God and the GPS!

      Recently I heard someone say that we need to stop calling God our co- pilot and start giving him the drivers seat... 

The statement sounded amazing at first but then I got to thinking about it a little more. If God has the drivers seat than we have no free will of where we are going. I believe that God has given man a free choice from the very beginning of creation; he has given us the choice to choose him.

Now for the big question! How do we know that we are choosing God's will for our lives? 

we have all heard the term " with freedom comes great responsibility". We have gained a freedom in Christ, and a freedom to choose how we will live our life. Listen to the words of A. W. Tozer( Friesen, G., 2004): 

The Real Christian is an odd number anyway. He feels supreme love for one whom he has never seen, talks familiarly every day to someone he cannot see, expects to go to heaven on the virtue of another, empties himself in order to be full, admits he is wrong so he can be declared right, goes down in order to get up, is strongest when he is weakest, richest when he is poorest, and happiest when he feels worst. He dies so he can live, forsakes in order to have, gives away so he can keep, sees the invisible , hears the inaudible, and knows that which passeth knowledge. 

Does our Christian life sound confusing or what??? Faith is an invisible thing that helps us to believe in the invisible. So with all the confusion how do we decide what God's will is? 

I am going to give you three points , because most people say every good outline has three points. :) 

1. Is it against what God has explicitly laid out in his word? 

     

      Take a moment to think about that... Just because God is letting us take the driver's seat does not mean that he has left us with no GPS! But once again you have a choice. My Philip GPS likes to point me to go one direction, but sometimes we have a disagreement. " Turn around when possible. Take a left and turn around." As I continue on my path, I can almost hear him yelling at me " TURN AROUND NOW!!". Usually I win out in that argument and Philip reconfigures for me. 

       I think many times God is up there directing us one path to our destination. Many times we decide to go our own way and ignore all the warning signs , but God redirects the original path so that we can still get to the place where he wants us to go even if we detour for our own will. 

2. For simple minds like me, God organized all the laws in the Bible under two categories.  If you can follow these two laws you will be on God's path. 

           a. Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart , with all the soul, and with all thy mind (Matthew 22: 37). 

            b. Love they neighbor as thyself ( Matthew 222: 39). 

Now stop and think. Remember all the commandments in the Bible? They all fall under these two categories. 

Before making a decision ask yourself Does this please God? Does this offend my brother or sister? Consider more than yourself when making decisions! 

3. Consider these six principles: " God wants us to be saved, spirit filled, sanctified, submissive, suffering, and Do whatever you want! ( MacArthur, J., 1977)." 

        Wait... what????? Yep! I couldn't believe it when I read that. But if you have the first five principles down then your heart will be tender to what God is directing you to do, and I believe God puts desires in our hearts that will lead us to his will. Listen to this story from John MacArthur( pp. 55-56): 

People say to me, " Why did you go into your present ministry when you had such an enjoyable ministry before in another area?" 

I always answer, " Because I wanted to". 

" AHA. Self-will." 

I had a friend come to me and say, "John, I don't know where the Lord wants me to serve." 

I said to him, " Marty , if you had your choice of any service in the world, what would you want?" 

He said, " Oh, I have such a burden for my people Israel. I speak French fluently, and Paris is just loaded with Jewish people who don't know Jesus. I personally would like to go to Paris as a missionary to the Jews." 

I checked him on the five principles... He replied he was committed to Christ in these areas. 

I said " Marty, good-bye, have a nice trip." 

He said " But it is only my desire." 

" Then trust that it is God who planted it. Get our of here."   

         The story continues with how God blessed the man who took a step forward to follow the desire that he felt God had given Him. 

People, I know desires are hard to discern  and decisions are hard to make, but we are not left alone. Get the vehicle of serving God moving and let Him be your GPS!! 

References: 

Friesen, G. ( 2004). Decision making and the will of God ,25th ed.  New York: Multnomah Books

MacArthur, J. ( 1977).  Found: God's will. Colorado: David Cook