Pastor Elwin Ahu
March 2, 2003 - W0309

Ever wondered if the decisions you make are in tandem with following Godís desires for your life?  Or ever tried asking God for directions in decision-making, expecting thunder and lightning answers, but instead got nothing?  Seeking clarity and not finding it can be tiresome, confusing and frustrating.  At times, I think it would be easier if God had a website.  God.com. that simply popped up every morning so I could check and see what God planned for my day.  Then I could set my agenda according to His desires for my life and life.

The Old Testament is very clear with directions God gave Moses for the Israelites two thousand years ago.  This included the Ten Commandments and specific instructions regarding how and when to give sacrifices. Suffice to say; although Godís directions were clear, the Israelites still had problems following them. And this wasnít because of God, but rather the condition of peopleís hearts.

So then in order to make things clearer, in the New Testament God sends Jesus whom fulfills His prophecy.  Yet even though Jesus walked among the people, taught like theyíve never been taught before, and even performed miracles, it didnít make a difference in peoplesí lives.  They were still confused and unable to discern and comprehend Godís desires for their lives.

Q1:  Can you relate to the Israelites?  What do you think you struggle with most from being able to follow Godís directions?

Today, Godís instructions are still clear -- thou shalt not murder, steal etc.  However, just like the Israelites, we have the same problem following His directions. Many times we want to know Godís desire for our lives, but find it difficult to know the answers.  It could be because there are areas in life where God doesnít mention explicitly what we should do.  For example, should I stay in this relationship? Or, do I stay in this job, or find another one?  So the question is, why are we having difficulty discerning His desires for our lives? Why do we get so confused when weíre trying to consider a path in life?  Well, catch this.

"For the heart of these people have become dull. And with their ears they scarcely hear and they have closed their eyes." (Acts 28:27) In other words, when weíre discerning and trying to discern Godís desires for our lives - it has less to do with understanding God and more to do with understanding the condition of our heart.

What do I mean?  Well it all started from the days of Adam and weíve continued to go after our own desires ever since.  We trust our feelings and emotions, rather than Godís desires.  Eventually, we cannot detect our own deep cravings.  We stuff, mold, and shape our precious desires into a god and call it a dream or we say that God told us to do this or do that. Then we find ourselves struggling with uncertainty in an effort to discern Godís will.  And what weíve done is cluttered up our hearts with our desires.

In life we sometimes take the heart that God has given to us freely and piled on things weëve desired.  Frequently we leave no room for God to add anything else, much less His choice desires for us. And even if the Lord did put His choice desires in our hearts, it would be so mixed up and confused with ours that we wouldnít be able to tell the good from the bad things. 

His word tells us, "Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heartî.   (Psalm 37:4)  What this means is delight yourself in what God wants.  Align your heart with God. Once you align our hearts with Him and His desires, you can walk confidently not worrying about whether itís His desire or ours. Weíll be so full of His desires in our lives that we donít have to look for signs.  Weíll have God sized desires and be God driven in our walk with Him. And the first step is to clean our hearts from our own desires and making room for God to fill it with His desires in our lives. The way we fill our hearts is having less of us and more of Him.  Then by doing this it willÖ

?         Increase the capacity of our heart.

Jesus taught a lot in parables according to what was familiar to the people of those times.  One such parable was about a sower who sowed seeds at different places.  His disciples did not understand and asked Him about it because He just left them without an ending.  Jesusí reply was "If you have ears let you hear thisî.   And then He explained the story of the sower and the seeds. Jesus says something interesting at the end of the story..."Consider carefully what you hear,í He continued. "With the measure you use, it will be measured to you...Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.í" (Mark 4:24-25 NIV)

Jesus is saying the sower will scatter seeds, which is His Word. More importantly though is how we receive the Word and the condition of the soil of our heart.   For it will make a huge difference on whether or not God will multiply that or not.

Q2:  What kinds of things have you piled on your life that crowd your heart and prevents God from adding His desires to your life?

When the condition of our heart is clean, weíve increased the capacity of our hearts to receive His desires and understand Him more. God will then multiply our understanding thirty, sixty or a hundred fold.  However, if we choose to reject Godís word, then whatever we already have God will take it away. His word will not have any impact on our hearts.  So in order to increase the capacity of our hearts we must condition our hearts to receive His Word.  And this is a prerequisite that brings us to the first of three key points.

1.     MAKE A COMMITMENT TO ìGET IN THE GAME.î

Thereís a big difference between standing on the sidelines and getting in the game. Suppose you were a coach and had a player on your team who wanted to be part of the team, but didnít want to play the game.  He was afraid of taking risks.  Would you discuss the plays of the game and your desires for the team with this player? Highly unlikely!  On the other hand, once the player begins to play the game, he will begin to understand the strategies and desires of the coach more.

The same is true with life. We cannot live on the perimeter of life and expect to understand Godís desires in our lives. We need to make a commitment from being a spectator and moving to being part of the game or living in the center of the field.   "Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will do it" (Psalm 37:5)

"The sower sows the word. And these are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them." (Mark 4:14-15)  The Lord is saying if we continue to live our lives and remain on the road (which is hard, dirty and difficult for anything good to grow and flourish), we are merely bystanders and uncommitted people.  When we let ourselves live in that kind of a condition, Godís word or the seed will have no effect on us. It has no place to grow. The surface of our heart becomes too hard and leaves us open for Satan to come in and steal the word of God from us.

Q3:  If youíve made the commitment to get off the sidelines and into the game, how is God revealing his desires for you in your life?

Making a commitment to get in the game is about discovering Godís desire for you.  Thatís where His seed can be nurtured and watered.  It is where the hardened surface can be broken. For you can be in a job or a marriage for twenty years and still feel like an outsider.  You may even wonder why your situation isnít getting better.

 So make a full commitment and do everything that God has asked of you in your present situation.  Itís not just about serving here in church.  Itís taking part in Godís plan for your marriage or your work places.  Then God will be able to lead you to this next important point  

2.  PURSUE AN AUTHENTIC LIFESTYLE.

"...these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they heart the word, immediately receive it with joy; and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away." (Mark 4:6-17)

In other words, the seed that fell on the rocky places had more rocks than soil that the seed could not take root. A lot of our unresolved issues will cause us to have rocky bottoms as well.  And as long as those issues remain unresolved, Godís Word cannot go deep and affect our hearts. Issues such as anger and unforgiveness may have affected our character, self-esteem, or self-worth a long time ago.  When those issues are unresolved, they crowd out the space that God needs to insert His desires into our lives.

So, how do we begin to attempt to resolve these unresolved issues? Listen to what David. "Examine me, O Lord, and try me; test my mind and my heart." (Psalm 26:2)  What weíre really asking is for God to turn up the heat a little bit and really test us.  And this is tough, but we need to do it sometimes. 

Do you know how gold is refined? Ore is taken from the ground full of dross, dirt, and all kinds of impurities.  It is then combined with rich minerals and placed under high heat, which can melt the gold substance and allow the dross to rise to the surface.  The goldsmith will then skim the dross off the top and turn the heat even more so more dross surfaces.  He continues this process until he has pure 24 carat gold.

God too turns up the heat in our lives in order for the dross in us to rise to the surface.  But when He turns up the heat in our marriages, our jobs, our relationships sometimes we canít handle it and bail out.  We see this happen a lot. When someone gives us counsel and itís not what we want to hear we say, ìIím out of this marriage or this job or relationship.  And we justify our move by saying God told us to do this or that.  But really the truth is we wonít allow God to really examine our hearts like we asked Him to.  Then the issue stays with us and recycles itself again and again. And then we wonder why our life never gets better even when we move from relationship to relationship or job to job.  Itís because we never took care of the unresolved issues.  We never scraped off the dross. God cannot fill us if we are full of rubbish.  When God turns up the heat, we need to take the time to skim the top off.  How does God do this? Here are a couple ways God turns up the heat, and I encourage you to do this.

ÿ      While doing your devotions, read in such a way that His Word cuts you right down to the bone. ìFor the word of God is living and active.  Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.î  (Heb. 4:12)

ÿ      Seek Godly counsel from men and women who base their counsel and live a life consistent with the Word of God.

Q4:  Will you allow God to examine your heart and turn up the heat in your life no matter how difficult that may be?  If you have, share how you have grown because of it.

Could you imagine if we were clean of all our dross?  Can you imagine the impact this church can have on the world?  Donít be afraid of the heat.  Allow yourself and pursue an authentic lifestyle. 

So we not only do we need to make a commitment, we need to get in the game rather than be on the sidelines.  Secondly we need to pursue an authentic lifestyle, which means allowing God to turn up the head in our lives and test us.  And finally we need to empty ourselves and trust in God for everything in order toÖ

3.      DEVELOP A RELENTLESS TRUST IN GOD.

ìAnd others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, and the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful." (Mark 4:18-19)

When we allow the worries, deceitfulness of the world, and our desires to enter our heart, we choke the Word of God.  Then His word cannot have an effect on our lives.

Itís not about expecting clarity in the eventual results or consequences.   When we crave clarity, we eliminate taking the risk to trust in God. Yet in order to increase the capacity of our hearts to receive His desires, itís going to take some risks.  This is not blind faith.  Itís not about just jumping off a cliff and trusting God will catch you.  Rather it is making a commitment to get in the game.  It is about receiving counsel from others through the Word of God as He reveals a little bit more about His desires for our lives.  And when you begin to understand Godís direction and plan for your life, you must trust that He will provide it even if you donít know the eventual outcome. God knows and will show you the way because your desires and in line with His desires. 

Youíve heard many testimonies from a lot of us who God used, who came out of the market place. For me, when I stepped down from the bench and up to the throne of God, I went through struggles and searched for quite awhile. There was a time when I asked Pastor Wayne how do you know when God wants to move me on? And Heíd reply, ìYouíll knowî. I also asked my wife if Iím supposed to be in ministry. But every time I asked her this question, she would say,

"Are you asking? Then youíre not readyî.  As long as there was a question, I wasnít ready.

You need to make sure itís Godís call, because if itís Godís calling on your life, youíll adjust everything in your life to be obedient to the call. You never adjust the call to meet your needs. Funny thing, God has a way of revealing Himself only after we make a commitment only after we seek counsel and are sure that itís His Word. God has a way of revealing miracles only after you begin to reach out and take the risk not knowing what the eventual outcome will be. Itís in His hands anyway, but Heíll show us only if weíre willing to trust Him.

Q5:  Are you willing to take a risk and trust God relentlessly even though you donít know the results? 

Q6:  Are you ready for what God is asking you to do?  Share your struggles and triumphs.  

"For she thought, ëIf I just touch His garments, I shall get well.í And immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt n her body that she was healed of her affliction." (Mark 5:28-29)

In conclusion, as weíve been reading along in the book of Mark, thereís a story of a woman who had been hemorrhaging for twelve years.  Sheíd been all over looking for help from professionals to get healing. But rather than being helped, her condition got worse. Then after hearing about Jesus, she sought after Him in the crowd.  She thought that if she could just touch His garments, sheíd be healed.  So from behind Him, she touched His cloak.  Immediately after touching his cloak, the flow of blood was dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed from her affliction. 

This woman not only represents physical healing, but also someone who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. And after twelve years of suffering with her affliction and searching for a cure, there was one man who could heal her and that was Jesus Christ.  It wasnít enough to just be in the vicinity of Jesus. She was healed because she actually reached out and touched Him trusting that He would indeed cure her.

In order for us to move from where we are to where God wants us to be, we must increase the capacity of our hearts.  How?  By making a commitment to get in the game.  We must reach out to Him for all the plans and desires He has for our lives. Next we must pursue an authentic lifestyle, by allowing God to refine us by turning up the heat in our lives.  And finally we must develop a relentless trust in Him and allow Him to pour His desires in our hearts and thus be able to walk confidently in the way that He wants you to.

Final Q:  What most impacted you about todayís lesson and how will you apply it to your life?

Mahalo Doreen Rabaino for this week's summary and  "relentlessly trusting in Him"