how to know what god wants you to do if you have a decision in your life right now where you're like god how do i where do i go what's the direction that you're leading me in what do i choose i'm gonna help you with that because i was reading today and the holy spirit helped me we were at the beach reading the living bible translation this is a thought for thought translation it's more like a paraphrase and it was saying this in james chapter one verse five if you want to know what god wants
you to do ask him and he will gladly tell you for he is always ready to give a bountiful supply of wisdom to all who ask him and he will not resent it for six but when you ask him be sure that you really expect him to tell you for a doubtful mind will be as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind and every decision you then make will be uncertain as you turn first this way and then that if you don't ask with faith don't expect the
lord to give you a solid answer how basically just powerful is that word in it's just like i feel like he was talking straight to me and that's what the word of god does right it pierces you know your heart cuts more than the bone it cuts straight to the spirit and um the part ex when he said yo every decision you make will be uncertain that is me i'm talking every decision i make is uncertain every even if it feels certain i change my mind afterwards whether a couple hours later or days whatever i
do this about every little thing it's so embarrassing to admit on the internet but um my wife's right here and she knows that about me as well i just everything you guys have seen my profile picture change a hundred times my name on my channel everything changes why i'm just i'm like a wave tossed by the wind there's there's the cool thing about surfing is there's like regular swell and there's wind well regular swell is like the energy or surging throughout the water in the ocean and that's some good waves there's some good waves and
winds well too but it's different windswell is like howling waves off the coast picking up and flipping these waves and making them do weird things for example last week i was paddling for this wave paddling paddling paddling and i was waiting for the wave to pick me up and move speed me up get me on my way but it didn't do that i look to my right and the waves over there now that's what happens they shift last moment why the energy is not coming from beneath it's coming from an outside source when you choose
to ask god anything especially for wisdom without faith you're like that wind you're getting your energy from somewhere else you're not getting that energy focused from the holy spirit within deep within you deeper than the deepest oceans it's not coming up this way it's coming in from an outside your your education your experiences what you think is best and he says don't expect to get any solid answer from god if you come like that you're coming at him wrong you got to come at him right but how do we come at him right it's hard
not to be like that wave there's a verse that my grandma loved it's proverbs 3 5-6 trust in the lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding and in all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your path how do we come to god and ask him for the wisdom that he's that james says he wants to give us he's willing to give us he won't resent us if we ask how do we get that we got to come to him and not lean on our own understanding we got to
lean on his understanding as long as we're leaning on our understanding we're being picked up and moved around like a wave tossed by the wind because our understanding is faulty you know kids are great at this my kid today he was like you know arguing with his brother and i was like stop arguing with your brother just you guys are squabbling over nothing stop and he looked at me and he goes why should i and i was like thinking of every 90s kids movie i watched and when the parents said stop that and the kid
was like why should i and when in the movie it's disrespectful the way my son said it was like no literally like why why should i why what's the big deal why can't i squabble why can't i talk to him this way why can i argue with him he really wanted to know what was wrong why because he's four at first i was like is this a disciplined moment and then i thought about how he said it and i was like he really just wants to know and kids do that they don't lean on their
understanding the way adults do i do not like being told what to do i don't like having to ask for help why i'm insecure as heck and so i'd just rather figure it out on my own and then mess it up which i do a lot and so i want to be more like my son because to lean on god means to say father why should i do the things that you're asking me to do why did you do things the way you did things what am i missing here asking like that any kid you
meet their favorite thing to say is why we need to be like that i was walking you know along these million dollar homes and there's these big slippery rocks uh there's a shortcut to this beach that we were going to and i was slipping and when i slipped i grabbed the wall of this million-dollar home and i started to lean on that wall as i took a couple steps i'd move my hand and lean again and i could not lean on my own weight and lean on that wall at the same time all my weight
was leaning on the wall with god you can't lean on him and yourself at the same time you're going to choose either lean on his understanding of things or your understanding of things if you lean on your understanding of things you're going to slip your weight is going to be shifted like that wind pushing that wave and you're going to slip and you're going to fall and it's going to be messy it's going to be pain and hurt along god's way there's still going to be some pain there's going to be some suffering there's going
to be you know some hurt there but the thing is you're going in the right direction the thing is you are leaning fully on him you don't have to worry about your understanding his understanding is guiding you in the right way he says if you acknowledge me i will direct your past how do we acknowledge him this is how you acknowledge him you're about to make a decision you step towards what you think is the right way you need to step and you're thinking okay yeah i've been here before i know this experience i my
education tells me this the culture tells me this the world tells me this the mental health awareness movement tells me this i'll go this way wrong that's not acknowledging him that's acknowledging the world not the word to go the right direction you got to acknowledge the word why i like how it says the living bible on here you know who that is jesus he is the living bible the word of god made flesh john chapter 100 man 100 god the one who is always here has no beginning has no end before you were known before
the earth was known before the universe he was there his name is jesus he made everything that you can see he made the things that are helping you see called your eyes he made everything and he became flesh he was born two thousand years ago and this bible is him these words are him he's the word of god and so to acknowledge him means to run to him when you're about to slip when you're about to fall when you're about to be flipped upside down by the winds of life it's because you are acknowledging the
wrong things you're running to those things you're not running to him run to him run here even if it's just in your mind if you don't have a bible this is a bible that i keep in my car except when i'm making youtube videos and i'm holding it in my hand right now it's usually in my car because i want to be able to run to it when i'm at the beach when i'm at the coffee shop when my wife is going into the store to buy a t-shirt for our kid because we forgot to
bring a t-shirt and he can't go in the store without a t-shirt and i'm sitting in the car waiting for her to come out with the other kid in the back of the car i want to be able to run here not somewhere else run here don't run where you're comfortable don't run to the place that says i think i know better than god because although you would never say that although i would never say that outside of my mind i'm about to say it outside of my mind right now i think i know better
than god at times that's why i don't lean on him that's why i don't ask him like james is saying with full faith and that's why i'm not he's not giving me a solid answer because i'm trusting in myself i i'm thinking god i kind of know better than you than this i realize i do this because i do it to my wife we have a meeting every thursday and in that meeting we talk about the podcast the next episode of eamon podcast and a lot of times i'll make decisions in my head and then
ask her what do you think we should do about this and she'll look at me and she'll know the mood i'm in and she'll say you know what just do whatever you want to do because you already have a decision that you've made and i know it's just you're not going to want to hear what i have to say you're just going to do what you want to do anyway and i can't tell you how many decisions i've made that have been so bad because i didn't involve her why god has put her in my
life to point out the fact that alex you don't know everything and you're horrible at listening that's about one of the greatest things about my wife and i'm so glad i learned that you know my life changed when lokolani became a part of the podcast because i saw through the lens of everything i do and how i i'm trying to act like i have it all altogether and i don't that's a great way to get hurt especially in surfing you know the one of the surfing podcasts i listen to he says go out and look
at the waves for minutes upon minutes look at the waves study it the water is doing something different every single day go out there and talk to people say hey what's that out what's going on what's going on out here how is it today what are the conditions talk to people why you don't know it all and if you do you can get hurt i've gotten hurt so many times surfing like this life is the same way it's the same exact way acknowledge the word of god run to it in your mind what does the
word of god say about this what does jesus say about this a great place to run always if you don't know a lot of bible verses always run to the cross the cross will give you the wisdom to learn and to live in every situation hebrews the last chapter talks about this think about how he suffered and you'll know how to go through whatever you're going through for example talking about leaning on him jesus had no one to lean on when he was on the cross so you could have the power and the ability to
lean on him if if jesus leaned on anyone he wouldn't have been the total atoning perfect sacrifice for our sins the whole thing about the cross was that he was alone going through what he was going through and he was perfect and he was innocent he didn't lean on anyone he leaned completely we had no one to lean on my god my god why are you forsaking me he went to lean on god and god wasn't there why god had turned his face away the hymn says so that he can look at us with love
his the total wrath of god was completely appeased in jesus he leaned on no one so we could lean on him now we have the ability we're forgiven we're seen as perfect and righteous in god's eyes because jesus rose from the dead he didn't just die he rose if he just died he wouldn't be a good savior he not only died and was dead fully dead d-e-d dead but he rose again from the grave justifying us now he stands as the perfect sacrifice and justification for us when god sees you he sees jesus and so
we have him to lean on and our weakness and our mistakes and our poor decisions we can lean on him also this he cares about you on the cross no one cared about jesus look at his murderers look at his people spitting at him cheering on him saying if you saved elders save yourself no one cared about him and it looked like the father didn't care about him here's someone that was a preacher doing miracles great man of god awesome god you know if he was so close to god where's god now that's what they
were thinking it seemed like god didn't care did god care about jesus of course but god chose to turn his face away no one cared about him on the cross so that he could care for us so he can look at us with care in his heart he cares about you and he cares that you move in the right direction and he wants you to know exactly what he wants you to do because the way that he's gonna lead you is gonna always be towards life not knowing what god wants you to do is is
a horrible place to be because that means you're headed towards death god will lead you towards life john 10. the the thief comes to steal kill and destroy i've come to give you life and life more abundantly that's jesus's promise to us to give you life an abundant life at that he cares about you so whatever decision you know you made i mean think about the fact that jesus made the decision to go to the cross so that you could be able to have the power to make the right decisions in life he made that
decision in the in the garden mark 14 36 not my will your will abba father if there's any other way take this cup of suffering from me yet not my will your will be done made the decision as he's sweating drops of blood from his forehead under the extreme amount of anguish that he's sweating blood not sweat extreme stress the cup of suffering being poured out on him and he decides i'm going through with it that right there will give you the power to make whatever decision that you're making and just take a little time
i think that's a big thing run to the word of god spend time in here before you go to bed before you know you start your day whatever it is run to the word of god but also take some time you know the bible tells us not to be slow to speak quick to listen that's talking about decisions as well be slow to say what decisions you're going to make be slow to just make to just choose and be slow to listen to how the lord's leading you to you know be slow to see okay
am i being moved around by a wave right now is this energy of the holy spirit moving me or is this just some outside source just flipping me around what's going on um be slow to that you know take a day sleep on it anyway love you i hope this helps and i'll see you in the next one [Music] [Music] [Music] you