The man who was instrumental in leading me to Christ more than 20 years ago gave me only one piece of advice. And beyond that, he got one important idea into my head by saying it repeatedly. The piece of advice came immediately after my conversion. I said to him, “What shall I do?”

And he said, “Just go to your Bible and you’ll find that it’s a whole new book now.” And I did and it was.

The idea that he got into my head in those first few days was, as he put it, that the only place for a Christian to be is right in the center of God’s will. He didn’t have a very long crack at me then because I was almost immediately drafted into the army for two years of service. And I was sent away. But I have never forgotten those words. And since then at every major turn in my life whenever it has been necessary to decide on a course to take, I have not taken counsel with my own desires, but have sought to know the will of God.

There are basically just two ways that a believer can take: the way of self choice or the way of God’s appointments. And that is true in every major decision about a job, about a home situation, even about a vacation. Either self chooses or God appoints. If self chooses, then a man goes his own way and he misses out on the great adventure of a life that is lived by faith, not by sight.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart,” the Scripture says, “and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” “Lean not on your own understanding.” To get God’s purpose, it is necessary to cast aside your own prior conception and view of things and to abdicate actively your own choice in the matter. The prerequisite to discovering the will of God in any matter is the surrender of our own clamorous prior desires in that matter. And that is not an altogether easy thing. Self dies hard. Yet once this work is done, we enter into a whole new course of life, and God engages us vitally in the performance of His own blessed will. “Now the just shall live by faith.”

The mind of man obviously is finite, and man’s capacity to see ahead in his circumstances, to know the consequences of the way that he decides to go is extremely limited. We think that if we do this, a certain result will follow. But it may not turn out that way at all. The mind of men is finite, but the wisdom and knowledge of God are infinite. God knows even when we do not exactly what the outcome of our course will be.

When a life is given over to Him, He brings into that life a whole variety of things that the individual could never have possibly foreseen by himself.

Early in my Christian life, I leaned very much on my own understanding in selecting the place where I worshipped. And you could say that it was an honorable understanding. I knew that I was to go to a church where the Bible was proclaimed as the word of God. And I did just that, usually choosing a church close to where I lived.

And yet for a number of years, there was a deadness in it. I rarely if ever saw or heard of anyone who found new life in Christ until I realized that in the two cities where I had lived, I had been making my own choices in the matter. So I prayed and told the Lord that I would no longer go the way of my own choice. And I asked Him to show me exactly where He wanted me, right in the center of His will. And for a while, nothing happened.

And then, in rapid succession, three distinct things happened. A brush salesman came to my front door to sell me something. And when I gave him a tract, he mentioned a church. A doctor from Germany, of whom I had never heard, came to my office, and he had a connection to that church. And when the third thing occurred, I went to that independent gospel church. And as soon as I got there, I knew it was right. It was filled with life and vitality and power. God had answered the prayer. I got His choice, not my choice.

The Scripture says, “By faith, Noah, being warned of God of things not yet seen, things in no way evident to the natural man, prepared an ark to the saving of his house. In that, Noah had to go by faith. He could not possibly have leaned on his understanding.

“Do I make my plans as a worldly man?” asked the Apostle Paul. “Do I choose where I will be? Or what I will do at any given time? Not at all. Though I have many desires, all good, yet I pursue nothing but the will of God.”

Let us look for just a moment at Genesis where we read, “Now the Lord God said to Abram, ‘Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father’s house to a land that I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation.’ So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken, and Lot went with him.” And we see two men, Abram and his nephew Lot. The Book of Hebrews says that “by faith Abraham went out from his own home, not knowing whither he went. By faith, he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country.” “By faith, he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country.”

Both men, Abram and Lot, became enriched. They had herds and flocks and tents and servants. And the land was not able to bear them, for their substance was so great that they could not dwell together. And strife arose between the herdsmen of Abram and the herdsmen of Lot. And Abram said to Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between us. Is not the whole land before thee?

He was saying, Do you not have every option that a man can have? Can you not go anywhere and do anything that you desire to do? Separate thyself, Abram said, from me. If thou wilt take the left hand, I will go to the right. Or if thou wilt go to the right hand, then I will go to the left.

“And Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well-watered everywhere … even as the garden of the Lord.” It was a beautiful place, rich and lush and fruitful and lovely to look at. And the Scripture says, “Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan.” Oh, see those key words. “Then Lot chose him….” Self-choice, self-will. He took the best he could see for himself and he went to the east. Now both of these men were saved. But Lot typifies the way of self-will, and Abraham typifies the way of surrender of self-will.

The way that Lot took, which obviously seemed to be best way and the good way led him finally to dwell in the gate of Sodom, that evil city which the Lord had to destroy. And when the time came for that destruction, Abraham, the spiritual man, the surrendered man, stood before God in the place of intercession pleading for Sodom. And Lot, the self-directed man, though he was warned of the doomed fall, could hardly arouse his own family to flee. You know how it was that he never got his wife out of that destroyed place, for she looked back and became a pillar of salt. And you know how it was with his daughters and sons-in-law. And the man who had chosen the rich part and the best part for himself ended up dwelling in a cave, and his life on earth came to a sorry close with episodes of drunkenness and his own daughters out of control. “Then Lot chose him….”

But Abraham, for his part, let God make his choice. And while he walked by faith through the years, God was forming in Abraham purposes for the earth that are still in process today. “Now the just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him, saith the Lord.” “Without faith, it is impossible to please God.” “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding…and He shall direct your path.” And it will work out for your best and for His best.

When He puts forth His sheep, the Scripture tells us, He goeth before them. What a guarantee that is. We don’t go alone, we don’t go unaccompanied, but we have a Lord who goes before us into the situations into which He leads us. How then can we fail if we go His way, and He goes before us. We are assured that the result will bring His will to pass in the situations through which we go. In the situations through which we are led.

But that guarantee, as any other guarantee, is only in force if the prior conditions are met. And that is that we surrender our own desires and our own will, and we say, “Lord, take my life and do whatsoever Thou wilt with it.” 

As the Scriptures say, “Then Lot chose him…” and we’re reminded of that verse in the Psalms that says “God gave them the desires of their heart but he sent leanness into their soul.”