Dear Partner,

Have you ever felt like this? "I want to follow God's plan for my life. I keep asking God what it is He wants me to do, but I never hear Him say anything. I don't understand why He doesn't tell me what it is He wants me to do." I used to feel like that all the time. Then one day the Lord said to me,

"The leadership of the Spirit does not come by asking for it any more than faith comes by asking for it. Faith comes by hearing God's Word and the leadership of the Spirit comes by fellowship with the Holy Spirit."

All true Christians want to be people of great faith. I have never met one who said their goal was to be of little faith. But the desire to have great faith and doing what is necessary to have it are two different things. Faith only comes one way and that is by hearing the Word of God. A person could ask every day of their lives for God to give them faith and it would never happen. They are only going to acquire faith as they themselves get into God's Word to find out what He already believes. Faith comes by hearing what God believes on any subject. When we believe what He already believes, that is called faith!

God has revealed to us what He believes in His Word. We can have His faith because we have His Word. We can believe what He believes by putting His Word in our hearts. We can become people of great faith as we sow His Word abundantly into our hearts. Without His Word, there is no basis for faith. Without His Word, we simply do not know what to believe. GOD'S FAITH IS IN HIS WORD! In the same way, you could make the statement, GOD'S PLAN FOR YOUR LIFE IS IN HIS SPIRIT!

This month I will be fifty one years old. I sometimes wish that there was a book of "Gary Carpenter" in the bible where I could turn to the book of Gary, chapter fifty one, and find out God's plan for my life this year. Of course, there is no book of Gary in the written Word. But does God have a plan for my life? Does He have a plan for the fifty first year of my life? Of course He does. Where is that plan? It is in the mind of Christ. The Holy Spirit has been sent for the express purpose of revealing to our reborn spirits the mind of Christ [His plan] for each of our individual lives.

Jesus Christ is the head of the Church in much the same way that there is a Chief Executive Office who is the head of Chrysler Motors. Just as there is a purpose, a function and a "plan" for every employee at Chrysler Motors, so there is a purpose, a function and a "plan" for every member of the body of Christ.

What would you think if you visited Chrysler Motor Corporation one day and you saw an employee sitting out in front of the building holding his head in his hands and crying, "I just don't know what to do today. I don't know what the CEO's plan is for my life. What is it he wants me to be doing? I sit out here in front of the building every day and I ask what Chrysler wants me to do and I never hear anything."

Wouldn't you say to that person, "You are never going to find the answer to your question by sitting outside the building and crying like this. Why don't you go inside and spend some time with your supervisor so you can find out what he wants you to be doing?"

In that analogy, the building represents "fellowship." A person is going to have to get inside the building and actually sit down "face to face" with the person who KNOWS THE PLAN! For us, that "person" is the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit Who has been sent to bring the "mind of Christ", the PLAN of the Head of the Church to each of us as an individual. There is simply no other way to find out the plan. It cannot be found outside of the Holy Spirit any more than faith can be found outside of the Word of God.

As a person spends time in communion with the Holy Spirit in worship, meditation of the Word, and especially by spending hours of time praying in other tongues, the intents, purposes and motivations of Jesus Christ Himself are literally being transferred directly into their reborn human spirit by the Holy Spirit. Almost without their knowledge, they will begin making decisions that are the "correct" ones that will lead their lives down the path that Jesus Christ desires for them.

As we begin this wonderful new year of 1998, let us all make the quality decision that we are going to spend more time in fellowship and communion with the Holy Spirit. He is not withholding the mind of Christ from us. Too often, we have been withholding our time and fellowship from Him.

Thank you for your gift to GCM. Sue and I love you and appreciate you. We thank God for your generous and giving heart. God bless you!

Your friend and co-laborer,

Gary Carpenter

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