God won’t tell you some things unless you ask Him. What do you want to know? The Holy Spirit is a gentleman and will not barge in unless you ask Him. Take time to find out God’s plan. It’s His plans that will put you over – not your plans. We often do things because we think that’s the way it ought to be done. But take the time to find out what God wants done. Take time to find out, get down on your knees and find out for yourself what God’s plans are for you, because God will only put His approval and His blessings on His plans.
God’s plan works so much better. If you’ll get a hold of God’s plan for your life or for your church, it will work and it will produce results. But if you try to build your house yourself, you will labor and labor. You may finally get it all built and it may look good, but it will all be in vain because the Lord wasn’t in any of it.
Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. (Psalm 127:1)
That is the secret to success. It’s not found in idea exchanges or programs or the newest and latest trends. Those things aren’t necessarily bad. However, they are not the secret to success. And I’m talking about in your whole life, not just in ministry. You have to get the Lord involved in your life through prayer and following the Holy Spirit.
Dr. Kenneth E Hagin said, “The only secret of success I know is walking in line with the Word of God and praying and listening to the Holy Spirit. I simply listen to what the Spirit of God says to do, and then do it. Actually, everything I’m doing today is the result of believing the Word, praying in other tongues, and being obedient to what God told me to do.”
Dr. Hagin didn’t go ask anybody. He didn’t get a tape series or DVD series. God talked to us at a past Word & Spirit in Gatlinburg, TN about this. He told us that He does not want us to outsource our problems. He wants to be our supplier, the one we go to for everything. This is how it should be. We should get our direction from God Himself, and then go out and do what He says.
Success comes from finding out God’s will for your life and doing it. That doesn’t mean you can’t get good counsel from people, because you can. But you should get your ‘marching orders’ directly from God. Dad Hagin said that the only secret of success He knew was walking in line with God’s Word, number one. That means you have to know God’s Word first. You can’t live the Christian life without knowing the Word of God. So we need to have a steady diet of reading and meditating on God’s Word and then praying – praying is seeking God, and then listening to the Holy Spirit.
Doing these other things – programs and outreaches, they’re okay, if God is in them. If God tells you to go and have a car wash, go and have a car wash. But make sure God is in it. Yes, you may have the car wash, but if God isn’t in it, you can wash all those cars all day long in vain. Just like the man in Psalm 127:1. The man who built the house without the Lord labored in vain, but he still built the house. But if the Lord is not in it, it won’t stand.
Choose today to follow God’s plans for your life, not any other.
