To the point where he was persecuting the church, persecuting Christians.
And you might know the story when he was on the road to Damascus, God knocked him off his high horse, literally. He hits the ground in the bright light, and God says, "Why are you persecuting me?" And he says, "Who are you, God? I thought I was following you. I thought I was doing all the right things. I thought I was checking all the boxes." He says, "Who are you?" God says, "I am Jesus whom you're persecuting."
How many of you guys know he believed in Jesus at that moment? He's like, "Whoa, oh my gosh, everything just changed. Everything I was running after was the wrong direction." And so that happens, and he is blind. He stands up and he's blind. They lead him into a city, and he doesn't eat for three days.
And then we'll pick up the story right here. Acts 9:17. So Ananias went and found Saul, which was Paul's name before he got his name changed. The Lord changed his name. And he laid his hands on him and said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit."
He said, "I am Jesus whom you're persecuting." He knew and believed in Jesus before that moment. It'd be pretty clear to believe in Jesus when you get knocked off your horse, blinded, and he says, "I'm Jesus, now follow me." He believed in Jesus, right?
But something had to change. He could not see, and Ananias prayed, and scales fell from his eyes. And all of a sudden, he could not only physically see, he could spiritually see. And all the scriptures, the Bible says... well, the Bible doesn't say this; we know by history, Pharisees had the scriptures memorized. This guy knew the Word of God, but it was still dark to him.
He thought he knew it, but without the Holy Spirit illuminating it, it was complete darkness. It was all human knowledge, and it was sawdust. It was no good. But when the Holy Spirit came alive, all of a sudden he went back to those same scriptures he'd read and he'd memorized, and everything comes to life. Everything makes sense. "Whoa, look at the Messiah. This is Jesus, this is Jesus, this is Jesus."
And he goes out and begins to preach the gospel, turns the world upside down. We have 13 books of the Bible from this guy because something changed in him. He went from religion to relationship. He went from doing it in his own way to allowing the Holy Spirit to work in his life. And all of a sudden, the scriptures that he knew so well, the meaning of them transformed, changed everything because of the power of the Holy Spirit in his life.
And I want God to change and transform us. Did I ever say this? Oh yeah, instantly something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized.
So the third thing is this: cleanse my heart of sin and conflict. In order for the Holy Spirit to be active in your life, you have to cleanse your heart of sin and conflict. And this is a hard one because the Bible says, in Matthew 5:8, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." The pure in heart.
So if my life is full of garbage, if my heart is full of garbage, and if I'm allowing just things to just, with no filter, letting things into my life, then my heart's not pure, and I'm going to be hindered from being able to see what God wants me to see. Now, pure doesn't mean perfect.
Because if God was only filled... if it said, "Blessed are the perfect in heart," then none of us are going to have any chance, right? We all have issues in our heart. The pure means that I don't allow there to be anything between me and God. As to the best of my ability, I will keep my heart pure.
So when God highlights something to me and says, "I don't want this in your life," I'm going to say, "Yes, Lord, I'm getting rid of it. I want my heart pure before you." When he asks you to repent of something, you repent, you get rid of it, your heart's pure before him. It's just keeping yourself clean. As far as you know, everything you know to get rid of, get rid of it. Anything he highlights to you, it's not worth it because what he has for you is better.
You just start keeping your heart pure. So as he brings things up, you wash it away. Don't get yourself in a self-pity and shame. Just repent. Get rid of it. Wash it away. Let him keep you pure because it was in the way of the flow of the Holy Spirit that he wanted in your life.
But it's not just sin. It's also conflict. And this one gets a little hard. Listen to this verse. 1 John 2:11 says, "Whoever hates his brother is in darkness." Everyone say darkness. "And he walks around in darkness. He does not know where he's going."
Some of you feel stuck. You don't know where you're going. And maybe it's because you have unresolved conflict. And you don't know where you're going. You have unforgiveness in your life. Because here's the truth: you cannot be out of whack relationally with people and get anything out of the Word. You can't be wrong with others and right with God. The Bible doesn't allow it.
He says you have to forgive others, and you will be forgiven. It even says... when you bring your gift to the altar, if you bring a worship offering to the altar, it says, "If you remember at the altar that you have an offense against a brother, leave your gift there, go get it, make it right, and then come back and worship."
It is so important because God knows what unforgiveness and bitterness and resentment does to us. It is poison in our lives. So he says, "You have to set yourself free from that. In order for my Holy Spirit to work in you, you have to release others. You have to let it go. You have to forgive, and you have to be forgiven."
It's getting quiet in here. But here's the thing. If you really want God to open your mind, if you want to have an unhindered flow of relationship with him, literally, there's a verse that says to husbands, "Husbands, treat your wives with respect and care so that your prayers will not be hindered."
So you can't be wrong with others and right with God. That's tough. But God wants to... this is not to shame you. This is to show you the way out. The Holy Spirit wants to show those things to you. He's going to bring to your mind the areas where you've held on to something you shouldn't hold on to so that you can purify yourself. You can get rid of it. You can give it to him. You can wash it away.
And there'll be nothing in between you and God. Maybe today you need to make a phone call this afternoon so that you can get this stuff out of your life. Maybe you need to write a letter. Maybe you need to ask for forgiveness or forgive somebody so that God can open your eyes. Because we don't hold grudges; they hold us. God wants you set free from that. He wants you clean so that you can get everything he has for you.
You okay? Got real quiet in here. The next, the last one is this: I commit in advance to do what God says. This is unqualified, unconditional obedience. This is when you come to the Word of God and you want God to speak to you, you say, "God, I'm going to say in advance, whatever you say, my answer is yes."
I will posture my heart. I'll say yes and amen, God. I'm saying yes before you tell me what to do. We're not going to have a debate about this because I believe your plans for me are better than my plans for myself. So I'm going to lay down my plans, lay down my agenda, lay down my life and say, "Not my will, but yours be done."
And when you come with that kind of heart, God honors that. Come on, give him praise. We're going to give him praise. Not my will, but yours be done. Because God loves that kind of heart that trusts him completely, that says, "I'm all in."
And yes, he might ask you to do scary things like me, like move my whole family to Alabama, but guess what? His plan is better than your plan. And you want to be in the center of his will. I don't care if the center of his will is here, if it's in Uganda, like Micah and Lindsay Camper, wherever it is, the best place for you is in the center of his will.
Do you believe that? If you believe that, then you can go to his Word and say, "God, whatever you tell me is going to be yes. Because your will's better than mine anyway."
Oh, I had a plan. Oh yeah, your plan's always better. Let's go with your plan, right? Let's go with your plan today. Hey, I wake up this morning. I had a plan. Your plan's better. Let's go with your plan today, right?
That's why we get in his Word every day and say, "God, I have a way forward, but your Word is a lamp to my feet. It's a light to my path. Show me the way that you want me to go, and I'll walk in it."
You know, I want to go back to the verse we started with, which is that verse, "Your word is a lamp to my feet, a light to my path," because it continues with some incredible statements that are going to help us understand. David didn't just say, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path," and that's it. He said, "I'm going to walk in it."
Listen to this. "I've promised it once, and I'll promise it again. I will obey your righteous regulations. Whatever you say, God, I'm saying yes. I'm saying yes right now. He says, 'I have suffered much, oh Lord. I have a lot of problems, right? I have a lot of problems I can't see past. Restore my life again as you promised. I hold on to you. Show me the way through my problems. Lord, accept my offering of praise, and teach me your regulations. My life constantly hangs in the balance. I feel attacked, but I will not stop obeying your instructions. The wicked have set their traps for me, but I will not turn from your commandments.'
No matter what's coming against me, I know the greater is he that is with me than he is in the world. Amen. There's a defense on my side. We walk in victory in Jesus' name. He's saying, "I don't care what's coming against me. People, forces of the enemy, devils, it doesn't matter. I will not turn from your commandments."
See, you hear the resolve? He says, "Your commandments are my treasure. Your laws are my treasure. They are my heart's delight. And I am determined to keep your decrees to the very end."
Do you hear the resolve in what he just said there? He said, "I'm suffering. I'm being attacked, but I'm determined to walk with you to the very end. I'm not going to let my circumstances change my relationship with God. I'm not going to let my circumstances define who you are. You are good and you are loving and you are for me no matter what's going on around me.
And I will come and I will sit with you and I will listen and I will say yes to whatever you tell me." That kind of heart filled with the Holy Spirit is the kind of heart that God... that comes alive when you read the Word. It's the heart that comes alive, that burns inside of you because your heart is fully committed to his solution and to say, "God, your Word is a treasure. It's my heart's delight. I honor your Word and I submit to your Word. Whatever you're going to tell me, I'm going to say yes."
So today, if you want God to bring solutions to your problems, if you want him to show you the barriers to your progress, if you want him to show you his defense and his victory, and to know that he's with you, the first step is you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
You need the Spirit of God in you because you can't do it, right? We can't figure this thing out. I don't know; we need him to speak. We need him to open the eyes of our heart, our eyes of our heart to be enlightened. And today, you need to lay down whatever it is: sin, conflict, doubt, whatever it is that's in the way so that you can receive everything he has for you.
But the first step is you have to give your heart to him. You have to give your life to him. How can you give your life, not only to Islam, but to God? What happens to everything you have by giving your life? I'm gonna make you lost. You're God, you're God. It doesn't matter who you are.
on Jan 26, 2025
