Experiencing God: Jesus Is Your Way

Chapter One:
God's Will and Your Life
I am the Vine, you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.  -John 15:5



Chapter Prologue:

The World's Fair
      In 1986, when the World's Fair was coming to Vancouver, our association of churches was convinced God wanted us to reach the 22 million people who would come to the fair. We had about two thousand members in our churches in the greater Vancouver area. How in the world could two thousand people make a great impact on such a mass of tourists from all over the world? Both youth and adults had some exciting ideas.
      Two years before the fair we began to set our plans in motion. At that time, the total income for our whole association was $9 thousand. The following year our income was about $16 thousand. For the year of the fair, we took a great leap of faith and set a budget for $202 thousand. We had commitments that would probably provide 35 percent of that budget; 65 percent of the budget was dependent on prayer.
      Can you operate a budget on prayer? Yes. But when you do that, you are accepting something only God can do. What do most of us do? We set the practical budget, which is the total of what we can do. Then we set a faith or hope budget.  The budget we generally trust and use, however, is the one we can reach by ourselves. We do not really trust God to do anything.
       As an association of churches, we decided that God had definitely led us to the work that would cost $202 thousand. That became our operating budget. All of our people began praying for God to provide and to guide us in doing everything we believed He wanted us to do during the World's Fair.
      At the end of the year, I asked our treasurer how much money we had received. From Canada, the United States, and other parts of the world, we had received $264 thousand. But people did more than give money; they came from all over the world to assist us. During the course of the fair, we became a catalyst to see almost 20 thousand people come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. God had truly moved--far beyond anyone's expectations!
      We cannot explain what happened at the World's Fair except in terms of God's intervention. Only God could have accomplished those results. And how did God do it? He did it with believers of all ages who had determined to be servants, who were moldable, flexible, and available for the Master's use.


Day 1
Jesus Is Your Way
As You Follow Jesus One Day at a Time, He Will Keep You Right in the Center of God's Will.
The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.  --1 Corinthians 2:14

            Jesus said, "This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom You have sent" (John 17:3). The heart of eternal life and this study is for you to KNOW GOD and to KNOW JESUS CHRIST Whom He has sent.
      Knowing God does not come through a program or a method. It is a relationship with a person. It is a relationship with God. It is an intimate love relationship with God. Through this relationship God reveals His will and invites you to join Him where He is already at work. When you obey God, He accomplishes through you something only He can do.
      Jesus said, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10). Would you like to experience life to the full? You may, if you are willing to respond to God's invitation to an intimate love relationship with Him. I want you to move into the kind of relationship with God that will enable you to experience eternal life to the fullest degree possible.


           Relationship to Jesus Christ--the Beginning Point
      Since you are taking this course, I assume you have already trusted Jesus Christ as Savior and you acknowledge Him to be the Lord of your life. If you have not already made this important decision in your life, the rest of this course will have little meaning for you because spiritual matters can only be understood by those who have the indwelling of the Spirit of Christ (1 Cor. 2:14):
        "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned."  --1 Corinthians 2:14

If you sense a need to accept Jesus as your Savior and Lord, now is this time to settle that matter with God.
      Ask God to speak to you as you read the following Scriptures:

•              Romans 3:23---all have sinned
•              Romans 6:23---Eternal life is a gift from God
•              Romans 5:8---Because of love, Jesus paid the death penalty for your sins
•              Romans 10:9-10---Confess Jesus as Lord
•              Romans 10:13---Ask God to save you, and He will

          To place your faith in Jesus and receive His gift of eternal life, you must:

• Recognize that you are a sinner and that you need a saving relationship with Jesus Christ
• Confess (agree with God about) your sins
• Repent of your sins (turn from you sins to God)
• Ask Jesus to save you by His grace
• Turn over the rule in your life to Jesus. Let Him be your Lord.

          If you need help, call your pastor, youth leader, or a Christian friend. If you have just made this important decision, call someone and share the good news of what God has done in your life. Then share your decision with your church.


             Looking For More in Your Experience with God?

              You may be frustrated in your Christian experience because you know God has a more abundant life for you than you have experienced. Or you may earnestly desire God's directions for your life an ministry. You may have experienced tragedy in your life and don't know what to do. Whatever your present circumstances may be, my earnest prayer is that somehow in this time you will be able to:

• Hear when God is speaking to you
• Clearly identify the activity of God in your life
• Believe God to be and do everything He promises
• Adjust your beliefs, character and behavior to God and His ways
• See what God wants to do through your life
• Clearly see what you need to do in response to God's activity in your life
• Experience God through you doing what only God can do!

            Your Study Guide
             Reaching these goals is an impossible task for this course. These are things only God can do in your life. For your deeper walk with God, I will try to serve as your guide and encourager. I will be sharing with you some of the "wonderful works" the Lord has done as God's people have applied Biblical principles to following God. In the activities, I will invite you to interact with God so He can reveal to you the ways He wants you to apply these principles in your own life.
Read John 14:26 and fill in the blanks of what the Spirit will do:
The Holy Spirit will                you                things.
"But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things." --John 14:26a

Your Teacher
        The Holy Spirit of God will be your personal Teacher (Above verse). He is the One Who will guide you to apply Biblical principles according to God's will. He will confirm in your heart the truth of Scripture. Therefore, your intimate relationship with God in prayer, meditation, and Bible study will be an essential part of this course. Let the Spirit of God bring you into an intimate relationship with the God of the universe Who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us (Eph. 3:20).


Let Jesus Be Your Way
        For 12 years I was the pastor of a church in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. One day a farmer came up to me and said, "Henry, come out and visit with me at my farm." He then gave me directions which I wrote down. One day, with directions in hand, I set out with the farm. After many wrong turns, I finally made it to the farm.
       The next time I went out there, the farmer was with me. What did I have to do to get there? I simply had to listen to him and obey him. Every time he said "turn", I just did what he said. The farmer was my "map" because he knew the way.
When you come to Jesus to seek His will for your life, which of the following requests is most like what you ask? Check your response.

• "Lord, what do you want me to do? When do you want me to do it? And tell me what the outcome will be."
• "Lord, just tell me what to do one day at a time, and I will do it."

          Isn't the first choice the most typical way we respond? We are always asking God for a detailed "road map". We say, "Lord, if you could just tell me where I am heading, then I will be able to set my course and go."
      He says, "You don't need to. What you need to do is just follow Me one day at a time." We need to come to the place where the second response is ours.
       Who is it that really knows the way for you to go to fulfill God's purpose for your life? Jesus is. He said, "I am the way".
             "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life" ---John 14:6

If you were to do everything Jesus asks you to one day at a time, do you suppose that you would always be right in the center of where God wants you to be? Check your response.

• No, Jesus does not know God's will for my life
• No, Jesus might mislead me and take me the wrong way
• Well, Jesus would rather I wait until He tells me all the details before I start to follow Him
• Yes, if I follow Jesus one day at a time, I will be right in the center of God's will for my life

      When you come to the place where you trust Jesus to guide you one day at a time, you will experience a new freedom. If you don't trust Jesus to guide you this way, you will worry every time you make a turn. You will often freeze up and not be able to make a decision. This is not the way God intends for you to live your life.

Abram Followed God One Day at a Time
      Abram (Though God later changed his name to Abraham) is a good example of the one-day-at-a-time principle at work in a Bible personality.
      "The Lord had said to Abram, 'leave your country, your people, and your father's household and go to the land I will show you" ---Genesis 12:1

           Abram was 75 years old when he set out for Haran. He took his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated, and the people they had acquired in Haran; and they set out for the land of Canaan, and got there (Gen. 12:4-5).
      What did God say? How specific was He? "Leave" and "go". Go where? "To a land I will show you".


Are you ready to follow God's will that way? Check your response.

• NO, I don't think God will ever ask me to go anywhere that He doesn't show me ahead of time where I am going.
• I'm not sure
• YES, I am willing to follow Him by faith and not by sight
• Other

           Many times, as with Abram, God called people just to follow Him (Next week you will read about several). He is more likely to call you one day at a time, than He is to spell out all the details to you before you decide to obey Him. As we continue this study together, you will find this verse very active in the lives of many Biblical personalities:
"Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." ---Matthew 6:33-34
Pause and Pray

• Agree that God is absolutely trustworthy
• Agree with God that you will follow Him one day at a time
• Agree with God that you will follow Him even when He doesn't spell out all the details to you in advance
• Agree that you will let God be your Way

      "If you cannot agree to these actions right now, openly confess your struggles to God. Ask Him to help you want to do His will His way. Claim the promise: It is God Who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose." ---Philippians 2:13


     As I noted at the beginning of this book, at the end of each day's lesson I will ask you to review the lesson and pray. Following are the review items.


Review Today's Lesson. Pray and ask God to identify one or more Scriptures that He wants you to understand, learn or practice. Then respond to the following:


What was the most meaningful statement or Scripture you read today?


Re-word the statement or Scripture into a prayer of response to God.


What does God want you to do in response to today's study?


Write out your memory verse(s) for this chapter. You may use a different translation for your memory verses if you prefer. It is recommended you practice your memory verses daily.


SUMMARY STATEMENTS:

• As I follow Jesus one day at a time, He will keep me in the center of God's will
• Jesus is my way; I don't need any other road map

             Thank you, God bless you, and may you have a beautiful, Christ-centered week! 

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