God Takes the Initiative

Saturday, October 01, 2011 Part Two

God Takes the Initiative

Personalization:  God’s revelation of His activity is an invitation for me to join Him.

When you are God-centered, even the desires to do the things that please Him come from God’s activity in your life:  Philippians 2:13: 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

Throughout Scripture God takes the initiative.  When He comes to a person, He reveals Himself and His activity.  That revelation is always an invitation for individuals to adjust their lives to God.  None of the people God encountered could remain the same afterward.  They had to make major adjustments in their lives to walk obediently with Him.

Personalization:   I must reorient my life to God.  I must learn to see things from His perspective.  I need to allow Him to develop His character in me.  I must let Him reveal His thoughts to me.  Only then can I gain a proper perspective on life.

What the book says is true, when I see God working around me my heart does leap for joy and I do say thank you Lord for showing me where You are working!

Personalization:  God always takes the initiative.  He does not wait to see what I want to do for Him. 

A self-centered life tends to confuse its selfish desire with God’s will.  In addition, circumstances do not always indicate a clear direction for God’s leadership.  Open and closed doors do not always indicate God’s guidance.  Check to see that prayer, the Scriptures, and circumstances agree on the direction you sense God leading you.

The key is not a method but a relationship with God.

George Muller said:

        I never remember…a period… that I ever SINCERELY AND PATIENTLY sought to know the will of God by the teaching of the Holy Ghost, through the instrumentality of the Word of God, but I have been ALWAYS directed rightly.  But honesty of heart and uprightness before God were lacking, or if I did not patiently wait upon God for instruction, or if I preferred the counsel of my fellow men to the declarations of the Word of the living God, I made great mistakes.

Muller mentioned these things that helped him:

·        He sincerely sought God’s direction.

·        He patiently waited on God until he had a word from Him.

·        He looked to the Holy Spirit to teach him through the Word.

The following things led to mistakes:

·        Lacking honesty of heart.

·        Lacking uprightness before God.

·        Impatience to wait for God.

·        Preferring the counsel of men over the declarations of Scripture.

Here is how Muller summed up the way he entered a heart relationship with God and learned to discern His voice:

1.    I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter.  Nine-tenths of the trouble with people generally is just here.  Nine-tenths of the difficulties are overcome when our hearts are ready to do the Lord’s will, whatever it may be.  When one is truly in this state, it is usually but a little way to the knowledge of what His will is.

2.   Having done this, I do not leave the result to feeling or simple impression.  If so, I make myself liable to great delusions.

3.   I seek the Will of the Spirit of God through, or in connection with, the Word of God.  The Spirit and the Word must be combined.  If I look to the Spirit alone without the Word, I lay myself open to great delusions also.  If the Holy Ghost guides us at all, He will do it according to the Scriptures and never contrary to them.

4.   Next I take into account providential circumstances.  These often plainly indicate God’s Will in connection with His Word and Spirit. 

5.   I ask God in prayer to reveal His Will to me aright.

6.   Thus, through prayer to God, the study of the Word, and reflection, I come to a deliberate judgment according to the best of my ability and knowledge, and if my mind is thus at peace, and continues so after two or three more petitions, I proceed accordingly.

Summary Statements Personalized:

·        God’s revelation of His activity is an invitation for me to join Him.

·        I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter.

·        I do not leave the result to feeling or simple impression.

·        I seek the Will of the Spirit of God through, or in connection with, the Word of God.

What was the most meaningful statement or Scripture I read today?:  Philippians 2:13: for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

My Prayer is:

Daddy, I realize that You are the one who works in me to will and to act according to Your good purposes.  Please help me to live like I know, that is true.  In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen.

What does God want me to do in response to today’s study?

I believe God wants me to wait.

The Memory verse for this unit is:

Some may trust in chariots some in horses but we will trust in the name of the Lord our God.  Psalm 20:7