This message explores the concept of God's will, arguing that it is not found through mystical feelings, mechanical formulas, or dictatorial surrender, but rather through a holistic, relational approach involving the entirety of a believer's being and life, guided by God's Word.
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you are listening to the teaching and
preaching of Dr Warren weby this message
was recorded while he served as pastor
of Calvary Baptist Church in Covington
Kentucky or the Moody Church in Chicago
Illinois for additional resources please
visit tofit you.com that's the number
two p r o p h tu.com and now Dr Warren weby
weby [Music]
this evening we begin a series of four
messages on crucial
questions about the will of
God and there's going to be a verse
that's going to become a theme verse for
us it's one I wish every believer would
memorize Psalm
33 and verse
11 Psalm
33:1 the councel of the Lord standeth
forever the thoughts of his
heart to all
generations now when you mention the
phrase the will of God you'll get
different responses from different
people unfortunately there are some
Christians who are bored with it and
these are usually people who when they
were little boys or girls went to Camp
someplace and someone frightened them
about the will of God and told them to
put their on the
fire or they are perhaps students who
have heard so much about knowing the
will of God and doing the will of God
they've gotten bored with it I hope this
is not true of anybody here tonight I
hope that as we study the word of God
together as the Lord enables us these
four Sunday evenings we not get very
bored and tired and whole hum about the whole
whole
thing the second response there are some
who are confused about
it maybe they've tried some formula for
discovering God's Will and it didn't
work or they did what they thought was
God's Will and the thing fell apart
around them or they've watched other
Christians who apparently are out of the
will of God and things seem to be going
smoothly for them they're
confused you mention the phrase the will
of God and some people will be
frightened by
it these are the people who who know
they are not in the will of God
somewhere along the line they've stepped
on a
detour and so if you mention God's will
they'll get a little bit defensive
I'm always happy to meet people who when
you mention the will of God get excited
about it they realize that the will of
God is the expression of the love of God
the counsel of the Lord standeth forever
the thoughts of his heart to all
generations and so God has a will for my
life because God has a love for me that
excites me excites me to know that I'm
an individual in the family of God and
God is not going to hand me a blueprint
that he printed for two other people if
you'll excuse the comparison the will of
God is not a Robert Hall the will of God
is tailor
made and you don't wear somebody else's
clothes now there are four approaches to
the will of God that I'd like to discuss
tonight three of which I disagree with
I don't disagree because I am
omniscient I am not
infallible I disagree with them because
I believe they are contrary to the word
of God and yet sad to say many people
are involved in these three approaches
to the will of God the first approach to
the will of God that I think is wrong is
what I call the mystical approach the
mystical approach to the will of God now
now there is a true
mysticism I once heard a very famous
preacher say Mystics are mistakes I
think I know what he meant by that he
meant people who are impractical who
don't have their feet on the ground who
think strange
thoughts but in the Bible there is a
true mysticism if you believe as I do
that there is a spiritual
World Behind
the physical
world then you're a
Mystic if you believe that there's
something more than just trees and atoms
and bridges and buildings then you're a
Mystic the Apostle Paul was a Mystic
Paul said U the outward man is perishing
but the inward man is being renewed day
by day that's mysticism it's Christian
mysticism Paul said um the things which
are seen are temporal
but the things which are not seen are
Eternal that's mysticism he's saying one
of these days everything you can touch
and see and feel is not going to be here
but the spiritual realities are going to
last forever there is a true
mysticism many of the Psalms are
mystical writings the psalmist looked at
the storm and he saw God Jesus looked at
a Lily and he saw his father he saw the
sparrow fall he thought of his father so
there is a true mysticism but there's
also a false mysticism let me describe
it to you the false mysticism says this
when you are determining the will of God
let your mind go blank now for some
folks that's not very
difficult let your mind go
blank and just close your eyes and relax
and you'll begin to feel what the will
of God is you'll have a spiritual
feeling an
intuition now don't think about what you
have to do don't examine it we're
talking about an internal mystical
emotional experience that shows you the
will of God now I think I know where
some people get this
from they get this from a wrong
interpretation of
scripture you see they have the idea a
that when a Christian is seeking to
determine God's will he should not be
intelligent to be intelligent means to be
be
unspiritual and of course this is
contrary to God's Will and God's word
they get this from a twisting of
Proverbs 35 and 6 they say to me Pastor
the word of God says trust in the Lord
with all thine heart and lean not unto
thine own understanding and that means
don't depend on your [Music]
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thinking well if you don't depend on
your thinking all that's left is your
feeling all you have is a mind to think
with and emotions to feel with and a
will to act with and your will is going
to be determined by your emotions or
your intellect or
both and so if I if I cancel my
intellect all that's left is my emotions
and therefore you become very mystical
that's not what Proverbs 3:5 and 6 says
to us what he's saying is don't lean on
your own on AED
intellect you need something more than
just the intellect don't abandon the
intellect don't put your brains on the
Shelf rather don't lean upon human thinking
thinking
alone trust in the Lord with all thine
heart the mystical
approach now the mystical approach to me
is very
dangerous it's dangerous because first
of all feelings can be
treacherous we have the authority of
Jeremiah for that the heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked
who can know it that word Wicked means
sick the heart is desperately sick now
the last time you were sick nothing
tasted right nothing looked right
nothing sounded right nothing smelled
right nothing felt right
I recall a
time when I preached a sermon on
healing and uh I went home after church
my wife had to take me by the hand and
lead me out of the building this was my
first Pastor it and I went home and in
the middle of the night I woke up and I
sat up in bed because somebody was
coming through the back
door and my wife just reached over and
felt my forehead and I was sick thck I
was seeing things that weren't there I
was hearing things that weren't there
embarrassingly enough after preaching a
sermon on healing and for the next two
weeks I was a very sick
person you see when when the heart is
sick you've got to be very cautious
about the way you interpret feelings you
say but Pastor I'm very sincere God's
given me a new nature I'm trying to walk
with the Lord I appreciate that there is
a place for the emotions in determin the
will of God but uh feelings can be very
treacherous secondly Satan can counterfeit
counterfeit [Music]
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feelings many people who think they are
filled with the spirit are fooled by the
spirits and there are demonic forces
that would enjoy counterfeiting
feelings ah but you say I had that
feeling once before and everything
worked out sure let me tell you a story
about Evan Roberts the great Welsh
Revival leader he went to preach at a
meeting and he went behind the the
platform to pray and as he was praying a
a light moved into the room and he saw
this bright light and he felt an
intensity of power and when he preached
many came to know
Christ he went to the next meeting and
as he preached and as he prayed behind
the platform a Darkness moved in he felt
himself in veled by a
darkness and when he tried to preach the
word of God nothing really came out and
nothing much happened and he said I must
be out of the will of God then he began
to examine the situation and he found
out it was Satan Satan had granted
Satan's an angel of Light you know Satan
had granted to him this great experience
and he thought he'd have it
again and so he prepared himself for a
great experience and the dark dark nness
moved in I want to warn you there are
times when Satan himself would move in
and give us what appears to be guidance
and blessing only to trap us the next
time the mystical approach to the
finding of the will of God is dangerous
because it leaves out the mind and I say
it without any fear of contradiction
from the word of God you cannot deter
determine the will of God if you don't
use your
mind you see you couldn't even have
gotten saved apart from that your mind
is involved in
Salvation and we can't understand the
word of God apart from the Mind Romans
12:2 tells me that I should not be
conformed to this world I should be
transformed by the renewing of my mind
why that I may prove by experience the
will of God and so God leads me and God
leads you by speaking to the
mind I would advise you to read through
the Epistles of Paul and discover how
much he has to say about the mind the
enlightening of the Mind the teaching of
the Mind the renewing of the
Mind the mystical approach to me is very
dangerous it emphasizes the
emotions now there's a second approach
that I think is dangerous and I call
this the mechanical
approach there are two aspects to this
that I want to share with you the
mechanical approach first the people who
follow this approach tell me I live in a
closed system that the will of God is a
machine it's like a computer or an
automobile or perhaps a typewriter it's
a machine and you're a part of that
machine and if one part of that machine
goes wrong you're done for
I've had saints of God come to me and
say oh Pastor you know God can't use me
that's interesting he uses some strange
people oh he can't use me why oh 10
years ago I did this and they tell me
something that they did I said that
means God can't use you oh I'm out of
the will of God I'm done for that's the mechanical
mechanical
approach now along with this is the idea
that since the will of God is a machine
you can easily determine the will of God
by dropping in a quarter pushing the
right buttons and out comes the will of
God a mechanical approach to God's
will I had a phone call several years
ago from a frantic young woman I don't
even know who she was I think that
somebody here tonight does know who she
was and she was frantic in fact she was
contemplating suicide and we tried to
calm her down and she kept saying this
it doesn't work it doesn't work it
doesn't work I said pardon me what
doesn't work she said I did everything
he told me to do and she was talking
about a man who had given her spiritual
counsel I told I did everything he told
me to do and it didn't
work now when you make
cornbread you have a certain recipe and
a certain way you do it when my wife
makes cornbread she has a certain way
way of doing it and maybe both ways work
but I have no right to say you've got to
follow my recipe I want to be carefully
understood about
this the mechanical approach to the will
of God has a
tendency to replace a
relationship with a
recipe if you do this this this and this
this will come
out and I dare say there are people here
tonight who have followed all of the
steps that the spiritual leaders have
given it hasn't quite worked that way I
remember several years ago at a certain
point in my Ministry I was greatly
concerned for the work of the holy
spirit in my life and so I did two
things number one I read in the book of
Acts and in the Epistles and marked
where it talked about the Holy Spirit
and how he would work in my life
secondly I gathered together the finest
books I could find by the most spiritual
leaders on the Holy Spirit Spirit you
know what I discovered
contradictions here's one man who says
here are four steps toward receiving the
Holy Spirit another godly man whose
preaching I appreciated said here are
six steps toward the filling of the Holy
Spirit one man had 13
steps were they all wrong no were they
all right
no the dangerous thing in this
mechanical view of things is to turn out
cookie cutter Christians we all wear the
same label in the back of our coat we
all have the same vocabulary we all are
wound up every morning by the Holy
Spirit and we walk like little Tin
Soldiers now that's not what
Christianity is my
friend why do we have this mechanical
view of the will of God that if I
disobey the whole machine falls apart
and I'm done for there's no chance for
me and the only way to find the will of
God is in a mechanical way a formula a
recipe I think one reason we have this
uh attitude is because um we live in
that kind of a
world if you want some chewing gum you
put 15 cents in the slot and you pull
out the thing and out comes the gum or your
your
money we live in a mechanical world we
are accustomed to pushing the middle
valve down and the music goes round and
round and comes out
here but you know the spiritual life is
not like that the spiritual life is not
a machine it is a living body it is a living
living
relationship my relationship to God is
not the relationship of an ignition key
to an
automobile my relationship to God is the
relationship of a Living member to a
body let's go a little deeper it's the
relationship of a bride to a bridegroom
of a child to a father it is a living
loving relationship and if your
relationship to God is mechanical I feel
sorry for
you because God never made you to be a
robot and God certainly isn't a machine
we live in a mechanical world I think
another reason why we have this
mechanical view of the will of God is
that we have misinterpreted Old Testament
Testament
scripture you see in the Old Testament
God in a mechanical way LED his people
he had a cloud by day he had fire by
Night the priest wore a very special
garment called the ephod and they were
able to look into the ephod and
determine the will of God God spoke to
people now we don't have that today oh
but you say we're we ought to no we we ought
ought
not now before you burn me for heresy
let me explain why if you'll read
Galatians 4 you'll discover
that the Old Testament era was the
kindergarten stage of God's revelation
they were little children that he was
leading and little children need
mechanical rules and regulations little
children need visual aids to teach them
but when you get a little bit older in
the things of the Lord you don't need
those things we don't go from Faith to
sight we go from Faith to Faith to Faith to
to
Faith I think another another reason why
we have fallen into the Trap of this
mechanical view of the will of God is
this we are in an era of quote Made Easy
unquote Soul winning Made Easy child
easy and I don't read this in my
Bible prayer made easy man you start
praying and you find out how hard it
is now if you want to be a s man instead
of a soul winner sure it's made easy
memorize a few verses and you got it
made ah but Jesus didn't use the same
approach with
everybody we're in this Made Easy era
the will of God Made Easy I don't know
about you but when I read the psalmist I
find times he didn't know the will of
God he's crying out and saying God where are
are
you you were here yesterday I prayed and
I read my daily bread and it was so
you Jeremiah had this
problem even Paul Second Corinthians chapter
chapter
1 Acts chapter 16 Paul tries to go here
God closes the door so he tries to go
there God closes the door tries to go
someplace else God closes the door if
Paul knew as much about the will of God
as we do he would never have done
that but apparently Paul didn't have a
cut and dried formula for knowing what
route to take
now I'm not minimizing certain
principles in my own life I have
followed the principle that God speaks
to me through his
word God speaks to me through
circumstances and God speaks to me in my
own heart by the Holy Spirit and when
these three line up usually we have the
will of
God I was reading back in
Genesis and this was true of of Jacob
Jacob had been with his father-in-law Lo
these many years and Jacob's heart
longed to go back home and so God in his
heart Jacob said I want to go home then
he looked around and saw that his
relatives weren't treating him like they
used to they were kind of getting bitter
against him so he had the feeling in his
heart and he had the circumstances
around him but he didn't move until one
night God said go get out of here and so
he had the word of God and the inward
feelings and the outward circumstances
and he
left I'm not against that all I'm saying
is we don't trust a formula to find the
will of God we trust God it is a living loving
loving
relationship Beware of the mechanical
approach now that I am in hot water
sufficiently we'll move to the third
approach the third approach I call the dictatorial
dictatorial
approach unless someone think I am
criticizing a popular teaching I will
tell you that I first heard this
approach when I was a little kid inac
ation Bible school I remember sitting
there in that little frame building on
Grand Boulevard and watching the teacher
she had her flannel graph board now you
students are amazed that back in my
childhood they did have flannel graph
boards they were made of clay tablets
but we had
them and she was on the flannel graph
board and she was showing us how to be
surrendered now she had a throne there a
throne right there in the middle of the
board and a man was sitting on on the
throne and that man was I you just see
an i the letter
I and she said now when you are living
your own life I is on the throne and
Jesus is off the throne but you get off
of the throne and put Jesus on the
throne and then he will guide your life
and you will be
surrendered now I wasn't smart enough
back then to know this but if I had had
that experience today I would have
raised my hand said teacher then what
I now this is what I call the
dictatorial approach you get off the
throne Jesus gets on the throne and he
runs your life don't you believe that
for one
minute now I know what they're saying
they're saying that I can't run my own
life and I agree with that I've got the
scars to prove that and the
scriptures turn to Romans chapter 5
would you please I think the greatest
5:17 this comes at the end of a
relationship in Adam and in Christ
Romans chap
5 verse
17 for If by one man's offense that's
Adam death reigned by one much more they
as Christians who receive abundance of
Grace and of the gift of righteousness
they shall reign in life by one Jesus
Christ when I was an unsaved person
death reigned in my life the wages of
sin is death when I became a Christian
Life came in now Romans 5:17 does not
say Jesus Reigns instead of me
nor does it say Jesus Reigns in spite of
me you know what it says I Reign through
Jesus Christ here's the way it
works arrogantly I'm sitting on the
throne of my life saying I can run my
own life I make a mess of it Jesus comes
along and says you know the two of us
together could do a much better job than
you're doing now get off
all right Lord so I get off the throne
he gets on the
throne then you know what he says come
up here and sit with me I want you to
rain through me and I am going to reain through
through
you now this philosophy I gets off the
throne and becomes nothing is not even psychologically
