In the second part of this series, Carl continues to review the various ways in which God guides us in making wise decisions. Carl reveals five key ways we can make godly choices in our everyday life from the Book of Proverbs. He also stresses the importance of utilizing all the provisions God granted to us when making important life choices. If you have a habit of making poor choices, then tune in now for some nuggets of wisdom which will get you on the right track.
Here is a complete transcript of the broadcast (below)…
But time is not on your side, according to Satan, because when it comes to making major decisions, he’ll try and rush you, friend. He’ll try and get you to make major life decisions rapidly. Do not fall for this. God in contrast allows us to take time over life-changing decisions. The enemy, you know, he uses those marketing tactics. If you call in the next 20 seconds or 20 minutes, you know, you’re going to get the free blender, all right? We don’t need the blender. Put the blender aside and say, Lord, I’m going to make this decision in my own timing, and I’m going to pray about it. Seek you, okay? Get scriptural confirmation. Friend, Jesus leads us from the front. He is the good shepherd, right? John chapter 10, verses 11 and 14. A good shepherd leads from the front He cares for the sheep. He’s a gentleman, okay? He is gentle in his promptings. Romans 2:11, he’s not a respecter of persons and is fair to everyone, okay? John 10:27 says, and this is Jesus speaking, “my sheep hear my voice, and they follow me.” For those out there who say, you know what? God just doesn’t speak to me. I’ve never heard his voice. Listen, this is a lie.
He said, that’s Jesus, my sheep hear my voice, and they follow me. I believe that God is speaking to us all the time, friend, okay? And it’s up to us to listen. Then in verse three of the same chapter, Jesus says, to him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. Friend, he knows your name. He leads you from the front. He is gentle. He will bring confirmations, okay? Satan, however, is a prodder. He’s a poker. He coerces us into making wrong decisions with peer pressure, striving to get ahead at all costs The fear of man, pride, keeping up with the Jones’s, all the wrong motivations for making a decision. We’ve all fallen for it, friend. I wasn’t redeemed in my old life, and I made some stupid decisions, okay? And I had to live with them. But when I became born again and started the transformation of the soul through sanctification, that battle of the soul is now being won as I have pressed on in the faith, read God’s word, and follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit. If you’re making decisions only based upon the sense realm or your reasoning faculties, then you’re not really living by faith, Romans 11:7. God sometimes asks us to do things even when circumstances are not conducive to his promptings.
Remember, he spoke to Abraham. He said, go where I will show you. He just said, leave your family, okay? Take your immediate family, obviously your wife, etc., and go into the desert where I will show you where I’m going to take you, huh? Go into the desert, and then I’ll show you? That’s a massive act of faith, friend. And God expects us to obey him, even when he asks us to do things that are strange, in the sense realm. And that’s where Satan’s realm is, friend, in the reasoning faculties of the brain. Did God say, surely you can become like God’s, knowing good and evil? Oh, that’s what God said, yeah Reasoning. Look at the fruit. Isn’t the fruit juicy? Take the fruit. Oh, it looks so tasty. Look and see that the fruit is good, right? No. We need to listen on the inside, to our spirit man, okay? When Adam went from life to death, and he sinned, okay, his spirit man was severed from God.
He no longer had access to the spirit of God. Therefore, he started to focus more on his outward circumstances, on the soul realm, on the sense realm for his decisions, okay? He would weigh up the options based on the outside, instead of looking on the inside. But friend, the truth is, you have been restored now by Christ back to a place, even better than Adam, because you’re saved by the blood and your spirit filled. And you have the King James leather-bound Bible, amen, sitting there on your desk, gathering dust. Time to dust it off and seek God for your decision. What decision are you making right now that is very, very important to you? I can’t answer that question, but God’s going to help you in that decision, friend Now, let’s talk about the four ways in which God can communicate to us today. Number one, he speaks to us through his word, through the daily reading of God’s word, which causes the mind of Christ to be applied in our lives. We must know his word, however, in order to apply his mind. And friend, like I said, just set a goal for yourself now. It’s not a New Year’s resolution. We’re in July. But so what? Set a new goal that you’ll read a chapter of God’s word every day. You can start in the old or start in the new, wherever you want to start. But just read one chapter a day, and God’s going to speak to you.
And what’s going to happen is you’re going to read this word, and the reign of word of God is going to bounce off the page. It’s going to leap off right in front of you. I call it a quickening or a making alive of the Logos word to become a rhema, a spoken word in your spirit that this very word applies to you. You know, I’ve sat in some sermons down the years, and I tell you right now, it’s like some of these sermons were specifically designed for me. And that’s the Holy Spirit confirming his word inside of you. OK, and the Holy Spirit will confirm his rhema word inside of you as you read it Then we can actually see visions through the eyes of our imagination or heart, as opposed to an open vision. You know, the eyes of the heart is your imagination. Close your eyes, and I say, big black dog, bigger black dog, huge black dog. And in your mind’s eye, you’re seeing this dog right now. OK, because I spoke it out, and you started imaging it. Now, God can use that faculty of the imagination.
He can speak through there. And when I’m giving words of knowledge and wisdom, that’s how he normally speaks to me. I am a visual person, and therefore, most of my words of knowledge and wisdom will come through the images in my imagination, in my mind, OK? The occult call it the third eye. But remember that God gave an imagination, OK? That’s a good thing, but Satan can use it for evil, just as he can use guns for evil or good, guns to protect people or guns to, you know, to murder, or he can use money for good or evil. Many of these objects are neutral. And on the topic of guns, you know, no gun ever shot anybody. It was the person who did it, right? So we’re always responsible. What are we going to do? Ban knives and forks so people, you know, don’t get overweight? I mean, everything revolves around personal responsibility, something that this society increasingly doesn’t want to hear. I’m going to get off my soapbox right now. We have to be accountable and a personal responsibility for our decisions in life. And then God can speak to you in dreams, friend. Not all dreams are from God. They could be the pizza. They could be the cheese. But we should pay attention to vivid dreams that we can recall instantly when we wake up and throughout the day.
Usually, if it’s a dream from the Lord that I’ve had, there’s been a knowing instantly that it’s from God. And I pretty much know and interpret it right away. There’s no delay I get the dream. I understand it. I know what was said to me. Probably in my life, there’s only about four dreams that I can recall like that, that was so vivid. And I’m very grateful for them. But friend, I consider the primary way one of them that God speaks to us is through Proverbs chapter 20, verse 27. And this is a wonderful verse, “The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly or inner depths of the heart,” as the new King James would say. God leads us from the inside out, friend, not the outside in And what I mean by that is the inside spirit man is leading you from the inward parts of your belly. And you’re not letting your reasoning faculties or your soul or your mind, OK, or even your emotions to lead you. No, that’s not how we should be led. We are to be spirit man dominated, not soul dominated. Like I said, the moment Adam was disconnected from God’s spirit, he turned to the sense realm for his leading. And that’s where he’s been ever since, right? We have our spreadsheet.
We’ve done all the math. This looks good. And we’re going to do the mortgage because we can afford it. But all the while, the spirit on the inside says, no, don’t do it. Don’t do it. OK, so Satan caused Adam and Eve to reason, entering the soul realm, as God said, questioning the word of God, right? Did God really say? Why would we be led from within? Because the Holy Spirit is living on the inside of us God makes his abode within us. And that same spirit helps us to understand the Bible as well. It brings confirmation and conviction. Remember Romans 8:14 says, “for as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” You know, everybody on this earth is not a son of God friend. Everyone is a part of God’s creation until they choose to become a son of God. You’re a son of God and a child of God if you’ve chosen Christ. That’s a fact. But not everybody is God’s children on the earth, friend. No, Christianity is exclusive, not inclusive. Romans 8:16 says “the spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. The Holy Spirit is bearing witness with your spirit man on the inside that you are a child of God. OK, and that’s where that confirmation comes from. Now, let me give you five steps to making a wise decision, right? You know, engineers love this. Five easy steps to make a wise decision, kids.
Listen, I can give you some useful steps, OK? I can do that today, and I’m going to. But the bottom line is the Holy Spirit is going to guide you for your unique situation. I don’t know what you’re going through, OK? But God does, all right? And through his word, through his prophets, through the Holy Spirit, he’s going to confirm what you are to do, all right? Number one, it says in Matthew 7:7, seek God and ask him, right? Ask, seek, knock, and you will receive. Ask the Lord to help you to make the right decision. Number two, get all the facts about your situation. Proverbs 23:23 says, get the facts at any price in the living Bible, OK? Facts are important, OK? On this mortgage, is there PMI, all right? What’s the late fee? How long do I have to make my payment, all right? Is it a fixed rate? Is it amortized? Is it a variable interest rate? These are key facts we need to know before we make decisions.
And number three, seek wise counsel, Proverbs 15:22. It says, “without counsel, plans go awry. But in the multitude of counselors, they are established.” But remember, friend, I don’t want your counselors to be the ungodly, all right? That’s not wise in itself. You should be seeking counsel from Spirit-filled people. Proverbs 24:6 also says, so “don’t go to war without wise guidance.” Victory depends on having many advisors. But like I said before, some of these advisors don’t have to live with a decision that you’re going to make, all right? Very important. They could be offering their opinion to you. They may not even be seeking God for themselves about your situation. So take guidance and counsel from people with a pinch of salt. But God’s going to confirm to you personally the right decision, amen? And then number four, consider the cost before you decide. Proverbs 20, verse 25 says, don’t trap yourself by making a rash promise to God and only later counting the cost. Elsewhere in the Gospels, Jesus talked about someone going to war or building, you know, a building. You’ve got to count the cost of going to war.
How many men do you have on your side? How many men on theirs? What’s the layout? You know, do I have infantry and cavalry or only cavalry or only infantry, etc., etc. What is the price of building this building? How high is it going to be? Can it withstand strong winds? You’ve got to think some of these things through. And finally, number five, ask yourself, what’s the worst that can happen if I do make this decision? This is more of a worldly thing, but I think it’s very wise also, because it reveals the worst scenario of what could happen if everything goes belly up in your decision. And, you know, what’s the worst scenario? Well, if you can live with the worst scenario, then potentially, you know, you can live with this decision.
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