 this word will be an encouragement for those of you wondering what does God want me to do in this life? I mean really what's the next step? Because sometimes we get stuck or we get lost in the wondering. We get lost in the confusion. We say Lord I want to do something for you but I don't really know what to do. I want to live my life for your glory but Lord I've not really received specific instructions and there's this fear, a common fear that I recognize in people they're afraid of angering God by getting the call wrong. They say if I do something incorrect or if I do something I wasn't called to do, God's going to judge me harshly. Now of course there's a lot to be said of obedience to the Holy Spirit but also remember that the Lord makes room for our mistakes. He knows we're not perfect. This doesn't mean of course that we go living in a willingly ignorant, willingly sinful life. This simply means that there's grace to cover when we get it wrong. So as we pursue the call of God let's not be fearful. Let's continue to pursue the call of God knowing that He's faithful to complete that work in us. Now there's this how shall I say this almost like an old wives tale in the Christian world. The idea goes that one day you're going to stand before God and He's going to look at you and He's going to say wait a minute you were a nurse. I called you to be a lawyer. I'm going to judge you now harshly for that. Or wait you were a preacher. No no I called you to be a businessman. I'm going to judge you harshly for that now. But I don't think that's the way it is. I'm going to show you that in the scripture. Now of course there are certain things that are definitely the will of God. You want to know the will of God? Read the word. God wills that we pray. That we pray faithfully. That we read the word with devotion. That we live holy lives. That we worship Him with everything that we are. That we live in harmony and unity with fellow believers. That we evangelize passionately, lost. There are certain things that we do that the word of God has instructed us to do. Another example would be serving in a local church using your spiritual gifts. And we all know these generic general commands. We all know these calls to action. All of us do when we read the scripture. The frustration comes when we don't know what God specifically wants for us. So we know we should live holy. We should pray. We should read the word. We should live in unity with our brothers and sisters. We should worship. We should evangelize and so forth. But what does God want me to do specifically? What is the specific will of God for my life? I want to show you. Go to Matthew chapter 25. Matthew chapter 25. Once you've looked at those basic ways of living for the Christian. Once you've implemented those commands in your life, the question then arises, okay, now what do I do? I'm living holy. I have a prayer life. I'm reading the word. I worship. I evangelize. I love people. I go to church. I serve. But now what does God want me to do specifically? And that's really where believers feel like they hit this wall. So Matthew 25, I'm going to read verse number 14 and onward. Again, the kingdom of heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone. He gave five bags of silver to one, two bags of silver to another, and one bag of silver to the last dividing it in proportion to their abilities. He then left on his trip. The servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and earned five more. The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more. Verse 18, but the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master's money. After a long time, their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money. The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of silver came forward with five more and said, master, you gave me five bags of silver to invest and I have earned five more. The master was full of praise. Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount. So now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let's celebrate together. The servant who had received the two bags of silver came forward and said, master, you gave me two bags of silver to invest and I have earned two more. Verse 23, the master said, well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount. So now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let's celebrate together. Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, master, I knew you were a harsh man harvesting crops you didn't plant and gathering crops you didn't cultivate. I was afraid I would lose your money. So I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back. But the master replied, you wicked and lazy servant. If you knew I harvested crops I didn't plant and gathered crops I didn't cultivate. Why didn't you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it. Then he ordered, take the money from this servant and give it to the one with the 10 bags of silver to those who use well what they are given. Listen to this, this is powerful. To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. Stewardship. Taking care of what God has entrusted to you. Ministry is not a reward. Ministry is a responsibility. Ministry is not about status. Ministry is about stewardship. It's about taking care of kingdom affairs. You know, when God created man and put him in the garden, his intention for man was always that he would have a partner in man. God started the earth. Man was to steward. God created. Man was to cultivate. God spoke things into existence. Man is called to speak things into order. There was always a divine partnership that was intended for us to have with God. God gives us responsibilities that we might take care of the things that he's entrusted to us. This includes your life. Your life is not your own. Your life belongs to Jesus. Your time belongs to Jesus. Your family belongs to Jesus. Your possessions and finances belong to Jesus. Your energy belongs to Jesus. Your mind belongs to Jesus. Everything that you are and everything that you have belongs to him. It's on loan. You're taking care of it for him. So, getting back now to this point I was talking about earlier, this specific call of God. This is the point of frustration for believers. They're waiting for the heavens to open and God to give them very specific instructions. They're waiting for some prophet to come to them and say, you're called to this city to be this type of minister, to reach this type of people. And we want God to speak to us very, very, very clearly in the natural realm with super specific information. Now, this does happen sometimes, but generally speaking the believer is guided by the wisdom of the spirit and by the word of God. So what do you do when you're pursuing the call of God for your life? What do you do to actually make impact in the way that God purposed you? Because God has created us with purpose. And if he created us with purpose, that means he has intentions. He has desires. He has expectations that he wants us to fulfill. Now, if God was going to judge you so harshly for not getting every little detail correct, then he would have made every little detail clear. So we can take peace. We can find peace, I should say, in knowing that God is very good at communicating to us the things that we need to know. So we can at least be at rest in trusting him that he will guide us as we go. But in order to be instructed, you must be moving. In order to receive guidance, you must be on the go. Why is God going to reveal step four and five if we haven't even taken step one? So we know what the will of God is. Win the loss. Be there for your fellow believer. Live holy. Worship. Serve in the church. How are we to do these things specifically? The answer to the specifics is found in how he created you. He gave you a certain voice, a certain look, a certain way of thinking. He gave you a gift set, certain abilities, certain things about your personality, nature and character. He gave you certain qualities. He put you around certain people. God created you with intention. And God wants to use everything about you to fulfill everything that he wills. What is the specific will of God for your life? It's simple. The specific will of God for your life is that you would take your specific abilities, resources and energy and invest them into God's overall command to reach the world. So the question then is this, how can I get involved? What can I do? You're not going to get to heaven and God say to you, you know that person you witnessed to? Yes, Lord, I didn't call you to witness to them. And now I'm going to judge you harshly for that. It's not that specific. There's a general direction. And as you walk in that general direction, you receive specific instruction on a daily basis to the Word and to the wisdom of the spirit. So as you move through your life, ask yourself, what are some of the things God gave me? I think of Pam Mays and Joanne. These are two precious women who support our ministry. Really, they're part of the ministry team. You know, they have great gifts for hospitality. And after every service that they're a part of, we will go in and they'll have a room prepared for us or somewhere that they're staying. They'll rent a space for the team and I or they'll get an Airbnb house and invite us all back. We'll get there and they'll have meals. They'll have things ready. Now they probably received instruction from the Holy Spirit to work with our ministry. But I guarantee you, the Holy Spirit didn't call them and say, hey, I've called you to make this specific type of pasta for David and his team. Now what did they do? They just do as they do, as they're gifted. They plan as they're gifted. They act as they're gifted. I think of people like Timothy Lay who does all of the media and production. Could Tim have done something else for God? Possibly, yes. But what did he choose to do? He chose to take his creativity, his eye for art, his passion for camera equipment and lenses, his personality for getting along with people to manage the crew and he takes those resources that God has given him and he invests them into the kingdom. I think of Stephen Mark de Zuma. God gave him a voice to sing. God gave him a warm personality to help the team gel together and what did he choose to do? He chose to invest that ability in this ministry. Now he could have gone and done that just at a local church and done that and worked a regular job and I don't think God would have judged him harshly for that. I think that was a path that the Lord would have allowed. At least he's doing something for the kingdom. But no, God called him and gave him this as an option and said, do you want to do this? And Steve did. Ruben Vargas, someone who's very gifted and very organized. Every time I get in his car, it smells like he just pulled it off the lot, like he just bought the car. This guy's house is very organized. Even when he stays at a hotel, you wouldn't know he was staying in the room with you because his bag and all of his stuff takes that one little corner off to the side. Very organized, very clean, very focused on details. He pays attention to those kinds of things. So what do he do? He offered that ability to a ministry and he's investing it in a way that's reaching people. Now one day, I believe Ruben's going to go and preach and God's going to branch him off into his own ministry. But here's what he's doing right now. Is God going to judge him for that? No. Did he hear specifically, did the heaven split open? And Ruben, I've called you to be an event quarter? No. He just followed the guidance of the Holy Spirit that inner pool as he moves to life and he applies his gifts to the will of God. So again, the will of God for your life is simple. You're called to use your specific gifts and abilities to fulfill God's broader plan. You're called to use your specific gifts and abilities to fulfill God's broader plans. And by the way, as we see in the book of Acts that the apostles were trying to go into Asia and every time they tried to go into Asia, the Holy Spirit would stop them. You know how I know they didn't pray about going into Asia? Because on their way there, the Holy Spirit told them no. Had they prayed about it beforehand, they would have never even have tried to go in. But what did they do? They saw an opportunity. They saw a way to serve. They saw a need. So they said, we're going to fill that need. And it was on their way to fill that need in Asia that the Holy Spirit said, no, no, no, not yet go a different place. And sometimes that's what we have to do. You want to know the will of God? Look around you. Where are the needs you can fill with your abilities? Where are the needs that you can fill with your talents and your time and your resources? That's what we're called to do. And as you go, God will guide. If he wants to prevent you from walking through a door, he'll do it. He will do it. For example, when we were trying to purchase that building in Eliso Viejo, I told the Lord, I said, Lord, I want this too badly to have good discernment. That's what I told him. I said, Lord, I want this too badly to have good discernment. I said, if you told me no, I wouldn't know it. If you told me yes, I'd go for it anyway. So I said, Lord, I want this too badly for me to have good discernment. There were so many emotions wrapped up and I was so excited about it. And I said, Lord, if this is not you, remember, Steve, you were with me in the prayer room. I said, Lord, if this isn't you, slam this door in my face because I'm very persistent. I'm going to do what I can to make this happen. So I said, Lord, if this isn't you, slam this door in my face. And he honored that. And he slammed the door in my face. And he was faithful to protect me from what I was not supposed to do. And so as you go along, you can trust the guidance of the Holy Spirit. I don't trust my ability to hear God. Some people are very convinced in their own ability to hear God. And that's when they start to get off track. That's when they become prideful. I don't trust my ability to hear God. You know what I trust? I trust his ability to speak to me. I trust his ability to communicate with me. He's good at communicating to me. I'm flawed. He's not. I miss it sometimes. He never misses it. So you can trust him as you go. But don't be frozen in paralysis and say, I don't want to do anything for God. And don't be like this servant. I want to point something out to you in this parable. Notice that when the master went away on this trip, he never once gave the servant specific instruction. He simply gave them the bags of silver and went away. He didn't say to each of them, now here's what I want you to do with this bag. Here's what I want you to do with my resources. There was nothing that he instructed them to do. They just knew they were supposed to do something. And the only one who was rebuked was the servant who did nothing. Why didn't he do anything? Because he was afraid that he would anger God. He was afraid, well, I don't want to make a move because I might miss it. And he got rebuked for that. The Lord called that laziness. I think sometimes we live in fear and we call it wisdom. And that's a dangerous place to be because then we're convinced of our own way of living. Notice also that the Lord gave to each of them in proportion to their abilities. So I may not have the same starting point as another individual. I may not have all of the gift sets as others, but I have something. And rest assured, God has given you something, something with which you can do good, something with which you can accomplish God's will in the earth. So ask yourself today, what has the Lord given me? What are my abilities? What are my personality traits? What are my resources? What are my connections? Now, sometimes we're a little harsh with ourselves and you may hang your head low and say, well, God hasn't really given me much. He's given you breath. He's given you a mouth. He's given you eyes to see, ears to hear. He's given you a connection, some connections around you, family, friends. There's, there is something that he gave you. God has given each and every one of us something that we can use for his glory. God has invested something in each and every one of us that can be used to bring about the kingdom of God in the earth. And if you don't know what to do, then do what you know to do. If you don't know what to do, then do what you know to do. Well, you're waiting for God to confirm the specifics, at least do the general, waiting on God to confirm where you should live, then serve locally in the meantime while you can. Are you waiting for God to tell you what kind of ministry you have? Then serve in another ministry while you wait. Are you waiting for God to confirm what job you should take, what school you should attend, or what people you should surround yourself with? Then do something that you know is God in the meantime. Evangelize, pray, live holy, reach out to the fellow believers and encourage them. Do something in the waiting and as you go, God will guide. Father in the name of Jesus. I thank you for my partners and friends, our wonderful spirit family. And I pray, Lord, that you would cause us to see, give us the discernment, open our eyes, Lord, to see the needs and opportunities before us. Help us to be attentive as we live, that we might see those little details that can be taken care of. Lord, reveal to us what you've entrusted to us and help us to use it well for your glory and honor we pray. In the name of Jesus and I want all of our friends to say amen. 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