The Lord is asking you and I today: will you let me have my way in your life?
A simple ‘yes, Lord’ is all He requires to make your life an adventure, every day!
Listen to this sermonThe Ways of the Lord
10/29/2006
I preached this message in Skiatook, Oklahoma, USA, on the last night of the Five Fold Ministry conference 22-26 October 2006 in Ascension Church, where Jerry & Dixie Freeman pastor the church. The other speakers at the conference were Prophet Bobby Conner, Pastor Kent Maddox (who used to travel with Pastor Benny Hinn but felt led to plant a new church in Alabama). There were two Cowboys leading the praise, Little Roger and Wild Bill and a Pastor Kent’s worship leader led the worship. I made copious notes of all the sermons and stories on my Psion and will transfer it to the website this week so that whoever wants to can share in the experience as if they attended it. This is my contribution to the body of Christ who could not attend the conference – and it is free of charge!

Introduction
If you know someone’s ways you can relate to them with understanding. If you visit someone and stay in their home you have to pick up the protocol of the family or else you may feel uncomfortable or unwelcome. Protocol is the atmosphere created in a home by the rules the family live by.
If a husband knows his wife’s ways he can love and serve her more effectively, and vice versa. If a school child knows the teacher’s ways there will be better co-operation in the class. If a employee knows the ways of the employer the company will be more productive.
It is important to know the ways of God in order to relate to an Invisible Creator, our Heavenly Father. Here are a few pointers to help us to understand the ways of the Lord in order to gain maximum benefit from our divine relationship and to be more pleasing in His sight.

Isaiah 55:6-13
6 Seek the Lord while He may be found,
Call upon Him while He is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way,
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
Let him return to the Lord,
And He will have mercy on him;
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.
8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
10 “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven,
And do not return there,
But water the earth,
And make it bring forth and bud,
That it may give seed to the sower
And bread to the eater,
11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
12 “For you shall go out with joy,
And be led out with peace;
The mountains and the hills
Shall break forth into singing before you,
And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree,
And instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree;
And it shall be to the Lord for a name,
For an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”

The New King James Version

Here are a few points to consider regarding the ways of the Lord.

1. Moses knew the ways of God, but the people only saw His works.
2. Isaiah says God’s ways are past finding out but gives a tip to understanding them.
3. David pleaded that God would teach him His ways and promised to teach it to others.
4. Jesus not only knew the ways of God but became THE WAY!
5. By watching Jesus in action we learn the ways of God.

Let us look at one particular example of the ways of God in operation in the life of Jesus Chirst and see what we can deduct from it.

1. Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil (Mat. 4:1,2)
2. When he passed the tests He came out of the wilderness in the power of God and his fame was noised abroad.
3. In John 4 He had to go (Greek: deo, felt compelled to go) to Samaria and there he met a woman at the well whom he asked for some water.
4. Jesus’ natural need caused Him to ask for the water because he did not have something to draw the water with. He never used his supernatural powers to satisfy his own human needs although the devil tempted him to do so when he was hungry by ordering him to turn the stones in the desert into bread. Jesus rebuked the devil by quoting, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’
5. By a word of knowledge Jesus revealed the woman’s situation and she believed He is the Messiah and went to call others to hear Him for themselves.
6. They believed the woman at first and later on believed because they heard Him for themselves.
7. The seeds of salvation Jesus sowed in Samaria became a harvest in Acts 8 when Phillip the evangelist held a campaign there! There was much joy in the city because of the wonderful works of God being performed.
8. At the height of the successful evangelistic campaign the Spirit told Phillip to leave and go to a lonely road in the desert of Gaza. This sounded so improbable and yet, it was the way of the Lord to reach a Eunuch from Candice’s court in Ethiopia.
9. This Eunuch believed the scriptures and Phillip baptized him in the water and then Phillip was supernaturally transported to Azotus, about 40 Kilometers from there! He found Himself in Azotus…dry cleaned by the spirit travels!

The ways of God is never selfish: it always has consequences in other people’s lives! The Eunuch obviously carried the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Africa! God needed someone to spread the word to Africa and found someone in the Eunuch. Then he needed someone to explain the Gospel to the Eunuch and he found Phillip.

God can be very extravagant to perform His word. All he looks for are people who are willing to submit to His ways and not insist on having their own way all the time.

Yes, Isaiah was right in saying the ways of the Lord are past finding out, but he gave us a tip: like the rain…so shall My word be that will reveal my ways and my thought to you…it will wet the soil of your hearts and begin to bud and bring fruit in order to provide a harvest that can be turned into bread. And yet, there will be enough seed left for those who want to sow again in order to reap another harvest!

The Lord is asking you and I today: will you let me have my way in your life?
A simple ‘yes, Lord’ is all He requires to make your life an adventure, every day!