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If I feel like the Lord has spoken to me, how do I know that's his voice? If I feel like there is an impelling desire in my heart to do something, how would I know if God put that desire there? Does that make sense? Do you guys deal with this at all? Thank you. The majority of our decisions are going to be covered by two verses in Scripture. Psalm 37:5 says this. Commit your way to the Lord, trust in him, and he will do it. Or Proverbs 3, 5 and 6, Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make your strengths your path straight. So 99% of our lives are covered by those two verses. If I'm just taking time consciously to say, lord, I want your will to be done in my life, I want you to lead me in what I'm getting into. That in itself is an act of faith, and that's enough for our Heavenly Father to act on. So as we're doing that, we can count on him orchestrating our lives and leading us in, even if we're not aware of it. If you're not aware of God leading you right now, don't sweat that. It's more important that we're trusting that it is he is doing that than we recognize him doing that. And you get to my age and you look over your shoulder and I say, my goodness sakes, I didn't even know that he was leading me at that time, but he was. So just rest in that. God doesn't just show me his will. He gives me his will internally. What do I mean by that? It says in Psalm 37:4, Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. It doesn't mean he will give you your heart's desire. He's going to give me a Porsche 9, 11 and a timeshare in southern France. That's not what we're talking about. What he's going to do is he's going to implant his desires in my heart so that what I want is the very thing that he wants. That is a wonderful proposition because he makes my will one with his. So when I want to do something, it's the very thing that he wants me to do. That's wonderful. Or it says in Philippians, chapter 2, in verse 13, for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to do his good pleasure. So he works in the will and the power to do it. And the great question is of course, practically speaking, Peter, how do I recognize that that desire is of him? Or is it my desire? Or is it a desire that somebody else is imposing on me? Or is it the pizza I ate last night? Where does this desire come from? So these are five questions to ask in regards to ok, this desire from him or not. Number one, will I accept no as God's answer? In other words, if I'm waiting for him to really guide me and I have a desire to do something and he makes it clear to me, no, Peter, that's not of me, am I willing to accept that this is a crucial thing to understand because my mistakes have taken place when I have dug in my heels and I've said, doggone it, probably used worse language than that and said, I'm going to do it anyway. If I've made a mistake, it's been pushing my will on God and I wouldn't accept no as an answer. I put that passage in Acts chapter 16 there. Because Paul is traveling with a group of people and his desire is to preach the gospel where it hasn't been preach. So he goes to an area that is modern day Turkey. He goes in this direction with his band of travelers and he wants to preach the gospel and God says no. So he goes into this direction and he wants to preach the gospel over here and God says no. Personally, I would have been pretty ticked at that point because he's not looking for a vacation home, he's looking for a place to preach the gospel. He's not, you know, interested in just doing his own thing. He's involved in kingdom work. And twice God says no. Furthermore, there was a group of people traveling with him, so he's responsible for them too. This tells me something. You don't always have to know the whole story in advance to move. You can have a general idea of what God wants your life to be about. And you can go ahead, have the job interview, fill out the application, get as much information as you can, even though you might not know what the end story is, but you're committing your way to the Lord and you're willing to accept no as an answer. So what does God do in the night? He does something exceptional. And he gives Paul a vision of a man from southern Greece who says, come and help us. So he goes to a place called Troas, takes a boat over to Philipp, gets onto land, and this is a Roman city and this is a place where God wants him to preach the gospel. He tries to find a synagogue where he usually preached There is none. So he goes down to the river where the women are washing their clothes and getting water for the family and he starts preaching the gospel. And a woman named Lydia is there listening. And afterwards she and her whole household converted. I have a funny feeling that Lydia was thankful that Paul was willing to accept no as an answer. Do you understand that? I'm sure she was very thankful that this guy was willing even though he had set out and wanted to preach the gospel. That when God said no, he said yes. I'll agree with your no. When God says no, don't say no. That's a no no. So when God says no, say okay, yes, God, you've something in mind. What's interesting about that is that about five to seven years later, God sent Paul to the area where he wanted to go the first time. And that also teaches me something. Sometimes God's no is no, not now. And for reasons only known to him, he says, listen, I'm not going to do this now. So my no is not necessarily an eternal no. It's just a matter of time, timing. Always remember, if you look up here, here's where the. Here's where my life begins. Here's where it ends. God sees the end already from the beginning. And he can interject his voice and his activity at any time because he lives outside of the time material realm. And he's got the overview over my whole life. So I've got to be willing to take no as an answer. Because God's no here is usually a yes over there or God's no here is a no not now. Second question. Does the desire contradict God's word? The voice of God or the will of God will never contradict the word of God. There's no need for debate. There's no need to question, should I do this? It is clearly stated in God's Word. So you do that. I've heard a lot of nonsense in 50 years of walking with the Lord and people tell me God told me to do this and yet it goes radically against what he said in His Word. That is nonsense. But here's the other thing that we need to do. In Hebrews 4 and verse 12 it says, for the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword piercing. As far as, listen to this. As far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. So God's Word is able to differentiate between what comes from my soul and what comes from his spirit. He knows what comes from my soul, what are my thoughts, what are my emotions, and he can differentiate that from what comes from his spirit. So thankful that he's able to do this. So one of the things that I like to do, I don't have it with me, but I'm. I have a reading plan in the Scriptures, and I journal it. I'm old school. I have a moleskine, you know, journal. And it's not even a spiritual discipline anymore. It's not a read through the Bible in a year program. It's my personal counseling time with Jesus. It's wonderful. And so I like to have that plan. I don't let the plan become the main point, but it's always a good starting point. And so I'm trusting that the Lord can speak to me and counsel me from obscure passages of scripture if I need his guidance. I just need to open myself up to him through His Word so that he might speak to me in a way that clearly addresses the situation that I'm in. Can I encourage us to have some plan and don't play Bible bingo? You know, we go, you know, should I ask this girl out? Shall I ask her to marry me? You know, and then you're going through. Where does that say that about Joseph? Joseph took Mary. That's what I'm supposed to do. Thank you. Don't do that. We are very good at justifying our own desires with a verse. Sorry to call us on that, but we're capable of doing that if we're honest. So I like to have a plan so that it's objective. I don't like to play Bible bingo. So I met my wife. I'm originally from Minnesota. I haven't lived in the United states in over 40 years. I live in Germany. My wife is German. My two kids are German. And Gabi, my wife, was a widow for eight years until we got married. Before we got married, I met her two years after her husband, Alexander, died of a brain tumor. I was leading a ski conference in the Austrian Alps. She came there, and I was falling in love with this widow. After two years of kind of, you know, checking her out, I just said, lord, this would be wonderful. All I could tell you is I felt in my spirit. No, I didn't want to hear that. But I'm glad I said, okay, I'll accept that. About three years later, I still have the same desire. We never dated, never called, no text, nothing. I never expressed my desire. This woman was a widow. She didn't need Chaos. So it came about three years later that this had not gone away. And I'm having my quiet time, and I'm just saying, lord, this would be wonderful. What should I do? Because I'd met her in a. In a setting I'd never expected to. So I'm having my quiet time. I'm reading through judges 18. Judges 18, this guy goes to the priest, says, ask God what I should do. Come back and tell me. The priest come back. And he says, in Judges 18, six, go in peace. The way in which you're going has the Lord's approval. That was pretty clear. But I'm a dumb donkey, and I needed two more green lights. And God gave that. And then I asked her, and it was wonderful. You will hear the voice of God most often through the word of God. It's his vocabulary. So that's the language I usually speak in. And when God speaks to us, he uses a language we can understand. And that's the scripture. That is the vocabulary of the Spirit of God. So if you're. If you're evaluating a desire and you say, lord, is this of you or not? Take that desire before the word of God and say, lord, I want you to discern what is of your spirit and. And what is of my soul. Does that make sense? Do that. Third question. Do I have a peaceful conscience? In Colossians 3:15, Scripture says, Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. And that word rule is taken out of the world of athletics. It's like a referee making the final call on the field. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Let the peace of Christ make the last call. As to whether this is right or not, there is a difference between the peace of Christ in your heart and your emotions. What do I mean by that? This is not rocket science. I hope I'm not alone when I say I really was emotionally charged up doing something. But deep in my heart, I. I felt like I was doing something wrong. Anybody have that experience? There were other times when I was terrified to do something and the spirit of God made very clear in my heart. This is my assignment for you. So I may have been nervous about it, but there was this overriding peace in my heart. This is what I want you to do. There's a difference between the two, Peter. How do I tell that difference? That's called maturity. And our Heavenly Father is very patient, and he's going to work overtime to do what's necessary to lead us in his way. So pay attention to what your conscience says. There is a way by which you and I can train our conscience. By the way, the word conscience means to know together. It is the compass in our heart that God has created so that I might recognize what is right before his eyes. And I can train my conscience to better understand the way that God is leading me. And it's very simply by doing, do the right thing in the small areas of your life. Live with a clean conscience in the small areas and private areas of your life so that when your conscience is clean and not hardened towards the Lord, when the Spirit of God wants to speak to your conscience, you'll be better prepared to recognize it. So when students came to my office when I was a Bible school principal and said, peter, this is just so difficult. I can't understand what God wants me to do. And then I hear that they're breaking our community standards. I have no patience for that. No wonder. This is hard because your conscience is hardened because you're living in moral compromise. And if you and I decide to do that, our conscience is going to be hard, hardened towards the movements of the Spirit in our life. So live with a clean conscience before God in your private life when nobody's looking, and you'll be more sensitive to what the Spirit of God wants you to do and to discern what comes from his spirit. I say to our staff and students, as with anything, so with everything. So as I do something in any small private area of my life, that's how I'm going to do things in other areas. And if I think that I can live with compromise in the private areas of my life and that not affect the really big areas of my life, I'm fooling myself. Live with a clean conscience. Next question. Has God opened the door to fulfill the desire? When God is leading us, he can put a reserved sign over the person we're supposed to get married to. He can put a reserved sign over the ministry assignment that I'm supposed to take. He can put a reserved sign over the job that I'm supposed to be involved in after college. Jesus said in Revelation 3 and verse 8, behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut. Isn't that a great, great truth to rest in? God can open the door. There's an interesting verse I gave that quote by Hannah Whiteall Smith. You can read that later. But David had at least 10 years of waiting between the time he was anointed by Samuel and the time that he became king. At least a decade. And there was a time when he was running from Saul. And he hid in the cave with his men. Saul comes in to relieve himself, and his friends say, this is God's moment for you. Kill him. David, it says, arose cut off the edge of Saul's robe secretly. And it came about afterwards that David's conscience bothered him because he had cut off Saul's robe. And he goes out and says to Saul, I'm sorry I did that. And Saul is so convicted that he says to David, you're a better man than I, but the thing that I learned from that is this. His friends convinced him this was God's moment for him and he should go ahead and do that. Sometimes the wisest thing you can do if God has put his desire in your heart, is tell nobody about that. So that when God opens the door, you'll know nobody else knew about that. This must be the Lord opening the door before me. I have had people, when I've talked to them about a desire in my heart, actually argue with me. That can't be God's way for you. And they have, you know, spoken into my life. That has made things more confusing. Sometimes it's wise. If you're evaluating a desire that you think God has put in your heart, don't tell anybody about it. It. Because if it's of God, he's going to open the door. And what that means is that you and I are going to have to learn how to do one of the things that we hate. And that means we're going to have to wait sometimes. G.D. watson said, the devil wants you to be in a hurry and rush and go pell mell and not wait for anything. Whereas Jesus is always quiet. He is always calm, and he takes his time. Yeah, but Peter, what should I while I'm waiting? Here's the profound answer. Do the next thing. Fulfill your responsibilities today at Gull Lake. Do the next thing. And if you're doing what you know to be God's will for you today, the amazing thing is that he will be leading you into his will for tomorrow as you're doing so. So just do the next thing. And by the way, if you don't need to make the decision today, God's still got time to show you what you should do. If you look up here, it is my conviction, after 50 years of walking with Jesus, I'm here. There's a question at the end of my summer at Gull Lake, and I need to know what God's answer is. What is his will for my life? I'm realizing that God is more process oriented than just goal oriented because the process along the way matures me into the person I need to be when I get there. That's why those times in between are so important. He is making me into the person I need to be in Christ by the time I get to that place where his will should be done. Next question. Does this guidance or does this desire look like Jesus? We have an orchard on our property in Germany where I live. There are cherry trees, plum trees, apple trees and pear trees. If you ask me in February, peter, show me the apple tree. I would say, I don't know, there are no trees on the leaves. You asked me in the spring, show me the apple tree. Now there are pink, dark red and white blossoms. Show me the apple tree. I'd say, I don't know. If you said, peter, it's August, go show me the apple tree. I'd say, that one over there. How do you know that there are apples hanging on it? The fruit reveals the root, the fruit reveals the kind of tree that it is. And if I am being led by the Spirit of God, the fruit of the Spirit will be seen in my life. His leading will be accompanied by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Lastly, what does godly counsel say now? It Can I contradict myself when I just said a minute ago, keep your secrets with God? Yes, that may be true, but there is a time to speak to godly people because in the body of Christ, God has gifted some to distinguish between the spirits. I have never had to make a major decision in my life without those who are responsible for me, whether that be my boss, my parents, my pastor, without them being in agreement with me. And I have gone to them and there's always been a unity among us. So I've got to wrap this up. I was graduated from college, I had four opportunities available to me. There was not a neon verse in the scriptures that said clearly what I should do. So I was taking a piece of paper, I was putting them on there. And for every one of those four opportunities, I was writing the pros here and the cons here. Can't remember where that led me. I was reading my Bible, I was talking to people. What should I do? And the frustrating thing about talking to people at that time is everybody told me a different thing as to what God's will for my life was. So I went to Israel, I went on a study tour. I was there for five weeks. And during this time I was just saying, lord, I gotta Go back and make a decision. I'm sitting in a kibbutz outside of Jerusalem. I'm having my quiet time journaling. And this very novel idea came into my mind. And the thought was, peter, what do you want to do? Well, nobody ever asked me that question. And I always thought, certainly what I want to do is not what God wants to do because I've got to submit to his will. And he's going to, you know, send me to Papua New Guinea. I'm never going to get married. I'm going to be, you know, trudging through jungles, et cetera, et cetera. His will and my will are certainly miles apart. That was my perception of my heavenly Father. And I said to myself, well, doggone it, do you know what I want to do? I want to go to Germany. Because they had asked me to come back to be the RA at the Bible school I attended four years earlier. I said, I'm going to Germany. It was a six month commitment. It offered a little bit of pocket money. No future at that time. I go back to Minnesota and my college buddy said, what are you going to do with this fall? I'm going to Germany. He said, why? I said, because I want to. So just breathe through your nose. That felt so good. I went there. It's November. The director calls me into his office. He says, what do you want to do with your life? I said, I really enjoy what I'm doing here and Torchbearers has been my home. He said, would you stay? I could have said, at the moment I'd love to. But the correct answer was, I'll pray about it. I came back three days later, loved to stay, and that was God's calling in my life. And so a six month commitment has turned into 42 years. So pay attention to those desires because that's one of the key ways in which God is going to lead us. Friends, there's only one person who needs to fear the will of God and that's the person who's not willing to do it. Because God's will is good and acceptable and perfect. There's no reason to fear God's will. It is good and acceptable and perfect. Father, I thank you for my friends here this morning. I want to thank you that you have a vested interest in leading us into your good and acceptable and perfect will. I pray Lord, that you would take your word and something that was said this morning and encourage these young people for your own name's sake. I pray in Jesus name, amen.