There is no single formula for living wholly dependent upon the Lord. All I can offer you is what God has been teaching me in this area. He has shown me two ways where I must give him full control.

First, I must be convinced that the Lord is anxious and willing to make his will known to me, even in the smaller details of my life. I must believe that the Spirit who abides in me knows God’s will for me, and that he will guide me and speak to me. “When he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth…. He will glorify me: for he will take of what is mine and declare it to you” (John 16:13-14, NKJV).

Maybe right now you are in the midst of some affliction, perhaps one that has been caused by a hasty decision. Even so, the Lord promises you, “Your inner ear will hear my Spirit speaking to you, ‘Go that way. Do this. And don’t do that…’”

Secondly, we have to pray with unwavering faith for power to obey God’s direction. Scripture says, “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord” (James 1:6-7). When God tells us to do something, we need power to stay the course and obey him fully.

Many of us pray, “Lord, I know what you told me, but I’m still not sure that was your voice speaking. I’m not sure I’m spiritual enough even to recognize your voice. Please just open or close the door for me on this matter.”

That is not the faith response he’s looking for from his children. You can pray for hours or even days at a time, but if you don’t pray with faith that the Holy Spirit will guide you as Jesus has promised, you will never have the mind of God conveyed to you. He waits until he sees you’re committed to accepting whatever he says, and to obeying it without question.

Trust that God speaks to his children, and then obey his direction as soon as you receive it. This is how we live in full reliance on God.

God’s Word tells us in no uncertain terms, “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14, NKJV).

Here is the truth, plain and simple. Without the holiness that’s imparted by Christ alone—a precious gift we honor by leading a life devoted to obeying his every word—none of us will see the Lord. This refers not just to heaven but to our present life as well. Without holiness, we won’t see God’s presence in our daily walk, our family, our relationships, our witness or our ministry.

It doesn’t matter how many Christian conferences we attend, how many sermons we listen to, how many Bible studies we are involved in. If we harbor a cancerous sin, if the Lord has a controversy with us over our iniquity, then none of our efforts will produce godly fruit. On the contrary, our sin will only grow more contagious and infect everyone around us.

Of course, this issue goes beyond all lusts of the flesh all the way to a corruption of the spirit as well. Paul describes the same destructive sin in this passage when he says, “Nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer” (1 Corinthians 10:10).

Christ has promised to keep you from falling and to give you sin-resisting power if you simply believe what he has said. It is all a matter of faith. Believe him for this godly fear. Pray for it and welcome it. God will keep his word to you. You cannot break free from the death-grip of besetting sin by willpower or by any human effort alone. “‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6).

Dear saint, will you allow the Holy Spirit to deal with all the lusts you may be harboring? Will you instead seek the escape that God has provided for you?

I urge you to cultivate a holy fear and trust in these last days. It will keep you pure, no matter how loudly wickedness rages around you. It will enable you to walk in God’s holiness, which holds the promise of his enduring presence. Amen!

I have a friend that I’ve known for 20-something years, and he had an amazing ministry. It was growing rapidly. He bought an office building and was adding on to that. People were coming to Christ. He had open doors to preach around the country.
Around this time, some of his prayers seemingly began to go unanswered. He was hoping for certain things to take place in his ministry, and they didn’t. After that, he and his team started having some difficulties. His newsletter following was dropping off, and then the giving for his evangelistic association began to dwindle. He was receiving fewer and fewer invitations to speak around the country.

Instead of saying “God, you build up, and you tear down. It’s your ministry, whatever you would have for it”, he started to become bitter. Every time I would meet with him for lunch, I could see this shift in him.

Eventually, my friend left the ministry altogether, and he left it beaten, discouraged and hurt. He tried to mask it with humor, but he had become so cynical that it was difficult to be around him. He’d moved from believing God would do great things to almost believing in nothing from God anymore. He’s not the only one, though. To varying degrees, many of us have allowed disappointment and cynicism to creep up in our heart.

That bright fire of belief that we once held in our heart has been diminished. The confidence in a God who moves mightily and can raise you up has been weakened. We must remember what Jesus promised us, “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33, ESV).

When we are beaten down and feel a seed of cynicism taking root, we should turn to this verse: “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:24-25).

We must not allow bitterness against God to choke his plan in our lives. We must remember his promises and encourage one another to never give up.

By the close of the book of Genesis, God had chosen a small, insignificant people to lead. He wanted to raise up a people who would be living examples of his goodness to the heathen world. To bring about such a testimony, God took his people into places that were beyond their control. He isolated Israel in a wilderness where he alone would be their source of life, caring for their every need.

Israel had no power over their survival in that desolate place. They couldn’t control the availability of food or water. They couldn’t control their destination since they had no compasses or maps. How would they eat and drink? Which direction would they go? Where would they end up?

God would do it all for them. He would guide them each day with a miracle cloud, one that glowed at night and dispelled the darkness before them. He would feed them with food from heaven and provide them with water from a rock. Yes, every single need would be supplied by the Lord, and no enemy would be able to defeat them.

“Out of heaven he let you [Israel] hear his voice, that he might instruct you; on earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire” (Deuteronomy 4:36, NKJV).

The nations surrounding ancient Israel were filled with “other gods,” idols made of wood, silver and gold. These gods were unable to love, guide or protect the people who worshipped them. Any one of the nations could look to Israel, though, and see a special people whom God carried through a terrible wilderness. They would see a God who spoke to his people, who loved and felt, who answered prayers and provided miracles. Here was a living God, one who guided his people in every detail of their lives.

God raised up a people who would be trained by him. There had to be a people who lived under his authority, who would trust him completely, giving him full control of every aspect of their lives. That people would become his testimony to the world.

I believe the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32 came home because of his history with his father. This young man knew his father’s character, and he must have received great love from him. Why would he return to a man who might have been angry and vengeful, who might have beat him and made him pay back every cent he’d squandered?

The prodigal surely knew that he wouldn’t be condemned for his sins. He probably thought, “I know my father loves me. He won’t throw my sin in my face. He’ll take me back.” When you have that kind of history, you can always go back home.

Now, the young man was intent on offering a heartfelt confession to his dad because he rehearsed it all the way home. When he faced his father, though, he didn’t even get a chance to fully confess. “When he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him” (Luke 15:20, NKJV). The father was so happy his son was back that he covered him with kisses, essentially saying, “I love you, son. Come home and be restored.”

The father did all of this before his son could complete his confession. The young man was able to blurt out the beginning of his speech, but his father didn’t wait for him to finish. To him, the young man’s sin had already been settled.

Notice how the prodigal’s father “prevented” him from punishing himself or lowering himself with the blessing of goodness. The father’s response was to order his servants, “Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found” (Luke 15:22-24). Sin wasn’t the issue to this father. The only issue on his mind was love. He wanted his boy to know he was accepted before he could even utter a confession.

That is the point God wants to make to us all. “Do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” (Romans 2:4). God’s love welcomes us home.