Welcome to the InTouch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, December 30th.

Refusing to do what God says is rebellion.

Today, we wrap up the series on God's guidance with the reminder of the importance of doing exactly what he says when he says, do it.

All of us need guidance in our life, no matter who we are.

Guidance, for example, and whatever our calling may be, whatever our work may be, guidance in our family and our relationships in the family, guidance in our finances, and certainly guidance in our health,

guidance in our relationships with other people, and certainly guidance in our relationship to God.

I wonder who's giving you guidance today? There are a lot of strange voices out there clamoring for your attention.

Who are you listening to? Who's guiding you? Who's making the suggestions? Who wants to influence and impact your life?

And if you follow those voices, where will it lead you?

Well, the Heavenly Father promised to guide us. And if we are wise, we'll listen to His guidance. If we are unwise, we won't.

There are many people who miss God's best, miss His plan for their life, because they're unwilling to listen, or to trust, and unwilling to obey.

I pray in Jesus' name that as you listen to this message, you will look at your life and ask yourself the question, who's guiding me?

Is this myself? Is this a strange voice? Is this the world? Who's really guiding me?

I want you to turn, if you will, to one simple passage of Scripture. I want you to look, if you will, at Psalm 32, we've read this before. God says, I will instruct you and teach you in the way of which you should go.

I will counsel your God with my eye upon you. The second one is Proverbs 3, 5 and 6.

Listen to what he says, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding, and all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your path straight.

Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord. Turn away from evil. It will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones.

So when I think about this and think about how God does work in our lives and how He speaks to us, He speaks to us throughout the Word of God, throughout His servants, He was always speaking and giving them guidance.

There's not a time in our life when we don't need guidance. And think about this. If you have small children, you need to teach them very, very early in life to listen to Almighty God.

And the only way they're going to do that is when you learn to listen and you teach them how to pray and how to listen to God, because they need desperately to know how to listen to Him.

Now, there are three requirements if I'm going to follow the Lord. I must listen to Him. I must trust Him and I must obey Him. So somebody says, well, OK, I know what obeying my parents means.

What does it mean to obey God? Some will give you a very simple definition. Simple as it can be, but it is absolutely the truth.

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