Warren Taylor - Do I have to be controlled by my circumstances? - Sunday, September 6, 2026

Let's pray.

Glorious Father, we ask that you would soften our heart.

We ask that you would renew our mind.

And Father, we ask that you would take us on a journey where you walk so closely with us, so close, closer than you've ever walked before.

May we rejoice in your goodness and your kindness and your wonder.

Amen.

Over the last year or two, I've had some medical episodes, and I found myself going through some mood swings and some negative thinking.

And I've after I come out of that, I'm thinking, Lord, I want to do better with you.

I want to say I don't want to be controlled, manipulated by my circumstances.

Times that destable us and leave us vulnerable.

These times can lead us to question God.

Why is God allowing this?

Why is God slow to act?

Why is God quiet?

Why doesn't he show me how to pray?

How can I prepare my heart for such a season?

How am I opposing God by the way I've positioned myself?

And I believe God wants to transform us.

God wants to heal our hearts, and God wants to empower us.

I believe God will want me to talk about the following points.

One, how do our circumstances lead us to believe lies about God's nature and authority?

Secondly, in difficult situations, keep your focus on God.

Thirdly, allow God's creative restoration to wash over you.

And fourthly, Nick Voyjek's testimony.

How do our circumstances lead us to believe lies concerning God's nature and authority?

I've drawn from my own life experiences, but also in praying for inner healing for others over many years.

No one sets out to question God's goodness and authority, but life experiences can lead us down a slippery path.

For those who attended the school of prayer, some of this content will be familiar.

I pray God brings a freshness to this truth.

I want to look at three scriptures.

Now, in the first scripture in Judges 6, the Midianites raided the Israelite towns, stealing their crops, stealing their livestock.

The Israelites were so fearful of the Midianites, they hid in caves and mountains.

Gideon was threshing wheat at the bottom of the wine press to hide the wheat from the Midianites.

In Judges 6, I think it's coming up on the screen, twelve to fifteen.

The angel of the Lord appeared to him, that's Gideon, and said, Mighty hero, the Lord is with you.

Sir, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?

And where are the miracles our ancestors taught us about?

Didn't they say the Lord brought you out of Egypt?

But now the Lord has abandoned us and has handed us over to the Middinites.

Then the Lord turned to him and said, Go with the strength you have and rescue Israel from the Midianites.

I am sending you.

But Lord Gideon replied, How can I rescue Israel?

My clan is the weakest in the whole of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family.

I can't begin to imagine how traumatizing and intimidating this period of time would be for the Israelites.

A sense of hopelessness and fear crippled the Israelites.

Gideon and Israelites may have reflected the misery of the Israelites.

He didn't intentionally formulate a lie concerning God.

Maybe you're thinking, what lie?

I read it again.

But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.

The pain drives these misguided views about God.

God has abandoned me.

God has abandoned us.

God has given up on me, given up on us.

God has no plans for me.

I believe Gideon is trying to explain and navigate the pain, but it is simply not true.

Sometimes it can take trusted friends who hold you in prayer to see these lies.

In a prayer for inner healing, I would ask the person seeking prayer to renounce the lie that God abandoned them.

Just saying something like this, I renounce the lie that God has abandoned me.

Renouncing or rejecting the lie breaks its power and displaces it from you.

In Hebrews 13, 5 it says, For God has said, I will never fail you or abandon you.

And in Jeremiah 29, 11, it says, For I know that I the plans that I have for you, says the Lord, they are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

Agreeing or affirming with this truth declares God's power and authority over you.

You could say something like this I affirm the truth that God will never leave me or give up on me.

My heart is not trying to drum up in a healing business for myself and our team.

I am very content for you to use this sermon as a resource for God to heal yourself.

I just want to empower you, so happy for you to create your own healing with God wherever you can.

The second scripture.

The disease can be easily seen when not treated.

So lepers would cover the affected parts of their body.

So the leprosy could not be seen.

Yet in the early days of medical treatment, we had limited skills and knowledge how to deal with infectious diseases.

Our only option was to separate people and declare the lepers unclean.

If this wasn't enough, people will be designated to walk ahead of the lepers, declaring in a loud voice, leper approaching.

Can you imagine the stigma of being a leper?

The isolation from family and community, being typecast, you are unclean.

The man wanted to be cleansed from the disease.

In Mark one, verses forty to forty-one.

A man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed.

If you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean, he said.

Move with compassion.

Jesus reached out and touched him.

I am willing, he said, Be healed.

If I try and zero in again on the lie, the leper is believing.

The key phrase is if you are willing, is probably thinking that Jesus doesn't care about him, that Jesus is repulsed by him, Jesus doesn't want to move closer to him.

Jesus is like the rest of society.

He doubted whether Jesus wanted to.

Was Jesus like everybody else?

Jesus didn't want to m move closer to him or touch him.

But when you have Jesus in person, inner healing isn't needed.

Jesus did move closer.

That was scary and exciting for the man.

Jesus touched him.

He had never experienced that touch for such a long, long time.

This man was healed on the inside before his body was healed.

In inner healing, the people who come forward for prayer have said, I'm not sure God loves me.

I'm not sure that I'm good enough for God to love.

Maybe people are talking from their pain.

Rejection has been evident in many of their relationships.

The lies concerning God are imprisoning them and causing them grief.

There is truth in many scriptures.

If I looked at 1 John 4, 16, very quickly, it says, God is love.

That means everything that God does, he acts out of love.

You'll be pleased to know I won't teach you any further how to unravel this lie.

I'll let God do it.

The third and final scripture story.

Maybe I can hear a few hoorays at this stage.

A father whose son is demonized travels a long distance to obtain healing for his son.

The distance of the trip tires the father physically, but the actions of the disciples tire him spiritually.

The disciples tried to deliver his son and could not.

Their inability to help the father tore away at his hope.

Yet his trust in the character of Jesus remained unaltered.

Maybe his interaction with the disciples led him to doubt that his son could be healed.

This is the dad speaking to Jesus in Mark twenty nine twenty-two.

He said, Help me if you can.

Cut the father some slack.

He is exhausted and crushed.

Jesus speaks, Mark 9 23.

What do you mean if I can?

Anything is possible for a person who believes.

I believe the reply of Jesus ignites the man's faith because he says, I do believe, but help my unbelief.

What is the Father really saying?

I have always believed in your glorious character, but trials and troubles have led me down a diff slippery path of doubting your power and authority to heal.

Jesus had not changed, but the man's perception of Jesus had changed.

Maybe Jesus' comments led to a new reality for the man.

Unbelief says Jesus' power and authority is not enough.

It is a lie, as mentioned before.

We often begin to believe lies concerning God in painful and stressful situations.

Secondly, in difficult situations, keep your focus on God.

I believe that when we face difficult situations, whether it's buying a house, starting a new career, experience the death of a lost loved one or the death of a marriage.

In every situation, there is an element of planning.

We can't bury our heads in the sand, but the more we focus on the difficulty, the bigger it gets.

It is like looking through a microscope at a small insect.

As the problem gets bigger, our anxiety goes through the roof.

I've been lucky over the last few years to tutor some students.

I say something like this I say, do the questions that you find easy first.

If you encounter a difficult question, leave it and come back to it later.

To plow or fight against a difficult question, the brain freezes when stressed or panicked.

Come back to it later when the brain has been released.

I believe the same is true in life.

Stress and fear cause us to retreat and lead us to a sense of helplessness and hopelessness because the problem has become too big for us.

We want to give up.

We long for a time free from the demands of the problem.

In 1 Peter 5 7, it says, Give all your worries to God, for he cares about you.

I suppose we can use this verse to say, I don't have to do anything.

God will do everything.

I believe the verse says far more about trusting God with his creative direction for us in trying times.

I like the attitude of Paul and Silas in Acts whilst in jail.

They weren't just in jail, which is bad enough.

They were in the inner dungeon.

They had been severely beaten.

They were chained to each other amongst urine and feces.

They could have easily felt, woe me, life is bad.

There is no escape from this.

No possible release.

No one's coming out to coming to break us out, like the movies.

What did Paul and Silas do?

This is in Acts 16, 24 to 26.

So the jailer put them in the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in the stocks.

Around midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing to God, and the other prisoners were listening.

Suddenly there was a massive earthquake, and the prison was shaken to its foundations.

All the doors immediately flew open, and the chains of every prisoner fell off.

We are not told of the content of Paul and Silas's prayers, but I don't think the prayers were like this God it's smelly in here, and I'm bloody and bruised.

Save me.

They believed God was big and powerful.

They truly believed that nothing was impossible for God.

They worshiped enthusiastically and rejoiced that others heard their worship.

Graham Cook, a renowned prophet, says your secret place isn't something out there.

It's in here.

It's on the inside of you, in the inner man of your spirit, where your spirit mingles with God's spirit, and self-control steps back into that secret place.

Instead of running headlong into circumstances, it calms us to remember that we were never we never need to charge into the obvious fight before us, like the one that points to people as our enemy, or to the problems that scream to be logically solved right now.

Our life in Christ isn't like that.

Allow God's creative restoration to wash over you.

When we're faced with a difficult situation or decision, the common approach to deal with it is to list the pros and cons, the good and bad points.

Maybe the side with the highest number of points wins.

We're encouraged to stew over it, to constantly think about our decision, to review our decision, to talk to friends and get their advice.

This constant thinking and challenging our thinking is seen as a wonderful way to reach the correct decision.

Except the constant overthinking leads and drives us to anxiety.

The world tells us this is what happens in a personal crisis.

In Proverbs 423, it says, Guard your hearts above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

If we are the soldier guarding our heart, have we just let the enemy in?

Anxiety, worry, and fear through the front door.

Is there another way?

In Philippians 4, six and seven, it says, Don't worry about anything, instead pray about everything.

Tell God what you need and thank him for all that he has done.

Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.

His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Not worrying.

Oh come on.

That goes against all the rules of living on earth.

Tell God what you need.

Doesn't he already know?

God wants us to engage with him.

God wants us to trust him for the provision.

God's peace is not the absence of conflict.

Because Jesus is declared the Prince of Peace, peace is the presence of God.

We can allow his presence into our hearts.

His presence will fall upon us to empower us.

Just as we did a dodgy job of guarding our hearts, God will fill our hearts with his presence.

He is the anointed guard to our hearts.

Having said that, God wants you to make a personal commitment to guard your heart.

Now to God's way of leading us through trials.

He is not completely opposed to the pros and cons method, as it helps avoid rapid and foolish decision making.

But God recognizes the toll that it takes upon our hearts and our minds.

It also relies on man thinking to determine the resources available.

God wants us to go to Him first.

He wants us to include Him to reveal the way forward.

I've been in difficult relational struggles and was seeking God's guidance and wisdom.

And I believe God said, I've got it covered.

I then asked God, How are you doing that?

And God was silent.

You could be mistaken for thinking God works in an ad hoc way in our lives without any planning.

The creation story in Genesis describes a clear plan.

Then in the books of Exodus, when Pharaoh allowed the Israelites to leave Egypt, the Israelites camped between the hills and the Red Sea.

They were trapped.

The only way out was over the hills.

In Exodus 14, verses two to four, this is God speaking to Moses.

Camp them along the shore across from Baalzefon.

Then Pharaoh will think the Israelites are confused.

They are trapped in the wilderness, and once I again I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will chase after you.

Now the crunch I have planned this in order to display my glory through Pharaoh and his whole army.

After this the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.

The plan sounded great, but the only one who knew about the plan was Moses.

So when the six hundred chariots and soldiers caught up with the Israelites, the Israelites were filled with fear and began to blame God and Moses.

In Exodus 14, verse 11, is the Israelites crying out to God, Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness?

Exodus 14:11

Weren't there enough graves for us in Egypt?

Not happy campus.

These were not prayers.

This was an angry and fear-filled tirade.

Remember, God knew the plan.

Sorry, God, sorry, Moses knew the plan.

Moses spoke boldly and with authority.

His words were drenched in encouragement.

His words were empowered with hope.

Two or three sentences from Moses and their misery lifted.

Two or three sentences from Moses and their angst evaporated.

They were on board the trust train again.

God did not explain in detail how he was going to defeat the enemy.

God did not explain in detail how he was going to rescue the Israelites.

Maybe the details are too much for us.

Maybe God knows that we treasure our comfort so much that we continue to jostle with God over his leading us in the midst of trials.

Suffice to say, as we are like the Israelites, we are happy for God is on our side and happy for him to move us forward.

In Exodus 14 13, but Moses told the people, Don't be afraid, just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today.

The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again.

It revealed the truth.

Some say it was a prophetic declaration because the Egyptians were killed the following day.

God never corrected the Israelite campus for their fear and negativity.

But the next interaction between God and Moses was interesting.

Then the Lord said to Moses, Why are you crying out to me?

Tell the people to get moving, pick up your staff and raise your hand over the sea.

Divide the water so the Israelites will walk through the middle of the sea on dry ground.

Had the fear and anxiety of the campus affected Moses.

Moses knew God didn't lie.

Moses knew God could do mighty miracles.

He had seen it before.

God always had a plan.

He doesn't always reveal it to us.

But he doesn't want us to shrink or retreat backward in fear and hopelessness.

He wants to trust us to trust and believe in his goodness, power, and authority.

In Isaiah 43, verse 19, says, For I am going to do something new.

Isaiah 43:19

So you have already begun.

Do you see it?

I will make a pathway through the wilderness.

I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.

Do we sometimes not see the new resources that God has been putting on the table for we've been planning our own solution?

Is God creating rivers out of a dry and scorched riverbed?

Is God creating something out of nothing?

It is certainly part of God's skill set.

It certainly fits with God being the supernatural creator, the supernatural healer, and the supernatural deliverer.

Now to a score story from scripture that absolutely blows my mind.

There are quite a few embedded in my mind now.

The Lord gave the Israelites victory over the Amorites, and God answered the most extraordinary prayer.

This is from Joshua 10, verses 12 and 13.

Joshua 10:12

On the day the Lord gave the Israelites victory over the Amorites, Joshua prayed to the Lord in front of the people of Israel.

He said, Let the sun stand still over Gibeon and the moon over the valley of Ajalon.

So the Lord's so the sons stood still, and the moon stayed in place until the nation of Israel defeated its enemies.

And then Joshua 10 14, there's never been a day like this, one before or since when the Lord answered such a prayer.

Surely the Lord fought for Israel that day.

Supernatural daylight saving, isn't it?

I admit that I wouldn't have had prayed with such amazing prayer like that.

Joshua believed that God could answer it.

I think he prayed it in front of the people to increase their faith.

And if you'd been president at the time, it would have worked for you as well.

Fourthly, Nick Voyjek's testimony.

Nick is Australian, I'm sure many of you know about him.

He was born without arms and legs.

His parents were when they first met Nick, they were dismayed.

Maybe they realized the long journey before them in the care of Nick.

Nick was so grateful for the love of his family.

They were his rock.

Yet he found school tormenting and traumatizing.

And one day, at the age of ten, he decided to drown himself in the bath, but stopped because he knew the pain it would cause his family.

He became a Christian at the age of fifteen.

Nick despaired of having a girlfriend.

How would she hold his hand?

Slowly but profoundly his life changed.

Joy filled it.

Nick as a joy that is absolutely contagious.

The 60 Minutes TV show host said, Every now and then in this job, you meet a person who makes your spirit soar.

This is how I felt when I first met Nick.

Nick was encouraged by a school cleaner or janitor to become an evangelist.

He now speaks in jails, schools, and churches.

Jasper, could you put on that clip?

I couldn't explain it, so I'm going to look at a little three, four-minute clip.

Thank you so much.

Just as a conclusion to that.

Beautiful story.

Nick is now married and has four children.

In conclusion, our experiences in life can lead us to perceive God's nature in the way that is contrary to the truth.

You can ask God to help you dislodge these lies or seek the assistance of trusted friends in prayer.

God wants to lift our focus from our circumstances to Him.

Focusing our difficulties magnifies them and leads us to anxiety, fear, and worry.

Usually God becomes small in comparison to our problems.

God wants to provide a creative restoration for our lives.

He is the master of the impossible.

He desires to lead you into peace and joy in the midst of trials.

This seems completely at odds with the way the world believes.

The transformation on God in our lives is absolutely amazing.

God is an exuberant, loving, and powerful leader of our hearts.

Thank you for listening.