You and I are in a series of heart-to-heart talks regarding the greatest sermon ever
preached.
And in that sermon, preached by the very Son of God, He gave us a pattern for you and for
me to follow regarding prayer.
So simple that even a child can understand.
And I left you in our last heart-to-heart talk regarding that portion of the prayer
that I think has affected me more deeply than perhaps any other part of the prayer.
I pray it shall have great meaning for you as we talk it over together.
And these are the words, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.
Therefore we see at a glance, there is a will for my life in heaven and there is also a
will here on earth.
The will in heaven is God's will for my life.
The will here on earth is my will.
There are two separate wills mentioned right here in this portion of prayer.
I read it again.
Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven according to the will in heaven.
You will remember that in my last heart-to-heart talk with you, I told you that life is the
most important thing in the whole world.
There is nothing in this whole universe that is more important to God than human life.
You will agree with me that it has become very cheap according to man's sense of values.
But it doesn't change the fact one iota that in the mind of God, in the sight of God, in
the thinking of God, in God's value, there is nothing more important in the whole universe
than man.
You are important to God.
You may feel so insignificant.
You may have an inferiority complex where you feel your absolute nothingness.
But let me tell you something.
You are God's greatest treasure.
You are so important to God.
You are so individual to Him that there has never been anyone else.
There will never be another person.
There is no one living today who has the same fingerprints as yours.
You are marked by God.
You are special to God.
You are individual to Almighty God.
Know that.
And when you came into this world, God held a perfect blueprint, a perfect plan for that
life of yours.
And yet, as an individual, you were born with a will to exercise that will as you will.
We're born with free moral agency.
Our wills are ours.
Every person is born with a will separate and apart from anyone else.
That's the reason no man, no woman can ever say that God has sent him to hell.
No one in hell this very hour can ever blame God for ever having sent him to hell.
Every person uses his own will to determine whether or not he will choose the Christ,
accept the pardon, accept the deity and divinity of Jesus Christ, or reject the whole thing.
We are free moral agents.
And Jesus Christ himself, the very Son of the Living God, had a will separate and apart
from the will of his Father.
Oh, I'm telling you something that's profound.
I'm telling you something that is one of the most important things that I could talk to
you about because it is important to you as an individual.
You are involved in this thing.
This thing that I'm talking to you is inescapable.
You cannot escape that which I am talking to you about this very hour, your will.
The Son of God found out that his own will was inescapable.
As much man as though he were not God, and yet as much God as though he were not man.
Before he paid the price in full to the Atonement, the last thing that he had to do was to surrender
his will to the will of his Father.
The greatest example that we have of this which I am talking to you about and that which
Jesus gave as a part of the pattern in prayer, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.
The greatest example was given by the Son of God himself when in the garden he prayed,
nevertheless, not mine will, but thine be done.
There was a perfect rubrit.
When the three sat down at the great conference table, God the Father, the Holy Spirit, Jesus
Christ the Son, and laid out the plans of the redemption of man, even though Jesus had
offered himself through the Holy Spirit to be given to the Father as the Father might
give him for the salvation of the souls of lost mankind.
The whole thing could still have been voided.
Jesus still had the right to exercise his own will and could have looked up and said,
Father, I can't go through that.
Jesus could have backed out the very last minute and could have foiled the entire plan
for the salvation of mankind.
But in that last moment, he looked up his last act of surrender and said, nevertheless,
not my will, but thine be done.
My will in earth shall coincide, shall be surrendered to the will of my Father in heaven.
I'm telling you something.
This is one of the most profound things that I could talk to you about.
Because in exactly the same way you have a will, I have a will, that I must exercise
apart from anyone else.
I am responsible for my will.
I shall never forget.
I think I was not more than 15 years of age, inexperienced, oh so stupid, no learning,
just dumb.
And yet I knew I'd been born again.
I knew that I'd been called into the ministry.
And dear old Brother McCloud, at that time he looked to me to have been at least 90,
but I'm sure now he couldn't have been any more than 78, 79, perhaps 80.
A dear old Saint of God, lean and lanky, almost maciated looking, and yet at his prime had
been a spiritual giant.
I can almost feel those bony scrawny hands of his tightly holding my hands, and he pressed
them together with all the strength that he had in those hands.
And he looked me directly in the face, and he said, girl, my ministry has come to an
end.
I've had my day.
I'll soon be going home.
But you are young.
You have your whole life before you.
God has a great work for you to do.
There's just one bit of advice I want to say to you, just this.
Never get out of the will of God.
I thanked him, smiled, and didn't have the slightest idea of what he was saying.
So help me.
Looking back on it now, I didn't have the faintest idea or comprehension of what that
precious Saint of God was saying to me.
A 15-year-old kid, inexperienced, stupid, absolutely ignorant of what this Saint was
saying as he spoke the richest gems of knowledge that could have been given to me.
I know now.
Believe me, beloved, I know today, but I didn't know then.
I know now exactly what that precious Saint was talking about.
I tell you the truth.
I take the lid off of my heart and I tell you the truth.
I tell you the God's truth.
I do not fear the power of the devil, for I'm serving one who has greater power than
satanic power.
I'm not afraid of all the forces of hell, but I have one whose power is greater than
all the forces of hell.
I am afraid of one thing, and that is, lest I get out of the will of God.
More than anything else in this whole world do I covet his perfect will.
For when I am in the center of his will, I have his favor, I have his blessing, I have
heaven's best, I have his smile.
All the power and all the glory of heaven is with me.
I'm surrounded by his love.
All that is his is mine.
He'll protect me, he'll guide me.
He'll lead me.
He'll give me his wisdom.
The love of the most coveted place in the whole universe is to be in God's perfect
will.
And yet, I'm Frank de Tavio, there are times when the hardest thing in the whole world
is to know God's will.
That's one of the hardest things in the world.
And I can prove to you that there is such a thing as God's perfect will and God's permissive
will.
I can prove it to you from the word of God.
There can be no greater proof than God's word.
Turn if you will please to the 106th song.
All began with about the 11th verse, it's the turn of Israel.
And the waters covered their enemies and there was not one of them left after this wonderful
victory.
But watch.
Then believed they his words, they sang his praise, oh sure there was victory, it was
wonderful.
They were on the mountaintop for God had led them through to shore and certain victory.
But watch, they soon forgot his works.
They waited not for his counsel, but lost it exceedingly in the wilderness and kept
it God in the desert.
And he gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul.
He gave them their request.
Many a time I believe that I have prayed and prayed and prayed and wanted something so
much.
I wanted it.
Every part of me desired it.
I wanted it so much.
God would not disappoint me.
But in my lack of wisdom and knowledge, that which I was desiring was not God's best for
me.
It was not according to his blueprint for me.
In giving it to me, in answering my prayer, it had to be his second best or his third
best.
But beloved, he answered my prayer, but sent leanness into my life.
For I had received only the second best when I could have had heaven's best had I waited.
God bless you.