Learning from Steve 2: Knowing God’s Will, episode 115

0:00 If you have a prodigal, you can discover both help and hope for your wilderness journey right here at when you love a prodigal. And also help and hope for your own life journey. So I told you last week that I was going to dedicate this month to my late husband who went to heaven a year ago. And so I'm sharing with you some things about the way he lived his life and cared for people and walked with God that I hope will encourage you in your own walk with God.

0:46 And especially in your relationship with your love prodigal or prodigals. This one's a little more specific. This is how to know God's will. And so Steve was really good at that. And he shares some very simple but very practical steps to help you on major decisions and even minor ones. No God's will. Now how often have you wondered what God's will is for you in a certain opportunity or decision that you need to make? Pretty often I imagine.

1:28 And when it comes to your prodigal, do you desperately ask God, what should I do? I've certainly done that many times. Today I know you will want to write down some action steps to discern God's will in small decisions and big decisions. This is something my husband wrote. And so I'm just going to share it as he wrote it. Other than maybe I interject something occasionally. It's written in his first person. If it sounds a little strange that way, but it's very simple and compact.

2:10 So it's not a long thing that you have to learn. It's some simple steps. Steve wrote in an article I wrote about knowing God's will. I mentioned an opportunity God gave me to help a Christian woman discover God's will for her life. Many people have asked me what I said to her. And so here is the process that I took her through. The first step is the most important probably that's walk. That is walk with God closely and continually. So one is walk. This helps assure that we listen to God's thoughts, not ours.

2:55 This allows us to receive ongoing and progressive leading from God. God's plans for us don't usually become clear and complete all at once. And so we need to be walking with him to discern what they are. This qualifies us also to receive God's opportunities and blessings from 2 Chronicles 16 9. So first walk. Second, ask. Pray specifically for God to reveal his will. We are promised in James 1 5 that if we ask for wisdom, God will give it to us generously.

3:42 Yeah, he's done that for me many times. Steve says years ago, God gave me a sense that I needed to become much more effective in doing evangelism, and sharing my faith in Christ with others. When I prayed that he would show me how he brought me to tremendous learning opportunities. At the time I was responsible for overall operations in CRU, so I might not have recognized the evangelistic opportunities as strategic if I had not prayed for and received a sense of God's will and plan for me.

4:26 So walk, then ask, and then pause. Consider the third step. Consider three factors. Passions, strengths, and opportunities. I have usually found I can see why God has a certain direction for me in light of these three things. Passion is talking about what I am already motivated to do. You might say something you really care about or wish you could help in. Passion. Strengths. Where do I have competencies which can be utilized well?

5:08 What are you good at? What are you not good at? So probably not that. Three opportunities. Which doors has God seemed to open for me at this time to do something in this area? God showed me, Steve writes, how the plan to be more effective in evangelism represented a confluence of all three of these. I had the passion to see more people know Christ. God gave me a strength in teaching which could help make coming to Christ clearer and more compelling to people.

5:52 And God led a group of students at the International School of Theology to invite me to a certain opportunity of teaching on personal development as a bridge to presenting the gospel. Passion, strength, and opportunity came together as a powerful confirmation of God's plan for me to become more effective in evangelism. And it worked as it led to a seminar and a book on how to get better grades and have more fun that have gone all over the world.

6:34 So you walk, you ask, you consider, and then you plan your first steps. Plan first steps. One barrier to pursuing God's plan for us is that we tend to dream and wish, but often we don't plan specifically and practically. My fairly consistent experience is that I must be proactive in order to pursue God's plan. He directs my thoughts and desires, but I have to cooperate with plans and action. In addition, I must find practical ways to start to take the first step or two.

7:20 Determining long term direction is very important, yet a crystal clear vision often unfolds over time. So you plan some steps to take. Then there is a wonderful fifth. He writes, start, then evaluate. The likelihood of making good long term progress is usually directly proportional to how soon we take the first steps. If we start putting them off, we will find ways to continue putting them off. I wonder how many New Year's resolutions succumb to procrastination.

8:03 After starting, I evaluate my progress and ask God for more refinement on what I initially sensed, he said. So again, walk with God. Ask him for wisdom. Consider the three factors of passion, strength, and opportunities as I discern what God is leading me to. Plan for first steps. Start, actually take those steps and evaluate. Then he goes on, how did I lead the woman on the plane through this process?

8:47 First, we discussed how to convert her occasional visit with God prayer life into a constant conversation. That's one, your walk with God. Second, we prayed God would give her a clear picture of his plan. Asking him for wisdom. Third, we sought to discern her core motivation. What are the things she cares about? What are the things that she could do? Putting that together. Then we explore her strengths. What is she good at?

9:27 What are the things that she could do well? And finally, we listed and prioritized the opportunities that God had already given her. Although it took some thinking, we quickly saw how God had equipped her to pursue what he had put on her heart. Fourth, we got very specific in planning things she could do next week to get started. In the past, I asked her to commit to me, he says, that she would do something on this the next day and to evaluate and make adjustments in light of that evaluation.

10:07 I hope this process is useful to you in helping people know what God wants them to do. I hope it's helpful to you in helping you know what God wants you to do in any situation, in any opportunity, but especially with your loved one, with your prodigal. How can you apply this understanding of learning to do God's will in the ways that you relate to your prodigal? Think right now. What is the decision you need to make a step you need to take, especially with your loved wanderer?

10:50 I'd love it if you wrote it down. Are you walking with God? Have you asked God what he wants you to do? Have you asked him for wisdom? Have you thought about what matters to you, what you know how to do, and a good opportunity to take the first step? Then plan, do it, and evaluate it. If you're like I was in the long hard days with our prodigal, I was always asking God for help, for wisdom, for discernment, for courage to take needed steps.

11:30 Sometimes he directed me to take some really hard steps. Other times he really guided me to shower grace and mercy on our prodigal, even as God had done for me. Sometimes he said I just needed to soften my voice and not talk harshly to my loved one. It can vary. You don't know where God's going to take you, but if you ask him for wisdom, he will show you and give you strength and courage to do what he's shown you, which will be a good, positive step for restoring or refreshing your relationship with your prodigal.

12:18 How might you apply the steps Steve has suggested? The walk, ask, consider, plan, start, evaluate for your life and with your prodigal. In the show notes, I'm going to show you, have listed some links to more of Steve's resources, and these will provide more help for you that I think will be a blessing. And while you're there, you could subscribe to the podcast and even review it. You know, I'd love you to say, this has been so helpful to me with our life, with our prodigal, whatever God leads you to do.

13:01 And I pray for you that you will be able to really engage well with God and seek his wisdom and plan for how to bring healing, restoration, new life and hope, whatever it is needed in your relationship with that one you love so much. God bless you.