How to Know God’s Will and Make Decisions with Confidence

This episode of dial-in is brought to you by Crossway, publisher of Finally Home, The Christian Hope of Heaven. In this book, author, Dane Ortlin ushers readers into the surprising wonders of our final future and the new heavens and the new earth. It provides deep comfort and joy that outweighs all of our many heartaches as we journey through this broken world. You can pick up a copy of Finally Home, wherever books are sold, or visit crossway.org/home to get 30% off with a free crossway plus account. Do you long to have clarity in regards to God's will? Well, you can't get any more simple than this. I think passivity is a plague, and many people go through life like a portable fan, like kind of just oscillating back and forth. And I think under the banner of waiting on the Lord, people sometimes just don't make decisions. I think the question is for many people, how do I know while I live in this world, like what paths to take, what plan to pursue, what person to marry, like God give me clarity? Now, for the person pursuing God in his word, this revealed will of God works itself out in four main categories, and I want to work through those categories. Hank, how are we doing? I'm doing great, Johnny. How are you? Doing good. What's going on? Can I give you a little insight into my life? Maybe an insight for the listeners? Yeah. So, a lot of viewers. Viewers. Viewers. Every week we sit down to record one of these, I have a small panic attack in the morning, because I look at my wardrobe, which consists of like five shirts that I wear in a rotation to work, and like three pairs of pants. And I remember, I can't wear the same thing I wore last episode. And then I have to think back to like, what was I wearing, which I can never remember. So today, I wore the exact same thing. That's a new shirt. Yeah, I literally, I called in the big guns. I was like, get a shirt I've never worn before. I've never worn this shirt. It looks like the guy's shirt from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. I'll say that. It's 82 degrees outside. I'm in a full long sleeve t-shirt. Have you seen that movie? No. Classic. Let me know if you've seen Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. We have something very important we need to mention. Hit it. Oh. If you're listening to this episode, stop listening, go to the video, and then look at me. This book is out today. Today. So for folks who are listening wrong, get to work, Johnny's most recent book, on a longer series that we've worked through over the last several weeks, is available now. So please go order it, drop your comments on maybe the part of the book you're most looking forward to. I think it's fair. It's almost like borderline, a prophetic. You need to, you need to guess what you're going to find most impactful or-- For the people who have read it. So I was like, I'm feeling it's chapter seven. Yeah. Exactly. No. For those who've read it, maybe drop a comment, like, subscribe, and tell us what stood out to you about the book after reading it or listening to it on Audible. Do you read the book? Do you write? Yeah. On Audible? Oh, yeah. How far are we going to get before you let me read a book that you write? I would totally do that. That's-- we're going to drop this, and we're going to come back to this in like 10 years. Yeah. Okay. What are we talking about today, Johnny? Well, this is something that I think kind of builds off of some of the material that I cover in the book. But I want to talk about discerning the will of God for our life. And we've talked about it a little bit before a couple of years ago. But while we're on this earth, we are pilgrims. We're sojourners, and I think the question is, for many people, how do I know while I live in this world, like what paths to take, what plan to pursue, what person to marry? And I'm so thankful that in God's word, as we look to the scripture, God is our shepherd doesn't lead us into passive obscurity and ambiguity, like, he's the shepherd who guides and leads. And I think a lot of the people listening or watching may say, like, I want to do God's will. But the hunt for God's will has often become an accomplice for delaying growing up and moving on with our life, and because our lives are riddled with possibilities and less possibilities at that, we never know which possibility to pursue. And so under the banner of waiting on the Lord, I think a lot of people wait to move on with their life. I think it was one author who said, we've been told that the entire world is our oyster, yet we've never cracked open a single shell. So how can we know the will of God? For many, it's like the hunt for the black pearl, like the white buffalo and the snow leopard from Walter Mitty classic, but it's unlike God's tees and torment us. He's not just the king of the universe, he's our father and he wants himself to be known and his plan for our life. And I want to look initially at Romans 12, too. Do you have the virtue? Do you want to read that for us? I got it. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may approve what the will of God is, that which is good and pleasing and perfect. Does your say approve? Yes. My transition says, prove, meaning like you might prove the will of God. It's a little different. Yeah. A little different. A little different. A little different. Yeah. Yeah. My daily driver. Okay. But proving the will of God, meaning that God's will doesn't need to be found. It needs to be approved or approved in. And in light of Paul is talking about in Romans 12, one that in light of all that God has done for us in the gospel, that we are not to be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind. And at that point, we prove the will of God. Now as it relates to the will of God, we can look at his will in a few different categories. First of all, there's God's will of decree. And different authors have talked about this. Kevin the Young talked about this in his book, just do something. But that is God's sovereign will, meaning that what God has predetermined to pass. Ephesians 111 says that in him we have obtained an inheritance having predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things in accordance with the plan of his will, meaning God knows the end of history and he's moving things in history according to that perfect plan. And he orchestrates the rising of the sun to the death of every sparrow. And he's moving towards an intended objective. That would be God's will of decree. He's the king of the universe. Nothing surprises God, not a hair falls from your head. That's helpful and kind of grounds God's sovereignty. Yeah. And even regarding the sovereignty of God, that's someone of 319, the Lord has established his throne in the heavens and his sovereignty rules overall, meaning his will is going to come to pass. But then that differs from secondly, God's will of demand or desire. God's will of demand or desire are his commandments that he extends to us in order that we might imitate his son, Jesus Christ. And so on the one hand, God's will of decree is something that will be done. But then God's will of demand and desire is something that is broken all the time all around the world. Consider Matthew 721. Jesus, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of my father, who is in heaven. So there's a little level of differentiation there. Now, if we return to Romans 122 for a moment, we see again that God's will is to be proven, which means that it is something that is revealed. And it's do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind. That's God's will for our life. Now, bottom line, let's just cut to the chase here. What is God's will for a Christ follower, very basic, that they are conformed into the image of Jesus. Now for the person pursuing God in his word, this revealed will of God works itself out in four main categories. And I want to work through those categories. Turn over with me to First Estonian saying, the first would be that God's will is for your personal and sexual purity. And First Estonian is 4-3, it says this, for this is the will of God, your sanctification. I'll just pause there for a moment. If anybody here or watching or listening is searching for the will of God, it says it explicitly. For this is the will of God, your sanctification. And your sanctification, maybe like a $10 word, but that is just the lifelong process by which the Christ follower is conformed into the image of Jesus. That's the will of God. Now it's going to tell us what sanctification looks like. It says, for this is the will of God, your sanctification, that is comma that you abstain from sexual immorality. There are eight viseless in the New Testament that distinguish the unbeliever from the believer. In seven of those eight viseless at the very top, the main distinguisher between a child of God and a child of this world is what they do with their sexual purity. And right here it is the obvious revealed will of God. So I just would want to ask the question before we continue. God's will is that with your eyes, your body, and your mind that you are sexually pure. And the question is big in the scripture. How can you expect God to disclose his specific will for your life when you are disobedient to his obvious and revealed will for your personal purity? This is super helpful. I don't want to interrupt us too on here, but I think you hinted at it. We're building towards for someone who might be listening and thinking, okay, but how does this relate to like which job do I take? We're going to get there. Now the question you're forcing us to wrestle with, yeah, first is before we get to those nuanced questions of like discerning God's will for Hank Bohn's life in the week or month or a year in place you're living, there's also God's revealed word of, are you living in clear, disobedient disregard for his command that you'd articulated earlier? Yeah. No, it's true. And in verse four, Paul continues, he says that you abstain from sexual immorality and that each of you know how to possess his own vessel and sanctification and honor, meaning you're protecting your body, not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God, meaning if you live in lustful passion, you're living like a Gentile who doesn't know God. Why would you expect for God to reveal his specific will for your life when you're living the same way a Gentile lives and says, no man transgress for six and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in these things as we also told you before and solemnly warn you, it says let no one defraud his brother in these things to defraud means to take something that isn't yours. And the text says when you take something as. is in a man or a woman's purity, you're defrauding them. If you are acting sexually impure with someone that has not your spouse, you are defrauding them. And then it says, and the Lord is the Avenger in these things. Why, verse seven, for God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification, meaning that God's fundamental priority for your life is that you become more like Jesus. He's not called you for the purpose of impurity to abuse his grace as a credit card to continue to sin. He's called you that you become more and more like him. And then verse eight says, so he who rejects this is not rejecting man, but the God who gives his Holy Spirit to you. Meaning if you dismiss the priority of personal purity, Paul says, you're not dismissing Paul, you're not dismissing Johnny, you're not dismissing Hank, you're dismissing the Holy Spirit. And there is a level of severity, but then there's also a level of all of the commands and scripture are given to us not only by the King of the universe, but by a good father. So when God says in his word that the priority of a person is there a personal purity, he means this for our good and for our best, he loves his children and what people participate in that being sexually and sexual impurity is actually destroying them. They're outside of God's will and it's joy sucking. It's such an important point. I'm so glad you touched on that. I was having coffee with a member of our church earlier today. I was talking with him and we're hitting this specific point of how God's commands for far too long I viewed God's commands personally as the neoclassions of do's don't do's. And it was towards this sanctified version of myself that was stoic and monastic and bored. And the reality is no, no, no. A loving father gives these commands because a loving, fruitful marriage in which sexuality can be worked out to the glory of God is actually such a beautiful, joy-inducing life with a capital L relationship. That is just such a profound truth to hold on to and remember because it's not just this laundry list. It's actually like pointing, no, no, no. Back to what actual life and joy looks like. - Yeah, no, it's such true. And yeah, all of the instruction in God's word is for our good. So first of all, God's will for your sexual purity. Second, God's will for your gratitude. If you look over one chapter, 1 S. Leon's 517, or 16, it says, rejoice always, pray without ceasing. And then it says in everything, give thanks for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. I mean, did you catch that? It says in everything, give thanks in Ponty, which means in every circumstance, give thanks for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. In this passage, thankfulness is described as an imperative command for the believer because it is so foreign and non-instinctive to the natural mind. The Bible recognizes in gratitude as a distinguishing mark of someone who doesn't know God. Second Timothy 3 says, but realize this that in the last days, difficult times will come for men will be lovers of self, for lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedience to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconciable, malicious gossips without self-control, brutal, haters of good. I mean, this is nuts. But in the middle of a list that includes arrogant, haters of good, irreconciable, malicious gossips, you just have this term, ungrateful. And it's just, that's the description of the end of the world. The last days, darkness is upon us. People are just not grateful as what it says. Now, for believers, even though thankfulness is the logical response of the redeemed, there is, I think it was RC Sproulies to say this, as long as we are in the flesh, a gravitational pull towards in gratitude. And so we aim to be grateful when it says in all circumstances. Now, gratitude, and I want you to think about this with me. Gratitude is not only what God deserves, it's also a weapon that God extends to us in the battle against sin and temptation, including sexual sin that we just mentioned. For example, in Ephesians 5 or 3, it says, but immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you as his proper among saints. And there must be no filthiness and silly talk or coarse-gesting, which are not fitting, but rather gift thanks. I just find that so fascinating. It's like, hey, don't be immoral. Don't be sexually impure. Don't joke crudely about the things Jesus Christ came to die for, just gift thanks. But that's the imperative in the scripture. Not only with sinful impurity, but also just consider anxiety. Paul says, and again, we're talking about how gratitude is not just like a heart posture, but a weapon. Philippians 4.6 says, being just for nothing, but by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. And then the peace of God surpasses, which surpasses all entertaining, we'll guard your heart to mind the Christ Jesus. Meaning God doesn't just want to take away your anxiety. He wants to replace your anxiety with an act of trust. So you pray with thanksgiving, meaning that you're, if you're anxious, you're not just praying. God, take this away from me. Help me out to fear you going, God, thank you for your sovereignty, for your love, for your mercy. And this posture of gratitude is God's will for your life. And the Christian develops this conviction that the climate of the heart is consistently so grateful that they've established the following as their life model. If it's not something I can thank God for, it's not something I'm going to participate in. Because when the climate of your heart is tuned to gratitude, you'll notice when there's any deviation from your adherence to, again, this clear revealed will of God for your life. Super helpful that right there is such a nugget of wisdom in that such an easy razor to make decisions. So if I'm not going to be grateful for it, then I'm not going to do it. Maybe the other observation I would just make quickly is another just it's so important to be so familiar with this book because the question of like, what is the will with what is God's will for my life? Can feel so ambiguous? It's like I spent a whole semester in college in philosophy 101 working through that question. And yet to the extent we actually just open up and let the Bible inform the answers, they're there for us. We just need to observe them. And so as we've looked at purity already, as we look at gratefulness, I would say as we continue going through these as the listener tune in because all of this, these aren't novel thoughts off. - I'm not going to be creative. - Yeah, Johnny's head or Hank's head. Rather, these are truths that have already been there that we're hoping to mine along with you. So keep rolling. - Yeah, we're just trying to extract those exactly Hank. Third would be God's will for your suffering. Now that might sound like, wait, what? First Peter 4.19 says, "Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful creator in doing what is right." We suffer, it says here, according to the will of God, and Peter is writing to people that are undergoing fierce persecution. Now this is a bracelet I got from Katie's grandfather. It's gold. When gold is purified, it is put into the fire so that all impurities would be removed. And for going back to the will of God for our life, which is our sanctification, and again, our sanctification is a lifelong process by which would become more like Jesus. We know that we are purified, we are sanctified, often according to the scripture and the furnace of affliction. That's where God refines us. I know very few people that if you ask them, what's the season of your life where you have grown the most? It's typically not on the mountaintop. It's routinely in the valleys where they're going through the furnace. And it says here that we suffer according to the will of God and we entrust our souls to a faithful creator, even in Romans 8.28. That's a very well-known verse like God is working on everything out for my good and his glory. And I think people often disassociate Romans 8.28 from Romans 8.29. What is the good? God is working everything out towards. If your confidence is, God's gonna work this out for my good. What is that good? Well, it's in the following verse, Romans 8.29 says, "For those whom he for new, he also predestined to be conformed into the image of his son," which means what? The good God is working all things towards in your life is that you become more and more like Jesus. And how does he do that? Well, typically, he does it through trials and suffering. He's having a conversation recently with an older gentleman, super wise, devout man of faith. And he's struggling with a terminal ALS diagnosis. And he quoted this exact same verse. And on immediately following, getting his diagnosis and basically being told, you have asked many months to live based on all available medical evidence. He had mentioned, or he had made the refrain that what lept out to him is in 8.29. We are being conformed into the image of his son. And for the first time, it hit him like man, being conformed almost as this blacksmith metaphor of like, I don't imagine being conformed. Yeah, it's necessarily a comfortable process. And in fact, under immense tension and pressure and refining, beautiful things are made. And so we shouldn't be surprised. We shouldn't be caught off guard. And it's why where we started of God's sovereign decree can be such a immeasurable comfort to us of just knowing that amidst this affliction, we're still in the palm of a loving father. Yeah, Ecclesiastes, we're still in his hand. And so good. Fourth year, under God's will of desire, our demand is for our service. So purity, gratitude, suffering, force would be service. Romans 121 says, therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And then he says in verse two, so that he may prove the will of God. So listen, bottom line, God's will for your life is that you pour your life into serving people. I, one of the things I love about Paul, and I remember one time I, friend Eric Thomas, This kind of highlighted this section of scripture to me, but he said that Paul says, "I want to spend and be spent for the gospel." And I love that analogy. He says, just that way he framed that. And then he says, "My life is being poured out as a drink offering." And the will of God for your life is that you would spend it on the altar, that you would present all that you are and all that you have as a sacrifice to God. We don't offer sacrifices, you know, physical sacrifices, we're not slaughtering lambs. What are the sacrifices we offer in the New Covenant? What's the answer? Ourselfs. You know, like not selfishly, but in response to what God has done, because of the mercy of God, we pour our life into serving other people, meeting needs, and we'll talk about that more in a moment. But all of this kind of leads us to kind of the practical element of God's will of direction, and going back to like which job to pursue, should I marry Chad or Brad or Judy or Julie or whatever it may be, dolphin trainer dentist, missionary business. You have to kind of have an understanding of those four revealed fundamental principles in order to even to evaluate kind of the practical decision-making moving forward. Yeah. And as we pivot, maybe to the practical, I don't think this conversation would be complete without, if someone's listening to this and saying, maybe really weighed down with, I am living disobediently to God's revealed will for my life, it would be important that even our tone in which we're talking about this, it is not meant to crush the brother or sister who's feeling like, "I'm missing the mark." And the good news is like, we're turned back to the root of the gospel. Like, we have missed the mark. That was actually one of the only known realities of this as we began the conversation. So in light of that, turn back to Jesus, again, it's not a legalistic, like, "Oh, you're going to delineate God's will to the extent to which you're perfectly obedient and follow these four steps and then boom, it'll be revealed." Rather, we need to be obedient to God's will to create out of love for the Savior who paid the price for you. And so maybe we can now pivot back to the practical, but I just didn't want to make people feel like it's overly diagnostic. No, yeah, I think you confess your sins, it's faithful and righteous to forgive us of our sin and to cleanse us from all in righteousness. This is a good, self-inventory of like, am I walking impurity? This is why even on Sunday, we had like a moment of confession at church, you know, in the service. Like, "Hey, let's confess our sins, take inventory of our heart, because people want to know the practical decisions of their life." And then sometimes we circumvent kind of what's right there in God's word. And so, no, grateful for what you pointed out, it's a good observation. You begin there and then when you're there, and this is part of the reason why even when you're talking about purity, and let's go back to that, it's not just a prohibition, it's a promise from a God who is our Father, like, this is not life-giving. Jesus says in Matthew 5-8, "Blessed are the pure heart for they shall see God. The eye is the lamp of the body. It's polluting." But then there's this other element that when you are walking impurity, when you're walking in gratitude, when you're enduring and suffering, and when you're serving other people, when you come to a practical decision, the answer from Scripture is, "Do whatever you want." And what I mean by that is, I remember MacArthur pointing this out to me, like if your spirit led, we're dominated, pure, grateful, humble, you cannot make a bad decision. And while this much is true, and I've given you kind of the destination, there are a few additional questions along the journey that I think will be helpful, and I think part of the issue is, when I was growing up, we used to go to Blockbuster on Friday nights, it was kind of easier to pick a movie when there was a limited number of options. You're about every night. Yeah, but now we live in a Netflix world, and we spend more time trying to pick the movie than we do watching the movie itself, and we're frozen by abundance and averse to risk. Now I think with that, there are four main ways that God guides those who are already walking in Christlikeness. First of all, I think by our gifting, not in this isn't necessarily an order, but I think by our gifting, Romans 126 says, "Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly, meaning God has given you a gift if you're a believer, and you are to put it into work." With that, I think one of the cool things about the way God works is his providences. I forget who said this, maybe he's a Puritan. His providences, how he works and guides, are often intertwined with the gifting that he is given to us, meaning that God doesn't lead by crowd. He doesn't lead in a macro way. He leads specifically, each of his children through his spirit, and the gifting that he has worked within us to employ for his glory. It's super good. Keep rolling. No, and I think even when we talk about gifting, we don't have the right to use our gift, but we have the privilege to steward the investment deposit into us by God, meaning sometimes people talk about their gifting, like my gifting, my gifting, and they don't even know their gifting, which goes back to, listen, if you don't know your gifting, just start serving, and then I think God doesn't just drop your gifting in your lap and be like, this is it, start doing it. I think we'll get here in a minute, start meeting needs around you, and then progressively God reveals that. And there should be, there's like a practical addendum to that, would be your gifting. It shouldn't be made up by yourself in a vacuum. Like there's some practical wisdom of, like, firm by the community. Yeah. Yeah, would your friends affirm that gifting? Rest me. I'm an awesome singer. Yeah, exactly. It's super weird. Johnny doesn't have me lead worship at church every Sunday. Harry says, one of the ways to discern your spiritual gift is if it's life giving to you and a blessing to other people. If it's a blessing to other people and it's not life giving to you, maybe it's not a gift. If it's life giving to you, but not a blessing to other people, it's maybe not a gift. But if it's a life giving to you, like, I think this is why God made me, and it's a blessing to other people, then you have those things working in synergy together. Secondly, I think God works and guides through exposure to need. Romans 147 says, for not one of us lives for himself and not one dies for himself. For if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. I include this here because I think that God often leads through just exposing us to the needs around us. Paul in the following chapter, Romans 15, wants the name Christ. Preach Christ for Christ has not been named, meaning like, where is a place? Jesus is not being preached. Okay, that's God's will for my life. Meaning that Paul wasn't like toasting his toast and then he popped the toaster and it was in like the shape of Macedonia and he's like, that's it. I'm going to Spain, William Kerry, Jim Elliott, all these guys. It's not like they like saw a puddle and it like, oh, that looks like it's the shape of Ecuador. No, they were aware of the need and they were burdened to meet that need. And candidly, this is the way that God has most routinely guided my life, exposure to need. I think sometimes like decision making becomes super mystical, like God give me clarity. But it's like the clarity in my life is very, like kind of basic, not like I pray through it. Get wisdom. We'll talk about that in a moment. Here's a big need. God puts it on my heart to meet the need. I want to do it. I get wisdom and I make a decision. And I think there should be an encouragement of oftentimes looking back. I don't know if this is your experience, but I can see God's divine hand in guiding the course of events through my life to lead me to the specific moment in time. But again, like, there's no, as I look out the front windshield of my life, I'm still not sure. Like there's no artificial plan of like, oh, yeah, I know exactly what I'm going to be doing. Ex many years and events. Though I do have complete faith and confidence to the extent to which I lean into God's word and seek to live a life of obedience and wisdom. I will have that same experience looking backwards in the decades ahead. Yeah. And it's not like decisions are hard. I'm not trying to minimize this significance of the decision. I just ain't like, hey, like as I've really grappled with like big moves, it's like I feel like this is a need. And the Lord is maybe gifted me and burden me to meet that need, you know? And I think that leads third to the Lord leads by our gifting, by the need, and then also by our desires. Like again, what do you want to do? Some 37, 4 is often taken out of context, you know, to light yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. That verse isn't for those who dream big. It's for those who delight to obey God. And when you delight yourself in the Lord, God transforms your desires. So what you want to do is what you ought to do. You want to live in obedience to Him. And then you go and do the desires of your heart because the desires of your heart are to honor and glorify God. And so even with that, like God giving us the delights of a heart, God is not the enemy of joy. That is in fact, the first lie ever told in human history, the lie that the serpent told out of an Eve that God is not for you, that He is not invested in your joy. Even in the parable of the talents, the steward says, I knew that you are a hard man. And God said, what? He's not a hard man. He's a good father. And so when he, when he presents us with possibilities, and if you're walking impurity and gratitude and you're living holy, you do what you want to do because your ultimate joy and satisfaction is not being found in what you do, but in the Lord Himself. And maybe the practical point to that is also that's like a preeminently poignant prayer. I need to be. Whoa. Triple p, dude. I mean, sorry to throw you off, but that was, I didn't know I was saying anymore. You said preeminently poignant prayer. Sorry, keep it going, but that was like why people call me wordy. That was like Kobe in the clutch, but in sincerity, there's a prayer request in there of Lord, conform my desires to yours, because as we grow in sanctification, it's still easy to get distracted of saying like, man, shiny object syndrome, XYZ starts to become the main thing. And it's like, Lord, please, I even today need you to incrementally refocus my heart so that my deepest desires would be aligned with yours. And that's a that's a very real practical prayer keeper. Yeah, no, it's really good. Fourth year, the Lord guides us through the wisdom that we get in our life. Now, we live in a world of information. If you weren't sure if Avocado's were a fruit or a vegetable Google it. If you're not sure what the national channel is so behind the times that we have an AI AI. I know. I haven't Googled anything in a year. AI. I don't do that, dude. But in a world of information where you can know what's what and who's who you can AI, you can chat anything. You can have all of the knowledge in the world and still be starved a biblical wisdom. Because knowledge is of this world, but wisdom is from above. And so we make decisions and the Lord guides us through the wisdom from his word, right? If you like wisdom, let him ask of God through prayer who gives generously. Even in the scripture we read that Jesus says you have not because you asked not, meaning that our biggest problem in life is not unanswered prayer, but unoffered prayer. And then we also get the wisdom of those who are in our life, you know, probably says if you walk it to wise, you'll be wise. And one thing about gleaming wisdom, it's not just that you're gathering maybe the perspective of your friends. I think the reception of Godly wisdom almost always involves someone older and godlier than you. And so I think a lot of times we pool ignorance and opinion, but like I'm so thankful for the handful of men in my life that have like invested in me that are twice my age and that have really shaped me like they point out my blind spots. And like at every point, even going back to the decisions, like I really don't want to make I'm saying like they're easy, but that's kind of the advice that the wise men in my life have given me like, what do you want to do? Are you walking? And they'll ask me those questions. And then they'll be like, Johnny, you have the freedom even in coming to Tennessee to be a pastor here where Harry came out with me. And obviously Harry works here now. And I didn't know that he would be at that point. But Harry told, I said, Harry, what do you think should it come to Tennessee? And he said, Johnny, if you don't want to be a pastor here, I don't think you'd want to be a pastor anywhere. And that level of clarity gave me like a freedom, right? Like, you know what? If they fooled Harry and you know, like if this was not good for me, you know, the Harry would speak out on it. But I was grateful for that wisdom because it points something out to you. It gives you perspective. And then after you kind of do all these things, you make a decision. And the word decision comes from a lot more Decedre, which just means to cut off. And once you say yes to A, it means you are saying no to BCDE. And so it just means to literally make a decision. I think passivity is a plague. And many people go through life like a portable fan, like kind of just oscillating back and forth, back and forth. And so I think it's really important to look to God's word to go, listen, we've been given a life to live. And there is a level of mission in our life, which involves decision-making. And I think these are just necessary biblical principles to know, okay, what's God's revealed obvious will for my life? And then if I'm walking with him, living in holiness, confessing my sin, obviously none of us are perfect. So this isn't like a straight line holiness. Confessing our sin, okay, we, what's our gifting, what's the need? What are the wise people in my life saying? And then make a decision? Yeah, well, that's such a great challenge at the end. And it, I hadn't actually put it together. Maybe everyone else would put it together. But when you talk about the fan oscillating back and forth, it was making me think about our episode on laziness and the proverb of what's us luggard like? He's the one who's turning back and forth and on that like a store on its hinges. And so there's this commonality there of to maybe end the conversation where we began. But I think there's a discerning question that everyone has to answer in his or her own heart. And that is, am I actually pursuing the Lord in a time of focused discernment on a critical decision that I have in front of me versus am I maybe falling into the sin of laziness and actually delaying, delaying delaying and almost keeping what is indecision on your part and laziness onto a some spiritual framework and God's plate in a way that's actually simple. Yeah, I think just one final thing is God leads in guides, not mile by mile, but in his word, he says step by step. Because if you knew the end from the beginning, that would eliminate risk. And if there was no risk in your life, it would eliminate the need for dependency and to walk by faith. And so you cannot know the end from the beginning. And I think it was Kevin D. Young that said, you can walk comfortably into the future, not because it is known to you, but because it is known by God. And you just walk independence step by step until you meet a face to face. Well, that's super helpful, Johnny. I really appreciate your time to walk through this study. Look forward to people's comments on what stood out to them. Most again, we ask you every week. Actually, we don't, but we should, please, like make a comment, subscribe, share this with anyone else who you think it would be a blessing to. And thank you for taking this time, Johnny. Thanks, Hank. About 90,000 hours of your life are spent working. And if you never learn to think biblically about those hours, whether you're a mom, a CEO, a doctor, a businessman, a lawyer, or a plumber, about 90,000 hours of your life are spent working. And if you never learn to think about those hours biblically, you risk living with a significant spiritual injury. The first thing the Bible tells us about God is that he works and he made you in his image. My new book Get to Work will help you see your daily grind as God's good gift. You can pre-order that book right now wherever books are sold. You can pre-order that book right now wherever books are sold.