This message is one of the Times Square
Church pulpit series.
It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times
Square Church in Manhattan, New York City.
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And God directed life.
If you would turn with me to Proverbs
3, 5.
Proverbs 3, 5, a very familiar scripture for
many.
For some of you, it's brand new.
It's a real privilege for me to be
able to speak on this verse.
Because the very first time I ever went
into a born-again evangelical church, this was
the scripture that they preached on.
And I'll never forget being highly distracted going
into a denomination that I wasn't used to
and I didn't know their practices.
Totally distracted.
And then when the preacher stepped up and
he opened up Proverbs 3, 5, I remember
sitting in my seat and all of a
sudden glued to every word that he was
sharing.
And it was like the truth that I
could never say was being preached to me.
There was something in it that was so
life-giving.
And it was this word.
And I'd like to pray and believe God
to make it a life-giving word to
everyone who can hear.
Father, I do thank you that your incredible
heart is to direct our life.
That, Lord, you not just want to only
save us, which you do gloriously for those
that trust you.
But, Lord, you have a plan and a
purpose that, Lord, goes so beyond anything we
can begin to understand or grasp.
Lord, you say that the glory of the
former house, Lord, and a time past when
you moved among your people, is nothing compared
to what you want to do for an
end-time people.
That the glory that you want to share
with the people who are called by your
name and what you want to do in
their life and through their life is incredible.
So, Lord, we just ask now that you
take this word and make it life, make
it meat, make it drink for us.
That, Lord, we may go the whole course,
the whole distance of what you have planned
for us.
And we'll thank you for it.
And, Lord, we'll be careful to give you
all the glory for it.
For it's only you who have had this
thought.
And it's only you who can accomplish it
in our lives.
In Jesus' name, I pray.
Amen and amen.
And God-directed life.
Scriptures, Proverbs 3, starting at verse 5, says,
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him and he
shall direct thy path.
Be not wise in your own eyes.
Fear the Lord and depart from evil.
This morning we heard a very powerful, powerful
word from the Word of God talking about
a man, King Ahab, who lived knowing the
Word of God.
Who was called as a leader of the
people of God.
God had revealed himself powerfully to him.
Had spoken many words over him.
Had actually used him to defeat the enemies
of Israel.
But in the end, he would never exchange
his own plan and his own will for
that of God's plan and God's will for
his life.
And he died in his pride.
He died never yielding to the plan and
the purpose for his life.
He could never trust the exchange God wanted
to do in his life.
Where he had to lay down his plan
and his will by faith.
When it didn't make sense.
When it seemed to go in the opposite
direction of self-preservation.
When his kingly glory, when it would require
humility to take another path.
He could not do it.
In spite of strong assurances of God.
In spite of a revelation that God would
be with him.
God would empower him if God made him
king.
God could bring him certainly through the Red
Sea of his own heart.
And bring him victorious on the other side.
Triumphant over his fears.
His pride.
But he would not.
But beloved, this message this afternoon.
A companion message to this morning.
Is about a people who say, all right,
Lord, I don't understand what it means.
But I do want you to direct my
life.
I do give you control of my life.
And what is the path that you have
to lead me through.
So that will be accomplished in my life.
Because beloved, the Lord has to bring us
through paths that are strewn.
That are full of deceptions.
Because when we begin to cry out, God,
give me a God-directed life.
Where Lord, I release and surrender the right
to lead my life.
Because I say your plan is higher and
greater for my life.
I say because you bought me with a
price.
It's only reasonable I lay down my life.
I say that because you are the God
of this universe.
There can be a glory that can happen
in my family.
In my circle.
In my life.
If I will surrender.
But it will only happen.
If I let you lead.
And beloved, there will be deceptions along the
path.
The path where we say, God, I want
to walk your way.
I want you to direct.
My life.
And so we can see that there will
be an enemy.
Please know, if this is the cry of
your heart today.
There will be an enemy that's going to
try to scramble the message.
There's going to be an enemy that's going
to try to twist the signpost.
When you with a heart cry, say God
direct.
He's going to try to do that.
He's going to run.
He's going to try to run interference.
Beloved, there's going to be our own heart
that is going to oppose.
The will of God.
If our heart strongly desires something in a
certain matter.
And also know that the world who knows
that knows nothing about godly counsel.
The world that knows nothing about being directed
by God in big decisions.
In small decisions.
That they are going to scorn and laugh
our desire to do that.
Our intention.
And when we carry it out, they're going
to scorn and laugh till success comes.
And then there will be a voice that
will try to flatter us out of our
faith.
That will try to.
That we will take back trusting ourselves.
Because we're going to.
There'll be an attempt to flatter us out
of our faith.
To believe the press clippings.
When it goes well with us.
Because beloved, it will go well.
If we lead God directed lives.
And so this scripture is the key of
Proverbs 3 5.
It is the ammunition against every plot and
tactic of the world.
The flesh and the devil.
It is the absolute key to how we
can stay on a God directed path for
our lives.
In contained in these verses.
Is everything that we need to understand the
journey we're about.
That we're on.
If we all have a heart for it.
It starts trusting the Lord with all your
heart.
Beloved, we have to believe that God fully
intends to direct our lives.
And for good.
And when we believe.
We have to understand that every part of
our heart starting out on this trip.
Does not trust him.
And so God is committed to revealing the
part of our hearts that does not trust
him.
And part of the journey is understanding that
when we get to the part of our
heart.
Where we don't trust him.
Something's got to give.
That we may be on the journey where
we say.
God I am about having you direct my
path.
And then all of a sudden we come
up against things we don't understand.
But it's a part of the heart where
we don't trust him.
And God is going to reveal it.
So he can heal it.
Beloved, when it says lean not on your
own understanding.
That is how the world operates.
That the world that we're called out of.
The best the world can do is lean
on their own knowledge and understanding of things.
That's all they have.
And they will get the best or the
worst that man can do.
But we have access.
To a greater understanding.
But it means giving up leaning on our
own.
Where we have leaned.
Where we have supported.
Where we have had full confidence.
In our own understanding.
It's all we've ever known.
And there have been times we've made messes
of our lives.
But it's all we've got.
We have leaned on our own understanding.
And God is saying that for you to
have and I to have a God-directed
life.
There are going to be times in our
life we are just going to have to
give up.
Leaning on our own.
We have to.
He says in all my ways acknowledge him.
Beloved, acknowledging him.
Is an interesting term.
It means that it doesn't mean well Lord
I say your name once in a while.
That you're the God of my life.
That acknowledging means to know in an intimate
way.
It means that God knows all our heart.
He knows the path he wants to take
us on.
He knows how we think.
How we operate.
How we will respond.
What buttons.
How we react when certain buttons are pushed
in our life.
He knows everything about us.
But he says in all my ways that
we're to acknowledge him.
We're to start on that journey of God
I want to understand you.
And I want to understand your ways.
Lord I need a revealing of how you
operate.
How your kingdom goes forward.
I need an intimate knowledge of how you
think and what your heart is.
And beloved, God wants to do that for
us.
So he says in all your ways.
In all thy ways I want to learn.
I want to learn all your ways.
And then I want to be able to
say.
Oh Lord I understand by experience you bring
me through what you're teaching me now.
I understand in your word I haven't been
there yet.
But Lord you're giving me a bright beam
of what is to come.
Lord I don't want to have to be
able to.
I have to fall into every pothole and
every hole to learn something.
I want to be able to acknowledge you.
To be acquainted.
To be intimately acquainted with how you work
in a submitted life.
How you work in the lives of those
that are found opposing you.
How you work in a backslidden life.
How you work in a life hard caught
for you.
Because God I want to be able to
declare you with confidence to those around me.
I don't want to be found in the
last hour of time with nothing to say.
Because it need not be so.
I don't want to be found in the
time of a twin tower tragedy.
And people go is God responsible for this?
And I don't know.
Is this God or is this not God?
And the people of God go I don't
know.
This does not have to be so.
He says I want you to be intimately
acquainted with me.
I want to be known by you.
But it's an increasing revelation.
Finally it says be not wise in your
own lives beloved.
That doesn't mean that we're not to be
wise.
It means not to be wise in our
own eyes.
It means absolutely necessary for this trip is
a humility that has to be worked into
us.
That if we start to think we know
something.
When we start to think I've got a
handle on this.
When we start to feel God with a
confidence that can now move into the area
of presumption.
That we feel we can speak for God
without actually knowing.
That there has to be a humility in
us because we will ever be learning in
one degree.
He shall surprise us.
He's going to be fresh in his revelation.
Every morning there's going to be a new
depth of mercy.
There's going to be a new revelation of
incredible love towards us.
That's going to keep it vital.
And so there's going to have to be
a humility.
Beloved how does all this apply?
How does this verse apply in everyday life?
If you would turn with me to Joshua
9.
In the Old Testament Joshua 9.
The first lesson here that the Holy Spirit
wants to speak to us.
Our things are not as they appear.
Things are not as they appear.
Beloved when we start to have a heart
say God I want a God-directed life.
I want your plan and purpose that you
determine from the beginning of the world.
When you saw me and determined that I
should be.
That if I would give this surrender to
you there was this plan.
And beloved what is going to happen to
that heart is the enemy is going to
come.
And he wants to make things appear in
a different light to deceive.
And that's what happened to Joshua.
In Joshua chapter 9.
Joshua went in as captain of the Lord's
army.
An anointed captain and leader of the army.
Anointed to fight the enemy with a heart
to obey.
He knew success in the battlefield.
An incredible success.
And the fame of him and the fame
of his army spread throughout the whole promised
land.
And every ungodly nation heard of the fame
of Joshua and an undefeatable army it seemed.
And there was incredible fear in the hearts
of these people who represent spiritual enemies to
us today because they had not known a
defeat when they first entered the promised land.
The fame of Jericho had spread and now
the enemies knew that when they moved in
they meant to possess it fully.
That meant their demise.
That meant their end.
And so the scripture tells us that people
who were Joshua's neighbors disguised themselves.
And they came to Joshua and they had
with them some moldy bread and they had
their shoes scuffed up and they had their
clothes were old and they had old bottles
of wine with them.
And they put on a show for Joshua
and his generals.
They took the leadership of that godly army
and they stood before them and in their
cunning and in their slyness and in their
worldly wisdom they stood before them and they
began to say in verse 4 of chapter
9, they did work slyly and went and
made as if they had been ambassadors and
took old sacks upon their asses and wine
bottles old and rent and bound and it
goes on to tell their old shoes and
garments and they said we're from a far
off place although they were neighbors.
And they said we've come to make peace
with you.
They said look at the great distance we've
come.
Look at our shoes.
Look at all that we brought.
We have come from a long way off
and we want to make peace with you.
And the bible says in verse 14 that
Joshua and his leadership and the men took
of their evictuals and asked not counsel at
the mouth of the Lord.
Joshua and the leadership took from their hand.
They took their story.
They took everything they said and they appeared
that they understood the situation.
They understood that these men had seemingly come
as people from a long way off that
could do them no harm.
That they would not be a people living
in their midst and that in their wisdom
they would show them mercy.
They would be good to them but the
bible says that they asked not the counsel
of the Lord and beloved things are not
what they appeared.
And the scripture says that after they'd put
on the show and Joshua had not asked
counsel and received from their hand, received their
story, fully believed them, that the scripture says
that in verse 15 that they made peace
with them and made a league with them
to let them live.
And the congregation swore unto them.
They said we won't touch you.
But beloved can you imagine when they found
out that these were the people that God
had commanded that they were to be destroyed.
When they found out that they weren't a
far off people, that they were their very
neighbors.
That the land that they possessed was called
by God to be their land and now
they've made a league with them.
They swore to them and they said we
will not touch you.
Because things were not as they appeared to
be and they were totally deceived.
And when they made peace and chose to
live with them, what an incredible thing.
Because as long as Joshua and those that
have the heart of Joshua lived, they were
able to subdue these people.
They were their servants.
But another generation rose up and their descendants
of the people they'd made peace with, their
enemies, they became a snare to Joshua's children.
They became a snare to Joshua's generation.
And the people that should not have been
there occupying that land they had made peace
with.
And now they were going to be a
snare to the following generation.
Joshua could handle it and his generals could
handle it but the following generation could not.
And beloved we may find that we have
made peace with an enemy we should not
have had.
There may be peace in our home where
there should not be a peace.
There may be a music coming in, there
may be influences coming in and we've made
peace with it.
We said all right you have it your
way I'm just going to worship God here
and I'm going to try to turn a
blind eye and a deaf ear.
But beloved the only way that I see
that we can come against because it says
in verse 19 it says we may not
touch them.
All the princes said we've made a covenant
we cannot touch them.
Beloved you may have made peace with something
that God has had a controversy with you.
That God has been showing repeatedly.
You didn't want to have to deal with
it, you didn't know where to begin, you
don't know how to start, you don't know
how to go about it because you've made
peace with it and now it seems like
you can't overturn the decision.
It may seem like you don't even know
how to begin.
But beloved I tell you that when we
say we will not lean on our own
understanding and we begin to say God I
acknowledge my sin and God I cry out
to you.
Your ways are higher I can't think this
through, I can't rationalize this through, I don't
have the plan how this is to be
overturned.
But God you understand what has happened here
and I ask you God to cancel the
peace.
I ask you God to give me the
next step.
I know that if I charge in in
my anger, if I charge in in any
other spirit but yours Lord, the enemy will
be allowed to oppress.
But Lord I'm asking you now, I acknowledge
you.
I need an intimate knowledge God of how
you're going to handle this in my home.
We need to rise up and say God
you're God of this, now give me the
plan.
I begin to cry out and I want
you oh God to come and teach me
how not to fear but to depart from
evil.
And he would do that.
He will do that for us.
He will cancel the peace treaty.
He will cancel the bad harvest.
If we lean on him and acknowledge him
in all our ways, if we will trust
him for this, he says that he will
direct our path.
He knows how to take back the land
we've given up.
He knows what it is, how to go
in and have us teach our hands to
war and our fingers to fight against an
enemy that we've made peace with.
For he is committed to giving us all
the promised land.
Now beloved, another way that can be a
deception of the enemy, another way when we,
to take us off the path of following,
of having a God-directed life, is believing
that because we want with all our heart
a God-directed life, because we have a
heart for him to do this, that this
will save us from being manipulated by the
enemy.
Because we have walked with him and he
has started to clear up some confusion in
our mind, because we've started to know some
success, because we have an integrity and we
have a history with him, that beloved, that
that is going to be enough.
Scripture, if you turn with me quickly to
Psalm 26, God wants to show us a
very important principle, that having a heart for
him and having a heart for truth is
the right step, is the first step in
a right direction, but it needs something more.
Psalm 26, one verse, Judge me, O Lord,
for I have walked in my integrity.
I have trusted also in the Lord, therefore
I shall not fly.
Because beloved, we can have an integrity and
it's not going to be enough.
The Scripture says, I have walked in mine
own integrity, I have trusted also.
And we see what, how this is made
so real in the life, you don't need
to turn there, but in 2 Samuel 15,
11, for those that like to take notes,
it talks about a time when Absalom, the
king, the son of King David, when he
rose up against his father, God's anointed one
to lead Israel.
And the Scripture tells us how Absalom began
to beguile the people of Israel.
He began to beguile them by saying he
had an interest in them.
He began to say, I am as you
are.
He wouldn't allow them to kiss him and
do, and do the honorary customs towards him.
And he began to steal the hearts of
Israel.
Israel began to see an aged king and
there was something in them they liked about
Absalom.
And the Scripture finally says that Absalom at
a certain time rose up against his father
and made rebellion against him.
And it caused David to flee the city
of Jerusalem.
But an interesting thing in 2 Samuel 15,
11 tells us, and with Absalom went 200
men out of Jerusalem that were called and
they went in their simplicity and they knew
not anything.
And when you look up that word simplicity,
it means integrity.
They went in their integrity and they knew
nothing.
But beloved, they were in the wrong war.
They went with a good heart.
They went believing they were called men, it
tells us in that Scripture.
They went believing they were in the cause
of God.
They went believing they were in the right
war.
They thought time had changed.
They thought David is passing away and we've
got a king among us right after our
own heart.
A man that we feel we can walk
in agreement with.
But it tells us in their integrity, in
their simplicity, they didn't know, understand the wrong
that they were doing.
But they were in the wrong army fighting
the wrong enemy.
Even though they were men of integrity.
We can have a heart that says, God
in my integrity, I want what you want.
But the Scripture tells us, and we must
trust.
That means there's going to be a time,
beloved, that you and I are going to
feel fully right in our cause.
And God is going to come and say,
move away.
Move out.
Step back.
And we, in our simplicity, are going to
be fully convinced we're correct.
And that's where trusting in the Lord is
going to come in.
Because when we begin to hear his voice
in order to be God-directed, he has
to begin to show us we're in the
wrong path first by saying, if he speaks
a word to us, we have to trust
it.
And do it.
When I was a brand new Christian, not
very long saved, I came under the influence
of a teaching that says all doctors and
all medicine was wrong.
That it showed a lack of faith.
And they were very pervasive teachers.
They were very convincing.
And it sounded like what they were teaching
was for the greatest glory and honor of
God.
And I hadn't traveled too far down that
path of listening to their tapes, being totally
convinced in my heart that I was on
the highest path.
Because I wanted God with all my heart.
And I did not realize that I was
being led by an Absalom.
That I was being led by someone who
was forming an army against the true anointed
army of God.
And while I was in that teaching, my
oldest son, when he was three years old,
fell in a fire.
It was an open pit.
I lived on a farm and we had
a fire pit.
And he fell in it and a chair
fell on top of him and pinned him
in the fire.
And my husband pulled him out of the
fire and put a three-year-old boy,
my son, in my arms who was screaming
in pain.
And I had fully believed that teaching.
And I began walking up my driveway while
my husband went in to get a wet
cloth for his hand.
And I was praying in tongues and I
was believing.
And I had been taught, beloved, that anything
of medicine was a lack of faith.
Except in my arms was a badly burned
son.
And we went off to the hospital.
And I want to tell you that God
did an incredible work on my son's third
-degree burned hand.
Took away the scars from his face and
his chest.
And brought me out of that teaching.
Because it was the medicine that was three
long weeks in a burn unit that was
able to bring that hand back to you.
And I don't say that God has to
use every measure like that to that degree.
But I do know from that moment on
that in my simplicity, I had been following
an absolute.
That I needed to declare in that hospital
room, God, I trust you.
And he opened my eyes.
When I had other people from that persuasion
coming and questioning why I was in that
isolation room, my only word to them was
that I trust God.
When it didn't make sense, that's all I
could say.
And then God opened that word to me
and began to show me that in my
integrity, it was not enough.
But I needed to couple it with trust.
And if he said move away, then I
did.
Beloved, another deception can be seen in the
scriptures in the life of David and Joab.
And it's a picture of David who has
a heart who wants to do God's will.
But David had a general, Joab.
And for most of his life, Joab, the
general of his army, served him.
And beloved, that's a picture of our intellect
and our will and our intelligence and our
wisdom and our skill with our hands and
an intelligent approach to life.
God is not asking that we lay down
our intellect, our wisdom, God-given wisdom and
otherwise, or our skills.
But he's to say it's forever to be
the servant to a heart that wants him.
It's a picture of those talents that God
has given us.
And we are to be trained in righteousness
through the use of exercising our mind and
our skill and our wisdom.
It is forever to be the servant to
the leader of a heart that wants God's
will.
And for most of his life, David's general
of the army, Joab, was in right relationship.
But beloved, there came a day when he
rebelled.
And it started like this.
God made it very clear that at the
end of David's life, his son Solomon was
to be his successor.
And the scripture tells us in 1 Chronicles
22, you don't need to turn there, but
it says, Behold, a son shall be born
to thee who shall be a man of
rest.
For his name shall be Solomon.
He shall build a house for my name.
And I will establish the throne of his
kingdom over Israel forever.
So before Solomon was even born, there was
a prophecy to David.
You are going to have a son.
And his kingdom, his throne shall follow yours.
And it tells us also, David says, And
all my sons, for the Lord has given
me many sons.
In 2 Chronicles 28, he has chosen Solomon,
my son, to sit upon the throne of
the kingdom of the Lord over Israel.
And so this was a well-known fact
that after David's death, his son Solomon should
reign in his stead.
But beloved, towards the end of David's life,
when he gets old and infirm, this general
Joab, who is a picture of our will
and our desire and our heart, who is
a picture of when our own understanding and
our own human will wants to lead our
life.
And David is old and unfirm.
And his servant, the general, declares another ruler,
another direction, another power to rule.
And the known will of God is to
be replaced by the commander's will.
The known will of God, beloved, listen to
me, this will happen to you if you
have a heart for God.
The known will of God, He has spoken
it to you.
You've seen it in the Word, you've heard
it preached.
It's clear to you.
And yet there's another own understanding and our
own will that will want to rise up
and anoint another to lead.
His choice.
Joab wanted his choice leading the kingdom.
It's a picture of when our own will
and our own heart's desire wants to rise
up and rule.
Our lives.
And the reason why would Joab, this is
a revealed will of God.
He has followed David faithfully and they have
known victory.
Why now at the end of his life
would Joab want to turn?
Why?
And the scripture tells us in 1 Chronicles
22 5, it says, Solomon, my son, David
said, is young and tender.
And the house that is to be built
for the Lord must be exceeding magnificent.
And beloved, when we look at that word
tender, it means weak, faint-hearted and soft.
We have to get the picture.
It is a known fact that Solomon is
to be the next leader.
It is also a known fact because if
your father's saying it, you know it's got
to be true.
He's saying he is young, but he is
also faint-hearted and he is weak and
he is soft.
And the work to be done is exceedingly
magnificent.
And there was a time when the whole
kingdom had a huge question mark over this
boy.
Because the work that was to be done,
they were used to a David, a full
-bodied man who could take the control and
charge.
He seemed to know the will and mind
of God.
He had victory after victory over his enemies.
Even when he fell, he was able to,
because he had a heart of a lion,
get back into right relationship with God.
And it seemed like only this kind of
personality could lead Israel.
And now God's anointed was a young and
a tender man who was weak and faint
-hearted.
And the work was to be exceedingly magnificent.
Because David in his latter days had stored
up to build a magnificent house for God.
And he knew he was not to do
it.
It was going to be his son after.
And God's choice looked to be the wrong
choice.
God looked like, how could this be?
How could this be at this time in
the history of Israel, God, that you're choosing
a man that is faint-hearted and weak
and soft?
How can that be?
Beloved, I'll tell you, God will try us.
Because many times when he's saying, this is
the way, walk ye in it, it looks
like a path of no success.
It looks like something that's absolutely impossible.
And it is in the natural.
It looks like something, God, can that be
you at this time?
God, you know what I'm facing.
You know the change I'm facing.
You know, God, what is before me and
the work to be done in my life.
You tell me you want it to be
exceeding magnificent.
Yet God, the path you're pointing for that
to happen looks so weak.
It so looks unlike you.
But beloved, Solomon was David, God's choice.
Solomon was God's choice.
The lesson of Joshua, things are not what
they appear to be.
But beloved, the battle will be how can
I trust when God points in a direction
we can't seem to trust?
When our own understanding of God's will seems
to be so in conflict of what's needed,
of what I think should happen, of God,
you're asking me to trust, but there doesn't
like to be much to trust.
But beloved, I'll tell you something.
God-directed life says, trust in the Lord
with all thine heart and lean not on
thine own understanding.
We will be tested on this.
Joab could legitimately point to David and say,
you have been a mighty man of war,
but you've also failed.
You've also missed it.
And it could be another reason why he
could rise up and anoint another successor.
Not only is the choice weak-hearted and
faint in a time when the work is
great, but it's also David, you who are
anointing, who said you've heard from God, you've
made mistakes.
And beloved, the enemy will come like that.
How can we really trust what we're hearing?
Look at our track record.
How can we say, God, I want your
will, but remember when you did this and
remember when you failed here.
And the enemy will continually be pointing to
our track record.
How can you be sure this time?
How when the plan looks so weak and
so able to not support your life, when
it looks so fearful to go this way,
God, if you really are calling me to
change careers, look at the little bit of
money there.
It's not able to support me.
But beloved, and then the doubts.
Well, you've missed God before.
You haven't been right in everything.
Joab well remembers the time that it tells
us in Samuel chapter 11, where it says
it was a time for kings to go
out to battle.
And David was found in the wrong place
at the wrong time.
How can I trust?
Beloved, God's not asking us to trust our
track record.
He's saying, I trust mine.
God's saying, I want you to remember something.
That I am a God who's never failed.
And I'm a God who never will fail
you.
And when I point to the Solomon in
your life, you can trust it.
When I point to the plan and you
know, like, you know, because I've spoken it
to you out of my word, just like
Joab knew that Solomon was the God appointed
heir.
There had been a word about him repeatedly.
And beloved, there are some of you today,
and God has spoken repeatedly to you about
something.
Repeatedly.
And you've used these excuses of why you
would not go down that path.
But beloved, we can trust.
We can trust.
Beloved, I want you to think about something
about Solomon.
God's choice to leave.
Who was he?
He was the son of a king and
a woman that should not have been his
wife.
And many times, beloved, we pull away because
can God truly redeem that level where I
sunk to?
Can God's will actually come into a situation
that is depraved as this?
Can God actually turn around and redeem a
mess that I have made?
And when I ask Him, God, come in
and take over and direct and put my
feet on a new path, that you'll do
it?
Oh, yes, He will.
The Bible says that when Solomon was born,
the Lord loved him.
The Lord loved that plan.
The Lord loved what he was going to
do.
And all that Solomon represented to David and
his wife.
Beloved, many times we begin to get under
where I say, God, I have missed you
too many times.
I wanted your will, but I backed away
in fear.
I've leaned on my own understanding.
I never did trust you.
I did not want to know your ways
and acknowledge you because I was afraid what
it would mean.
Lord, I've made a mess of it.
I have made a mess of it.
God, can you truly come and one more
time point out to me in my mess
and my failure, this is the way.
Walk ye in it?
Absolutely.
But beloved, when Joab, you know what he
did?
He looked around the kingdom and he anointed
Adonijah.
And beloved, that's what our own will.
We don't learn to begin to fear our
own will and our own understanding.
We are going to anoint the Adonijahs in
our life.
Adonijah was, they say, the oldest living son
at that time of David.
And he looked the part.
Not only that, he had ambition.
He exalted himself.
He was following the pattern of human spirit.
When he rose up, just like Ammon, his
older brother before him, rose up and tried
to take what was not his.
Just like Absalom rose up his other brother
and rose up to take something that was
not God given to him.
And beloved, if we do not begin to
fear our own understanding and our own human
will, we will give in and do what
the world does.
And that is to go and do what's
in our heart.
That is to go and do what is
in our heart.
And then our heart will begin to scheme,
how can I get what I want?
And then if we're found in a church,
we're going to put a religious mask and
cloak on it and say, this is what
God wants for me.
We will anoint the Adonijah like Joab will.
Our intellect and our wisdom will try to
be the leader, not the servant.
Joab came out from under his place and
he thought it was his place to anoint
the next leader.
It was not.
And God canceled all those plans because God's
choice went forward.
Beloved, if we will trust him, no matter
where we have found ourselves, no matter how
disobedient we have been, no matter how fearful
we have been, no matter how foolish we
have been.
God is the God that is able to
cancel that.
And say, I today, if you can hear
my voice, harden not your heart.
For I have a plan and a purpose
for you.
You can have a God directed life if
you can hear me and move away and
not anoint your Adonijah, not your own strength
and your own will.
Joab was a commander of the army and
he represents the army and the arm of
strength and our own understanding.
Beloved, let us move away from that and
lean not on our own understanding.
Finally, beloved, just turn with me quickly to
James 3.
Another way, those that want a God directed
life and can be deceived.
It's those that God says, I need to
define what wisdom is for you.
I need to give you an insight into
wisdom.
If you want to be directed by me,
you need to have an understanding of the
forces that will come into your life when
you set your heart to follow.
And in James chapter 3, verses 13 to
18, it begins to describe wisdom and it
describes it not by a definition because beloved
words can be used of the enemy.
Anybody can say anything, but the scripture is
always saying, show me or I will show
you.
And it tells us in James 3, verse
13, it's asking a question, who is wise
among you?
Not by what they say.
It's saying in James 3, I'll tell you,
I will by showing you, I will show
you who has wisdom.
It says that by the fruit of his
life and the manner of his life, he
does, he works with what he has.
It talks about a meekness of wisdom in
verse 13, he's going to show out of
a good conversation his works with the meekness
of wisdom and beloved.
God is saying, now I want to show
you what a life is like when it's
God directed the fruit that's going to be
in a God directed life.
There is going to be a wisdom that's
going to confound your enemies.
There is going to be a knowing in
your spirit what my will is for you.
Step by step.
There are going to be times that I
have gained to build true godly wisdom into
you and that there is going to be
the warning lights go off.
There's going to be when they're troubled in
your spirit, you're started to head off on
another direction because I'm going to fill your
life with godly wisdom.
If you'll stay today, we will stand up.
It will say, God direct my life.
God says, here's how I'm going to do
it.
I'm going to warn you, but I'm also
going to fill you.
I'm going to fill you with godly wisdom.
The scripture says the meekness of wisdom, and
I love that word.
Meekness is one of my most favorite words.
Meekness does not mean weakness.
Weakness, meekness means power with restraint.
Meekness means power with restraint that you have
in your hand, a power to move in
your anger, a power to take control of
your life, a power to make your own
choices according to your own understanding.
But when a meekness of wisdom comes in,
there is a power with restraint.
You are allowing the restraint of God to
come upon your understanding.
You are allowing the restraint of God to
say yay to this and nay to that.
You have a power to direct your own
course, but there's a cry in us, God,
I want this power with restraint, a godly
restraint.
And how does that show?
Beloved, it's because when we begin to face
experiences in life and issues in life, we
begin responding in the right time.
We begin responding in the right measure.
We begin responding in the right, for the
right reasons.
We're not baited out.
We're not found following an Absalom in the
wrong army.
We're not given to angry outbursts, but we're
not given to an uncaring whatever.
Beloved, a meekness and wisdom comes into our
life that as every situation arises, we begin
to move in a godliness that is characterized
by power with restraint.
But in verse 14, it says, but if
you have bitter envying and strife in your
hearts, glory not and lie not against the
truth.
This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is
earthly, sensual, devilish.
For where there is envying and strife is,
there is confusion and every evil work.
And now the scripture is telling us perhaps
a little known fact about wisdom, but that
wisdom really is a neutral force.
Wisdom is a neutral force that can be
used for the power of good, or it
can be used for the power of evil.
And the scripture is telling us in verse
13, what the power when wisdom is animated
by the spirit of God, when it comes
from heaven, when it has the heart and
mind of God behind it, our lives begin
to look like this.
Our decisions begin to look like this.
Our walk begins to look like this.
But it says there is a wisdom that
can be animated by evil.
It is cunning.
It is intelligent.
It is sly.
But it's talking about a wisdom that can
come in and try to masquerade itself.
There is a wisdom, the scripture says, that
is from the descendeth not from above.
There is a wisdom that is earthly.
It is tied to the earth.
It only operates by what it sees.
There's no faith in it.
There is a wisdom, the Bible says, that
is sensual.
And that means it's animal-like characteristics.
There's no spirit-breathed reasoning in it at
all.
God has no say in it.
It is a sensual wisdom governed by our
fallen instinct.
It is a wisdom in mind only.
And beloved, it's not a word of honor.
A sensual wisdom.
And there can be a devilish wisdom.
It's anointed and animated by the devil himself.
Will it be cunning?
Will it be wise?
Yes.
And what does it produce?
This kind of wisdom.
The Bible says confusion.
And it's a cloak for every evil work.
Beloved, we can say, you can judge yourself
to be wise.
Scripture says, be not wise in your own
eyes.
But those that begin to esteem themselves as
wise.
Those that begin to say, I have the
mind of God without a humility worked into
it.
That's from above.
Those that begin to feel that they know
something.
Can start to open their lives up for
an evil kind of wisdom.
Beloved, we need to know that there is
a wisdom that is not from above.
Sometimes when things don't make sense.
When why do the ungodly prosper?
Why is it that such cunning evilness can
prosper and abound?
Beloved, because there is an intelligence behind evil.
And the scripture is telling us very clearly.
It will bring nothing but a bitterness.
And an envy.
And a strife.
The scripture tells us that this envy and
strife is going to throw a cloak of
confusion.
Verse 16.
It's going to throw a cloak of confusion.
So that every evil work can hide under
this cloak.
This confusion.
Every evil work can happen.
All in the name of a wisdom.
Beloved, we are convinced that every time envy.
And bitterness.
And strife raises its head in our spirits.
We can begin to have it unmasked by
a godly wisdom.
Because if we've experienced godly wisdom.
When the evil wisdom raises its head.
We're going to judge it and discern it.
When the confusion.
Which means the bitterness and the anger.
And the envy in our spirit wants to
take dominion.
And lead us all in the name of
wisdom.
Well, wisdom dictates we do it this way.
Beloved, that's just coming from a heart that
is deceitful and wicked.
Jeremiah tells us that.
When a heart gets animated by its own
ambition.
When a heart gets animated by its own
envy and strife.
Beloved, that is when there is something that
is not a godly wisdom animating in us.
And it is our privilege to discern it.
It is our privilege to unmask it.
And draw away the cloak.
And let the pure light of this word
shine into it.
And say, I know what's operating right now.
I know what wants to rise up.
But it will not when we know this
word.
And the Bible says, because the wisdom that
is from above.
And it tells us in verse 17 and
18 what it's like.
It's such an opposite spirit to the other.
It is an opposite spirit.
And beloved, we know that what is operating
out of our heart.
We're going to begin to call it what
it is.
That we are going to say, I'm not
going down that path.
I have a God-directed path.
The light has shined on this path.
And when it begins to rise up in
my heart, I'm being pulled off the God
-directed path.
I'm being asked to go down a place
with a devilish wisdom.
And it will not prosper.
That God has given me a sensitivity now.
God has given me a sensitivity to know
what is evil.
If I, when I begin to say, God
put me on a God-directed path.
Because he will give us the wisdom from
above.
And it will discern.
And it will light up the evil wisdom
that proceeds from our own heart.
And so beloved, I want to close with
a word to leaders.
And those that have influence over the lives
of others.
In my experience, those that have, want a
heart for God.
And are seeking to know his will.
There are three things.
When we stand before a path, that's a
fork in the road.
And we have a choice to make.
And it's been my experience and my personal
testimony.
That when you stand in that fork of
the road.
We can act, we can say without a
certainty.
Either I know exactly what to do.
I'm having heavenly wisdom from above.
I'm having that light shine.
I know, I know what to do.
Or we can stand in that fork of
the road.
And say, God, I don't know what to
do.
I honestly don't.
Or we can, a third thing is when
we think.
We know what to do.
And I have had that awesome and glorious
experience.
Of standing at that fork of the road.
And knowing what to do.
I have known in leading ladies ministry or
something like that.
God has given me the plan.
I know what to do.
I see it clearly.
And because I see it clearly.
Then others come around.
And that's how God says, you're the leader.
Because you know what to do.
You see what to do.
You see what direction.
You know where you're going.
And you transmit it to others.
And that's a call of leadership.
You know what to do.
You see.
But then there are times you can stand
in that road.
And you don't know what to do.
And that is the time that where we
seek godly counsel.
In addition to seeking the word.
And we wait on him.
So we seek counsel and we wait on
him.
The Bible says waiting really means to be
entwined together.
So God, I'm not moving until you move.
I'm waiting on you.
And waiting is a form of trust.
I don't move until you say move.
That's trust.
But then beloved, there's the times when you
think you know what to do.
And there has been a time in my
life where I felt that I knew what
to do.
And I couldn't have been more wrong.
And there was a time where my husband
said, this is the situation.
And I said, all right.
As pastor of the church, I trust that.
I accept your word.
And as your wife and you're the leader
of our home, all right.
I'll accept that word.
But I want you to know.
For the record, I don't agree with that.
And I think it's this.
I know you think it's A.
But honestly, I have to let you know.
I have to know.
I think it's B.
Fortunately, I knew enough of the word that
I said A before I said B.
Simply because when I was proven to be
absolutely wrong.
The very next day, I might add.
That as loudly as I declared, I want
you to know.
I had to go back and loudly declare,
I want you to know.
I was wrong.
Now, he knew I was wrong.
But it was very important I said that.
For my sake.
Because there needs to be a humility.
But looking back.
When I look back on that.
Like, God, how did I so miss it?
God was saying because, you know, that's why
I put leadership over you.
You don't see everything.
You need to listen.
You need humility.
But he also showed me too that there
was a troubling in my heart.
But you know what?
I didn't want to see the troubling.
I didn't want to hear the troubling.
Because my heart really wanted it to be
option B.
And when I saw that, Lord, you were
trying to give a troubling.
But it was such a faint one because
my heart was speaking so loud.
But you were troubling.
And beloved, David, when he stood up to
number the army.
You know what Joab did?
He said, don't do it, David.
There was a time for our reason and
our wisdom to have a voice.
And he said, don't do it, David.
But David went ahead and did it anyway.
God, David missed the path of God.
David suffered because he missed the path of
God.
But David repented.
And David said, put me back on that
willow path of God.
And God did.
And vindicated him.
Beloved, we have an incredible future if we
would be a God-directed people.
There are some here that there is something
that's said in this message that you need
to be humble about.
That you need to say, Lord, I hear
you.
This, as you know, is an altar.
God is going to transform our hearts into
altars that we can bring to him what
we need to.
He says there's a certain sacrifice he will
never refuse.
A broken heart and a contrite spirit.
God, I've missed you, I'm afraid.
There are times I'm not even sure I
want your will.
But God, I hear you because there is
a life that you've left.
Beloved, it's to be your life.
It's to be my life.
In this hour, we need God-directed lives
because what God is going to do in
this last hour of time, we don't want
to miss.
Will you come if the Lord has been
speaking to you?