Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come unto
thee. Hide not thy face from me in the day when
I am in trouble. Incline thine ear unto me in
the day when I call. Answer me speedily. That
call may be in the form of a falling tear, or
a whisper, or even a sigh. God knows the sincerity
of that heart. And he'll hear the slightest whisper
from that heart of yours. Father God, answer
that call. Answer that one's cry. Be real to
that one. For Jesus' sake we ask it. Amen. For
a few minutes... You and I are going to have
a little heart -to -heart talk about something
that's most important to all of us. And that
is the will of God. And sometimes I feel that
the hardest thing in the world to discern is
God's perfect will for you and for me. I mean
that. There have been times in my life when I
have to admit I absolutely did not know just
what was God's perfect will. I had come to the
crossroads. I knew that two things could not
be His will. One was his will and one was not
his will. And I have stood right in the middle
of those crossroads, afraid to go frontward or
backward or to the right or to the left, for
fear that I would miss his will. So for just
a few minutes, I want you to sit there with open
hearts and open minds and let's discuss this
thing. very freely about the will of God and
how to ascertain God's perfect will. One thing
that I have learned from experience, and it was
one of the greatest lessons that I have had to
learn, and that is that in seeking God's perfect
will, a will of my own. I have got to get myself
to the place where I have no will in the matter
of my own. I seek at the very beginning to get
my heart into such a state that it has no will
of its own in regard to the given matter. Anyone
know something? Nine -tenths of the trouble with
people is just here. Nine -tenths of the difficulties
are overcome when our hearts are ready to do
the will of the Lord, whatever it may be. And
when one is truly in this state, You'll know
His perfect will. But do you want to know why
sometimes you and I have such a hard time ascertaining
God's will? Do you want to know why many a time
we weep and we are so uncertain, we're so perplexed,
we're so doubtful as to what God's perfect will
is? It's simply because we've never gotten to
the place where we have fully surrendered our
will to the will of God. We want to do exactly
what we want to do. And it's just like that.
We're made that way. Human nature is just like
that. And I don't care how deeply spiritual you
may be this very hour. I don't care what marvelous
experiences you may have had in the Lord. One
of the hardest places to get to in the Christian
experience is that place where you are so surrendered
to Him that you have no will of your own. And
it's just like that. Our trouble, nine... of
that trouble in knowing God's perfect will is
that we fight against His will, whether we know
it or not. For a person wants to do exactly what
he wants. You know, When people come to me for
advice, I know good and well that even though
I may take a full hour and sit there and try
to give them advice, they may be perfectly honest
in coming to me, perfectly sincere. I wouldn't
doubt their sincerity. They may have come to
me really wanting to know my opinion and wanting
my advice. And I sit there and I pour out my
heart and I give them all the wisdom that I know.
When they leave my presence and go their way,
regardless of what I have said, What I have advised
them to do, I know that as they turn from my
presence, they're going to go out and do exactly
what they want to do. And it would be a good
idea if you'd learn that too, when folk come
to you. They'll take your time. Oh, sure, your
neighbors will come to your house. They'll take
your tie and they'll spend half the morning,
they'll spend all afternoon talking the thing
over with you and asking your advice. But I'm
going to promise you something. They're going
to leave your house doing exactly what they want
to do. That's right. And that is... is our trouble
when we come into the presence of the Lord. We
look up and we say, Dear Jesus, I want your perfect
will. I want your will more than anything in
the world. And when he whispers his will to us,
and mentally we know his will, Sometimes it takes
us days. Sometimes it takes us weeks before we'll
get to the place where we will submit our own
will to His will. Even Jesus had a will separate
and apart from the will of the Father. That's
the reason I told you so very often that really
the victory of God Calvary was fought and won
in the garden. Think that over. There would never
have been Calvary if in the garden Jesus, who
was as much man as though he were not God, and
as much God as though he were not man, if in
the garden His will had not been submissive to
the will of the Father. The victory of Calvary
was fought and won when he looked up and cried,
Nevertheless, Father, not my will, but thine,
be done. I promise you something. That when you
are seeking the will of God, in that moment,
When you can get your heart in the state where
His will is your will and your will is His will,
it'll not be long before you'll know the will
of God. Now, having done just this, there's something
else. I do not leave the result to feeling or
simple impression. If I do so, I make myself
liable to great delusions. I can be easily deceived
if I leave myself open to feelings and depend
on feelings to lead me. Because sometimes feelings
can be very deceptive. That's right. God never
gives feelings to enable us to trust him. God
never gives feelings to encourage us to trust
him. God never gives feelings to show that we
have already and utterly trusted him. We walk
by faith, not by appearances. We walk by faith,
not by feelings. God never intended that his
children walk according to their feelings. Oh,
I know, self may want to. And a great many of
us do. Haven't you met that somebody that one
day, how are you? Oh, I'm just fine. Oh, isn't
the Lord good? And they're way up on the mountaintop
someplace. But the next day you see them and,
well, how are you? Oh, I'm just awful. I tell
you, Miss Cooman, I'm just awful. Things are
going to the dogs. And really, nothing has changed
but their feelings. It's like that. Maybe they
weren't feeling as well physically today as they
felt yesterday. Or maybe a disappointment came.
Maybe they were counting on something that didn't
materialize and... Then they feel as though the
bottom has dropped out, and when you meet them
on the street, they look as though God was dead
and they were one of the pallbearers. It's just
like that. But God had not changed. He was just
the same when you met them the second day as
when you met them the first day and they were
on top of the mountain. God's word had not changed.
One would have thought that God had altered his
promises by the way they acted. But God never
alters his promises. God never gives his power
to anyone else. It's just the same. A person
like that is governed by their feelings. Remember
something. God gives feeling only when he sees
that we trust him apart from... All the feeling.
He only gives us feeling when he knows that we're
resting on his word, on his faithfulness to his
promise. And it's just like that. Our feelings
may be as uncertain as the sea or the shifting
sands. We stake everything on God's word. And
God's facts are as certain as the rock of ages.
And so in seeking God's will, never rest on your
feelings but his word. for his will will never
be contrary to his word. Amen.