Teach Me
“Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.”(Psalm 143:10)
“Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths;guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.” (Psalm 25:4-5)
Hello Holy Ones,
One of the questions I often get from people is, “How do you know God’s will?” I can answer that in the traditional religious way and say, “just follow these 10 steps and you will certainly hear God’s will”. But that would be the consumeristic, fast-food version of hearing God’s voice that honestly puts the onus on the individual to do, and keep doing everything right, until they think they hear God speak. That may work for some, but it will soon lead to discouragement once the formula is not successful every time. For me, and I am certainly no expert, the above scriptures have been instrumental in my life in teaching me that: number 1, I can hear God; and number 2, He wants to teach, show, and guide me into His perfect will. And… there is a perfect will He wants me to walk in. The key to all of it is intimacy with Jesus! Now, that is something you cannot teach people. You either love Jesus so much that you desire to spend time with Him or you don’t. If you love Him, you are willing to put in the time to get to really know His heart, His ways, His desires. In other words…is He your delight? Because if He is your first love and your delight, then your will should line up with His will (Psalm 37:4). Jesus said, “Whatever you ask in my name, that will I do” (John 14:13). It must be His will we desire to do, to glorify His name and further His purposes – are we seeking first the Kingdom of God and the King of the Kingdom, then He loves to reveal His will to those who earnestly seek for His best. How much is He worth to us!
Let me illustrate with the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10. The picture is a perfect one of what I am saying: Mary “sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what the Lord said (taught)”; while “Martha was distracted by all the preparations” (Luke 10:39-40). Sound familiar? What was first in each of their lives? Jesus said, “Martha, Martha you are worried and upset (distracted) by many things but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better. (10:41-42). Jesus clearly rewarded Mary for her choice to choose Jesus over the “distractions”. First Jesus, then life’s “to do” list. I tell people all the time to start their day with Jesus and watch what happens. Usually the response is, “But I have to…”. Exactly! Distractions! It is amazing how much better the day goes in fulfilling our “duties” when we put Jesus first. Carve out a chunk of time every morning to quiet your soul and hear His voice. It will be life transforming! Now, we all know full well that distractions are not always physical; they can be mental and emotional distractions. In either case, the Lord is not our first love – the distractions are! Worry, fear and anxiety are emotional distractions that lead us away from God’s voice and allow the tempter’s voice to be heard instead. Jesus said, “do not worry…seek first the Kingdom” (Matt. 6:25-33). Get up early, load up on your “daily bread”. Replace your thoughts with God’s word, and you will hear His voice speak through His word!
We would all agree that the Apostle Paul had an intimate relationship with the Lord. He experienced God in ways few of us have. If you read his letters, it becomes very clear that His first love was Jesus and doing His will. That came out of the intimacy of putting God first. When you delight yourself in His presence, His will flows into your life. For those who are still looking for a formula, here it is: “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice -- the kind He will accept. When you think of what He has done for you, is this too much to ask? Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect His will really is" (Roman 12:1-2 NLT). In a nutshell, God must be first, and we must be totally surrendered to Him to do His will.
If you meditate on the verses from the Psalms at the top, what emerges is a picture of submission. In order to be taught by Jesus, we have to see Him as the one who holds all the truth we need to know. He must be the teacher and we must be the students. That is the relationship we must cultivate. As Paul says, “in Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:2-3). Paul prays for the Colossian believers asking, “God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding” (Col. 1:9). So I deduce that if I want to know God’s will, I must know Jesus – really know Him by spending time with Him. I can hear some of you say, “but I talk to Him all day long”. Great! But do we hear His voice telling us what to do? Have we heard His voice at the beginning of the day telling us what to do, and who we’re going to meet, and what we are going to say to that individual? Did He reveal in our quiet time with Him the plans He has for us today before all the “distractions” fill our day? Was wisdom and knowledge downloaded to us to face the day? Have we been given that which we need to walk humbly with your God? Is He first?
There is a lot of danger in the world. Satan is always waiting to trap us, distract us and lead us away from God through life’s circumstances, false teaching, chaotic situations, frustrations, etc. He’ll do anything in his power to short circuit our day. The Apostle John writes these words to the church in a hostile world, “As for you, the anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit-- just as it has taught you, remain in Him.” (1John 2:27). The New Living Translation puts in “Holy Spirit” instead of “anointing” – the very presence of Jesus in us! To know His will and walk in it, is to cultivate an intimate relationship with Jesus through Holy Spirit living in us! Psalms 25 and 143 are both attributed to King David. He was a man who possessed Holy Spirit, and Holy Spirit possessed him (Psalm 51:11). Psalm 119 is traditionally ascribed to David, in which he repeatedly writes, “teach me your…”. David was teachable! I have both read of and observed that people who do great things for and with God are those who, like Mary, sit at the feet of Jesus and allow themselves to be taught by Him. They are also always listening to Holy Spirit teach them what to do as they walk the road called “life”. Only one thing is needed to know God’s will: spend quality time with Him, allowing Him to teach us. Intimacy with Jesus is the only thing that will get us through the difficult days we are about to enter as this world becomes more hostile to us. Meditate on psalm 143!
May God teach you as you sit in His presence!
"Advancing the Kingdom of God by releasing Spirit-filled followers to serve Jesus in freedom and joy."
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