Follow the Directions

We are in week 6 of our series, “Called”.

We’ve been discussing how each of us have a specific call on our lives.

We’ve talked about why it’s important to live our calling and how we can discover it.

We’ve also talked about how we will be rewarded in heaven not based on what we did but what we were called to do.

Last week we talked about some calling killers.

We said there are weights that can hinder our calling or taking us completely out.

Things like security, money, or relationships.

And then we talked about how sin can take us out of the race God has set before us.

Like always if you’ve missed any of our messages you can go to our website, app, Facebook, or YouTube channel to watch.

Today the title of my message is, “Follow the Directions”.

Have you ever had to put something together that came in a million pieces?

Like anything from IKEA!

We bought two small nightstands from IKEA.

I thought how many pieces can this have?

Apparently a lot!

I couldn’t believe when I opened the box how many pieces were in there for such a small basic nightstand.

So what do you need to do to put this thing together?

Read the directions.

Have you ever tried to put something like this without directions?

If I wanted those nightstands to come together exactly the way they are supposed to I NEED to read the directions.

The moment I try to take matters into my own hands and do it, it’s a mess.

It’s the same when it comes to our callings.

If you want to do what you are called to do you need to follow the directions of what that is.

The question is where are the directions?

How do I get access to these directions?

The answer is the Holy Spirit.

John 16:13 NIV “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.”

The Holy Spirit is our guide.

It says He will guide us into all truth!

And He will tell you what is yet to come.

The Holy Spirit is there to show you the directions of your life.

The question is will you listen?

Romans 8:14 NIV “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.”

It doesn’t say for those who are led by their intellect.

It doesn’t say for those who are led by THEIR understanding.

Or led by their emotions.

Or led by their friends' advice.

It says “for those who are led by the SPIRIT of GOD!”

That’s the Holy Spirit.

But there are so many believers who aren’t being led by the Holy Spirit.

They just go about their business and are content with the way things are and don’t need the Holy Spirit.

And those people are most likely not living completely in their calling.

So there are a couple quick things you need to know about being led by the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit NEVER contradicts the Word of God.

We talked about this before.

The first thing you need to do if you think the Holy Spirit is speaking to you is make sure it doesn’t go against scripture.

That’s why you can be confident that if you think the Holy Spirit is leading you to do something that involves sin, it’s NOT the Holy Spirit.

It’s like if someone were to say, “The Holy Spirit told me to go to the bar with my buddies and get drunk with them because I’m going to have great conversations about Jesus with them.”

You can guarantee that wasn’t the Holy Spirit because the Bible is clear on getting drunk.

So always make sure what you think the Holy Spirit is telling you doesn’t go against scripture.

He Leads Primarily by the Inward Witness.

What that means is that most of the time when the Holy Spirit leads you it’s not going to be by an audible voice.

It’s going to be in your spirit.

It’s that feeling of great peace when you are making a decision and that most likely means that God is saying yes.

And when you have that “check” in your spirit, there’s a good chance that’s God saying HOLD ON.

Whenever I’ve made a big decision in my life, the thing that has confirmed to me that I should do or not do something is having that peace.

That peace of “this just feels right”.

And if I’ve ever had that feeling of uncertainty or a check in my Spirit I didn’t do it.

Like moving to Florida like I talked about last week.

Galatians 5:25 “Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.”

Paul says that EVERY part of our lives should be led by the Holy Spirit.

It should just be something we naturally do.

It’s that constant desire to do God’s will.

Now some people might take this scripture a little too far.

They need to pray for 10 minutes to see if it’s God’s will for them to eat a cheeseburger at that moment.

The point is our lives should be constantly seeking and listening to the Holy Spirit.

And if we live our lives that way if something comes up that God doesn’t want you to do because maybe he’s protecting you, you’ll get that check.

It’s like if you’re a teenager and your friend invites you over to their house one Friday night.

And it seems innocent, you’re just going to hang out like normal.

But all of a sudden you get a check in your spirit.

There’s a good chance that’s the Holy Spirit warning you about something.

And then you come to find out after that your friends parents were gone and they were throwing a big party with drinking and drugs and all sorts of stuff.

God was looking out for you and protecting you from being put in a position to do something you didn’t want to do.

And when we are constantly being led by the Spirit those moments will happen more than you think.

But following the Holy Spirit's leading can be difficult.

Remember we talked about how He gives us a glimpse of our calling?

So a lot of times we think that I’m here and my calling is over there, so my path is going to be a straight line towards it.

But in reality we go over here and over there in this wilderness and through that trial to get prepared for what’s coming our way.

So what can happen to many people is that we can try to birth an Ishmael.

If you remember the story of Abraham, God promised him that he would be a father of a great nation.

That his offspring would be like the stars in the sky.

This promise came when Abraham had no children.

So obviously Abraham got a glimpse of having children, in particular a son.

Keep in mind that Abraham is 75 at this time.

So you know he was thinking that this was going to happen sooner rather than later.

Well 10 years go by and he still doesn’t have a son with his wife Sarah.

So Abraham and Sarah do what a lot of people do and they try to take matters into their own hands.

They think maybe we didn’t fully understand what he said.

I mean he never said that Sarah would be the one to give him his son.

So Sarah has the idea of Abraham marrying her servant Hagar and having her give him a son.

Abraham agrees and feels like this is the right decision.

So Hagar gives him a son, Ishmael.

Technically Ishmael was birthed out of the promise from God.

He said Abraham would have a son and didn’t say by who.

So here’s Ishmael.

They “helped” God bring to pass what He had promised them.

But he wasn’t the promised son.

At age 99 God told Abraham that Sarah would give birth to a son and that he was the promise one.

And what happened?

Ishmael, who was the son of the flesh, didn’t get along and fought with Isaac, who was the son of the promise.

We will have opportunities to birth our calling in the flesh or let the Holy Spirit birth it for us.

What you birth in the flesh you’re going to have to provide for in the flesh.

You’re going to struggle and strive and make things way harder than it’s supposed to be.

When you let God birth it, there’s a supernatural element to it that is amazing.

I remember a moment for me when I ALMOST birthed an Ishmael.

When I first started in ministry I started at Calvary Assembly of God which is where my dad was the Minister of Music and my mentor Pastor Duane Klas was on staff and doing children’s ministry at the time.

And Pastor Duane connected me with the Youth Pastor there at the time and I started interning with him.

After a year the church had to sell the building which is the building where our Rockford campus is.

And they were going to move up to Cedar Springs in a small building and the Senior Pastor was actually leaving.

The Youth Pastor was going to become the Senior Pastor.

So the current Senior Pastor pulls me into his office one day and tells me he wants me to be the Youth Pastor.

He said that within a year he thinks the church will be able to pay to bring me on full-time.

Now what’s important to remember about this is when God called me into ministry a year before this I knew He said, full-time youth ministry.

And of course my thought process was that within a couple years that would happen.

Now here we are a year later and the Pastor is telling me that I’ll be full-time in the next year which if my math is correct would be 2 years after I started!

So naturally I thought this was it.

So I prayed about it and talked to the current Youth Pastor because obviously he wanted me to go.

And the only other option I had was to stay with the building and intern with Rockford Res.

I had no desire to do that.

They already had interns and I knew that if I stayed with them that I would be starting all over again.

My year of interning at Calvary would mean nothing.

So I had to make a choice.

Move with Calvary and be the Youth Pastor and get be full-time in a year

Or start over with Rockford Res where your year of interning will be for nothing and who knows when you’ll be in full-time ministry.

So to me it was an obvious choice.

I hate change to begin with so the idea of changing churches and working with people I didn’t know wasn’t appealing to me at all.

So I knew what I wanted to do.

But I prayed just to be sure.

And guess what?

I had a check in my spirit.

I felt like God was telling me to stay with Res.

So I told the current Youth Pastor that I wasn’t going with him.

He said he knew I wasn’t going with him.

So I started fresh with Res Life.

And looking back it was definitely the right choice.

I tried to get together or even just talk to my old Youth Pastor and he sent me a text saying he’s really busy and just doesn’t have time.

He was clearly upset and offended that I didn’t go with him.

Well he took over the church as the Senior Pastor and lasted maybe a couple years.

He then got out of ministry and moved out of state and the church struggled for a while.

And I look back and just thank God that I heard the Holy Spirit and listened.

Because everything in me said go with them.

But God knew what was coming and how it would affect me.

But I had to make sure I wasn’t led by my feelings or emotions but that I was led by the Holy Spirit.

If I would’ve gone with Calvary I would have been birthing an Ishmael.

I would have been pursuing something that was in line with God’s promise or plan for me but it would’ve come from MY doing and MY timing.

And I would’ve missed what God’s actual plan was for me.

Now some people might say but I feel like I’m in this place where I have no idea which way to go.

Am I supposed to just sit back and do nothing and wait?

NO

We should always be doing something and moving forward.

If you don’t know what you’re supposed to do next then just keep doing the last thing God called you to do.

Be faithful with what He’s already told you to do.

God can’t steer a ship that’s sitting still.

God may be moving you on to something else but don’t stop doing what you’re doing until he reveals that to you.

Or like in my situation when I was unemployed.

The last thing I should’ve done is just do nothing and believe God’s going to drop a job in my lap when it’s time.

I knew God had a job out there for me but I needed to put the work in and look.

And then when opportunities came up like us moving to Florida, I had to pray and ask God to show me if this was the right job.

When I finally did get a job it was with Airway Oxygen and I knew it was where I was supposed to go.

I had a peace and excitement about it!

Bottom line is don’t try to make God’s promises happen in your own strength.

If you do you will most likely be miserable and you will not accomplish near the things you would have if you would just be patient and wait for the Holy Spirit's leading.

Remember God’s path for you to get from where you are now to where you will eventually end up is NOT always a straight line.

Sometimes we go through some wildernesses or take the long way around because God is building our character and preparing us for what lies ahead.

So no matter where you are in life right now make it a goal to each and every day to just pray and say, “Holy Spirit lead me. Show me what you want me to do today and in the future.”

I promise you will never regret being led by the Holy Spirit.

I’m excited because this is a great lead up to our worship night this Thursday.

We’re going to take 10-15 minutes and talk about the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

If you want to go to the next level in your relationship with God and with the Holy Spirit then be here.

Altar Call

Prayer team available during worship.