Taffi Dollar - How to Find, Follow, and Fulfill The Will of God For Your Life - Part 2
Let’s look at this scripture here over in Psalms. I don’t know if you have this in the Passion Translation but I want us to look at Psalms 139, verse 14 through 17, Psalms 139. If you can, the Passion, TPT, Translation. Give them a second to find that. Glory be to God. Now, the reason God’s will does not automatically come to pass in our lives is because we have a part to play. God won’t force his will for your life to come to pass. He won’t force it. We have to make up in our mind that we will never have the degree of success that we could have in this life until we first find God’s will. Every person has a unique assignment, a unique calling. So you have to find, to follow, and fulfill the will of God. Not be thoughtless, not be careless, not be vague or foolish but firmly grasping, firmly grasping what the will of the Lord is for your life. Amen?
It’s enough for me to know what God has called me to do, but I want you to know what he’s called you to do. Know where he wants you to serve, know where he wants you to be, know where he wants you to do and he will speak to your heart because he is our shepherd and we are his sheep. And so what? We hear his voice. Somebody say, «I hear his voice». And so you can’t let circumstances move and control you because a lot of times being in the will of God you’re going to have obstacles, circumstances, trials, tests, tribulations, but you can’t let those things move you outside of God’s will for your life.
You may say, «Well, you know, I had a miscarriage. Well, I had a divorce. I had someone to go home to be with the Lord». True. Those are potentially devastating, debilitating situations, but you can’t cause or allow that to cause you to get outside of God’s will for your life. I don’t make light of those things, but a lot of times we can’t pivot back to where we’re supposed to be and then our life is going totally outside of God’s plan because we don’t know how to make the adjustment. And so, many people think that whatever God’s will is comes to pass, whatever… you know, que sera sera, whatever will be will be. No, that’s not how it works. He is sovereign, but we have to do our part and things don’t just happen.
You know, everything that happens in your life is not God’s will. So we have to understand that. There is a devil loose. There is a devil loose. And so we have to make the decisions that we are going to do his purpose and we’re going to acknowledge the gifts and the abilities that he gives us to accomplish his purpose. So he says here that, «You formed my innermost being, shaping my delicate inside and my intricate outside». He says, «You did that, God». He did that. It just amazes me that he would know our insides, our outsides, our innermost being. God did that. He knows all there is to know about us. «And you wove them all together in my mother’s womb. I thank you, God, for making me so mysteriously complex. Everything you do is marvelously breathtaking. It simply amazes me to think about it. How thoroughly you know me, Lord»!
How thoroughly he knows us. And so if he knows us inside and out, how many of you know there is that will that we want to know inside and out? We want to know that we’re in it. We want to know that we’re confident of doing what it is that he’s called us to do from the foundations of the world. Now, look at this over in Romans chapter 8, verse 6; Romans 8, verse 6. Now, hold on for a second. Go back to verse 14. Let’s look at verse 15 in the Passion Translation. I didn’t realize I didn’t read all of that. Verse 15, and then we’ll come back to Romans chapter 8, verse 6, and 2 Peter 3 and 9 if time doesn’t run out on us. «You even formed», this is so good, «You even formed every bone in my body when you created me in the secret place, carefully, skillfully shaping me from nothing to something,» shaping me from nothing to something.
Somebody say, «I am something». You are something. Glory be to God. Don’t let anybody tell you you are nothing. Know by the Word of God, «I am something. I am who God says I am. I can be what God says I can be, I can do what God says I can do, and I can know his will for my life». He says you even… okay, let’s keep going. Let’s go to next verse here. «You saw who you created me to be before I became me». Think of that. He saw it, who he created you to be. Before you even knew who you were, God saw it from the foundations of the world. My God. «Before I’d ever seen the light of day, the number of days you planned for me were already recorded in your book. Every single moment you are thinking of me. How precious and wonderful to consider that you cherish me constantly in your every thought».
Let’s just lift up our hands. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. My God. One of the reasons that some people aren’t satisfied with getting up and going to work, coming home, watching television, their ordinary life, going to bed, getting up, doing the whole thing all over again is because they aren’t doing what God called them to do. You need to know this morning that you are on a path that is making a difference; that you are on a path that’s changing lives, that changes the lives of other people.
And so he says, look over in Romans chapter 8, verse 6, and 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 9, is where we’ll just have to figure out a place to stop. Before you were even born, God had already written down what your life is supposed to be. You may think you made it yourself, but you can’t bring out what God didn’t put in. A lot of times we’re trying to put a circle in a square and it just does not fit. And you can spend all of your life meandering through life asking the Lord, «Why, Lord? What am I missing»? He says, «I didn’t tell you to do that».
I remember I went all the way over to Paris one time to minister. I was just glad to be invited, glad to be somewhere. I got over there. The whole service was about to start. Lo and behold, the whole service ended. I thought I was supposed to be speaking and it was a bunch of confusion with the invitation and who was supposed to speak and who wasn’t, and I cried out to the Lord, «Lord, what meanest this»? You know what he said? «I didn’t tell you to go over there. You went over there on your own». I said, «Well, let me just get my little happy self back home». And so we just got to get sick of being, you know, caught up in what we want to do. You got to let it die, let it go. We think that all these things validate us, we think these things confirm us, we think these things, you know, will give us our identity; but we’ve got to find that firm foundation and settle in it, be secure in it.
He says in Romans 8, verse 6, it’s a couple of translations here. I don’t know if it’s the Amplified, but the King James says, «For to be carnally minded is,» what? «But to be spiritually minded is life and peace». He says in the Amplified, «Now the mind of the flesh…» See, I was just being fleshy, and when we don’t think in line with what God is planned for our life and we’re trying to go out here and make stuff happen and make God bless it it’s the mind of the flesh. He says, «Which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit,» he says, «Is death». You know, sometimes you can get outside of the will of God and it could be very tragic. It could be life-altering.
So we don’t want to play with being outside of God’s will. I tell my kids that, «Yeah, you know, do what the Lord says». They’re like, «Mama, I’m getting my testimony». «Well, God bless you». He says, «The mind of the flesh is death, death that comprises all miseries arising from sin, both here and there, here and hereafter». So, you know, there is physical death, but there’s also spiritual death. And so sometimes it may not be the physical death that occurs as a result of having a mind that is carnal, a mind that’s not renewed, a mind that is not cognizant of the will of God; but it’s being cut off and separated from hearing from God, unable to recognize his voice, unable to perceive the Holy Spirit. And so he says this is what happens with a carnal mind. He says, «Sending his own son in the guise of sinful flesh», oh, let me go back, «But the mind of the Holy Spirit is life and soul, peace both now and forever».
Now, I want us to be mindful of this very important point; is that the will of God has to be pursued, and we can find this over in, what did I say, 2 Peter. Turn there with me and let’s look at this. 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 9. God will always cause you to do something beyond your natural ability, forcing you to rely on him. He will always call you to do something that is beyond your natural ability. If you only do what you feel you’re naturally equipped to do, what you’re capable of doing in your own strength and ability, then you will be tempted to give yourself the credit for success. In fact, you’re simply doing what comes naturally to you, then you probably haven’t found God’s will for your life.
God’s intention is not that you do whatever you want with your life as much as your heart has to be pure and everything will be all right. Only with effort and time will you see God’s will for your life come to pass. You have to make a decision to pursue God’s will. You will never have another today. You have to spend every day moving in the direction that God wants your life to go. You have a sphere of influence, people in your life that God brings into your life that you may never receive the full anointing that God has for them unless that potential that God places on the inside of you is able to be dispersed. You’ll be happier and a much greater blessing once you find your purpose and start heading in that direction.
And so sometimes people think that, you know, because God wants something to happen that, you know, it automatically comes to pass, but it’s contingent and it is subject to people’s decisions. He will not force it. He will not usurp our will and our authority. He made us free will, free moral agents, and he will honor the decisions that we make. If we choose not to do his will, if we choose not to fulfill his will, you may say, «Well, you know, hey, I’m just good being saved». Okay. But there is a will, there is a plan beyond just, you know, getting saved. As they used to say, getting fire insurance just, you know, «I’m just trying to get away from hell. That’s all. I just want to escape hell. I just want to do what I want to do, but I don’t want to go to hell when I die».
But look at what he says here. He says, «The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward». Isn’t that good? «Longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance». So it is God’s will that everybody be saved. But how many of you know everybody don’t want to be saved? Some people made up in their mind, «I’m going to be an atheist. I’m going to be agnostic. I’m going to think that it’s the universe. I’m going to, you know, think it’s this. I’m going to think it’s that,» no.
So we have to acknowledge that it is a person’s decision, their deliberate quality of decision that they have to choose like each and every one of us have to choose in order to experience God’s will because his will is that none perish but that all would enjoy life. But we have to be intentional, and we have to pursue it. And once we pursue it, I’m telling you the best is yet to come. Amen, were you blessed this morning?
And so that’s a good way to segue into getting saved and making sure that we’re all born again because that’s the first step. That’s the prerequisite of knowing God’s will, is to become a Christian and to let Christ into our life and to acknowledge him and to recognize that every gift, every talent, every ability is because of him putting it on the inside of us. So if you’re not born again this morning and you’ve not made Jesus the Lord of your life, I want to give you the opportunity to do just that. Say this with me:
Heavenly Father, I renounce all my sin and I welcome Jesus into my life. Come, Jesus. Save me. Sit on the throne. I make you my Lord and my Master, and I believe that the blood cleanses me and washes me white as snow. Thank you that I am righteous in Jesus’s name. Amen.