Doors Part 2

FOUR STAGES OF GOD’S INDIVIDUAL WILL

Psalm 139:16 (NIV) Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

FINDING THE RIGHT DOOR

• God’s moral will (what God already revealed in the Bible).
• God’s sovereign will (what God is doing on the earth).
• God’s individual will (what God is doing in your life).

FOUR STAGES OF GOD’S INDIVIDUAL WILL

Step 1: The prompting of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 20:22 (NIV) And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem . . . .

What am I compelled (stirred up) about?

Job 32:18-19 (NIV) For I am full of words, and the spirit within me compels me; inside I am like bottled-up wine, like new wineskins ready to burst.

The two reasons you would not feel compelled:

• You’re not connected to God’s Spirit.
• You need stirred up again through prayer.

Step 2: Certain uncertainty.

Acts 20:22 (NIV) . . . I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there.

God never gives us all the information. We have to take a step of faith.

2 Corinthians 5:7 (NIV) We live by faith, not by sight.

Where do I need to take a step of faith?

1 Corinthians 16:5-9 (NIV) After I go through Macedonia, I will come to you . . . I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me.

Step 3: Predictable resistance.

You have an enemy that wants to stop you. Don’t take his detour, leap over his wall! Resistance doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong.

1 Thessalonians 2:18 (ISV) We wanted to come to you. Certainly I, Paul, wanted to come time and again, but Satan blocked our way.

Where is the enemy attacking me?

Step 4: Focused determination.

Stay focused on what God has given you to do.

Acts 20:24 (NIV) However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus Christ has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.

Where should my focus be?