You have the privilege to be guided by the hand of God.
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. ”
Proverbs 3:5-6 (NKJV)
Welcome to day 10 of our 40 days of prayer and fasting. What a refreshing time we’ve been having, and we are only 10 days in. During this time of fasting, it's important that you are not focused on getting through each day just for the sake of it, but that you give yourself wholly to the Lord in every moment.
If there is any attribute of God that is most apparent throughout Scripture, it is that He is love. He is the embodiment of what it means to love and be loved. The bible says about God:
1 John 4:8
New King James Version
8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
1 John 4:16
New King James Version
16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
If you have not known God, you do not know what love is; if you abide in God, you also abide in His love. God is love; He loves us the way fathers love their children and much more. Now remember it’s not just that He loves, but He is love; that's why His love is unconditional. He is who He is regardless of who you are. That’s why, regardless of how much mankind rebelled and turned their faces away from God, He never left them stranded, because a God that loves is a God that leads.
Nehemiah 9:15-19
New King James Version
15 You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger, And brought them water out of the rock for their thirst, And told them to go in to possess the land Which You had sworn to give them.
16 But they and our fathers acted proudly, Hardened their necks, And did not heed Your commandments.
17 They refused to obey, And they were not mindful of Your wonders That You did among them. But they hardened their necks, And in their rebellion They appointed a leader To return to their bondage. But You are God, Ready to pardon, Gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, Abundant in kindness, And did not forsake them.
18 Even when they made a molded calf for themselves, And said, 'This is your god That brought you up out of Egypt,' And worked great provocations,
19 Yet in Your manifold mercies You did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of the cloud did not depart from them by day, To lead them on the road; Nor the pillar of fire by night, To show them light, And the way they should go.
Nehemiah outlines how, even after God had fed the Israelites with bread from the heavens, given them the land he swore to them, quenched their thirst with water from a rock, they still hardened their necks and refused to heed His command. But because of God’s mercies, He did not forsake them in the wilderness; the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night did not depart from them. They always knew where to go because the Lord led them, despite their unfaithfulness.
This isn’t a call to be unfaithful, but if a good earthly father would never leave his children without direction, why would our Heavenly Father ever do so? God would lead you because He loves you.
Psalm 32:8
New King James Version
8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.
This is God’s promise to you: as his child, you have the privilege to be guided by the hand of God. He will teach you the way to go, and He knows the end from the beginning, so you can never be lost. You can know exactly what to do, how, when, and with whom. That’s how He has always led.
With Noah:
Genesis 6:13-15
New King James Version
13 And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
14 Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch.
15 And this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.”
Noah knew that the flood was coming, and he knew exactly what to do about it. The measurements, the schematics for how the ark would be built, were communicated to Noah.
With Moses:
Exodus 3:10-14
New King James Version
10 “Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt."
11 But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?"
12 So He said, "I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain."
13 Then Moses said to God, "Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they say to me, 'What is His name?' what shall I say to them?"
14 And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And He said, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"
God didn't just tell Moses to go and meet Pharaoh; He also told him what to say and showed him the signs that he would perform before him. He assured Moses that he was with Him.
With Paul:
Acts 16:6
New King James Version
6 Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia.
Acts 16:9-10
New King James Version
9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us."
10 Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.
Even when it came to ministry and the responsibility of preaching the gospel, the Holy Spirit showed Paul when not to go somewhere and when to go somewhere. He can show you exactly when a nation is primed for receiving the word.
There are myriads of examples like these in the Bible, but the point is that God can lead you in every way. He can show you the way to go. The Bible calls him a good shepherd who leads His flock through still waters. And not only can He lead; He desires to lead. He wants you to lean on Him.
He doesn’t want you to trust in your own sense of direction. Your way may seem wise unto you, but His ways are higher; His way is better; His way will always lead to your profiting.
Psalm 37:23
New King James Version
23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, And He delights in his way.
It’s possible for you to always make the right step; it is possible for you to always be where you need to be at the right time; it is possible for you to never be confused about where to go in your career, ministry, family, etc. You can hear a word saying, “This is the way walk in it!” God will always speak to you in a manner that He knows you would recognize because He wants you to be led by Him.
We sing a song in this church that goes, “You’re more eager to lead me than I want to be led” because that’s the God you call Father. The one who leads because He loves. The one that leads even despite your shortcomings. Israel rebelled time and time again, yet there was always a prophet generation after generation that would reveal God's heart to the people. In this time of prayer and fasting, God wants to reveal His will to you the way He did with Abraham and Moses; He wants to show you the way to go. You don’t have to guess where to go next because, as you pray and fast, the lord will reveal it to you.
Prayer
Father, I trust your leading much more in this season. I know what to do and where to go.
