Last week we talked about how our choices reveal our priorities. And that our priorities must be based on the truth of God’s word. So, let’s take that to the next level.
Let’s say, you’ve set a priority of buying a house instead of renting. Then you start making choices that support your priority. You stop eating out and take on extra shifts at work to grow your savings for the down payment. You research realtors and select one. And now you are ready to start looking at houses.
The next step is obvious, you get out your bible and look for the verse that says, “Therefore says the Lord, go forth and purchase the 3 bedroom brick house in downtown Simpsonville. For therein you will find happiness.”
Since that verse doesn’t exist, now we have a problem.
The Bible isn’t going to tell you which house you should buy…or which person you should date…or which job to apply for.
Well, that’s just great. What do I do now?
God’s word said He would teach me and lead me but now I’m stuck again.
We have to answer the question: “How does God lead us?”
How does God communicate with us, to show us what choice we should make? The answer is found in Colossians 3;
Colossians 3:15. 15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.
God’s Peace is the key to knowing God’s direction.
When God’s peace is ruling in your heart, you can know that you are making the right choice.
I want to tell you the story that started 4 years ago. How we felt peace about moving to California, moving back and starting FUEL, and how God confirmed it through other people as we moved forward.
The last 4 years has been a crazy ride. Hopefully it won’t take me 4 years to tell you about it. Actually, here’s a rule we have at FUEL: Every service has to end on the same day it started.”
We owned a film production company for a long time. I had directed and produced TV commercials and feature films for 25 years. Then 4 years ago everything started changing…and by changing I mean falling apart. The things I’d done in the past to run the business no longer worked and I couldn’t understand why.
I tried to make the choices that I thought would turn things around, but things just got worse. None of it made any sense. That’s when I finally did what I should have done first. I asked God to show me what I was missing.
Anytime something doesn’t make sense, there is a piece of information that you don’t have. If you had that bit of info, suddenly that situation would make perfect sense.
You may be dealing with someone and wondering: “Why are they acting like this?” If you knew what things were like in the house they grew up in, their actions would make perfect sense. That doesn’t mean the actions are right…but you would understand them and be able to make choices based on truth, not speculation.
You ever wondered why God was not blessing something that you thought He should? Maybe God has all of the information and you don’t, so perhaps we should be patient and wait for Him to reveal the rest of the information.
You see, God does not deal in speculation.
Everything always makes sense to God. He has all the information. Has it ever occurred to you, that nothing has ever occurred to God?
For us, It’s important not to act on something until you have all of the information. Only then, can you make a correct assessment and choose how to move forward.
OK, back to the story
When I finally asked God what information I was missing, His answer was very clear. The Kingdom of Heaven.
Through a series of friends who were pastors, we started to learn kingdom principles and began to live our lives by them. That is when I started to make the right choices, because I had the information that had been missing in my life.
And then, just like in every good story, our business turned around, life was good, and we lived happily ever after. The End.
No, that’s not what happened at all. Things at the business actually got worse…but we were now living by kingdom principles, so we didn’t focus on the situation we focused on God…and His peace started to grow in our hearts.
Fast forward to a year or so later, we were given an opportunity to move to California and work with a ministry in the San Fransisco Bay Area. But we still had the business to deal with, so what was God up to? Even though we had commitments in Greenville, we felt God pulling us to California. 2 days later, we made the decision to contact the pastor who told us about the opportunity in California and tell him that we felt that God wanted us to go, but we didn’t know how it would be possible.
We didn’t know what the future held, but we felt God’s peace growing stronger. And that allowed us to move forward.
It was a step of faith. We couldn’t tell anyone that we were leaving or where we were going, because deals with that ministry were not completed and contracts still needed to be signed.
Within 2 weeks of stepping out in faith and committing to go, I got calls from 2 different business owners who wanted to buy our business and take over our lease. God was clearly at work.
We sold everything and moved to California where I became the Ministry Director for a large international ministry.
I went from film director to ministry director. We left the comfort of our house in Greenville, to live in a small apartment that cost about twice as much. We left everything we’d ever known inn the South to go live on the West Coast. It was very different to say the least. It was a move that we didn’t understand, but we had peace about it.
About a year later we started feeling another shift coming. The peace we had earlier, began to leave. Something new was coming.
After uprooting our lives and moving across the country, why was God’s peace leaving? Why would another shift be coming?
The situation didn’t make sense, but that was because I didn’t have all of the information.
As it turns out, the information that was missing, was you. When God called me to start FUEL, everything made sense. The year we spent in California was just a season of training for what God wanted to do with us here in Simpsonville.
And the story is not over. There are still many more choices to make and stories to be told. I can’t wait to watch it unfold and see what God has in store for us!
Jesus said in John 14: 27. “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
Jesus had a choice to make: Do I go through with my mission and sacrifice myself for the sins of mankind…or not?
It’s important to know that He was talking to His Disciples before he was betrayed. He already had peace about what He was going to have to do, but He did it anyway. As a matter of fact, a lot of times even though you have peace from God about a choice, it may still be a difficult thing to go through. That’s where following the TRUTH of God’s word comes into play.
Jesus based His choice on His priority of doing what God the Father wanted. He based it on the truth of God’s plan for His life, not on the current difficult situation He found Himself in. Just before He was betrayed, He prayed, “not My will, but Yours be done.”
In the John 14 verse we read that the peace He gives is not like the world’s peace…as long as the situation is peaceful, you’ll have peace. That’s the way the world gives peace, but Jesus says that’s not the way His peace works. His peace is there despite your situation, not because of it.
That was what we learned from our California adventure. It was not a peaceful situation, but we trusted in God’s peace.
Let’s look at Colossians 3:15 again. “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.”
It says that the peace of God should rule your heart. The idea of ruling is the same as an umpire in baseball. He waits behind the batter and watches what pitch is thrown and then he makes the call if it’s a strike or not. The batter has to abide by the ruling made by the umpire.
That’s what the Peace of God does for us. It waits to make the call in our heart about choices that are thrown at us, that we should abide by.
Where do you feel “butterflies”?
The ancient Greeks referred to the bowels of a person as the seat of emotion. The place where pity, peace and compassion – or fear. When the Bible talks about the bowels of compassion, or letting peace rule your heart, that’s the idea it’s communicating. There is a place deep inside you that “feels” a situation.
Today we don’t talk much about bowels in that context. But we do talk about having a gut feeling about something. The ancient Greek thought is where that idea comes from, and it’s not something to ignore. That gut feeling can be the peace of God making a ruling that you should abide by.
How long did it take you to regret a choice you made that went against your gut feeling?
You may think God doesn’t really talk to us, but what if He’s been talking to us all along and we just didn’t know how to hear Him? Or even worse we’ve just been ignoring Him? Could that be the reason we find ourselves dealing with the same problems over and over.
How can we learn to hear His voice?
The bible says in Romans 10:17 that “hearing” comes to us by the Word of God.
Right after we are told to let the peace of God rule in our hearts, Colossians 3:16 says “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom,
If we will spend time in the Word, we can learn to hear his still small voice and recognize that gut feeling of His peace that directs us towards the choices we should be making. This verse says you will actually have enough wisdom to teach others.
That's it. Just stay in His word. There is no other magic formula to knowing how to hear from God that I can share with you. The more you are in His word, seeking Him, the more you will begin to hear His wisdom for the choices in your life.
That’s what happened to me when I started seeking His kingdom and His plan for my life…first.
Yes, it’s really that simple. God isn’t trying to hide from you. The opposite is true. He desperately want’s to have a real relationship with you. He wants to share with you all the plans He has for your life and spend time with you. He wants so much more for you than just showing up for a church service once a week.
But if you think about it, you probably already knew that, because you had a gut feeling that there has to be more to God than just going to church. I’m here to tell you…there is. There is so much more, and God wants you to have it all.
If you are ready to have the kind of relationship with God where you can hear Him talking to you and leading you through this life, the first step is just asking Him to forgive you for everything you’ve done wrong while trying to do it all own your own.
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