We talked a little on Monday about the motive for service and yesterday about what the Lord has give us to serve Him; that is, the various gifts in the Word of God spoken of as talents and pounds in those two parables. Today I would like to talk about that age-old subject “How do I know what the Lord wants me to do?”
We read that verse yesterday in Mark 13 where it tells us clearly that when the Lord went away He gave to every man his work. We mentioned that there was something for each one of us to do. But how do we know what the Lord would have us to do?
Let us read two or three scriptures together. Romans 12:1-21I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. (Romans 12:1‑2): “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
We often have that question raised — How do I know what the Lord would have me to do? I have had many people come to me (young people and some not so young) and say “Oh, if I only knew what the Lord wanted me to do! How do you find out the mind of the Lord?” Of course it is not only in connection with service for the Lord, but it spreads out into every aspect of our Christian pathway. “How do I know? I wish there were some simple way that I could find out what the Lord would have me to do.”
It is a very sad thing to see Christians who go on day after day, week after week, sometimes month after month and year after year and never seem to find out what the Lord wants them to do. They flounder around — they go here and there and try this and that. Whether it is a matter of what job the Lord would have them get into, whether they should go to college or not, whom they should marry, where they should live, what they should do for the Lord — they never seem to have any settled peace about it. I have spoken to people like that and some have said, “Well I guess I just don't understand — I don't know.” I talked to a sister, probably about a year ago, who was having some real trials and difficulties and she was older (much older than I, probably old enough to be my mother). I said to her, “Have you asked the Lord about it? Have you asked Him why He has allowed all this and what the solution is?” “Oh yes,” she said, “I've tried, but He just doesn't answer me.” Have you ever felt like that?
The thing I want to say at the outset is, it doesn't have to be that way. God does not intend it that way, because here in Romans 12, where we read, you will notice that it says at the end of verse 1, “which is your 'reasonable' service,” but perhaps a more accurate rendering of that word is “intelligent.” Christian service is not unintelligent. It is not a matter of saying, “I want to do something for the Lord — I see this or that opportunity — it doesn't matter which I choose.” No, it is an intelligent service. We can have a sense in our souls that the Lord has given us something and we can realize that it is something that He has laid on our hearts to do.
I want to make one more comment here, and I don't want this to be misunderstood. Someone has said, and I believe it is very correct, that, “it is not the need that calls us to service, but rather the mind of God,” and that is true. There are needs everywhere and you and I as individuals can't fill every need we see. If we take up every need that crosses our path, we will end up becoming frustrated because we can't fill them all. I can still remember being in an assembly, perhaps last year some time, and I wanted to have a chat with a brother who was working hard. I arranged to have lunch with him and we talked about that phrase that “the mere presence of a need does not constitute a call.” I agreed wholeheartedly with him that that phrase needed balancing. He said, “You know, Bill, I'm not sure that we need to have that pressed upon us so much today as the fact that we perhaps need (to use a colloquialism) a kick in the pants to get going in the first place!” He said, “All too often we say 'Well, a need does not constitute a call, and so I don't do anything'.” A need may not constitute a call, but a need constitutes an exercise—it should exercise me. I can well remember reading a story of a man who was exercised about going to China and another man who had it on his heart to go to China also, got down on his knees and said, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” The Lord said clearly to him, “I don't want you to go to China, but you have lots of money... reach into your pocket and support that man who is going out there.” So he went to him the next day and said, “Brother, I've been reading in the book of the Acts, which said 'Lord what wilt thou have me to do', and I think I have the answer.” Then he gave him a check for what in those days was an extremely large amount of money, probably represented in today's terms as a year's wages. He gave it to him to go.
That is what we should have. The need doesn't constitute a call, but it does constitute an exercise, and that brings me to the first part of this verse in Rom. 12, which I think should be impressed upon our souls, and it goes back to what we had on Monday, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God.” Sometimes we hear Christians talk about wanting to get closer to the Lord, wanting to do something for the Lord, and I have been guilty of the same thing myself — of wanting to do it so that I could have a smooth pathway — so I won't have the ups and downs and the unsettled state before the Lord — so that my life will go along nicely — so that I will have joy and happiness in my soul. All that isn't wrong. If I follow the Lord, I will get that, most definitely, but could I suggest to your heart and mine that there is a higher motive than that and that is that I do it not for what I will get out of it, but for His sake. It is a much higher motive to do it for His sake and so that is why it says here, “By the mercies of God.”
The apostle has been bringing before them in the first 8 chapters of Romans all of those blessings that are ours through the finished work of Christ, crowning with that wonderful 8th chapter. Then chapters 9, 10 and 11 are kind of in brackets, because that takes up the question of where Israel is at this present time. If you read the book of Romans, don't skip chapters 9, 10 and 11, but read right from the end of the 8th chapter sometime, to the beginning of the 12th, because this chapter refers back to the end of the 8th chapter. So you read the end of the 8th chapter and it brings before us those verses that were already before us. Verse 38, “I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” — “I beseech you therefore brethren” — that's the way to read it.
So that is the first motive, as we had before us on Monday, and we are going to have to come back to that. But to go back to what I mentioned a moment ago, how do we know what the Lord would have us to do? Is there some magical formula that some people seem to have and some don't, that some seem, without too much trouble, to be able to know what the Lord wants and others just have to flounder, because they can't find it out? No, I say again, in case I didn't make it clear once before, that God blesses each one of His children equally. There are no favorites in the family of God. Nobody has any more ability to draw closer to the Lord and to know His mind than any other Christian. But again I say, if there is one thing you get out of this meeting and you don't hear anything else, remember this, you can't talk about knowing the Lord's mind, whether for serving Him or for any other area of your life, without bringing in the question of your state of soul. You and I would like to have something easy. We would like to be able to plug into something and say, “Here is the problem, Lord, give me an answer.” But the Lord will not do that, because He loves you and me too much.
That is why I read that verse in Psalm 25 — “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him,” then in Psalm 32, “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way that thou shalt go; I will guide thee with mine eye.” That means simply this, that it is in communion with the Lord that I learn His mind, and if I come to the Lord and want to know His mind and I am not living close to the Lord, I may find that it is just not forthcoming that quickly. Have you ever had that experience? I know I have. I've gone to the Lord and said, “Lord, what shall I do?”, and I seem to be hitting a wall. Does it happen just to young people? No, it happens to older people too.
I can remember well hearing the story of brother J.B. Dunlop, who is long since with the Lord, how at the end of a day he knelt down to pray. He was trying to lay some things before the Lord, and couldn't seem to get anywhere in prayer. (Clayton was saying last night how it is simple to talk to the Lord as a dear friend, but you can't talk to a dear friend if you have done something to offend him during the day and you haven't made it right. You have to fix that up first). He couldn't seem to have any power in prayer so he said, “Lord, what is it?”, and the Lord showed him something he had done earlier in the day. It hadn't been anything too much, really, maybe an angry word, or a wrong thought that he hadn't judged. I confess to you that the Lord had to show me that more than once — that I had allowed wrong thoughts in my mind, allowed things to turn over in my mind, evil thoughts that had no business being there. I can't stop them from coming, but I can stop them from circulating around, and I had to judge them and confess them as sin, as Dan was bringing before us. Then communion is restored and I can ask the Lord for his mind.
I say again, if you don't get anything else out of this meeting, I want you to get that straight. If you can't find out the mind of the Lord, don't just give up and say “Oh, it's no use. The Lord doesn't show His mind to some people and I guess I’m one of them.” I've heard people talk like that — real Christians, but it's not true! So what the Lord wants is to draw you and me closer to Himself. He loves us too much to show us His mind and to let us go on away from Him. We can't serve Him effectively unless we are close to Him.
That brings me to another point I want to make and that is this, that we sometimes get a little puffed up with the importance of our own service and say “I've got to go here, or I've got to go there or have to do this or that.” The Lord (I say it reverently) doesn't need anybody to do service for Him. The Lord can reveal Himself to lost sinners without you and me. The Lord can bring the gospel to the heathen without you and me. The Lord can reveal the truth to souls without you and me and He does that but He is pleased to use us. I say again, in one sense He does need us because we are the light of the world now that He is gone, but in another sense He doesn't need us. The Lord is more concerned about having you close to Him than about your serving Him. We need to remember that.
Sometimes we get to thinking it is important that I do something for the Lord but again it goes back to what we said on Monday — it is not what you do that counts, but what you are. If what you are is right, what you do will always follow. The one who is truly in communion with the Lord cannot neglect the service the Lord has given him to do, but I can serve Him without being in communion. The Lord wants to draw us closer to Himself. All too often today we see perhaps our souls at a distance from the Lord (I speak to my own heart). So what do we do? Well we think we have to do something, so instead of seeking the Lord's mind, we build a human structure by which we serve the Lord. Does the Lord withhold a blessing because of that? No. The Lord may bless that, but I say again the mere fact of the Lord's blessing does not mean that the service is necessarily according to His mind. He wants us close to Himself.
What does it mean here in Romans 1:1212That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. (Romans 1:12)? “Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable unto God, which is your intelligent (or reasonable) service.” That means first of all the Lord wants holiness in our lives. We have to get rid of that which is not according to His mind and we won't dwell on that except to emphasize it. But then it says in verse 2, “Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” I emphasize this verse because I feel it is our biggest problem today. If we are conformed to the world, we can't prove what is the perfect will of God. That is our problem in North America. The world has gotten in amongst us, me included. It says in I John, “Love not the world, nor the things that are in the world,” because “if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” If you want to serve the Lord, it is going to cost you something. You are going to have to give up the world.
I've told this story before, but I'll repeat it, about two sisters (sisters in the flesh, but also in Christ). One was going on for the Lord and one wasn't. The one who was going on for the Lord had a settled peace in her heart about what the Lord would have her do, and she was comfortable in the service the Lord had committed to her. The other one was floundering, couldn't seem to make any headway, did this and that, and wasn't happy anywhere. Finally she said to her sister, “I would give the world to have the peace in my heart that you have,” and she didn't mean the peace of knowing her sins forgiven, she meant the peace of knowing she was walking with the Lord and that she was in the pathway of His choosing. Her sister answered her in a very short sentence. She said, “That's exactly what it is going to cost you.” Do you get the point? “I would give the world to have the peace you have.” Alright, that's what it is going to cost you. That other sister wanted to have the world and have Christ, and no one is more unhappy in this world than a Christian who is trying to enjoy both worlds. If you are trying to enjoy this world and trying to enjoy Christ, it won't work. So “conformed” means to come together with the world, “transformed” is a change — it means that I recognize that I belong to heaven. Then I can prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
I want to make one more comment here. That leads on to our next subject. I can't always expect, even if I really am walking with the Lord, that I'm going to get the answer just “like that.” I'll get the answer when I need it. I am thinking of taking a trip, but I still don't have any settled peace about whether I should go or when. But it does not upset me that I can't get down on my knees today and find that the Lord gives me an immediate answer. Basically the Lord may say “Just wait. The time will come, and when you need to make the move it will be abundantly clear to you,” and it will if you are really asking the Lord.
We don't always find the mind of the Lord easy to determine. Turn over to Acts 16. This incident in the life of the Apostle Paul has impressed me (Paul and Silas, of course, together). Notice what happens in Acts 16:66Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, (Acts 16:6).
“Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. After they were come to Mysia, they assayed (or tried) to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not. And they passing by Mysia came down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia and help us.”
What is the point of all this? The point is that even Paul and Silas, those great servants of the Lord, didn't immediately have a sense of where the Lord would have them go. It says here they were forbidden of the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. Galatia is in Asia and Phrygia, but then it seems the Spirit of God says, “No, Paul and Silas, don't preach the word here.” But they didn't immediately get the direction to go there. What did they do? It says they went down to Mysia. The point of this is that sometimes when the Lord doesn't immediately reveal His mind, it may not always be an indication that we are away from Him. It may be an indication that He wants us to sit still for a minute. Someone has said very aptly, that we are to do everything for the Lord's sake, and that sometimes includes doing nothing for His sake.
Now, I don't mean doing nothing in the sense that my mind is a blank, or that I don't use the time to enjoy the Lord, or perhaps to do some reading that I need to get caught up on, or perhaps simply to sit quietly and let the Lord speak to me and enjoy Him. We need that. But, sometimes the Lord puts a roadblock in our way that doesn't immediately show us which other road to take. That didn't discourage Paul and Silas. They go down to Mysia, and then they tried to make another move. They assayed (or tried) to go into Bithynia, but once again the Spirit suffered them not. But what happened? It says, “And they passing by Mysia came down to Troas.” There the Lord gives them a decided vision, a decided sense of what He wanted them to do.
The point I want to make is this, and it goes back to what we had before us in our first meeting: Even if you are whole-hearted, if your heart is really for Christ, you are going to encounter Mysia now and then in your pathway. Well, you by-pass it and then the Lord gives you light as to where you should go. But if you are not whole-hearted... I've seen people who have found Mysia everywhere. Everywhere they went the Spirit seemed to have put a block in their way until finally they threw up their hands and said, “It's no use.” But what was the difficulty? If I may speak very kindly, they didn't get close to the Lord and say like Saul, “What wilt Thou have me to do?” All too often our own ideas get into things, but I say again, if I am whole-hearted I will pass by Mysia and the Lord will show me what He will have me do.
Now I don't mean you will get a vision like Paul. I don't mean that necessarily you will see something in the night that will tell you which way to go, although that can happen, even in this day and age, but the Lord will give you very definite direction about what He would have you do and where He would have you go.
Does the Lord guide us by circumstances? Sometimes He does, but it is not His preferred way. I can remember a young man back home who prayed something like this, (and it kind of brought a smile to some of us, but he was very serious), “Lord, I want to do this, but I don't know whether it is Thy mind. Lord, if it is not Thy mind, stop me somehow.” I was glad to hear him pray like that, because I appreciated the fact that he really wanted to know the Lord's mind and I am thankful for that. I would rather hear someone pray like that than barge ahead saying, “I'm going to do that anyway.” Sometimes that happens, but you know it is not God's preferred way. I shouldn't have to say, “Well, I'm going down that road till I hit a roadblock and then I'll know it is the wrong road.”
I have tried to give people directions sometimes around our area. Most of the time they take the directions because they think I know my way around there, but a couple of times people haven't taken my directions and have gone down the wrong road. They ended up getting lost or ended up in a totally different area. They found out they were wrong, and it cost them something... they had to retrace their steps. It would have been smarter to listen more carefully to someone who knew his way around our town.
The Lord doesn't want us to keep hitting roadblocks and saying, 'Whoops, I'm on the wrong way road this time — I had better try another way,” and make moves “hit-and-miss.” No, He wants to guide us with His eye as He says in Psalm 32.
Beloved young people, it is possible, utterly possible in this day and age, to get down on your knees before the Lord with His Word spread out before you and say, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” Saul prayed that prayer and he got the answer! “Go into the city, Paul, and it will be told you what you must do.” Now, you can do that too, but you have to be willing to listen to what the Lord has to say to you. You have to be whole-hearted. I have to be willing for the Lord to lay His hand on my shoulder and say, “Bill, there are a few things we have to talk about first. There are a few things we have to straighten out first. You are not ready to do that for Me yet. I want you to serve Me, but you are not ready yet. You need a little preparation. I want to draw you a little closer to Me first.” Now, am I ready to do that, to listen, or am I so bent on service that I am just going to do something anyway?
Notice what it says back in Rom. 12, just for a moment. It speaks about “being transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Why does it say, “your mind?” In Colossians 4, it says, “Set your affections on things above,” but really the word there is not “affections,” but “mind.” “Set your mind on things above.” We are never told to set our heart on things above. You don't set your heart on something, although we do use that expression, like “He had his heart set on that.” I don't have to set my heart on loving my wife, do I? No, that just flows out naturally. I don't have to set my heart on it; if I do, something is wrong, but I am told in the Word of God to set my mind.”
My heart is the spontaneous outflow of my affections. Setting my mind on something is an act of my will. I say to your heart and mine that one of the greatest hindrances to being in the current of the Lord's thoughts is my own will getting in the way. Instead of setting my mind and having my mind transformed, which is an act of my will, submitting my will to the Lord, submitting the thought of my mind to Him, instead of that, I want my own way, I want to do my own thing (to use that expression), I've got my ideas about how things ought to be done or what I should do for the Lord, and the Lord says, “No, no. No you don't.” It doesn't mean He will never bless anything I do, but I won't have a sense in my soul that I am doing what the Lord wants me to do.
“Transformed by the renewing of your mind.” “Set your mind on things above.” It is an act of your will.
Well, our time is nearly gone, but I want to make two more brief comments. Someone asked me this question yesterday, and I am going to repeat it to you (I don't think she will mind). She said, “How can you know when you have done everything the Lord wants you to do?” The answer I gave to her was, “You can never have that sense in your soul.” Turn to John 17:44I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. (John 17:4) for a little verse.
“I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do.”
That always chokes me up a bit when I read that verse, because there was only One in this world's history that could say those words. Only One, Who at the end of His pathway could kneel down and pray with complete confidence and say, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do.” None of you, nor myself, will ever be able to say that. We will never finish the work. We can have a sense that we are doing what the Lord gave us to do, but we will always have a sense in our souls that we have not carried it out as we should, and that's right.
Turn over now to 2 Timothy 4:77I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: (2 Timothy 4:7). Here is what I hope you will be able to say at the end of your pathway. “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”
I suggest to you and to me that this is the most that any Christian will ever be able to say, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course,” not, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do.” No, but I have finished my course. That may be a long course or a short one. John the Baptist was martyred when he was barely thirty years of age, and yet his work was done. Many servants of the Lord have been called home when they were relatively young. Francis Ridley Havergal, whose book I have recommended to you, was taken home at the age of only 42; her work was finished!
How long is your course? I don't know. It may not last this week out nor may mine. But will we be able to say, “I have kept the faith?” Why did Paul say that? Because it wasn't so much a question of what he had done, but that he had done what the Lord wanted him to do, and that he had been faithful in what the Lord had committed to him. It is not how much you do that counts, but it is the fact that you are doing what the Lord would have you to do. Don't be upset if you are only a small cog in the machinery. Don't be upset if you are not in the “limelight.” Don't be upset if you find what the Lord gives you to do doesn't put you in the public eye.
I was chatting some years ago with our late brother Armistead Barry, whom some of you may remember, and he was talking about being at the deathbed of brother Walter Potter, who was a well-known servant of the Lord among brethren gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. What he related to me really touched my heart. He said, “I went to visit brother Potter on his deathbed. He had had a stroke and was paralyzed partially, but his mind was perfectly clear. I can still remember his last words. With tears running down his face, he said, 'Armistead, remember this: keep humble and be content to be nothing'.” Content to be nothing?? Yes, content to be nothing, because then the Lord will get all the glory. Is He putting you somewhere where you say, “I don't seem to be doing much that is important.” That is not what counts. It is being where the Lord wants you.
This reminds me of a poem I once read. It impressed me enough that I memorized it. It went like this:
“As ever on through life we find,
To trust, Oh Lord, is best.
Who serve Thee with a quiet mind,
Find in that service, rest.
His outward troubles may not cease,
But this his rest will be.
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on Thee.”
You are not going to find it easy to do something for the Lord; the devil is going to attack you. We have had that before us this week, and in one way that is an encouragement because it is always the present work of God in the Spirit that the devil attacks the most. If I don't find any opposition in my service for the Lord, I get a little worried, because if the devil leaves me alone, maybe it is because I am not doing what the Lord wants me to do. So, if everything goes smoothly, it perhaps is (though not always) that I am not in the current of the Lord's thoughts, although the Lord can make my way smooth. But if there is opposition, on the one hand I should be exercised by it (and I don't mean opposition from my brethren). If my brethren in Christ don't approve of what I am doing for the Lord, I should take that to the Lord. They may be wrong or they may be right, but I can never be so sure that I have the mind of the Lord that I can't listen to my brethren — I believe that is thoroughly wrong. But on the other hand, wherever the opposition comes from, we need to get before the Lord about it. It doesn't say, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace who does his own thing!” No! But, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee.”
So I want to leave that with you. The Lord can give you a sense in your soul of what He wants you to do. He can give you perfect peace in the midst of the most untold troubles! I know some of you have terrible problems. Some of them have nothing to do with your own making — you have been a victim of circumstances that you may have had nothing to do with. Never mind. The Apostle Paul told slaves who had to do everything at the will of a master and who couldn't have any will of their own, that they could serve the Lord Christ in everything they did.