You Must Make Major Adjustments in Your Life to Join God ...

1 | Experiencing God Online 2004 LifeWay Church Resources1 Many of us want God to speak to us and give us an assignment. However, we are not interested in mak-ing any Major Adjustments in our lives. Biblically, that is impossible. Every time God spoke to people inthe Scripture about something He wanted to do through them, Major Adjustments were necessary. Theyhad to adjust their lives to God. Once the Adjustments were made, God accomplished His purposesthrough those He Second Critical Turning PointAdjusting your life to God is the second critical turning point in your knowing and doing the will of first turning point was the crisis of belief you must believe God is who He says He is and that Hewill do what He says He will do.

2 Making the adjustment of your life to God also is a turning point. If youchoose to make the adjustment, you can go on to obedience. If you refuse to make the adjustment, youcould miss what God had in store for your God speaks to you, revealing what He is about to do, that revelation is your invitation to adjustyour life to Him. Once you have adjusted your life to Him, His purposes, and His ways, you are in a posi-tion to obey. Adjustments prepare you for obedience. You cannot continue life as usual or stay where youare, and go with God at the same time.

3 That is true throughout Scripture. Noah could not continue life as usual and build an ark at the same time (Gen. 6). Abram could not stay in Ur or Haran and father a nation in Canaan (Gen. 12:1-8). Moses could not stay on the back side of the desert herding sheep and stand before Pharaoh at thesame time (Ex. 3). David had to leave his sheep to become king (1 Sam. 16:1-13). Peter, Andrew, James, and John had to leave their fishing businesses in order to follow Jesus ( :18-22). Saul (later Paul) had to completely change directions in his life in order to be used of God to preachthe gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 9:1-19).

4 Enormous changes and Adjustments had to be made! Some had to leave family and country. Others hadto drop prejudices and change preferences. Others had to leave behind life goals, ideals, and one had to yield to God and then adjust their whole lives to Him. The moment they made the nec-essary Adjustments God began to accomplish His purposes through them. Each one, however, learnedthat adjusting one s life to God is well worth the 6:You Must Make Major Adjustments in Your Lifeto Join God in What He is 6: Major Adjustments | Experiencing God Online 2004 LifeWay Church Resources2 Your Scripture memory verse for this unit speaks of a Major adjustment that must be made to be a dis-ciple of Jesus.

5 Write Luke 14:33 here:_____Have you come to a place in your life where you are willing to yield all to Him in order to follow Him?Ye soNoo You may be thinking: But, God will not ask ME to make Major Adjustments . If you look to Scripture for yourunderstanding of God, you will see that God most certainly will require Adjustments of His people. He evenrequired Major Adjustments of His own Son: For You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ: although Hewas rich, for your sake He became poor, so that by His poverty you might become rich (2 Cor.)

6 8:9). Jesusemptied Himself of position and wealth in heaven in order to join the Father in providing redemption throughHis death on the cross that was a Major adjustment!If you want to be a disciple a follower of Jesus, you have no choice. You will have to make Major adjust-ments in your life to follow God. Until you are ready to make any adjustment necessary to follow and obeywhat God has said, you will be of little use to God. Your greatest single difficulty in following God may comeat the point of the tendency is to want to skip the adjustment and go from believing God to obedience.

7 If you want to fol-low Him, you don t have that choice. His ways are so different than yours (Isa. 55:9) that the only way tofollow Him will require an adjustment of your life to His and the Rich Young Ruler were given invitations to join God. Read about them and pre-pare to answer the following questions on the 1 Kings 19:15-21 Rich Young Ruler Luke 18:18-271. What adjustment was required of each?Elisha: _____Rich Young Ruler: _____2. What was the response of each?Elisha: _____Rich Young Ruler: _____Reality 6: Major Adjustments | Experiencing God Online 2004 LifeWay Church Resources3 The rich ruler wanted eternal life, but he didn t want to make the necessary adjustment to Jesus.

8 His moneyand wealth were more important. Jesus knew that he could not love God completely and love his moneyat the same time (Matt. 6:24). Jesus asked him to put away the thing that had become his god his young ruler refused to make the necessary adjustment, and he missed out on experiencing is eternal life according to John 17:3?_____The rich young ruler missed coming to know the True God and Jesus Christ whom God had sent. He want-ed eternal life, but he refused to make the necessary adjustment of his life to the True responded much differently.

9 He had to leave family and career (farming) to follow God s call. Youhave heard the phrase about burning your bridges behind you. Elisha burned his farm equipment andkilled his 24 oxen. He cooked the meat and fed the people of the community. He was not about to turn back!When he made the necessary Adjustments , he was in a position to obey God. As a result, God workedthrough Elisha to perform some of the greatest signs and miracles recorded in the Old Testament (2 Kings2 13).

10 Not until Elisha made the Adjustments , did God work through him to accomplish the you want to be the one who is wholly yielded, adjusted, and obedient to God?Ye soNooWhen God invites you to join Him, the task will have such God-sized dimensions you will face a crisis ofReality 6: Major Adjustments | Experiencing God Online 2004 LifeWay Church Resources4belief. Your response will first require faith. Faith will be demonstrated by action. The first action will involvethe adjustment of your life to God. The second action will be your obedience to what God asks you to cannot go on to obedience without first making the kind of Adjustments are required?