Christian Living
HE shall DIRECT your paths
Solomon gave us some practical steps we must take, so we can allow Our Heavenly Father to DIRECT our PATHS. Here’s what Solomon said,
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; (v. 5)
In all your ways acknowledge HIM, and HE SHALL DIRECT YOUR PATHS. (v. 6) (Proverbs 3:5-6 NKJV)
Hi Faith-writers, I thank God for allowing me another opportunity to share HIS Word with HIS people. We are going to continue to talk about Supernatural Guidance, focusing on Supernatural Direction. In the last article we spoke about “Different Prayers for Direction.” Today, we will look at 3 important steps we must take to allow GOD to DIRECT US IN OUR PATHS.
Solomon lays the Foundation for Supernatural Direction
Here are the steps Solomon laid out for us to experience Supernatural Direction.
* Step 1: Trust in the Lord with all your heart.
* Step 2: And lean not on your own understanding;
* Step 3: In all your ways acknowledge HIM,
* Then we can experience Supernatural Direction—and HE SHALL DIRECT YOUR PATHS.
This is the simple formula to being led by God all the time in every area of our lives if we choose to apply these principles. Allow me to expound a little about each step and highlight some points the Spirit of God revealed to me, that enabled me to be successful in many areas of my life, by applying Proverbs 3:5-6 NKJV.
TRUST IN THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART
For many of us this is not easy to do when we are faced with a financial crisis, or relational issues, or a recent job lost or some other dramatic or tragic situation that may have come upon us. When we encounter life’s ill’s we immediately lose hope and fail to put our TRUST IN THE LORD. We think GOD is against us. Like Job and his 3 friends who assumed that God was punishing Job because of some hidden sin.
Today, many Christians lose hope, faith, and love. They think the worst case scenario and say, “man, my sin caught up with me”, “I’m reaping what I have sowed when I was a sinner”. “I knew this was too good to be true”, that Minister said, GOD is going to bless me. But since I became a Christian nothing but hell on earth was my lot in life. I’ve been catching hell ever since I became a Christian—man, I should go back to my old life. I didn’t have that many problems when I was an unbeliever that I now have!
If we have not reacted this way, or made any of these statements when we experienced the hardships after being Saved (Born-again), we may have thought about it quietly. Either way, God knows what we have thought and what we might have said in ignorance. We are no different from Job and his 3 friends when we evaluate hardships and trails we encounter. The GOOD NEWS is we can take what Solomon said here, and Practically apply it!!! By TRUSTING IN THE LORD WITH ALL OUR HEARTS—when we experience any trouble, drama, or hardship.
And if we decide to TRUST IN THE LORD WITH ALL OUR HEART. Then we are ready to apply the next step.
AND LEAN NOT ON YOUR OWN UNDERSTANDING
We cannot lean toward our own understanding when it comes to Trials, Tests, and Hardships. Job and his 3 friends failed to come to a clear Biblical Conclusion to what really happened in Heaven, and why is it that God allowed all that tragedy to come into Jobs life. Or Joseph’s life. However, we know now through Scripture that what happened to Job, Joseph and every other servant in the Old and New Testament, was all a TEST, TEST, TEST; to demonstrate to the devil that God’s children on earth can continue to worship God even in the midst of all the heartache and hardship.
Job and his 3 friends were misquoting Scripture, misapplying the concepts of Righteousness, and bringing more condemnation upon Job and themselves for misrepresenting God’s Mercy, Judgment and Power. The secret to being a confident Christian and learning to TRUST IN THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, it is based on our knowledge of who JESUS is and what HE came to do for us.
* You see, Jesus borne our griefs,
* Jesus carried our sorrows,
* Jesus was wounded for our transgressions,
* Jesus was bruised for our iniquities:
* Jesus was chastised and we inherited Supernatural Peace.
* And when Jesus was beaten with many stripes we were Healed. (Isaiah 53:4-5 KJV)
Having an understanding of what Jesus did for us should set-off a Supernatural alarm in us to believe that God is not against us. Paul made that clear in (Romans chapter 8). However, Paul made it clear that we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. That means the devil and his evil spirits are out to steal, kill and destroy us every day, Jesus said (John 10:10 KJV). So we should not lean toward our own understanding by saying, we are extremely evil and therefore need to be punished by God to get our lives in order.
The reason we give in to the assumption that we are terrible sinners is because we have not matured in certain areas in our Christian lifestyles, and we are brought under condemnation by evil spirits who whisper evil thoughts to our minds that we are no good and that GOD is punishing us for being an evil Christian. Well, let me say this, GOD knows we are not spiritually mature Christians. God also knows we are going to sin (miss the mark) of being a spiritual Christian. God is no stranger to our secret sins or hidden sins. God knows every weakness we have and every issue we are struggling with. The tests and trials we constantly experience are geared to strengthen our faith and bring us to TRUST IN THE LORD WITH ALL OUR HEARTS.
After a few trials and tests and the experience of Victories and Breakthroughs. God will begin to teach us through the hardships to TRUST HIM with all our hearts, and not lean on our own understanding as to why we are going through tough times. Once we come to realize this then we will begin applying step 3.
IN ALL YOUR WAYS ACKNOWLEDGE HIM
Whether we are working or laid-off…whether we are married or divorced…whether we are healthy or sick…whether we are promoted at work or passed over for promotion…whether we are rich or poor financially…whether we failed at business or just barely making it, or filed for bankruptcy…whether we have a great family or an extremely dysfunctional one. We must acknowledge HIM in all our ways, not just when we are doing good, going to church, paying our tithes and being a standup Christian.
We need to acknowledge GOD when we failed, committed adultery, domestic abuse, visited a porn site, or still under the influence of drugs, alcohol and any other vice that we know doesn’t please GOD. Why? Because if we acknowledge HIM through all the hell and failures we are experiencing, God will begin to revel to us the PATHS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS we must take to be Delivered, Healed, Promoted, Blessed and Prosperous. Think about the Prodigal Son story. He failed but came back. We must come back too!!!
Solomon said;
* Step 1: Trust in the Lord with all your heart.
* Step 2: And lean not on your own understanding.
* Step 3: In all your ways acknowledge HIM;
* And HE shall DIRECT your Path.
David gave us Prayers and testimonies about how God led him in the Paths of Righteousness. (Psalm 5:8/ 23:3 NKJV) I recommend that you read the following articles, “Lead me O Lord in YOUR Righteousness”, written 9-14-14. And “Paths of Righteousness”, written 9-16-14. These articles will compliment this teaching and then when we take a look at David’s history of how God Directed David in 1 Samuel chapters 16 thru 18. David did not have it so easy. But he kept on Trusting in the Lord, and he did not lean on his own understanding, David kept hope alive by acknowledging God in all his ways—even while being persecuted by his boss and king. Then David allowed God to DIRECT his path.
That’s why David made a Proclamation about God’s Supernatural Guidance. David said,
* HE restores my soul;
* HE leads me in the Paths of Righteousness for HIS names sake. (Psalm 23:3 NKJV)
We need to allow the hardships, and difficulties of life to steer us to apply these 3 Steps Solomon laid out for us, so we too can say like David; HE restores my soul—HE set me in the right state of mind again to refocus and regroup. Then HE led me in the Path of Righteousness—by forgiving my enemies, Praying for them and Trusting that this test would make me to be a more mature believer. So that HE can eventually place me in that High Calling HE has on my life—that requires a stable minded individual to be effective in that future High Position HE has for me.
So allow HIM to DIRECT your Paths Today, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
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This is a wonderful article and message. I hope many members and non-members read it. Thanks for sharing.
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