The Journey to God's Will with Austin Jackson

In this episode, Brother Mike is joined by Reverend Austin Jackson to discuss the profound topic of finding and obeying God's will. Reverend Jackson, with his extensive background in youth ministry and real estate, shares insights into understanding and pursuing God's will through a journey rather than a destination.

### Key Insights:
1. **God's Will as a Journey**:
   - God's will is not a straightforward path but often resembles a maze with unexpected turns and detours.
   - Life's journey, with all its unpredictability, prepares us for God's ultimate purpose.

2. **Romans 12:1-2**:
   - Present your bodies as a living sacrifice and be transformed by the renewing of your mind to understand God's will.
   - This transformation helps discern what is good, pleasing, and perfect in God’s sight.

3. **Romans 8:28**:
   - All things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose.
   - Even when life doesn’t go as planned, God can make all experiences work for our good.

4. **Pursuing God’s Kingdom**:
   - Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all other needs will be met.
   - Success is defined by becoming who God wants us to be, not by achieving specific positions or titles.

5. **Faithfulness in Small Things**:
   - Faithfulness in little things prepares us for greater responsibilities.
   - True success comes from being faithful and dependable in whatever role God places us in.

6. **Practical Guidance on Finding God’s Will**:
   - When faced with decisions, choose the path that brings peace.
   - Trust that God can redirect and use all experiences for His purpose, even if initial choices seem unclear.

7. **Validation and Security**:
   - Seek validation from God rather than from positions or people.
   - Understand that purpose can be found in any context if we align with God’s calling and constitution.

8. **Parables and Illustrations**:
   - Reverend Jackson uses parables, like the story of Robin and John, to illustrate how God's plan can unfold in unexpected ways.
   - Analogies like baking a cake or pixels in a picture help explain how individual experiences contribute to a beautiful, cohesive whole.

### Recommendations:
- **Podcast:** Apostolic Leadership Podcast by Reverend Austin Jackson.
- **Book:** "Church Work" by Rodney Shaw – a recommended read for those beginning in church leadership or seeking to get involved in ministry.

### Resources:
- **Bible Study:** "Pentecost is for Everyone" by Austin Jackson – available on PentecostalPublishing.com, ideal for young ministers.

### Closing Thoughts:
Reverend Jackson emphasizes that understanding and obeying God's will is about the journey and transformation rather than a specific destination. By focusing on becoming the right person and seeking first God's kingdom, we can trust that He will lead us to fulfill His purpose.

**Podcast Host:** Brother Mike
**Guest:** Reverend Austin Jackson

**Listen to the full episode on [Podcast Platform]**

**Contact Information:**
- **Austin Jackson's Real Estate Services:** For those in the Northeast Arkansas area looking to buy a house.
- **Pentecostal Publishing:** For purchasing "Pentecost is for Everyone."

Transcript

 Today's episode is titled The Journey to God's Will. I am joined with Reverend Austin Jackson, Arkansas District Youth President, the one and the only.  We will be discussing  all about finding and obeying God's will.  Let's get started.  Now, in case you don't know, Austin and I go way back.

Of all the guests that I've had on here,  he and I go back the farthest with the exception of my pastor, even further than David Poe, because I can honestly tell you I've known Austin longer.  Austin, I'm glad to have you today, man.  

It's glad I'm glad to be here, brother. Mike we do go back a long time.  I didn't know it was, it was that far back before even the great David Poe, but in his face right there.

Yep. In his face for those who don't know He grew up in section two, just Redfield church is down the road from a hardened church. We, we did work together in the sectional youth for a moment there. I was the youth president. He was secretary. Then it got flipped. Then he went on to greater things.

He  became the district youth secretary for six years. He was the district. Bible quiz master. And then now he's serving as district youth president. He went, went to Percy, Arkansas was their youth pastor. Now he's in Jonesboro helping pastor O'Connell as their staff pastor. He'll also sell you a house in real estate, man.

He's got his hands in all kinds of things.  Has moved around in the move around like that. It takes the will of God. Does it not?  

Yeah, that's what I want to talk about today. Brother Mike, you want me to go ahead and get started? 

I do. Lead us off. 

That's why we're talking today about the journey to God's will, because it is a journey.

It's not a destination. So I want to look at Romans chapter 12. First of all, let me say, I'm very honored to be here with you today. I appreciate that. The invitation and it's good for us to get back together. It's been a long time since we really got to hang out hang out since we don't live near each other.

But going back to our days, when you were the section two youth president and I was the section two youth secretary, I was 19. We won't go into how old you were at that time, but that's a long time ago. For me, that was 16 years ago. And it's kind of hard to believe that it's been that long, but I give you honor.

That's a great friend of mine and appreciate your friendship through the years. And I enjoyed obviously serving with you for many years, but we're talking about the journey to God's will. Let's look at Romans chapter 12. I'll read a couple of very familiar verses. Probably to our listeners, I would imagine these are familiar.

Paul said, I beseech you therefore brethren  by the mercies of God that you present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind That you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of god in the new living translation It says don't copy the behavior and customs of this world But let god transform you into a new person by changing the way that you think And then you will learn to know god's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect and brother mike I think we all Would like God's perfect will for our life.

So if that's the case, the question then becomes what is God's will. And what I really want to speak to today is many times we, we think of God's will is cut and dry at some mystical discovery. You either find it or you don't. We, we view God's will for not careful. We can view it from the standpoint of it's just point a.

To point B,  but if you live for God for any amount of time, you know that that's not how it works. Mm-hmm. It's not just a point A to point B, but many times it looks more like a scribble on a piece of paper or a maze where you can't really tell what the next turn needs to be. And, and I don't say that today to say that God tries to be confusing or to make things difficult for us, but just due to many factors in this life.

Things don't always work out like we think they're going to. If you had told me I was going to be in Jonesboro, Arkansas at 35 years old doing what I'm doing today, I would have never dreamed it. Right. I wouldn't have drawn it up. It's not,  I had planned for my life. But this journey  will lead you where God wants you to be if you'll get on this journey.

And so if a straight line from point A to point B is the only way to do God's will, I don't know about you, but we're in trouble.  

It requires quit looking at things from our point of view. God sees a big picture to get to Jonesboro. You had to go through Percy and you had to, I know you also went to  a purpose institute, there was a lot of steps you had to do to get to where you were prepared for that and God sees all that in advance and we don't see that.

So that's what, that's that zigzag you were talking about in that scribble. We don't have the ability to see that. So God does. 

There's definitely a zigzag. Things that you,  it's amazing how God will open doors and you don't even realize it at the time and then you look back. And really what I want to get to today is that it's about following Him, pursuing Him, seeking first His Kingdom.

I want to give you a parable. You know, Jesus told many parables. So I have a made up story that I want to share today and I want to ask a question about it because we can get a picture in our minds of what success looks like and we can convince ourselves or we can allow the enemy to convince us that anything short of that picture in our head is a failure and that's just simply not true.

So here's this parable, just a made up story. There's a young woman named Robin. She asked God to direct her to his plan for her life. She believes that college is part of that plan. She moves out of state for college. But halfway through college, she gets very sick. She ends up having to return home. She ends up completing college at the local community college.

Over the next two years living there, she meets a young man named John, who later becomes her husband. They both love the Lord. They desire to serve him and believe that his plan for them is to be missionaries to Spain. So they begin preparation for what they feel like God wants them to do in Spain. But halfway through the process, the door to Spain shuts and they end up staying put for a while.

In the meantime, John gets a job at a retail store. He doesn't like the job, but it's helping them pay the bills on the job. He witnesses to a coworker named Tim. Tim comes to church, gets baptized and filled with the Holy ghost. As a matter of fact, John teaches countless Bible studies and he wins several of his coworkers in France to the Lord later on Robin and John do become missionaries, but not to Spain.

They go on to start several churches. In a different country. I want to ask the question. Are they failures?  Did they miss God's plan? Did God abandon them? None of us would say that that's the case. Absolutely not. That story is just a made up story, a parable, but it shows us how that God's will is not just one specific thing. 

And many times we can get it mixed up and we can get focused so much on one visible goal.  But that's just not the case. God's will is rarely a straight shot to a visible goal, but his plan often requires a journey. And that journey might be filled with detours, sudden stops and sometimes confusing turns.

But what I want to get across today is if we will see if we will set our hearts to seek and to obey God in everything that we do. Then I can promise you, you'll be right in the middle of his wheel. And where I really want to pull from that is Romans chapter eight  and verse 28, where Paul said, we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

We serve a God that has an amazing way of making all things work together for good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose. Somehow, some way we serve a God that can do that. There's a illustration from brother McCool senior about baking a cake that you wouldn't take the ingredients and eat them one at a time when making a cake, but that you would mix them together.

So you wouldn't take the egg  and eat the egg by itself. That's disgusting. You wouldn't take the flour and eat it by itself. That's disgusting. But something about it, whenever you mix the egg and the flour and the sugar. Now, some people might would take the sugar and eat it by itself.  But there's just something about it.

Whenever you mix it, I'm thinking of a strawberry cake.  The strawberry mix by itself wouldn't be all that good. The flour. Definitely not all that good. The eggs. Definitely not all that good. But when you mix it together,  There's a beautiful result. And that's how Romans 8 28 works is all things work together for good.

We wouldn't take every single situation and rejoice that it happened to us. We need to rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice, but we don't, we don't always rejoice about what happened in our life. And then there's another illustration I like about Romans 8 28, which is a picture, you can have the most beautiful picture in the world, but it's not. 

And it's made up of pixels. And if you were to zoom in on one pixel, I mean, there's thousands and thousands and thousands of pixels in a, in a high quality picture. If you were to zoom in on one pixel you're not gonna be able to see what the whole picture is. It's going to be fuzzy. It's going to be confusing.

It's going to be ugly. But when you zoom out and all those pixels begin to work together, there's a beautiful picture that God can make. out of thousands and thousands of little pixels. So it is with life. If we'll set our hearts to seek and obey him and if we will love God and follow after him, he has an amazing way of making all the different experiences in life, all the different things in life work together for our good.

Life doesn't always work out the way we think it will. But if we love God and if we commit our lives to him, it will work out.  

It will.  Now, what does that,  and I'm not being contrary, I'm getting this, what does that have to do with finding the will?  Is that about trust, or is that about, I  mean. 

I'm glad you brought it up, because what happens is whenever, let's take that parable that I said Robin.

Felt like she like it was part of God's will for her to go to college. And then she gets sick at college. There's so many variables that are beyond our control, things that we cannot control. And so she ends up returning home. Does that mean she missed God's will? No, not at all. We pursue him to the best of what we can see.

It's like thy word is a lamp into my feet, a light into my path. You can only see so far ahead and we pursue God to the best of our ability, to what we can see. on the horizon. And what happens is as we pursue him, he begins to light up more and he begins to light up more. And so what I say that is  many times what happens in life is circumstances, trials, tribulations come our way and Life ends up looking different than what we would have drawn it up to look like many years earlier.

It ends up looking differently than what we would have hoped that it would have looked like earlier. We can't control whenever somebody else makes a bad decision and it affects our life. We can't control whenever we lose our job or get laid off. We can't control so many factors and more, more factors that we can't control than what we can control.

And so that's what, that's how I mean for Romans 8 28. That's how I feel like it ties into this conversation is when we're pursuing God's will, he's going to make things work out for good. If we just determine in our mind, God, I don't know exactly what it's going to look like, But I am going to pursue you.

I know what my faithfulness is going to look like. Does that make more sense? 

It does. It does. And when you're talking about comparing things to how we would draw it up, none of us would have planned Calvary the way it worked out,  but that's how God wanted it, none of, you know, so none of us, if, if things were to go our way.

We'd mess it up,  so we do, we do need to realize that God has, you're right, just cause things don't go our way doesn't mean we're wrong, I mean it doesn't mean things are wrong, we just need to trust him.  

It doesn't mean you miss the will of God. And if we have something in our mind that it's, it's this or bust, like it's going to look this certain way or else I failed, then I want to encourage listeners to this and that's just not the case.

We can't draw up life exactly like it's going to turn out. And there's something I said a few times, and I'll continue to say this. If you want to draw up a plan for your life, draw it with a pencil and make sure it has a good eraser. Proverbs 19 and 21 tells us there are many plans or devices in a person's heart.

But it's the Lord's purpose that prevails. So I want to challenge the listener today to write your plans in pencil,  but write your faithfulness in stone. Right.  Cause we, we can't.  Draw it life exactly like it's going to turn out, but we can choose to be successful today. We can control the things we can control.

There's many things that are beyond our control, but we can seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And Jesus told us that everything else is going to be added unto us. Everything we need be added unto us. We can be dependable. We can choose to be honest. We can have a good attitude. We can have a good work ethic.

We can't control everything, but it's important that we do take control of those things. We can Take control of. And I want to get this across today that so much in our lives is not determined by the plans that we make, but instead by the type of person that we become. 

Absolutely.  

So with. Go ahead, Brother Mike. 

No, you first, please.  

Well, with that, there's three things I hope to to hit here, probably three different parts of what we're gonna, what we're talking about today. And the first one is where,  where is what so many are focused on when it comes to God's will. The where speaks of the dream destination whether that be a physical location, a dream job, a ministry position, or a role, or a place of authority, or some kind of combination of those things.

The where is the place that many people have in mind. If I can just get there. All my problems are going to be solved if I can just get there whether that's something as simple as if I can just Get my minister's license, or if I can just get that youth pastor position, or if I can just have that role, it's aware that they have in mind and they feel like it's almost as if, if I get there, everything in my life is going to be perfect  and that's not true,  but the position holds prestige.

The where holds prestige is desirable. We want to do great things for God. I heard The guy, I believe his name is Kevin Queen once said we need to shift our mentality from I want to do great things for God to I want to do things for a great God.  One's focused on doing great things. One's focused on serving a great God.

And, and that should be our purpose. If we're focused on doing things for a great God and I'm worshiping him and I'm pursuing him, he's going to make things work out together the way that they ought to. So instead of getting focused on position my pastor friend of both of ours Philip Hedden growing up, he would always say the only position that matters is being in position for God to use you.

It's so important, Brother Mike, that we encourage young ministers to focus on purpose and not on positions. Not everyone will hold a position, but everyone has a purpose.  Everybody has a purpose. So the where is important, and I'm not trying to take away from that because maybe God does have a specific location or position for, for you in your ministry.

But Brother Gaddy, I'll never forget Brother Tim Gaddy saying this in a message many years ago, God's will is not always a specific location. You can do God's will right where you're at. Yes, God's will isn't always a location. There's if you want God's will you can open up the scripture and see Passages that say things like it is the will of God that blank It is not the will of God that blank and right there in his word We have many things that are his will or are not his will just right there in black white and red for us And very rarely will it, will it be a specific location?

I'm not saying that doesn't happen, but his will is much bigger than a specific location. 

It does. And I'm agreeing with you 100%. Let me add another flavor to. Why people may seek a position while prestige is definitely one thing. What about those that are seeking validation? They're having security is, you know, they're insecure.

They want people to accept them and believe in them. What do you speak to that for me? Talk to the listener who, who seek invalidation from people instead of from God.  

Yeah, I think we'll get into some more of that as we keep moving forward here. 

Oh, 

I want to say something to what you just said, though, I do think I'll get more into that here in a second, but something that's not in our notes that we have kind of talked through here together at Rodney shaw.

com.  Pastor Rodney Shaw from Austin, Texas. He has something called a Purpose Clarifier. It's on his website, and it's,  I can explain it, but I don't want to take too much of our time here today to explain it, but what I will say is that there's three circles, And where those three circles overlap is where you can find your purpose.

You have, uh, your context, where you're at, you have your constitution and you have your, hold on, I'm going blank right here on the spot. I'm going to find it really quick. Calling. There's the first one. I knew it was three C's. Your calling, which is what God has called you to do. Okay. Your constitution, which is what makes you up.

It's who you are. It's your personality. It's your experiences. It's everything about your life up to this point. And then you have your context, which is where you currently serve. So where you're calling, what God has called you to do. and your constitution, who you are, your personality, and then your context, where you live, who you serve under, those kind of things.

Where that collides, or where that meets, those three circles, where they meet in the middle, is where we find purpose. And so what he's trying to illustrate with that purpose clarifier is that you can find purpose right where you're at, based on what God's called you to do, and Based on your life experiences and based on your context, where you're at, you can find purpose where you're at.

And so when you're talking about people finding validation, I would just encourage the listeners, not, not to think that they're going to find validation. If they get put in a position tomorrow, because that that's not where validation really comes from. And so, like you said,  we need to get to the place where our validation comes from above and not from a horizontal relationship with other people. 

All right. Appreciate that.  

Yeah, we'll talk more, I think, about some things that will help with that. I feel like I would highly recommend that a young minister go to rodney shaw dot com, click on purpose clarifier and read through that illustration. It would be very helpful, I feel like, especially to one that feels like they're kind of stuck.

So We're talking about the where and how that many get this place in mind or this position in mind and say, well, it's either that or bust well,  I'm going to go ahead and just bust the bubble now and tell you, you're not a failure. If you look back and, and you're in a different spot 10 years from now than where you thought you'd be, or where you hoped you'd be, that doesn't make you a failure at all.

So I want to emphasize today that what God has called us to do is greater than where, so if we focus, if we can focus in and get clarity on what God wants from us, we'll be better prepared when the where. opens up. So true success is not attaining a certain title or status. True success is doing what God has called you to do.

It's not about what God has called somebody else to do. It's not determined by how your life looks in comparison to somebody else or how your calling looks in comparison to somebody else. It's not about what God called them to do. It's about what God called you to do. And so what God called you to do is greater than where you're at.

So the real question is, how do I look in comparison to what God wants me to do?  We don't have to be a preacher to be successful. We don't have to be a singer to be successful. To be a true success, be whatever God wants you to be. There's that old statement that says if God called you to be a preacher, don't stoop to be a king.

But I guess I'm talking about Rodney Shaw a lot today, but he says something in the book Church Work. He says if God called you to be anything, don't stoop to be less than what God called you to be. So it's not that we're, we're, we're. Gonna say the preacher's the greatest calling in the whole world If somebody wants to say that it is, that's fine.

But that doesn't mean it's the greatest calling in the whole world for you. Cause that might not be what God has called you to be. We've got to find what God has called us to be. So God could call us to be a powerful preacher, but chances are we're still going to have to get a job. For most career will be a big part of the ministry.

God's called them to. So if you end up becoming a pharmacist, be a godly pharmacist, whatever your hand finds to do, the Bible says, do it.  With all your might, my brother, Mike, where I really want to get to here  when I say that what God's called you to do is greater than where  really what it boils down to is this,  who God wants us to be is greater than the what.

We can get so focused on the final destination or on what God has called us to do when ultimately God has a person in mind that he wants us to become. And so that's really the pinnacle of what I hope to communicate today is that we may have a place in mind. We may have a thing in mind, but God has a person in mind and we must focus on becoming that person.

God wants you to be holy. He wants you to be committed. He wants you to be dependable, trustworthy, honest, humble, to be a giver, to be faithful, to be supportive of your pastor. God can have the greatest calling, the greatest place in mind for you. He can have the greatest position in mind for you. He can place the greatest calling on your life.

But if you don't become the right person,  What good does it do? We've got to become the right person. How many leaders have achieved great status and then fallen flat on their face? We've got to become the right person in order to become all that God desires for us to become. So the most important thing any of us could ever become is a godly person. 

That's good.  That's good. I want to,  you jumped so excitedly to the who I was going to talk about that, what for one second. Let's go 

back.  

I think I've shared this a million times, and I don't know if I shared it yet in my podcast, but I remember sitting in third grade. Do  you remember in elementary school when they would have these little literature?

Now you're 

older than me. Remember that? They might not have this in my elementary days. Go ahead. Sorry. 

In, in English or, or English class, they'd have these little stories, little literature stories that you'd read and you'd have to break.  Well, there were, there was one story and I remember being in third grade.

I remember. Miss Traylor's class and it stuck with me and I have actually preached it so many times. It was a Chinese proverb.  This man was told to go push this stone. It was a big boulder, but they called it a stone and he went out and he pushed it every day  and for years he pushed that stone and it never moved and he finally gave up  and he cried and the person that told him to push it He said, why are you crying?

He says, I failed. I cannot move it. And he said, I didn't tell you to move it. I told you to push it  now because you've pushed on it for so long. Your back is strong and your legs are strong and you're able to do the next job.  And I just thought about a lot of times we misinterpret what God wants us to do.

And you were talking about the, what he wants you to do.  You know, we just, God is God's responsible for the results. Not us. We just gotta be,  we just gotta be faithful to do the, what.  

Yep. And 

he'll worry about 

that. That's so good, Mike. I've never heard that story before. I really liked that. We,  if we are setting out to accomplish some kind of great status, we've got it all wrong.

If we have our site set on position, we've got it all wrong. It's not about the leader. It's about the followers. If you're getting into leadership, it's not about the leader. Once you get in leadership, it's not, Hey, I've arrived. Praise me. Leadership's a responsibility. It's not just what we would view as like a status.

And so if we're always pursuing the where or the what or the position or the status, we'll be disappointed when it doesn't work out exactly like we thought it would. Because there's so many different combinations to how life can work out. And so much of what shapes life is beyond our control.

And so many things like what we go through ends up affecting who we become and who we become shapes what we end up doing for God. The experiences we're able to speak from and the things that, that we go through really shape who we are. So it's impossible for anyone to sit down and draw a picture of what true success looks like other than this.

Be who God wants you to be and walk by faith. Noah  didn't set out early in life and say, I'm going to build an ark.  But the Bible says Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.  Noah was a righteous man in his generation.  He didn't have an aspiration, a dream to build a boat.  He was just righteous before God and God called him to build a boat. 

God chose him to build a boat because he was faithful.  He just served God. Joseph had dreams early on of what God planned for his life, but it didn't come to pass the way that Joseph envisioned it. At first I think, you know, Joseph just thought he was going to be put on a pedestal of some sort. But God took him on a journey that involved a pit, it involved a prison.

It involved Potiphar and, and all that mess that he went through. God took him on a journey and he had to become who God wanted him to become along the way in order for him to fulfill the, what it did come to pass, but it didn't come to pass in the same way he envisioned it  early on. He was there to serve with his brothers, you know, to bow down before him, but it was in a different context than what he envisioned it being.

It was in, it was in the context of helping them and of serving them in, in their great time of need. It wasn't in the context of how great Joseph was going to be before them. It was more in the context of, of serving them. And it took a journey  that God, you know,  Yeah, it was a zigzag, a great zigzag in the life of Joseph.

That's what it took. And he ended up at that, at that place and it came back to him, that dream came back to him. He's like, Oh my goodness, this is a fulfillment of the dream, but it sure didn't look the same way he thought it was going to look whenever he was younger.  God's not limited to what we think it has to look like. 

We're limited.  We can't see the big picture. We just have to trust God. David didn't set the goal to be King early in life. We don't read where David had the goal to be the King. Write down your life goals. You know, within five years, I want to be the King. We don't read where David ever did that.

But we do read where David was called a man after God's own heart. He was a man that was in pursuit of the things of God. In the lines of what we're talking about here, my pastor for many years there in Piercey, brother Anderson,  brother Dennis Anderson,  he made the comment and I just love it.

Faithfulness  will put you in the right place at the right time.  If we'll just be faithful, if we'll just trust God, if we'll be faithful to support our pastor, if we'll be faithful and what God has called us to do, if we'll be faithful in our, in our current context with that, that purpose clarifier I was talking about, where we, we look at our, Our situation we're currently in and say, how can I have purpose in this situation?

Where can I find my purpose? And in my current situation, if we'll just be faithful it'll put us in the right place at the right time. I believe Jesus said he that's faithful in the little things will be faithful and much.  I hope that helps. 

It does,  man. It does. And I like  that quote from brother Anderson.

He's a great guy. I was thinking about David.  I couldn't help, but remember Raymond Woodward. Pointing out that, I think it was Brother Woodward when David got anointed as king. He didn't go march just to the throne, but he went right back to the field and started shepherding, waiting his turn. So,  so many of us take our call and we think we go straight to the pulpit or  you know, we, where's our limelight?

No, just 'cause you're anointed don't mean now's your time. You gotta go wait  and trust God's timing. And that, that ministered to me.  

Man, that's so good. And it's so true. I, I just.  I guess as a young leader I and I'm sure many have fallen into the trap and I'll just tell you that there was one day where I had an epiphany and it was something I already knew.

And I can't tell you what day it was, but it was a season of life where it was like, you know what, I'm doing all this leadership thing.  But I'm doing it as if it's about me,  it's not about me. And it was like, even though I already knew it, it was like an epiphany. It went off. And since that day, I've tried my best to never fall into that trap.

If you stand on a platform, it's not about you, about the person you're ministering to.  Doesn't mean you arrived. It means that God has you in a place where you can influence somebody else and be a blessing to their life. And so we've got to make sure that we have the right goal in mind. And ultimately to me, what I would try to get across today is that the goal is to become who God has called us to become, to be the right person and let the places and the things fall into place,  but focus on becoming the right person. 

When you get that person, right? The will of God almost all happens automatically. Does it not? 

Absolutely. Yes. I 100 percent agree with that.  

Now, I, I, I received a request, an email request for a topic and we've hit all around it, but just to nail it shut,  explain how to find the will of God and not just trusting the will of God.

Let's say you've been given two opportunities and you have to make a choice between two.  How do you know which one is the will of God?  

Yeah, I the first thing I'll say to that is there's a quote.  Dr. James Littles, where he says that when you're, when you're at a fork in a road and you're torn between two things, you have to make a decision.

And I'll just say in life that happens. I've had that happen multiple times now where I had to make a decision on something and that's going to happen the more you get older. So before I share the quote from the Littles, let's just think about this for a second. You're faced with a fork in the road and you have to make a decision.

Does that necessarily mean that if you go right or left? And you were supposed to go left that you 100 percent missed the will of God. I would say no, or if you go left and maybe you were supposed to go right. Does that mean you 100 percent missed the will of God? I would say no. That's why I shared Romans 8 28 is because there's so many forks in the road in this life That somehow some way we serve a God that's so great that we can  we can take a few wrong turns along the way And somehow our God can make all things work together for good  for his purpose You Somehow he can do that.

And so when you're faced with that fork in the road, for one, not every fork in the road, it means that you're going to miss God's will if you. If you take one thing over the other. So what brother Littles was talking about is he was saying basically kind of what I was just saying. And he was saying when you're faced with the decision, you have no choice, but to make a decision.

Choose the one that gives you peace, follow peace,  and you can't go wrong in that situation if you follow.  I'll tell you, Mike, and I don't, I've never shared this in a setting like this, but I think I can share it now. Whenever we were there in Redfield and I'd been there my whole life, it's 24. Brother hadn't pulled me aside one night.

And he said Austin, listen, we need to talk. He said, brother, Anderson called me and he wants to offer you a role to come there and be the youth pastor. And I want to talk to you and, and we just kind of talked for a little bit. And it was in that moment that I really had a decision to make. I was in a job that I wasn't very happy with.

I knew it wasn't what I was supposed to do with my life. but I didn't have really any direction on what I was supposed to do. As far as the location goes, it was just, I was just trying my best. So I had that conversation with brother Hedden and then that night on our way home, my wife and I passed a house that we've been keeping an eye on that we wanted to buy.

And it was like a foreclosure and it had been sitting there, no sign, couldn't get any information on it forever.  And I kid you not, I passed that house on the way to church that night and on the way home from church that night. There was no sign there on the way to church. And after me and brother hadn't had that conversation that night, there was a sign in that yard that said for sale. 

And I was like, you got to be kidding me. We have this opportunity that just opened up.  And now we have this house that we've been watching for months and months and months. And literally they had to put the sign up that afternoon. After we had passed it, there's,  I'm convinced that they did. And and so Joelle and I were like, goodness, what?

What's this isn't a mixed signals. What are we supposed to do? And so we began to pray about that. I did have a conversation with brother Anderson, went and met with him, talked and took some time to really pray about it, but we were facing a fork in the road because we had our heart set on that house for so long and now it felt like it might be doable.

And,  and then at the same time, we had this whole nother whole other opportunity that was beyond what we, you know, thought at that moment. It was just.  Anyways,  we're faced with a fork in the road. And my personal experience in that situation was the more I prayed, the more I felt peace about following that opportunity to go to Hot Springs, Piercey and be the youth pastor.

And I couldn't get away from it. I felt peace in my spirit. I felt like it was the right thing for me to do. And in time,  I would, I would still say that was the right decision for my family. Could it be that that for sale sign didn't go up any earlier? Because God knows I would've tried to jump on it because I thought that's what he had planned for my life.

Could it be  it was timed out just perfectly so that I wouldn't choose a different path than what he had for me? 

Right. 

I think so.  Hope that makes sense. That's a personal story of mine, of, of how that that's huge. God, God,  he'll order our steps. That's what the scripture says. 

Yep.  I will say not about your story, but you, you were talking about either way. 

Intentions matter.  So,  you know, in that situation  you had good intentions, but we have to consider the Jonas  

Yeah. Oh yeah.  

So to my listeners, 

if you, so there are turns you can take that will ruin you.  I remember  being the greatest example though, Jonah ended up finally getting the Nineveh and they all repented finally, 

but it took a while. 

It took a while, but there are decisions. Yes. Brother Mike, just to be clear, and I'll let you go on. There are decisions that once you make that decision, you mess things up. You can ruin your ministry in one decision. I want to be very clear about that. Go ahead. I 

I remember stressing, I'm a loyalist, okay?

When I take a job, it's hard for me to leave that job because I'm loyal to it. No matter how horrible they are to me.  But I also panic because I'm, I'm afraid or was afraid that the next job may ruin my family. You know, what if it's the wrong job? And brother took me aside and said, son, I've had 23 jobs.

Hmm. That's good to hear though. Isn't 

it? Yes, it was. Cause I was so afraid and he was, he taught me about the intention. You know, I wouldn't take a job just cause I'm greedy, you know, just taking the job cause it's a better situation. I'm it's different when being foolish,  you know, God knows your heart.

And so I just wanted to encourage the listener  that.  He knows your heart and in the situation of Austin had stayed in Redfield,  God could have worked that out to 

100%, 100%. He could have. And it's just funny because like our initial thought was, well, that's a sign we're supposed to stay here. And then I was like, I can easily twist this story to make it say what I want it to say.

Oh, that means I'm supposed to stay here. Or what I was saying a second ago, could it be that that sign didn't go up any earlier in order for us to go ahead and hear about this other opportunity? You can kind of  twist or manipulate something to fit your narrative if you want to bad enough, but ultimately we just need to trust God and follow him and pursue him and honestly, Matthew six and 33 seek first the kingdom of God.

His righteousness and all these other things will be added unto you. If, if we really believe that, I feel like it can help us to not chase our aspirations as much as just chase him and let things fall into place.  

I think you've been a big help today. I think we've covered that.  We've simplified it.

We've demystified the will of God. And I hope 

so.  Tell us about the journey, Mike. It's not just a destination. It's a journey. 

It is. Tell us about your podcast. I know you've cranked it back up.  

Yeah, just started. It's been, let's see, we started it five years ago and I ended it four years ago. We had this thing called covid that happened and and I moved.

That's a whole nother story for a whole nother time. But our first sunday in Jonesboro was the first sunday of the shutdown. And so yeah, the podcast died around that time. And so yeah, I'll bring him back the apostolic leadership podcast. Back then it was it was more of like a, how'd you get started in ministry?

Talking about the call of God, like kind of hearing people's stories. And this time around I'm transitioning it more to speak. From the standpoint of just leadership in the church and it'll be myself. It'll be other guests. It'll be some monologue teaching from myself and from others.

There'll be some sermons, leadership sermons on there. There'll be some interviews mixed in. The reason why I mentioned Rodney Shaw so much is because I actually had a interview with Rodney Shaw this afternoon, where I interviewed him for the podcast about his book church work. And so it'll be a lot of stuff along those lines.

Really. focused around equipping the church for team ministry and church growth and discipleship.  

Wonderful. Wonderful. If anyone hasn't read that book, Church Work, it's a really good beginner book for anyone starting out in leadership or  Well, just all around, if you want to get involved in church is a great beginner book.

So good give it a shot. And again, I mentioned it as jokingly, but seriously, if you're looking for a house in the Northeast Arkansas area,  

come on, 

give Austin a shot. Anything else you got going on up there?  

No, not really. If we're just promoting things, I will say that I do still have the Bible study that are released in 2016 called Pentecost is for everyone.

It's just a simple, it's a simple like one to two lesson Bible study. And I would just encourage you if you're a young minister to grab that. I'm not making any money off of it's 3. Pentecostalpublishing. com. It's just there as a resource. And the reason why I wrote it is to really emphasize what Pentecost was all about.

And so yeah, that's just another resource. It's just hanging out there. 

I did buy some of that for our church. I did buy some. 

This has been, I really appreciate the invitation today.

Just, just to talk about the will of God.

 Do you feel good about everything?

I feel great, man. I appreciate you.