FINDING DIRECTION IN YOUR LIFE

Where is your life going?
Are your choosing your direction or are you reacting to life as it comes? Are you navigating towards your promised land or are you serving as a crew member on a ship going somewhere else? Do you know what your destination is or who is directing your course? Is your life being pushed and pulled by your employer, your family or your church?


God designed you to be a unique agent of change, to impact this world for Him. God made you in His own image, not to be a second rate copy of your parents, your teachers or a preacher or leader. If you live to please other people, you have missed your reason for living.
Does that mean you should forget other people and just please yourself? Of course not. When you live only to please yourself and fulfil your own dreams, you make yourself the God of your own life. Any sensible person should realise that this is crazy, yet it is a popular idea today. And look what a mess people have made by playing God!
God created you in His love and He loves you. He has a wonderful plan for your life. He wants you to find Him and to work with Him to live out his plan. He won’t do it for you and He won’t do it to you. He wants to live WITH you and for you to live WITH him.
For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11 (TLB)
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. Revelation 21:3 (ESV)
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12 (ESV)
Why do you and I need Jesus? We have messed up this world. We have all contributed to the darkness around us. We often think there must be something better but we just muddle through by guesswork.


There is an amazingly good God who made this world for Himself. He gave this world to us, to be His sons and daughters but we have taken this world away from Him and messed it up. He wants His world back but He doesn’t want to take it away from us. But we can only share this world with God if we are reconciled to Him as our Father.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 (ESV)
You may have heard that Jesus died to pay the penalty of your sins. If you turn to Him in faith, He will forgive your sins and you will have eternal life, and enjoy heaven when you die.
All that is true but God’s plan is much bigger than that.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. Revelation 21:1 (ESV)
And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Revelation 21:5 (ESV)
We often hear preachers invite people to turn to Jesus and receive eternal life. God has a wonderful plan for your life.
But after you turn to Jesus and join a church, no one talks about God’s wonderful plan for your life. You find yourself just pleasing people at home, at work and at church. You were saved from sin, from condemnation, from hell but where is God’s wonderful plan?


IT IS STILL THERE AND YOU CAN FIND IT.
But you must find it in God and walk that way with God. Only God can show you and only God can lead you in the way He has prepared for YOU. 

Knowing God for Yourself.. No Second Hand Faith

A church hierarchy sets up a chain of command that separates the so called ordinary believers from the immediate personal direction of the Jesus and His Holy Spirit.
Christianity is either supernatural or it's nothing. We are called to be fruitful and multiply.
There is a Christianity that does not welcome supernatural revelations, healings and the active presence of God doing surprising stuff.
The Reformation achieved some good things in its time. Salvation through faith in Jesus was preached. The Bible was translated and restored to the people.
BUT THE REFORMATION WAS VERY INCOMPLETE. GOD IS THE GOD OF MIRACLES. Faith in a God who only did miracles 2000 years ago will not impact the world today.
When Christianity is truly alive and healthy, every believer hears the voice of God and every believer follows Jesus directly and personally.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. John 10:27 (ESV)
In the Old Testament, the people of God only heard the voice of God indirectly, through the Bible and the words of the prophets who spoke for God. We still read the Bible and it is God speaking through His perfect revealed word.
But how do you know what God is saying TO YOU NOW?
The Bible says different things to different people in different passages. Is God telling you to rest in His love or to radically change your life?

• Is God telling you to hide His truth in your heart or to tell everyone what you believe?
• Is God telling you to marry or to stay single?
• Is God telling you to preach in Africa or stay at home?
• Is God telling you to work in a job or to be a missionary who trusts Him to provide?

Bible reading alone will not answer these questions. Many people resolve this difficulty by putting themselves under the direction of a priest, pastor or spiritual advisor. This is putting a man in the place of God. It is Old Testament thinking but it is common in the church. It is like the old fashioned Roman Catholic system where the priests told the believers what the Bible says and what they should do. I hope you don't think I am against Catholics. Many Catholics love Jesus and listen to the Holy Spirit.

What is God saying TO YOU NOW?
There is nothing wrong with seeking wise counsel and teaching but this must not be a substitute for growing up in faith yourself. A Christian who is spiritually healthy is able to receive direct personal communication from God Himself.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. John 10:27 (ESV)
And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” Matthew 4:3-4 (ESV)

Here Jesus shows His faith in the Written Word of God but also in the spoken word of God. God SPEAKS today and He speaks every day. The Spirit of God brings the written word of God alive, so you know when God is speaking to you personally through a particular Bible text. But the Holy Spirit also speaks to your spirit in many different ways and He does it much more than most of us realise.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. Revelation 3:20 (ESV)
In the New Testament, every believer is invited to hear the voice of God and to share with others what he hears.
 â€œ ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. Acts 2:17-18 (ESV)