Experiencing God- Lesson 28- Adjusments Required

Luke 9:23–24 (KJV) And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.

Many of us want God to speak and lead us in His will. We want the excitement of God working through us, but we are resistant to making any major adjustments so He will.

The pattern of scripture reveals that every time God speaks to people about something He wants to do, they have to realign their lives to Him in some significant way.

When God’s people are willing to take the necessary actions, God accomplishes His purposes through those He calls.

A Second Critical Turning Point

First God will bring you and I to a crisis of belief where we must decide to believe God is who He says he is and that He will do what He says He will do.

The second turning point in your life and mine happens when we decide to make the necessary adjustments to align our lives with God’s plans and purposes.

If you choose to make the necessary adjustments, you can go on to obedience, but if you refuse, you could miss what God has in store for your life.

Obedience begins in the hears as a willingness to do whatever God says.

Your decision to make the adjustments that God asks you to make is a demonstration of your intention to obey God’s instructions going forward.

You Can’t Stay Where You Are and Go With God

When God speaks, revealing what He is about to do, that revelation is your invitation to adjust Your life to Him.

You cannot continue business as usual or stay where you are and god with God at the same time.

For Example:

Noah could not continue life as usual and build and ark at the same time. (Genesis 6)

Abraham could not stay in Ur or Haran and father a nation in Canaan. (Genesis 12:1-8)

Moses could not stay on the back side of the desert herding sheep and stand before Pharaoh at the same time. (Exodus 3)

Rahab could not obey the king and save the lives of the Israelite spies. (Joshua 2:1-24)

Ruth could not remain with her relatives and join the people of God in Israel. (Ruth 1:16-18)

David had to leave his sheep to become king. (I Samuel 16:1-13)

Jonah had to leave his home and go against what he had been taught in order to preach in Nineveh (Jonah 1-4)

Esther could not remain silent before the king and save her people (Esther 4:14)

Peter, Andrew, James, and John had to leave their fishing businesses in order to follow Jesus. (Matthew 4:18-22)

Matthew had to leave his lucrative tax collecting job to follow Jesus. (Matthew 9:9)

Saul had to completely change direction in order for God to use him to preach the gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 9:1-19)

Enormous changes and significant adjustments were required whenever God’s people determined to obey His calling.

Some had to leave family and home, others had to abandon long held prejudices and reorient their thinking.

Men and women were willing to leave behind their goals, ambitions, ideals, and desires to follow God.

Everything had to be yielded to God and their entire life adjusted to Him.

The moment the necessary adjustments were made, God began to accomplish His purposes through them.

Each one learned that adjusting one’s life to God is always well worth the cost.

Many times we wrongly assume that God will not ask ordinary people like you and I to make major adjustments to our lives.

Yet the scriptures plainly show that God uses ordinary people ( just like you and I), who are willing to make these adjustments, to do extraordinary things.

If you want to be a disciple of Jesus, you have no choice, you will have to make significant alterations in your life to follow Him.

Until you are ready to make any change necessary to follow and obey what God has said you will be of little use to God.

Our natural tendency is to expect God to adjust to us and to our plans—We want to obey God but only on our terms.

Isaiah 55:9 (KJV) For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are my ways higher than your ways, And my thoughts than your thoughts.

We must come to realize that our plans do not often align with what God has planned for us!

The only way to follow God is to align our thinking and our actions with His ways.

The Rich Young Ruler Refused to Adjust

The rich ruler wanted eternal life, but he could not bring himself to pay the price that Jesus asked.

Luke 18:18-27

Wealth stood in the way of his following the Lord, but Jesus knew that this man could not wholly serve God and cling to his possessions at the same time.

The Lord knows what it is in each of our hearts and lives that hinders us from wholly following Him.

Many modern believers struggle with this same issue with wealth, while others struggle with the thought of leaving behind the familiar, and still others are hindered by relationships that they are unwilling to surrender to God.

Adjusting our lives to God means dealing with financial, physical, emotional, spiritual, and relational barriers that prevent us from absolute obedience to Him.

Elisha’s Adjustments

I Kings 19:15-21

God spoke to Elijah the prophet and instructed him to appoint Elisha to be his successor.

Elijah found Elisha plowing a field with twelve yoke of oxen.

When Elisha heard God’s call through Elijah, he immediately made major adjustments.

He voluntarily left his family and his farming behind to follow God’s call.

Elisha did something we might consider radical when he burned the farming equipment and sacrificed the oxen.

He was actually giving tangible evidence of the permanence of decision, leaving behind his old life to go forward following God.

Once Elisha made the necessary adjustments, he was in a position to obey God and to serve in the role that God had appointed him to.

God worked mightily throughout the life of Elisha and performed many great miracles through him.

“The world has yet to see what God can do through a man who is totally yielded to Him” —Henry Varley

It is impossible to follow Jesus without being willing to make adjustments to your life.

The Necessary Adjustments

So what type of adjustments does God require us to make?

Some examples might include:

your circumstances (job, home, finances)

your relationships (family, friends, business associates)

your thinking (prejudices, methodology, planning)

your commitments (to family, church, job, plans, tradition)

your actions (how you pray, give, or serve)

your beliefs (about God, His purposes, His ways, your relationship to Him)

Sometimes and adjustment involves several of the above areas all at once.

As was the case with Peter and his interaction with Cornelius.

The experience Peter had with Cornelius required adjustments in Peter’s thinking and beliefs, his commitment to long held traditions, his habit of not associating with Gentiles.

Peter made the necessary adjustments and God used him as a human instrument to take the gospel to these Gentile people.

Being able to identify an adjustment is not as important as making it.

Once you understand what change God wants you to make, He will help you to know how to do it.