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St. Paul School of Leadership & Discipleship Lesson 224 - HOW TO EXPERIENCE GOD'S GUIDANCE IN YOUR LIFE (God's Plans and Promises to You from the Book of Isaiah) By Frank Eiklor "The Lord will guide you always; He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. " Isaiah 58:11
What a wonderful promise from our wonderful Father. But note that this scripture is not without conditions nor is it a complete sentence. Two other verses precede it and tell what God expects of those who wish His continual guidance and such a moment-by-moment fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit that even times of drought are filled with His satisfying presence.
Let's look at those preceding verses; in fact, the whole chapter should be reviewed often by a true disciple. Ancient Israel was just like today's modern Church - the object of God's affections and often the source of His great heartache.
The first five verses expose the hypocrisy of substituting religiosity for reality; prideful smugness for pure spirituality. Even prayer and fasting can be an abomination to God when done to satisfy human ego and exalt fleshly pride.
But then God tells what loving Him should be all about; breaking the chains of spiritual prisoners, lifting the heavy burdens of others, feeding and clothing the hungry and poor, training our own tongues to build others rather than judge them, and living to satisfy others and not just ourselves.
Those are the conditions that open the doors to God's promised blessings in verse 11 and those that follow. You'll be His watered garden and your life like an artesian well that never runs dry. Those who delight in the Lord always find the Lord delighting in them!
My prayer: “My Father, help me to get my eyes off of myself and on to the needs of others so that I will experience more fully Your guidance and Your watering of my own thirsting soul.” "Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ" (I Corinthians 11:1)
Related Articles · More Articles Jesus said many would come in His name and deceive the hearts of the simple, sinful and proud. Eastern mysticism and meditation is a big thing in the gullible West. And one day a “world leader” will appear on the scene with the persuasion of a god and the heart of a devil. Jesus warns His children to know the Scriptures, live in obedience to the Father’s will, and stay alert to the signs of the times. They laugh no more. Now God’s description of how He will destroy the old earth and create a
new one makes perfect sense. The splitting of the atom turned many skeptics into believers.
After all, look what man himself is capable of doing with the atom and hydrogen bombs. Now
the fear is that nuclear weapons are being placed in the hands of madmen who wish to annihilate
their enemies. God has blessed man with incredible genius. We stand in awe as we watch men and women in a room full of computers and high-tech instruments guiding and landing spacecraft on distant planets. At that moment, we appear invincible. But then a mammoth tornado comes—or a terrifying hurricane—or rains that flood whole regions and never listen to our shouts to “Stop!”—or the shake that removes from under our feet any confidence or pride we carry, and leaves us numb with hardly enough breath to even utter the paralyzing word “EARTHQUAKE!”. And man is helpless in the face of it all! |
