In other words, when you come to God for guidance, and you've already made your mind up what you want, you don't get guidance. You just hear from your own heart, you hear the idol in your own heart, because you have not just yielded to God, and come to a place where whatever God was directing you, and you're happy with it either way. I've found the hardest thing in major decisions, is to come to a place where your personal agenda is, you let go of it; the grief of letting go of something, you let go, and you come to a place where you can just be at rest, whatever God wants to direct you into you're happy with that. When you come to that place, usually you hear very quickly from God. When I came to come up here, I did not want to come here. I did not want to. I came here, I cried all the way home from seeing the church, and the terrible mess it was in. All the way home I cried. I said God, I do not want to go to that place, it's miserable and I hate Hastings. I'm from Napier - and so that's it. [Laughter] So that was my seeking guidance.
So I decided it really was a major thing, and so I decided I better take time to seek the Lord. What a good idea! So we went away for a couple of days to the beach to pray, and here's what seeking the Lord consisted of: most of the time, weeping, and being willing to let go, and listen to God. Feeling the pain of loss. If God was to speak in a certain way, and in spite of feeling the pain, being willing to let go, lay everything down, put everything on the altar and say God, I'm your servant. What you want, I'll do it. It took me at least a day and a half. The moment I came to place of surrender, immediately I heard the voice of God, immediately, and I'm glad I heard it, otherwise I'm still in Dannevirke, and I wouldn't have a son in Pakistan, and I wouldn't have a church here, and we wouldn't have mission things all over the world. We wouldn't have all of those things. Understand? So you've got to get your heart clear, and this is a big challenge for us.
The second thing is immaturity. If you're just immature, you often don't hear God right, that's why you need some counsel. In 2 Timothy 4, Verse 3 it says, in the last times, people heaped to themselves teachers, having itching ears, following the desires of their own hearts. So very simply put, it was like this. It's saying in the latter days, people have itchy ears. You got something itchy, you want to scratch? So what they're saying is this; people want to hear a certain thing that pleases them, and so they'll go to the people who'll tell them what they want to hear. I've had people come to me, and they get my advice, and then they go find someone else, until they find the one that tells them what they want to hear, then they follow it. That's what the Bible - itching ears, following their own desire. In other words, they're just wanting to get what they want.
Last couple of things that'll hinder you is - an important one, is the influence of a controlling relationship. If you are in a relationship with someone who's a very strong controlling person, the soul tie to that person, and the control over their life, will influence your thinking, and you don't think clearly. I'll give you a classic example of that. King Jehoshaphat, who was with Ahab said, I want a prophet of God, so the prophet of God came. He said go up, it'll do well, and the king said to him, I've told you you tell me the truth. You're lying to me - tell me the truth! The guy said okay, you're going to fall and die in the battle, and it's going to be a major defeat. Oh, I knew it! You never said anything good about me! Now notice this. The truth has finally come out, the true word of the Lord. This is going to be a failure, this whole campaign, and Jehoshaphat was closely allied in relationship with Ahab, who was married to Jezebel, and therefore under a controlling spirit. You know what? He's a godly man, but he went to the battle anyway, and nearly lost his life. So you notice this; he heard what God said, but the influence of the controlling relationship hindered him responding to God's direction, and he nearly lost everything. Very sobering that, isn't it? It was only because he cried out to the Lord in the heat of the battle that he survived.