Whether it’s our own or the voice of someone else, we must always be careful to follow the Lord rather than human reasoning. Sometimes we don’t understand how God could possibly accomplish what He’s promised, so we decide to help Him out in some way or do it ourselves.

because He has infinite wisdom and full knowledge of the past, present, and future. When we listen and obey Him, we’ll experience His best for our lives even though it’s not always easy.

We probably don’t deliberately decide to jump ahead of God; we simply make choices that please us at the moment or that seem to be the answer to what we’re seeking. Since we live in a culture that doesn’t value waiting, we tend to imitate what everyone else is doing. This is true in almost every area of our lives—purchases, jobs, marriage, education, and everything in between. So we must be wise and always consider the penalties for not waiting for God, including:

• We deny ourselves His best. We may think we’re doing all right even though we didn’t wait for the Lord, but we’ll never know what He wanted to do in our lives, which would have been much better.

• We delay God’s purpose in our life. Taking a wrong turn is a detour that delays the completion of God’s will for us. If we confess our sin and turn back to the Lord, He forgives and receives us, but we may never again have the opportunities He offered us previously.

• We experience disharmony. Wrong choices may very likely create situations that bring discord to our lives, but if we are committed to the Lord, He enables us to grow in the midst of it.

• We suffer great disappointments. We may satisfy ourselves for a season but not in accordance with God’s will, and ultimately that will bring disappointment. But when we wait for Him, He acts on our behalf (Isa. 64:4). Then we can count on Him to guide us one step at a time into His will.

• Somewhere along the way we can expect defeat and possibly destruction. However, if we live according to God’s will and follow His direction, we may or may not achieve or accumulate all that others obtain, but we will have God’s peace, joy, and contentment, which are much more valuable.

The Lord loves us unconditionally and has promised to direct our paths and provide for our needs if we will obey Him. Therefore, we must decide if we are going to follow the call of the world or the voice of our God. Which one will you listen to?

This article was originally published on September 30, 2017, and is adapted from the Sermon Notes for Dr. Stanley’s message “Getting Ahead of God,” which aired this weekend on TV.