Growing up as a pastor's son, I said that I would never be a pastor—never, ever, ever! I don't know how many times I've said that. I thought it would be the most boring job in the world, and I said I would never do it. But my attitude changed over time, and then God called me to be a pastor!
Well, I had to submit to that call. But what I found out is that once I submitted to it, the most exciting thing in the world to me now is being a pastor, because that's what I'm called to do. There's nothing else I would rather do. I could do this for the rest of my life, and I'm sure I will. But I love it, because God knew me better than I knew myself.
Submitting to God's will starts, first of all, in everyday life. For example, when the Holy Spirit tells you to do something (however little or big), you have to be obedient. And that will help you become more and more sensitive to God's Spirit. The same thing goes for the "big" things. When God calls you to fulfill a certain job or vision, you must submit.
Submit To God's Word And To His Will For Your Life
Did you know that you can do everything else according to the Word and still not submit to God? You can love your wife and be doing everything else right, but you still won't be happy. Oh, you may be happy at home, but 60 percent of your life is your work or vocation - what God has called you to do—and that spills over into the home life. So you'll be trying to figure out what's wrong, and at the root is the fact that God told you to do or be something, and you didn't do it.
You must submit to God's will. If He told you to do something, or if He's called you to do something, just do it. Don't fight it, because as I said, God knows you better than you know yourself.
Of course, along with submitting to the direction you receive from God's Spirit, you have to submit to God's Word. In other words, when you see something in the Bible, you have the option to either accept it or reject it, just like when you got saved: You could have either accepted Jesus or rejected Him.
Well, whenever a minister shows you something in the Word of God, you have that same option. You're either going to accept that Word or you're going to reject it. But what a lot of us do is, we hear something and think, Oh, I can't do that. Maybe when I get to a higher spiritual level I'll be able to do it. And we put it on the shelf.
No, no, no! Submit to God's Word now. If you see that God's Word says something and it applies to you, then you immediately start making whatever changes you need to make to line up with the Word.
Now, obviously, you're not supposed to try to make spiritual changes on your own. God didn't give us the Holy Spirit for nothing. When it comes to getting better and getting closer to God, the Holy Spirit is here to help us. He's called our Helper, so He's here to help! He's here to help us conform to what the Word says. But, first and foremost, you must make a decision that you're going to submit to God's Word.
Excerpt permission granted by Word of Faith Publishing