The Local Vineyard Church Podcast
The Local Vineyard Church is a church located in Richmond, Virginia. The Local is a part of the VineyardUSA network. You can find more information about The Local and VineyardUSA by visiting https://localvineyard.church
The Local Vineyard Church Podcast
Discover God's Will
"What is God's will for my life?" It's the question that haunts us when we're facing big decisions, contemplating major changes, or reeling from unexpected hardships. We long for clear answers—maybe a booming voice from heaven or a divine text message spelling out exactly what to do next.
In this eye-opening first episode of our "God, Just Tell Me" series, we challenge the common misconception that God's will is some elusive target we must desperately hunt down. Instead, we discover that God isn't playing cosmic hide-and-seek with your purpose—He's inviting you into a relationship where His will becomes clear through knowing His heart.
We explore four distinct layers of God's will: His sovereign will (the big story He's writing through history), His moral will (His timeless truth for how we should live), His permissive will (the freedom He gives us to make choices), and His personal will (His unique calling for your life). Each layer reveals something profound about God's character and His intentions for humanity.
Perhaps most surprisingly, we learn that God's primary will for every believer isn't about career paths or geographic locations—it's about holiness. But this isn't the stuffy, judgmental holiness many imagine. It's about embodying the life of Jesus in a dark world, being signposts of His kingdom while we're here.
If you've been paralyzed by uncertainty about God's direction or haunted by the fear you've missed His plan, this message offers fresh perspective and genuine hope. Stop overcomplicating God's will and underestimating His goodness. He promises to instruct you, teach you, and counsel you with His loving eye upon you—one faithful step at a time.
Made a decision to follow Jesus? We want to know about it! Fill out our connect card here: https://local.churchcenter.com/people/forms/115766
Thank you for your generosity. For information on how to give, visit https://localvineyard.church/give.
Let me go ahead and jump into our message today. Today we start a brand new series called God, just Tell Me. That sounds pretty good, right, god? Can you just tell me Now?
Speaker 1:I've been a pastor for quite some time now and one of the main questions I get is some kind of version of this Jacob what is God's will for my life? Maybe the question is what's my purpose? Does God have a plan for my life? How do question is what's my purpose? Does God have a plan for my life? How do I understand what God is trying to do? What God is trying to do?
Speaker 1:And this usually shows up when someone is thinking about making a big career move or maybe relocate into a new city. Or often it comes up when life just hits us hard. When life hits us hard, when the things that happen that we can't explain, or we're trying to figure out why it happened, we ask the question God, what's your will, what's your plan? Were you even in that thing? Were you in that thing? Now, how many of you ever wish that, when you were praying about a decision that God would just make it crystal clear, right, that God would just speak to you? Maybe it'd be great if God would just speak out loud or he wrote something across the sky or sent you a text message from heaven. That would be pretty good, it would be nice Now.
Speaker 1:I've told this story before, but the day after we received the blessing from our senior pastors in Virginia Beach to move from Virginia Beach to start this church right here in Richmond, the very next day after we got the okay, got the thumbs up, I received an incredible job offer to take over a church in sunny Myrtle Beach, a thriving, growing church with two locations, all the bells and whistles. And I remember thinking to myself God, you couldn't have told me that a year ago. Like what's that? What's that about? Talk about a conflict, talk about a hard decision. But here's the thing. Here's the thing. I never had a moment, I never had a moment where a booming voice from heaven said Jacob, go to Richmond and I'll multiply your crops. That never happened. That didn't happen to me. You know it was a step of faith. It was a step of faith. The good thing looked good, it looked secure and Richmond looked like the unknown and didn't know how to do it. But at the end of the day, it was a step of faith and asking God to do it, asking to figure out that. Now it's hard.
Speaker 1:And if you ever found yourself asking God what do you want for me? What's next? What's your will? How are you directing my steps? Here's the good news you are not alone. You're not alone. You're not alone, and my goal over the next four weeks is to really help you reframe, though, the way we think about God's will for our lives.
Speaker 1:The reframe the way we think about God's will for our lives, the reframe the way we think about purpose. I want to show you that God is not in heaven playing some cosmic hide and seek with your life. He isn't. His will isn't a tiny little dot on the map of your life, and if you miss that tiny little dot, then you ruined everything. You missed out on why God created you. No, no, no. That's not the case. Here's the truth.
Speaker 1:God is relational. He's a relational God who loves you, and over the next few weeks, I want to show you this that knowing His will starts with knowing His heart, knowing His will for your life, and it's not just head knowledge, no, but it's knowing deep in your heart who God is and what God has caused you to do, because he is very relational. He's a relational God and wants to know us. The more you get to know his heart, the more you spend daily time with God, the more you experience him in community, the more you get sensitive to the nudge of the Holy Spirit, the more you clearly will begin to discern his will for your life. And so, instead of treating God's will like kind of four neat little boxes and we got to do these things, this thing, and take these steps and do these things we got to figure out that it's more like a layer of relationship, layers of relationship. There's God's sovereign will, the big story that he's writing. It's his revealed character and how he calls us to live as his people. It's his allowance where he lets freedom and even pain play out in our daily lives. And it's his personal invitation to walk with him in your ordinary everyday life. Here's the thing, god. God isn't a code to crack. He's not a code to break out. If I pray this way, talk this way, act this way, and then I got it figured out. No, no, god is a relationship to be had. He is a loving communion God who wants to know you and know you deeply, know you deeply, and so here you go and we're going to look at this. We're going to look at each of these layers and discover his heart and his purpose and his plan for your life. And again, instead of looking for that one dot on the map of your life, we're going to seek first his kingdom. I'm going to seek first his righteousness, and God will add everything else. Okay, so let's begin.
Speaker 1:God's sovereign will. What is his sovereign will? That sounds so intense? Like what is that? What is his sovereign will? Here we go. It's God's steady, loving determination to set the world right through Jesus. That's. I want to make something very clear. That's what God's about. He wants to set the world right through Jesus, through a loving relationship with Jesus. It's not about a distant deity pulling strings from heaven. It's about a creator, god, faithfully bringing his story of redemption to completion.
Speaker 1:Isaiah says it like this Only I can tell you the future before it even happens. Everything I plan will come to pass. In other words, history is not random, it's not out of control. It's held within God's larger purpose. The Proverbs say this many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that will prevail. Our choices are real, but God's faithfulness is even greater and you can trace God's sovereign will throughout the story of Scripture.
Speaker 1:When God spoke the universe into existence, his purpose was at work. When he formed Adam from the dust and breathed life into humanity, his purpose was at work when humanity rebelled against God. His purpose did not fail because the Word became flesh in Christ. Jesus lived without sin, gave his life on the cross and three days later God rose him from the dead. Why is that? Because God's sovereign purpose is to rescue, to renew and to reign. He wants to rescue those who are far from him and he wants to renew us, giving us a fresh life, giving us new dreams when we thought our old ones were done, giving us a new lease on life when we thought we couldn't make it any farther. He wants to renew us and show us that he reigns on high. It's beautiful, this is beautiful, and so one day, one day, that purpose will reach its climax. The trumpets will sound, the dead in Christ will rise and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.
Speaker 1:And that's the sovereign will of God. Not fate, but faithfulness, not a blueprint, but a story. A story that cannot be stopped by your or mine bad decisions that cannot be stopped when suffering comes up or even when the schemes of the enemy want to deter us from God's plans. The power of darkness may resist, but it cannot overthrow the sovereign plan of a good, all-powerful, loving God who's making all things new in Christ. See God's sovereign will, his big picture kingdom plan. Jesus is Lord. The kingdom is coming and nothing will stop it. And here's the invitation. Here's the good part, here's the exciting part. Here's the invitation.
Speaker 1:God doesn't want you to be a spectator. He doesn't want us to sit down and just spectate and say, oh, that may be cool, let me get some popcorn and watch. He wants you to participate in it. He invites you. He invites people like you and me, everyday, ordinary people. He invites us into his bigger plan and purpose to set the world right again through Jesus. He calls us to justice. He calls us to heal the broken hearts and bring people closer to Christ. He calls us into this story and it's not a mystery. It's not a mystery. It's revealed in his word. It's shown in his word how to live and how to love, and how to love others and how to embody the life of the kingdom here and now, he wants us to pray the same prayer of Jesus on earth as it is in heaven.
Speaker 1:The sovereign will of God is the story, and here comes the moral will of God, or the revealed will of God, the lifestyle of the kingdom, our everyday obedience that makes his future visible in the present. Here you go, god's moral will, god's timeless truth, revealed in his word, for how we live. It's the moral, the revealed will of God, through his word and through his spirit, for how we live. Now, here you go. Contrary to popular belief, god's moral will doesn't change as culture changes. It doesn't bend with public opinion. God's moral will is not a menu of options at a restaurant. I like that one, but please leave out the tomatoes. It's not that, it's not. It's not Now you know.
Speaker 1:So if you say what's God's moral will for my life? I don't know if you ever asked that question. It's a good question if you haven't but like what does it mean? Like, how does God want me to live? Like, what's his will for me? I want to show you very, very clearly what his will is. Do you want to? I don't know if you want to. Do you want to know what God's will is for your life. Do you want to know, are you sure? Because if you want to know what God's will for your life, it's not the coolest thing I don't know if you're going to make a t-shirt about it but if you really want to know, I mean, you sure you want to know? Okay, you want to know God's will for your life?
Speaker 1:The Apostle Paul tells us this God's will for you is to be holy. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I thought God's will for my life was to start my own startup company, was to be an influencer, was to be a missionary, was to start these. Well, those could be byproducts of his will for you, but his will for you is to be holy. Holiness and wholeness is what God desires for you is to be holy, holiness and wholeness is what God desires for you. What he desires for you is what he wants. In kingdom language, holiness is about living now as citizens of the age to come. The kingdom of God has already broken in through Jesus, and yet it is not fully here. So God's will for you is not to be shaped by patterns's. Will for you is not to be shaped by patterns of this fallen world, but to be shaped by values of the kingdom that is coming.
Speaker 1:Holiness is not just avoiding sin. I want you to get this. Holiness is not just avoiding sin, but it's embodying the life of Jesus here and now. Holiness isn't just oh, let me stay away from all those bad people. Oh, let me stay away from all those bad people. Oh, let me stay away from those people doing those things and let me be like other Christians and judge the people who don't go to church. That's not holiness. That's not the heart of God. Holiness is when we can live like Jesus in a dark world and shine bright as lights. Living like Jesus, not judging the world, but showing the world. This is what it looks like to be kind when you don't want to be kind. This is what it looks like to promote justice when everyone else is promoting separation. This is what it looks like to be a person of the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1:In this age, in this time, we are signposts of the kingdom of God, and so when the world looks at us, when the world looks at you and me as everyday people who are learning how to become Jesus followers we're not perfect. We don't have it all together. We still struggle with anxieties and fears and doubts and troubles and hardships and pains. Yet our hope is in the kingdom to come and so, to the best of our ability, we say God, your will be done. Today we're kingdom. People pointed to him, not perfect, but our hope is secure in whose we are. It's beginning because we it's not just knowing God, but it's I want to know him, I want to embody Him. So everyday people, so as everyday people are learning how to become Jesus followers. This is so good.
Speaker 1:We need both the comfort of the Holy Spirit and we need the conviction of the Holy Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit to comfort us in our days where we feel down and low. We need the Holy Spirit to comfort us when there's things happening beyond our control and we can't figure it out. We need the Holy Spirit's comfort when we really mess things up and we're trying to get it back right. But we need the conviction of the Holy Spirit to say there's something more for you. See, the Holy Spirit doesn't just call you out, the Holy Spirit calls you up to be the person God has designed you to be. And so here you go.
Speaker 1:Cs Lewis puts it this way. Because we have to embrace this tension CS Lewis says this know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it. And Christ, because he was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means. The only complete will is the tension.
Speaker 1:The tension is this for so many of us. We want God's direction for our future, but we don't want to pay attention to God's direction today. We can say it another way we want the fruit without the faithfulness. We want the blessings without the obedience. And the bottom line is this you cannot walk in God's will for your life if we are disobeying God's word. We're disobeying God's word, disobeying what the Spirit is leading us to do. His moral, revealed living word is how we're supposed to live.
Speaker 1:So let's just keep it simple.
Speaker 1:What does it mean?
Speaker 1:What is God's will? It's holiness. And what does holiness look like? Holiness is not perfection. Holiness doesn't mean I got it all, I'm all perfect, I'm all good Again, that is not holiness.
Speaker 1:Holiness is saying this I'm going to love people the way that Jesus loved them, even the difficult ones. I would even say especially the difficult ones. I would actually say if you got some difficult people in your life, god's trying to teach something to you, he's trying to form something in you and unfortunately, he's using Miss Susie to get it to you. You got to tell the truth, even when lying would be easier. Give generously, even when you're not noticed or appreciated. Live fully for Jesus, even if people mock you, reject you or say that doesn't fit, because we're not living for the approval of this world. We're living for the glory of God. And so we got God's sovereign will, we get his big picture plan, we got God's moral will, his word showing us how to live.
Speaker 1:And the third one this is the hard one, this is one of the hardest ones God's permissive will, god's permissive will, the freedom that God gives us to make choices, even when they're not perfect, even when they're not perfect. And it's important for us to understand. Yes, god is sovereign, meaning he's directing the course of everything in history, but he is not a control freak, and so if you are a control freak, think about that. He can control anything he wants. He can force you and force me to love him and obey him and do. He absolutely can. He can force us all, yet he chooses not to, because real love is never forced, real love God wants to love us and be loved by us, and he can't do that unless he gives us free choice. Unless there's free choice and again, that's difficult, that's a challenge.
Speaker 1:And even God, god in his master plan I don't understand. I don't come out here to say I understand all the master plans of God, because he decided the way he was going to get his message out was to use the church. The church. God wants to use a bunch of broken people to get his message out, and, as we have seen, doesn't the church mess it up a lot? I'm like, but why, god? Why don't you just make it happen? It's free will. Because he wants to be loved. He wants us to choose the same way. The same way, and don't act like, oh, god doesn't want someone to choose him. Don't you want to be chosen too? Don't you want someone to love you? Not because you're making them love you. That's not real love, is it? And so this means that we have freedom to choose to love the Lord, our God, with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourself, and we also have the freedom not to, and freedom not to do it. You have the freedom to live according to the truth. That sets you free, or you have the freedom to just don't do that.
Speaker 1:The Apostle Paul says like this. He said, hey, I'm allowed to do anything. In other words, god may permit you to do this, but let's be very clear Not everything is beneficial. You may be able to do it, but it doesn't mean it's good for you. God will give you the freedom to choose. You might say God's giving me the freedom to choose. That means I'm going to eat Pop-Tarts every day. You can Wild berries. It's a good flavor. I had a roommate who would have the frosted strawberry one and then he would put it in a toaster and then put butter all over it. I said, man, that can't be good for your heart. You can choose it. You can choose it, but I mean it's the best thing for you to do? God gives us the freedom to choose and the problem is this Since God gives us the freedom to choose, we don't always choose wisely, do we?
Speaker 1:That's one of the reasons why there's so much pain in this world. In fact, that's the very reason why some of us are hurting today. The reason is sometimes because the bad things that we do sometimes they catch up to us later, and this is the hard one, the bad things that other people do, the traumas that we deal with based on the decisions of other people, and we felt hopeless. And it leaves us asking the question God, god if you're sovereign, and God if you're good, and God if you care, and God if you love me, then why did that happen and you stood by? Can we get real at church today? Can we get honest at church today? Because I don't want to just like oh, but God loves you and bless you in Jesus' name. He does love you, he goes.
Speaker 1:Nt Wright says this God has a good plan and a good purpose for your life, but he still calls you to pick up your cross. There's pain and there's suffering. We look around and there's things that happen and it makes us like God, god, god, what are you doing? What are you doing? And again and again and again, we got to get this. God is not in heaven just pulling strings and making things happen. It's a story and he invites us into the story. He invites us into the story of restoration. He invites us in the story because where there was trauma through Jesus Christ, there's healing, and the healing of that trauma can lead to the healing of trauma for other people. See, see, see, here's the thing. When we invite God into the mess of our lives, when we invite God into the messy bits of our lives, into the painful parts in our lives, into the parts that we wish that didn't happen and the parts that we wish that something else could take that away, when we invite God into those messy things, god then creates a message from our mess and he will use the thing that the enemy tried to use to take us out, to not only lift us up but lift up others Again.
Speaker 1:There's a story in the Bible I'm going off script a little bit. There's a story in the Bible. There's this guy named Joseph, and Joseph had all these brothers and Joseph had this blinging nice coat and his brothers didn't like that. He had this Gucci coat and so he had his coat and he was their dad's favorite. The dad's name was Jacob that's a good name and so they sold him. They were so jealous of him. They sold him into slavery and you thought you had family problems. He sold into slavery in Egypt.
Speaker 1:In Egypt, he gets some bad situations that happen to him. He's in jail for a long time. All these different things happen. Then he ends up having this crazy dream. He ends up having this crazy dream. He has this crazy dream and I want you to get this. God's revealed will for him was through a dream, and I want you to know that the Holy Spirit speaks to us and the Holy Spirit can reveal His character to you through His Word. But the Holy Spirit speaks too. And so, anyways, anyways, anyways. And so now he has this dream that saves Egypt. That saves Egypt, and he's the second man in charge of Egypt. He literally started from the bottom and now he's here.
Speaker 1:Okay, and so then his brother. There's a famine, there's a great famine, and his brothers come up from Israel, from Canaan, to get food, because Egypt has all this food. And there there is their brother, the one they sold into slavery, the one the whole time God watched it, god saw it, god was present and there every step of the way. And when his brothers recognized that was their kid brother, joseph, they were in fear because they thought, man, surely he's going to get his revenge. But, joseph, I want you to get this because he understood the heart of God.
Speaker 1:Without understanding the heart of God, revenge is his best option. But understanding the heart of God, knowing the heart of God, not just knowing, but knowing the heart of God. When he saw his brothers he said what you meant for evil was the saving of many lives. And I want us to know today what the traumas. I don't want to dismiss or downplay the traumas in our lives, because they hurt, they are painful, but I want to encourage some faith today that, through the redemptive work of Christ, that those very things God can use for the saving of many lives, for the saving of many lives.
Speaker 1:And so this is his permissive will. This is permissive will. He may have allowed it, yet God can still redeem it. And, as kingdom people, just because God permits it doesn't mean we're called to passively accept it. God empowers us through the Holy Spirit to push back against the darkness. We pray your kingdom come, your will be done. We lay hands on the sick and we believe for them to be healed. We stand against injustice. We feed the hungry, we love the poor, not because the world is fixed yet, but because the kingdom of God is breaking in and he uses everyday people like you and me to make it happen. There's a sovereign will, there's His moral will, there's His permissive will and this is the one that we all like. God's personal will for me, god's personal, that is God's unique and specific calling, just for you. And God does have a plan for every person.
Speaker 1:If you've been saved by Jesus, your sins are forgiven and you weren't just saved from, but you're saved for. I want you to get this because, throughout church history, what you're saved for, I want you to get this Because throughout church history, recent church history by recent I mean like from the 30s on up it's been in church history. This was never a part of church history until around the early 1900s there became this kind of lawyer type approach to evangelism have you sinned? Yes, well, if you don't repent, you will burn in hell. Well, of course I want Jesus, of course I want that. And so there's been repentance without knowing God. There's been saying, well, I don't want that bad thing. But here you go.
Speaker 1:Throughout church history and throughout the scriptures, people weren't saved because they were scared of hell. They were saved because God had a plan for their lives, that God loved them and this resurrection showed that God was real. And so, yes, you're saved from sin, but you're saved for a greater purpose, and this is why you can't be saved by your good works, you're saved for good works. Now, I want us to get this, because a lot of times we say, well, if I just do good and I be good and I am a good person, if I stop this thing and do this thing, and then God will love me, he will accept me. Well, he loves you and accept you because of a thing called grace. And you've been saved from, but you've been saved for. You've been saved for something See, paul says it like this in Ephesians for we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which he prepared in advance for us to do.
Speaker 1:And that word handiwork is like a poetic statement, a masterpiece. You're God's handiwork, you're His brilliant creation. God is a creator, god, and he created you and you're saved for the work that he had prepared in advance for you, before you were even born. He created you with the right gifts, the right talents, put you in this moment in history with these specific people for you, for you and for a very real mission for you to fulfill, for your lives, to touch and impact and change. And here's the great news If God prepared good works for you to fulfill, for your lives, to touch and impact and change. And here's the great news If God prepared good works for you to do, then that means it has your name on it, that you're perfectly designed by God to meet those needs and be a blessing to other people.
Speaker 1:Psalm 32 says this God says I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go. I will counsel you with my loving eye on you. Let me say it one more time God says I will instruct you, I will teach you in the way you should go. I will counsel you with my loving eye on you. And I want you to see this here. I want you to see this here. I want you to see the intimacy of God's words here. I want you to see the intimacy. I want to know you counsel you, instruct you. My loving eye is on you. So this is not. This is not Johnny. Do these things and then you're in. Do these things and then you got it. This is Johnny. Come close to me, know the rhythms of grace. Again, there's this story. I got another story. I got so many stories.
Speaker 1:There's this other story that Jesus sends all these disciples out and dude, and he sends them out and they're going to town. They're casting out demons. They're like dang, I didn't even know she had a demon in her and the other guy was like I knew. And they're casting out demons. They're praying for people, people being healed. They're like yo, this is crazy. And they come back. They come back to Jesus and, like Jesus, you should have seen the things we were doing. It was wild out there.
Speaker 1:And Jesus, jesus is sitting there, jesus is listening to them, jesus is listening. They come, they tell Him all these stories and Jesus says to them. Jesus says back to them. He says hey, hey, hey, those are all good. Yeah, that's awesome. How about you come away with me for a second and let's get to a solitary place? And Jesus wanted to be intimate with them, to know them, which speaks volumes. Yes, jesus says go and do, but come here and know me. And here you go. It's not about what you do that will make me love you. It's about you coming close to me and knowing my heart and, from that place, going out and making a difference. It's about coming close to him, coming close to him and you receive this.
Speaker 1:And who is Jesus? He's the good shepherd, and the sheep know the shepherd's voice. He will teach you and instruct you because you know his voice. And what is the role of a good shepherd? The good shepherd's role is to do what to the sheep, to guide them. And I will guide you and I will instruct you. And if he is good shepherd and if we are sheep, then what is our role? To follow? To follow. I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will counsel you. Who is the Holy Spirit? He is the wonderful counselor. The Holy Spirit is with you. He comforts you and guides you.
Speaker 1:God, which way do I go? God, what is my will? God will instruct you, he will teach you, he'll counsel you with his loving eye on you. And that's how good God is. If you want to know his will, spend daily time with God, because he will teach you and he will instruct you and he will guide you with His loving eye on you. A common problem I see is this we overcomplicate God's will and we underestimate God's goodness. We overcomplicate His will, but we underestimate His goodness. So, god, what's your will? And God is saying I will instruct you, I will guide you, I will teach you with my loving eye on you. I'll share this last story Truthfully.
Speaker 1:I did not understand the depths of this until about five years ago. About five years ago, often I associated God's will for me with how much I could lead or serve or make small things grow and become big. It wasn't until COVID happened and, like many of us, we had to slow down, even if we didn't want to. And then there I started a daily rhythm of spending time with God. And I remember the exact day. It was July 5th 2020.
Speaker 1:I couldn't sleep. I was worried about the church that we just planted and earlier that year. Was it going to? Were we going to have to fold? Were we going to have to move back? I didn't know what was going to happen. I had so much worry, so much stress.
Speaker 1:I remember I woke up early that morning and I went for a run and then there the Holy Spirit got me. Holy Spirit spoke to me. He told me to spend daily time with Him, and God was so gracious to me at first. He let me pick the time schedule, the length, choose the topic and recently, over the past year or so, I began to realize that I'm not the shepherd but I'm the sheep, and my daily time with God is not just a practice that I do, but it's a relationship that I'm in. And so sometimes God wants to talk to me, and sometimes he just wants me to pray for other people and not about my stuff. Sometimes he wants to hear all about my stuff, and sometimes we just sit in the silence and we don't say much of anything.
Speaker 1:See, friends, spending time with God is not like getting your morning coffee, caffeine fix. It's not something you do to get something from. You do it to understand His heart and understand His will. So if you're going through some pain, if you're confused by your circumstances, we can all get bitter or we can ask the scariest question. You can ask God, and it's this God what are you teaching me in this God? What are you teaching me in this thing? This thing, because if you want to know God's will for your life, it's not a dot on a map, it's not a job promotion somewhere, it's not a certain amount of numbers in your bank account. If you want to know God's will for your life, it's to be holy, holy, holiness and wholeness. And the way we understand those things is when we spend daily time with God, to know Him, to be with Him.
Speaker 1:Jesus, holy Spirit, we say we need more of you, we want to know your will, we want to know your heart, and that's what the Holy Spirit very clearly saying to someone, or maybe multiple people in here today. You are not an accident, not an accident, but you were designed by God for this season, in this time, in this community, in this day, right now, I speak against the lie of the enemy and a spirit of death and defeat that you want to give up, that I can't do it, that I messed up way too many times. You can never outnumber God's grace for your life. And so come, holy Spirit, remind us, jesus, that you went to the cross for us, for the joy set before you. You endured the cross and three days later you got back up again, and so can we. We can get back up again.
Speaker 1:Maybe you've fallen down today, maybe you feel just down. You don't know which direction to go, and I feel the Holy Spirit saying just one step at a time. He's with you one step at a time. He's with you, one step at a time. Come Holy Spirit. Come Holy Spirit in this place, god, that you want to teach us, instruct us, counsel us, guide us with your loving eye on us. Meaning God, we don't have to have it all figured out. We say we're your student and you are the teacher. We find freedom in knowing that we are your sheep and you are the good shepherd, jesus. And if one drifts away, you leave the 99. You find the one, you pick them up and you bring them home. And there's more rejoicing in heaven over one lost sheep found. So, jesus, thank you that we've all been that sheep and you picked us up and you brought us back home. So we praise you today, lord, we thank you for your goodness, we thank you for your love In Jesus' name, amen, amen, amen, amen.