In this practical message, Dr. Stanley explains that we, too, should be following God as our guide every day. We don’t have a pillar of cloud for a signpost, but as believers, we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us. He’s our leader, and He’s committed to showing us the correct path in every circumstance. Find out what you can do to gain discernment, recognize His voice, and follow Him in holiness through every challenge and uncertainty.
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who are what is guiding your life
think for just a moment
when you think about a given day in your
life
who’s really guiding your thinking your
attitude your wishes your desires
how you operate how you work whatever it
might be
are you guided by someone
by some philosophy or attitude that you
have in life
are you guided by your feelings and your
emotions some people live by their
feelings their emotions
up to day and down tomorrow in and out
and so they have no real stability in
life because
they’re living by feelings and god does
not intend for us to live by feelings
he intends for us to live by a
relationship
that we have with him who gives us
stability
and strength and clarity and guidance in
every area of our life
well we’ve been in the book of exodus
and the hebrew children are out of
egyptian bondage and they’re on their
way across the desert
and to the promised land it should take
them a few weeks but it took them 40
years because of their unbelief
if they had obeyed god and exactly what
he had said
that he reached the promised land a
whole lot easier and a whole lot earlier
but like many other people they took
their eyes off god
started thinking about something else
looked at uh
where they were going and who was there
and so their fear overtook them
and they as you and i would say backslid
and missed it and spent 40 years
wandering around in the wilderness dying
off when they could have been living
in the promised land so i want to talk
about this whole issue of being guided
by god
if you name the name of jesus as your
savior you should be
guided by the word of god and
when i think about that i think about
the fact that god has given us a compass
really
that compass is really the holy spirit
who lives inside of us
to give us guidance and direction every
day of our life
so i want to think for just a moment
about the fact that
these hebrews were
walking and living
in a strange country now they’re out of
captivity
and they have the scripture says a cloud
by day
and a fire by night and more than likely
if you’ll think about it that cloud by
day
also kept a little bit of the sun off of
them but it also acted like a compass as
a guide
they also had fire in the evening which
probably kept them a little warm from a
desert breeze
and so god is leading them out of
egyptian bondage
and he’s leading him to a whole
different perspective
if they will follow him they will be in
canaan
shortly the place that god has preserved
for him and yet that’s not what happens
and so what i want us to think about for
just a moment
is this whole idea of who guides us
we have this as our guide so we don’t
have to wonder about
how god thinks about certain things and
how he feels about certain things
we have the word of god to give us
guidance and direction
and we thank god for that so
if we want to be guided by god there’s
certain things we need to remember
and some people don’t think about having
a guide they just think about
in the morning they wake up and face
life and they deal with life today
they’ll deal with life tomorrow and it’s
the next day and so forth
god does own us living that way that’s
why he gave us the holy spirit
when we were saved to endure us and one
of his responsibilities
is to guide us in every circumstance of
life
every area of our life is within the
scope
of his vision of his power and of his
will
and so what we have to ask is this am i
willing to live by his guidance and
direction in my life
am i willing to be guided by god i or my
god just going to have it my way
and so the children of israel
once out of a bondage could have
had a fantastic life soon
but they chose not to do it many people
today
have heard the gospel they’ve heard it
clearly
they heard it from their parents or they
heard it from a preacher from an
evangelist or whatever it might be
they’ve heard the truth they’ve made a
decision
just like you you’ve made a decision you
made a decision to trust christ as your
savior
you made a decision to listen to the
holy spirit who indwelled you
you made a decision to be careful
to be obedient to god because you know
in your heart that obedience always
brings blessing
and disobedience brings to something
entirely different
so the issue is this when i think about
what
they had a pill of cloud and
fire to guide them keep them warm keep
them cool
lead them to the promised land what do
we have and that’s this book
there’s not any direction of your life
that’s not covered here whatever you’re
looking for whatever you’re seeking
whatever guidance
you desire in life you open the word of
god and he will give you that
living in this world reading the bible
every now and then is not sufficient
we live in a wicked vile world it’s very
evident from what we see happening
and we live in a world that is against
god
against the lord jesus christ and
opposed to so many things that you and i
believe so we have to decide
am i going to live by my emotions
am i going to live by what other people
are doing or am i going to live by the
one thing that i know will
absolutely give me clear true
true true guidance every single day of
my life
that’s the word of god so i want us to
think about
that and when i think about what god
says
number one meditating upon the word of
god now those hebrews didn’t have this
we have something they didn’t have and
if you will look at the
119th psalm for a moment
and i want you to notice a verse here
and the scripture says
in this 119th psalm
and verse 105 your word
is a lamp to my feet and the light to my
path
now look at that do you believe that the
word of god
is a lamp to your feet which means
he will always show you the right path
to take
and a light to my path that is what the
cloud and the fire were to israel
in those days of desert times the word
of god is to us
what is it a light to my path and
a lamp to my feet that is if you want to
go
and you want to be in the right place at
the right time you get in the word of
god
you say well the word of god doesn’t
know everything about me
listen the god who penned these words
knows
exactly where you are what you’re facing
in life
and listen there is a passage of
scripture
here somewhere in this book that applies
to who you are
where you are today no matter who you
are and it is an adequate word to give
you guidance and direction
the problem is not that we don’t have
direction the problem is
we’ve closed the book and if the nation
of israel had said
forget the cloud and forget
the fire let’s just go where we want to
go that’s exactly the way people are
living
and many people only open the word of
god when they’re in trouble
a lamp to my feet a light to your path
listen you and i should always be
walking in the path of
righteousness and what’s good we have we
know which way to walk
and god has told us that secondly we
need to be sensitive to the leadership
of the holy spirit
and one of the things that jesus made
very very clear
to his apostles he said i’m not going to
leave you
alone he says i will come to you and he
was speaking of
of the holy spirit and and the
scriptures he
makes it very very clear the 16th
chapter
and uh in this 13th verse he says
when he the spirit of truth comes and
all of us have the holy spirit living
within us
he will guide you listen to this he will
guide you into all the truth
so that if you own a copy of the word of
god
you don’t have any excuse for not being
able to discern what is right what is
wrong
what it’s true and what is untrue what’s
good what’s evil
we live in a world with all kind of
philosophies
and telling us that well you know jesus
that’s the ancient times no
jesus is alive living within us today
and he says when he the spirit of truth
comes
he will guide you into all the truth for
he will not speak
on his own initiative but whatever he
hears he will speak
and he will disclose it to you that is
what’s to come that is
watch think about this when you wake up
every morning
as a follower of jesus you have abiding
within you
living within you in all of his eternal
power and being
the very person of the holy spirit to
give you guidance
direction strength energy discernment
and all the rest
all day long we have everything we need
to live a godly life
and so when somebody says well i got
saved way back yonder and
somewhere i just felt like god left me
no he didn’t leave you
and you may be seated here today and
you’re just absolutely
a backslidden christian you’re living in
sin disobedient to god
looking back and thinking about what
your mother taught you years ago
it’s brought back to you some things
that you learned right after you got
saved and
when you were surrendered to jesus and
you look back and you
ask yourself this question how did i get
where i am i’ll tell you how
you got where you are because you close
this book you stop
listening to the holy spirit who’s
living within you you decide to make
some choices apart from god
now you’re in a mess you cannot blame it
on your parents
on your children who you work for your
friends or whatever it might be
god gave us the book is a guidebook
think about this every one of us is
responsible to almighty god
to be good stewards of the knowledge and
the experience
that the word of god tells us about
about every single circumstance of our
life
we’re to be we’re to be guided by the
spirit
then one of the things we have to wait
for if we’re going to follow the lord
is to wait for his timing and one of my
favorite verses
is isaiah 64.
and when i think about
this verse and how many times i’ve read
it and
have said yes lord please give me wisdom
enough
to do exactly what it says and so
here’s what it says in this 64th chapter
listen this for from days of old they
have not heard or perceived by ear
nor has the i seen a god besides you are
like you
listen a god who acts on behalf of the
one
who waits for him so ask yourself the
question
well let’s say when you get up in the
morning you’re going to start the day
off with prayer
you get up and you get on your knees or
you read the scripture and then you just
take off
what does the bible say about waiting
upon god
if you’re going to read the word of god
listen carefully let’s just say you’re
going to read the 23rd psalm which you
already know by heart
you know what makes the scripture stick
in your
life what makes it register in your mind
in your brain what causes you to be able
to remember it
is when you read it you think about it
you forget everything else for the
moment and you ask yourself this
question and you talk to god about it
lord help me to remember what you’re
saying
don’t let me forget this simple verse
you
act in behalf of those who wait upon you
how much time did we spend waiting upon
and we said well i read my scripture
this morning and
i had to hurry up think about this every
single day of your life in my life
is totally uncertain and what’s
happening about us is very
evident of that we need to begin
every day in the word even if it’s
one verse or a whole chapter or whatever
it might be
remembering that the spirit of god
who lives within us
takes that word drives it to our mind
to our heart to our spirit and does what
intends to use it to guide us throughout
the day
god has given you the most treasured
thing you own
you can stack up all of your stocks and
bonds and money over here
and cars and houses and farms and
whatever it might be over here
none of that all of it together can
equal this
because none of that can get you to
heaven
only the word of god can get you to
heaven and only the word of god
god can give you clear instruction for
your life
so likewise
if i’m following him i’m going to be
able to walk
sometimes where it’s not clear i want
you to turn to one of my favorite
passages
proverbs 3 speaking of guidance and
direction
verse 5 trust in the lord
with all your heart do not lean
on your own understanding in all your
ways
not some of them acknowledge him look to
him
listen to him wait for him and he will
make your paths
straight instead of crooked listen to
this
do not be wise in your own
eyes fear the lord and turn away from
evil and he says
here’s what you can expect it’ll be
healing to your body
and refreshment to your bones
what can promise you that and if you
just had one passage of scripture that
you want to memorize
and say you can you can say you can say
that passage to yourself every morning
and praise god
listen when you put the key in your
ignition and you turn it what do you
expect to have
is that all you expect to happen you
expect the engine to start right
when you read this passage of scripture
daily
or quote it to yourself and you’ll find
yourself quoting it to yourself often
what happens something turns on inside
of you
and you know what that is that is your
awareness
of the spirit of the living god who will
guide you enable
you empower you give you understanding
how to face every circumstance of life
today
listen god has given us this because he
knows
we can’t live a successful life from his
perspective or even
from our own unless we are doing what
we have they had their eyes on the cloud
by day and the fire by night
to be sure they walked in the right
direction we have the word of god
to do what to give us clarity
understanding
and insight so we can walk
in a holy way every day of our life
the word of god we’re talking about
being guided by it
here’s some verses that i just want you
to remember so i want you to turn to
joshua for example
and um let’s let’s look at
the first chapter joshua another one of
my favorite passages
because i had to turn to this
many times i remember when i preached my
first sermon
i can still see my mom she called me
she came into my bedroom and she says i
want you to read this
before you preach your first sermon
tonight because she knew i was a little
bit frightened
but here’s what my mother gave me
she says i want you to read this verse
have i not commanded you to be strong
and courageous do not tremble or be
dismayed
for the lord your god is with you
wherever you go
so i read that about two or three times
i wrote it down
when i got i walked out about two blocks
from my church
when i got i remember i was standing on
the street calling a light
there and so i pulled my little note
and uh then i turned to the bible and
just stood there for a moment and read
that verse
and the first sermon i preached uh
you thought i’ve been preaching a long
time but it had nothing to do with me
because in my mind the bible says have
not
commanded you to be strong and of a good
courage fear not need to be there as me
for the lord thy god is with you
wherever you go watch this carefully
if you walk in the spirit of god
you’ll have to be strong and courageous
because god is going to tell you
don’t go here and you have to decide
whether you’re strong enough
to be obedient to god or you yield the
pressure from somebody else or whatever
be strong and courageous fear not
neither be that dismayed
but the lord your god’s with you how
blessed we are to have the word of god
and it’s our light and our fire and our
direction
and our help and our hope and our
strength and our energy
and there’s something about reading the
word of god that does energize us
because what happens is this we are
reminded
of the presence of the holy spirit
within us
we’re reminded he’s the one who empowers
us
strengthens us guides us helps us keeps
us
protects us we’re reminded we have
within us the living god
in the person of the holy spirit we
should be able to start
every day with confidence and boldness
and assurance
and when you look around to see what’s
happening not a single person
knows whether they’ll be able to get
home tonight or not
we live by faith we live by hope
and many people live by a faith that
they don’t even realize what that
faith’s all about
the truth is those of us who have a copy
of the word of god
and lived by the word of god know the
source of our hope and of our strength
and we know the source of our protection
and our watch care
you and i have the written living
perfect word of god to give us direction
about
every single solitary aspect
of our life with no exception you can’t
think of anything the word of god
doesn’t have an answer for
that some people would say well i’ve
asked god about some things he didn’t
answer well you probably aren’t
listening very carefully
or probably you
didn’t like his answer but everywhere in
the word of god
he’s got a word for us so i think about
we’re going to find ourselves facing
conflict and so somebody says well
you don’t know where i work and i go to
work every single day
and i go to work in a situation that’s
not very helpful
not very encouraging and so i want to
give you this passion scripture in
acts chapter 5 and
verse 29 listen to what he says
peter and the apostles answer to those
who are persecuting them
we must obey god rather than men
the god of our fathers raised up jesus
whom you have put to death by hanging
him on a cross
he is the one whom god exalted to his
right hand as a prince
and a savior to grant repentance to
israel and forgiveness of sins
we are witnesses of these things
and so is the holy spirit whom god has
given to those
of us who obey him listen you have the
treasure of god deposited in your life
to do what for guidance and direction
think about this would god ask you to do
something he wouldn’t help you do
no but if you don’t know about the holy
spirit
you would end up doing it in your own
strength and energy
this is why oftentimes people just they
say well
i’ve tried to live a christian life but
somehow i’m not doing too well
the spirit of god who indwells one of us
is the spirit of god who endures every
single one of us
and he has equipped us and enabled us to
face difficulty in hardship and
opposition
so if i should ask you this morning how
many of you have been through a tough
time in your life
and the only thing you had was god was
he there
all of you to raise your hand if you if
you know
that he’s been there you know that there
have been times when all you had was god
the bottom dropped out the sides fell
off the top disappeared and there you
are
helpless and hopeless and the only thing
you have is almighty god
when people say to me once in a while
one of these days
i’m going to think about becoming a
christian but
i think to myself think about this
who said you have one of these days
the only day you and i have for sure
is right now and the spirit of god
the spirit of god came to live in our
life to do it
to give us assurance so that we don’t
have to worry about today
we just live in his presence knowing
that he’s within us
he is our god and our guard and our
health and our strength and everything
we need
so we can live happily we can live with
a discerning spirit to know some things
that are not wise for us to do and if
for example if god
let’s say you headed into some store or
something or whatever it might be and
you had a reservation in your spirit
don’t do that
and you say well why not let me just say
this to you when the spirit of god tells
you
something do exactly what he says
he said if he tells you if he tells you
don’t do that don’t argue with him and
ask him to tell you why
he is under no obligation to answer your
why
his obligation is to give you direction
guidance and protection if i disobey him
i suffer the consequence
god speaks to all of his children once
you trusted him as your personal savior
the spirit came into your life to do
what they give you direction
and all these other things we talked
about so therefore
you have you have living within you
holy god in the person of the holy
spirit and
one of his primary responsibilities is
to give direction to
your life and to show us what to do not
to do
where to go and not to go who to meet
and what not to meet
what to buy not to buy where to live and
not in other words
he has the answers you say i can’t just
go around asking god what to do why not
you have within you the voice of the
living god
who will urge you not to do something
and i i can just tell you something this
very week
i was working on and i thought i had
this all planned out and so forth
and it’s like at the last minute
god just gave me a check in my spirit so
i had realized lord
that was my choice we can do what we
believe is right it wasn’t a matter of
right or wrong
it was a matter of wise or unwise or the
proper thing to do
and so god is just as willing to speak
to you and i wish i knew how to get this
into your mind
you listen and say amen god
will speak to you personally
it won’t be loud you won’t hear it with
your ears
you will hear it with your spirit
now listen carefully if you’re living in
sin
here’s what that does put something
between you and the spirit
you don’t you don’t quite hear it if
you’re not hearing god it’s because
you’re not
listening because god wants to protect
you and give you guidance and wisdom and
direction
it’s so clear to me when all of a sudden
it’s a check
that that that’s not the right direction
that that’s not that’s not what i want
you to do
in it’s crystal clear and he will do the
same thing for you if you listen if you
say to him lord
i’m coming to being obedient watch this
i’m committed to being obedient
god’s committed to showing you what
obedience is
but if you say lord i want you to show
me your will and so
you think that’s not exactly what i want
to do you do something else
next time you ask god the next time the
next time after a while you don’t even
ask him
many of god’s people are living
oblivious
to the very presence of holy god who
lives within them
and so they wonder why they get in
trouble do things they shouldn’t do go
away they shouldn’t go
see you name it it’s not because god
doesn’t care
it’s not because god’s not speaking it’s
because we’re not listening
listen carefully it’s dangerous
absolutely
dangerous in this day and time to live
close to god
we all need him and he’s just that clear
that you may be sitting in you may be
thinking well i don’t think
that’s absolutely necessary and and i
don’t think
i just don’t think god will speak to me
that way yes
he will asking
listen to this asking that you’ve been
given you
seek in this you’ll find knocking that
shall be open unto you
everyone who asks receives seeks finds
knocks opens
as a promise so do you believe the word
of god
if you believe the word of god you must
believe that when you come to him and
ask
whatever the situation is he will
answer your petition i believe one of
the most
important lessons we learn as a believer
is how
do you listen to god now
you heard me say this many many times
obey god and do what
is that what you’re doing are you
obeying god leading all the consequences
to him
what that says is obey god and trust him
with everything
would you say that god is trustworthy
that he can handle your everything
absolutely
for the hebrews it was a cloud by day
fire by night and trusting
moses for us
it’s the living word of god
that we have with us every day of our
life
we can find out whatever we need to find
out
we can find clear direction for every
single issue in life
you said you mean to tell me do you you
believe that god will give you direction
for every single thing in your life yes
like what what would he not give me
direction for
god listen god doesn’t act like we do
god is true to his word and in these
days
this book is the most important
possession
you have because here’s the source of
all the promises of almighty god
and so many of us here are grandparents
what have you ever said to your
grandchildren about the bible
have you ever made that an issue with
them
who do you talk to about the word of god
or do you just take it for granted
this to us is like a cloud by day
fire by night and moses was their leader
the holy spirit is our leader so look
how precious we are
look how good god is to us he let us be
born in the time when we got it right
here
and the holy spirit to god is in this
if you’ve never trusted jesus as your
savior you should do so immediately
how did i do that you asked god to
forgive you of your sins
you acknowledged him that you believe
that his death on the cross
paid your sin dead in full and that if
you confess your sins and surrender your
life to him and accept him as your
savior
by faith that he forgives your sins
writes your name in the lamb’s book of
life and you’re forever a child of god
and dwelt by the holy spirit who will
help you interpret his word
the rest of your life that’s who you are
father we bless you and praise you
worship you and adore you
treasure dear god your precious word
and pray that you will lead every person
who hears or watches this message
to know the truth and to walk in your
ways
but we ask it in jesus name amen
amen
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you