Bond To God's Will

But we're gonna dive into God's Word tonight, and so I have a message for you entitled Bound to God's Way, and we're gonna start by reading out of Psalms, chapter 25, beginning in verse eight.

Psalms 25 · chapter mention

It reads Good and upright is the Lord.

Therefore, he teaches sinners in the way, the humble he guides in justice and the humble he teaches his way.

And the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, to, such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.

For your name's sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity, for it is great.

Who is the man who fears the Lord?

Him?

Shall he teach in the way that he chooses?

He himself shall dwell in prosperity and his descendants shall inherit the earth.

The secret of the Lord is with those who fear him, and he will show them his covenant.

And so we're just gonna talk about the way tonight and God's way.

Who is the man who fears the Lord?

He himself?

Shall he teach in the way that he chooses?

And so God will teach us the way.

A couple of times previous to this, if you read all of chapter 25, david mentions waiting on God twice there, and that's mentioned in other places too.

In Psalm 27, it says Wait on the Lord, be of good courage and he shall strengthen your heart.

And again, wait, I say on the Lord.

And so we're kinda gonna contrast the waiting on the Lord and God's way and what that means.

And so I know a lot of people.

They spend time waiting on God and when people don't have the answer they say, well, I'm waiting on God for the answer, I'm just waiting on the Lord, I'm waiting for God to do something.

But when I go to the Strongest Concordance and look up the word for wait there it is the Hebrew word kava, which means to bind, and it implies a twisting together.

And so to bind by twisting together it also means to gather together to look patiently for, to tarry and to wait upon.

But too many Christians spend time waiting on God and praying for God to do something.

Imagine praying for God to you know, god, I really need a hole.

Meanwhile you're leaning on a shovel, and a lot of times that's what Christians are.

They're leaning on the means that God gave them to do something and they're still expecting God to do it for them.

And so there's a gap in the understanding there and hopefully I can address some of this tonight.

But to wait on God really means to be bound by twisting together and being wrapped up with Him.

You're bound to Him, you're wrapped up with Him, and so that means you can't do anything without Him being part of it also.

And so to wait on God means that you don't get ahead of God, that you don't launch out there and try to do something in spite of God, but instead God is with you wherever you go, and when you're doing something, you're doing it by His leading, by His guidance, and you'll never miss it.

And so we wait on God, but we're not waiting on God to do things for us, because he has already done everything that he needs to do for us through His Son Jesus.

He gave us His Son, he gave us salvation, he gave us authority.

Everything that we lost he got back, and so we have everything at our hands, our fingertips, in our mouth that we need to get the job done.

How do we know what that way is?

And I just want you to know that you have a right to know what the way is.

In fact, you have a right to know the next step, and I know that's disappointing, and sometimes it's disappointing for me, because I really, really want to see the whole plan.

I want to see God's plan laid out in front of me, and my propensity would be to take the red pen to that plan and start straightening out some curves and filling in some potholes.

And the shortest point a distance between two points is a straight line.

But then, if we take time and look at our lives and see, how did we get to where we are today?

The route that we got here right now is so strange to us, and if I knew that that route was in front of me, I probably never would have done it.

And so we don't get to know the whole detail of the entire plan.

But what we are entitled to is the next step.

Your word is a lamp into my feet and a light into my path, and so when there's a light to your path and a light to your feet, that implies that you get to know the next step.

You don't get to know where the whole path takes you, but his word is a guide for us.

His word is a light and a lamp to our feet and our path.

In Romans 8.14, it says "'For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, "'these are the sons of God'".

And so if you're born again believer, you're in the family of God, you're a son or a daughter of God.

We have the Holy Spirit dwelling on the inside of us.

Therefore, we should be led by the Spirit of God, and that is evidence that we are in fact in his family, when we are led by the Spirit of God.

Jesus, before he left his disciples, was comforting his disciples with these words at a John 16.

And I'm gonna turn over there, john 16.

In verse 12, it says Jesus is talking.

He says I still have many things to say to you, but I can't say them now.

And Jesus is about to get out of here.

And he says, however, when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak of his own authority, but whatever he hears, he speaks and he will tell you things to come.

He will glorify me, for he will take of what is mine and declare it to you, and the things that the Father has of mine.

Therefore, I say I said he will take of what is mine and declare it to you.

And so, the Holy Spirit, he's got the promise of the Holy Spirit for his disciples.

Jesus is about to depart earth, but he says I will not leave you orphans, I won't leave you comfortless, I'm gonna send you the comforter.

And so here we've got a good description of what that comforter is.

He guides us into all truth, he leads us, he shows us things to come, and so we have a right to know some things about the future.

If you have the Holy Spirit dwelling and operating in your life, dwelling on the inside of you, you have a right to know these things.

We get to know things by revelation out of God's word.

So there's the written word of God, which is kind of dry all by itself.

It's words and it won't tell you anything specific about your life.

You know where to buy a house, what house to buy, how much to pay for that house, where to send your kids to school.

It doesn't give you details about those things, but it is the general will of God and generally you'll be in God's will if you follow His word.

But if you want to get to know the specific will of God, you need to have revelation, knowledge.

Remember when Jesus asked his disciples who do men say that I am?

And they kind of mumbled and stammered a little bit and said well, you know, some say Elijah, maybe one of the prophets you know.

They didn't really seem to know in that moment, but Peter knew and he said Jesus, you're the Son of God, you're the Christ, you're our Messiah, you're the one we've been waiting for.

And Jesus said bless her to you, simon, because flesh and blood did not reveal that to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

So his Father who is in heaven, gave him revelation knowledge.

They knew they had a Messiah come and they could see the evidence that perhaps he might be the Messiah.

But the revelation knowledge came when our heavenly Father revealed this truth to Peter, directly, right there.

And so Jesus said Peter, little rock.

He said, on this great rock of revelation knowledge, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

And so you know, the gates of hell can prevail against people, against certain things, but it can't prevail against what it doesn't know.

And we have a right to know what heaven knows, we have a right to know what God knows, and we receive revelation knowledge.

And then our spirit knows before our brain knows, and your brain can know revelation knowledge.

But your spirit will get excited first about the revelation knowledge and you'll have an internal knowing about what the truth is.

Your spirit gets excited about things that are true and it'll lose its peace about things that are wrong or false or not true.

And so that right there is being led by the spirit, follow that inward witness right there, follow peace.

Second Corinthians 5.7 says we walk by faith and not by sight, and so we can't walk and make decisions based on everything that goes on around us.

I mean, god gave us a brain, we have a certain measure of wisdom that we can operate off of, and the absence of having revelation knowledge.

You have to go off of the general will of God that we know in His word and wisdom, and God will give your brain wisdom about things.

But we don't walk by the circumstances that are around us.

We walk by faith and we can apply faith where the will of God is known.

So Peter received this revelation knowledge and Jesus said that that's what the church would be built on.

And then Jesus goes on to say and I'll give you the keys to the kingdom, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven or in the spirit realm, and whatever you loose in the spirit realm will be loosed on earth.

And so there's this corresponding natural and spiritual element right here where Jesus said you have the authority to bind and loose in the natural and the spiritual.

And so Jesus was expressing right there that he's going to have the same type of authority that Jesus had because of revelation knowledge.

When you know who you are, then you know what you have.

And so many are missing that knowledge about what we have.

They're missing the authority that goes along with God's word.

So again, getting back to waiting on God Waiting on God is not without a faith action.

We're twisted up with God, we're bound to Him, we're bound to His will.

We don't get ahead of God, we don't launch out on our own without God giving us the peace to move ahead and take the next step, but there's a corresponding action that goes with that, and so we always walk by faith and not by sight.

Another way to say all this, if you wanted to shorten it up, is to say I'm not committed to any particular way until God confirms it for me, and so it's good to just not be so stuck in doing things a particular way.

This is the way I did it before.

This worked for me last time.

Well, it worked last time, but you might wanna check with God and see if he's gonna do things the same way, because he's a very creative God and what worked before he may be showing you a new thing, a new way to go, and so don't be committed to a particular way until God confirms that way for you.

Christians who don't have understanding of the authority of the believer will oftentimes use God's sovereignty as an excuse to do nothing or to wait on him.

So if they don't understand they have authority and they don't understand about God's character, god gets a lot of blame for a lot of things that happen, and so they blame it on his sovereignty.

You know, I'm just waiting to see what God will do.

The sovereignty of God is largely misunderstood.

God is sovereign over all of creation.

That is true.

That's a fact.

He's already fully enforced his sovereignty, though, when he instituted his spoken word.

So when he spoke in the beginning, he initiated nature's laws and he initiated spiritual laws that are presently in effect, and they govern all of our world in its entirety.

And so God's sovereignty is in effect, and God doesn't go back and violate those laws and undo those things.

His laws are perfect the way he instituted them.

Also, god's sovereignty is in our mouth, such that when we speak his words again they're his.

We didn't make him up, but when we speak God's words it's as if he spoke his words and so we're enforcing his sovereignty.

A lot of the same people that will blame God's sovereignty and on the troubles that they experience in their life are the same people that are fond of saying well, you know, we're the hands and feet of Jesus.

Okay, if we're the hands and feet of Jesus, then the body of Jesus doesn't go anywhere, except that we go, because you know, we're the feet, and the feet do the walking, and nothing in the body of Christ gets done, nothing in this world gets done, except that we're the hands that do this stuff.

And so they miss out on that connection right there, that if we are the hands and feet of Jesus, then we are the doers and the goers of his will on this earth, and so we need to be putting our hands, our feet and, more than that, our mouth, to work in this earth and enforcing the sovereignty of God.

Just imagine what the world would look like if one of our natural laws just quit working, and the easy one to say right, there is gravity.

You know what if gravity were no longer in effect?

You know, physicists have defined gravity and they've written formulas, mathematical formulas, so that we can predict gravity and the effects of gravity both here on earth and out in space with other celestial bodies.

And so there are equations or mathematical formulas that will model the effects of gravity and we can predict those things.

But changing or manipulating those equations does not change gravity.

If you manipulate that equation or change some part of that function, you know there's a gravitational constant here and then.

That is the acceleration of gravity and it's 9.8 meters per second squared.

If you manipulate that and change it to something different, it doesn't change gravity.

What it does is it makes the outcome of your equation wrong and your prediction wrong and sets you up for disappointment.

Well, manipulating God's word or changing God's word or misinterpreting God's word doesn't change the effect of God's word.

It just makes you wrong and sets you up for disappointment when you don't interpret that or apply God's word correctly.

It's important that we study to show ourselves approved in the God, a workman who needed not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, and so we ask the spirit of wisdom to help us at the beginning, before I start administering tonight, that whatever you need to hear, you're going to hear, in spite of what I'm saying.

We want the Holy Ghost to help us understand God's word and give us revelation, knowledge, so that we can be successful in life and not disappointed, so we can't manipulate his word in a way that he didn't intend and get a new result.

We're just going to get disappointment, and that's why we have such a messy world that we live in is because man has not done right by God's word all these years.

In fact, you go, take it back to the very beginning.

Adam had the kind of authority that we're supposed to have today and Adam blew it and he lost the authority and the earth was cursed with a curse, and so now there's trouble in the earth and we have to live through that all these years.

And then Jesus came back and was the answer to that trouble and Jesus defeated the devil and Jesus took back what the devil stole and he took back the keys and he led captivity, captive, and he led a train of vanquished foes.

And then he presented this authority to his disciples in the Great Commission, which begins that all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me go, therefore.

And so he delegates his authority back to us, took back what was lost and gave it back to us.

And yet the body of Christ is not walking in the fullness of that authority and they still experience trouble, and they still don't understand it.

And they blame God's sovereignty for all kinds of trouble and say you know the mess that I'm in, the car wreck that happened, the disease that came upon us.

It was God's sovereignty.

If I didn't have that trouble, have that illness, have that injury, if I didn't end up in the hospital, I would not have got to minister to those people.

So God must have sent that illness and that trouble so that I could.

Couldn't he have just sent you to go to the hospital and minister to somebody?

Was it really necessary to have the cancer to go along with that?

God doesn't have cancer in heaven and he doesn't give it to you.

You can't have good and bad come out of the same water, well.

And so God does not send this evil.

What he does is he sends the solution to the evil.

And so the consequences that come from ignoring God's spiritual laws can be even more painful than ignoring the natural laws.

We've got to apply both of these properly in our lives and we're not puppets.

God is a free will God In fact I hate to say this because I know some would hear this and take it out of context but God is a pro-choice God.

In Deuteronomy he said today I set before you blessing and cursing life and death.

But God is also a pro-correct choice.

God, he said, therefore, choose life that you and your descendants may live.

And so we've got to get on the right side of his laws.

He wants you to have a free will.

You're free to be stupid, but you're also free to take him up on what he did and be really wise in doing so.

And so we got to be on the right side of God's laws.

In 1 Corinthians 619, it says what know you not?

That your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, whom you have from God, and you're not your own, for you're bought with a price.

And then it says this therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

And so I'm not my own, I don't get to give myself my own marching orders anymore, and I'm okay with that.

I am bound to God's will and we're wrapped up together in this deal.

But it says because of this, because we're bought with a price.

It says, therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit.

So another way to say that is is act like you are in Christ.

Act like who you are.

Act like the identity that God gave to you right there.

Act like you're a son of the most high living God.

Act like you're a daughter, a joint heir with Christ, because we are gods.

We're bought with a price.

We're adopted into his families.

We're joint heirs.

We should embrace the revelation of God's spiritual laws and then use them to our advantage and not ignore them, because they're in effect all the time.

So here's a verse that is often quoted as an excuse for trouble Isaiah 55, verse eight and nine for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, sayeth the Lord.

And that is very true.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

That is absolutely 100% true.

But we get to know God's ways, we get to be wrapped up with those ways, we get to have the revelation, knowledge of those things and then live our life according to that.

We don't have to.

God doesn't have this secret that he's keeping from us.

It is for you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven through the Holy Spirit who dwells on the inside of you.

God doesn't allow that trouble, he doesn't send that trouble.

God allows what we allow because, remember, we have the authority to bind and loose, and so if we bind it, then God does allow us it.

If we loose it, then God allows it.

We're here, we're running the show right here.

We're here to operate, remember, hands and feet.

Well, if we've got trouble, then we've got problems with our own hands and our own feet.

God doesn't send that stuff.

We live in a fallen world, we have trouble, but we don't have to be living in the midst of that trouble.

In fact, god didn't send the trouble, but he sent us a way of escape, and that comes out of 1 Corinthians 10, 13.

It says no temptation, and that word means so much more than that.

No temptation or test or trial has overtaken you, but such as is common to man.

And so, whatever you're going through, just understand right now.

It's not new, you're not the only one and it's not particular to you.

There's no temptation, test or trial that's taken you, but such, as is common to man.

So it's a common thing.

Whatever you're going through, it's common.

But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted, tested or tried above or beyond what you are able.

And so that means that some people have one level of maturity in Christ and some other people have a different level of maturity in Christ, and so they're varying levels.

But God is saying whatever level you're at, I won't let it exceed what you're capable of in me.

And so God makes a way of escape.

He won't allow you to be tempted, tested or tried above that you're able, will, with the temptation, make a way of escape that you may be able to bear.

And that word means to get up under it, bear up under it, press through.

That means get your shoulder into it and don't collapse.

But you're going to plow right on through that and get to the other side.

Remember Philippians 413 said I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, so I can go through whatever circumstance, whatever it is that you're experiencing.

Just go ahead and say I can get through this, I can do this, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, and so the good news is is that if we miss a warning or wander after fleshly desires and we miss it from time to time the Holy Spirit's gonna warn you of things.

Remember, he leads you and he guides you and he shows you things to come.

Your spirit doesn't agree with things that aren't right or is a wrong way to go.

You're gonna have an uneasiness about that and you should follow that.

But sometimes we miss it, and so here's the good news that if we miss it, his mercies are new every morning and they never run out, and so God is merciful and so.

But it's up to us to obtain the mercy and not sit around and wait on God to give us mercy, because he recognizes we need it.

We gotta go after that mercy.

And how do you do that?

You repent, you come boldly before the throne of God and obtain mercy.

So we don't have to shy away from God, just recognize when we get it wrong, turn around, go the other way, be quick about it, get the mercy you need and go on with life, and you'll be successful that way.

You know, we don't have a high priest.

According to Hebrews, chapter four and verse 15, that was not touched with the feelings of our infirmities but was in all points tempted, just like we are today.

Yet he did it without sin, and so we know that he's our example.

And he did it without sin.

But he lived on earth as a man who was tempted by sin, yet he didn't give into it.

And so we, you know again varying levels.

You will not be tempted, tested or tried.

Above that you are able.

God will make a way of escape that you may be able to bear.

God gave Jesus a way of escape in the wilderness and he answered the devil with the word, and he was able to escape those various situations he was in.

So how do we find God's way and be bound to it?

You know we wait on God, so we're not waiting again for God to do something.

That word is to be bound or twisted together with.

And so go back to the first Psalm.

We read in Psalm chapter 25, in verse nine.

Psalms 25 · chapter mention

It says the humble, he guides injustice, and the humble, he teaches His way.

All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth to such as keep His command, his covenant and His testimonies for your namesake, oh Lord, pardon my iniquity, for it is great.

Who is the man that fears the Lord Him?

Shall he teach in the way he chooses?

He Himself shall dwell in prosperity and His descendants shall inherit the earth, and the secret of the Lord is with them.

That fear Him and he will show them His covenant.

And so number one on that list was right there at the top be humble, be teachable.

You know, david, who wrote this Psalm right here, was a mighty man and he was also brilliant, yet he wasn't a know-it-all.

In fact, you know, we need to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God lest we be humbled.

It's a whole lot easier when we humble ourselves lest we become prideful and arrogant, which goes before a fall, and we are humbled in that moment.

And so, humble yourself, be humble and teachable.

Don't be a know-it-all.

Always submit yourself to others in the faith, submit yourself to God's will, to His word, submit yourself that you might be wrong about something and lean on God for your understanding.

Ask for that revelation.

You're entitled to that.

That's one of the things that we are guaranteed by the Holy Spirit.

Number two on that list is to fear God and seek after God.

And so who is the man who fears the Lord Him?

Shall he teach in the way he chooses.

And then comes the good promises we get to dwell in prosperity, or descendants will inherit the earth, and we get to know God's secrets.

And so fear God and seek after God.

David was one who feared God and he was always pursuing God, but he didn't always get it right, and when he got it wrong he was quick to obtain mercy, and that was a spiritually dead man.

And we've got much better access to the throne of God now because we've been washed in the blood of Christ and we can enter that holy place anytime we want.

Proverbs 1.7 says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

And so again, be humble, be teachable, fear God, seek after God, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all the things that you have need of will be added to you.

In other words, god will cover the cost and ensure that you're supplied with everything that you need while you are serving Him and wrapped up with Him.

Whatever you need, he needs you to have it, and you got it.

You're entitled to it.

You don't have to go to war at your own expense.

Number three on that list is.

Don't be surprised by trouble.

Trouble comes, it's in the world.

But we have the answer to trouble.

David was very familiar with trouble.

You could read in Psalm 25, the rest of that chapter, and hear about David's troubles.

Jesus was on the earth during times of troubles.

His disciples experienced troubles.

Remember, jesus told His disciples to cross over to the other side and they experienced trouble on the way.

They had a storm that was sinking their boat and Jesus was peacefully asleep in the back because he had assigned His disciples the task of sail us and this boat to the other side and he expected that they would be able to do that.

But they started to look at the circumstances and they thought we can't do this.

They started repeating what the circumstances were saying.

The circumstances were saying you're sinking, your boat's not going to make it, you're going to drown, you're going to die.

And then those words began to come out Master, don't you care that we perish?

At least they woke up the truth.

But they didn't have a good confession when they did.

We're perishing, we're going to die.

And Jesus rebuked the trouble and was an example for them going forward.

He expected them to rebuke that storm and so we can do that.

We have authority Again.

We have the authority to bind and loose on earth and in the spirit realm.

We have authority because he gave it to us In John 16, 33, these things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace In the world you'll have tribulation.

So if we're in Him, if we're wrapped up in Him that word waiting on Him means to be bound to or wrapped up with, not getting ahead of God, not doing things without God If we're really in Him, we have peace.

In that condition, your spirit has peace.

Yet there can be tribulation all the way around.

And Jesus said be of good cheer, I have overcome the world, meaning that you can enforce the terms of the surrender of the trouble in this world.

You can enforce that with his word in your mouth.

God's sovereignty in your mouth means that you can overcome that trouble.

Number four on this list is to listen to the voice of your spirit, the inward witness, and follow that peace.

And so David was a spiritually dead man.

He had to go through certain procedures.

There was an E-fah, there was a way that God communicated with those people, with the Jewish people at that time.

But God guides us by his Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit who dwells on the inside of us is in constant communication with our spirit.

The Holy Spirit is in communication with our Father in heaven, and so we get to know what our Father in heaven reveals to the Holy Spirit, who reveals it again to our spirit.

So we get to be in the know on these things because our spirit is connected.

That way your brain is a little bit slower.

It takes a while for your brain to know what your spirit knows.

But always follow that inward witness, follow that peace.

Again, jesus talked about the spirit of truth.

He'll guide you into truth.

He will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak and he will tell you things to come.

So we have that inward witness, that guide to lead us.

Guide us and show us things to come.

If we take advantage of who we are in Christ, we get to employ these spiritual laws.

And when we employ these spiritual laws again, these are things that God instituted from the very beginning when we employ these spiritual laws, these spiritual laws will cause our natural conditions to change.

So there's a hierarchy of laws here We've got natural laws and then we've got spiritual laws.

We're authorized to bind and loose on earth and in the spirit realm.

So when we put these spiritual laws, god's sovereignty, to work in our life, these things will cause our natural conditions to change.

So again, stay humble, stay teachable, put God first, don't be surprised when trouble comes.

You have the answer to it.

We have the written logos, and then we have the revelation, knowledge by the Holy Spirit on the inside of us.

And then be led by the inward witness.

Follow peace.

You won't ever miss it when you follow peace.

Don't follow your emotion.

God doesn't relate to your emotions.

He doesn't relate to your brain, your logic or your reason.

Follow that peace on the inside.

Your brain can know stuff later, but if you follow peace, you'll find God's way.

You'll be bound to God's way every time and you won't miss it.

And so I hope that's an encouragement for you tonight.

It's a simple truth.

It's one that we hear around here in some form or fashion on a regular basis, but we shouldn't be taken for granted the basics of life there.

This is how we're supposed to live a successful life and be victorious in this life, and so apply that.

Put that to work.

To the degree that you put it to work, you're going to have victory and success and have a joyful life.