Two young men decided to visit one country in Africa as an excursion. As soon as they arrived, they proceeded to a village where they had never been before. On the way, their driver said to them, “As you arrive, please ask the villagers, ‘What are the laws of your land?’ Otherwise you will get yourselves into a very serious trouble.” This was a very wise instruction to those who value their life. How can you go into another person’s territory and decide to do things your own way? This can never work.

Yes, people want to do things their own way and not God’s own way, but does it cost God anything? No indeed! In other words, the driver was telling those two young men, “if you do things your own way in that village, you will get yourselves into a very serious trouble.” Mark this point: They would get themselves - not the village - into trouble.

The Word of God says, “Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient” (Romans 1:28).

When people do not like to retain God in their knowledge, what happens? The Holy Spirit of God departs from them. The saddest thing in this life is when one does not have the Holy Spirit. That is why the psalmist David earnestly prayed, “Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me” (Psalm 51:11).

Why did David offer this kind of prayer? And what is the work of the Holy Spirit for which he longed?

“The wind is heard among the branches of the trees, rustling the leaves and flowers; yet it is invisible, and no man knows whence it comes or whither it goes. So with the work of the Holy Spirit upon the heart. It can no more be explained than can the movements of the wind. . . .

“While the wind is itself invisible, it produces effects that are seen and felt. So the work of the Spirit upon the soul will reveal itself in every act of him who has felt its saving power. When the Spirit of God takes possession of the heart, it transforms the life. Sinful thoughts are put away, evil deeds are renounced; love, humility, and peace take the place of anger, envy, and strife. Joy takes the place of sadness, and the countenance reflects the light of heaven. No one sees the hand that lifts the burden, or beholds the light descend from the courts above. The blessing comes when by faith the soul surrenders itself to God. Then that power which no human eye can see creates a new being in the image of God.”1

God’s word says that any person who chooses to do everything his or her own way becomes a reprobate. By the way, what is a reprobate? “A person abandoned to sin; lost to virtue and religion; abandoned to wickedness and eternal destruction.”

Anyone who wants to avoid being a reprobate must always examine himself or herself.

“Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates” (2 Corinthians 13:5)?

We must examine ourselves before the mirror - the Word of God (James 1:23-25).

“God has given us His word that we may become acquainted with its teachings and know for ourselves what He requires of us. When the lawyer came to Jesus with the inquiry, ‘What shall I do to inherit eternal life?’ the Saviour referred him to the Scriptures, saying: ‘What is written in the law? how readest thou? (Luke 10:25, 26).’ Ignorance will not excuse young or old, nor release them from the punishment due for the transgression of God’s law; because there is in their hands a faithful presentation of that law and of its principles and claims.”2

Our God has His laws, just as every land in this vast world has its laws. In everything we do or wherever we go, we find laws. Therefore one would wonder how anyone could be talking about the kingdom of God without observing His laws. “The character of God is expressed in His law; and in order for you to be in harmony with God, the principles of His law must be the spring of your every action.”3

One young man was bitterly disappointed at the end of a very long race, which he thought he had won. But what had actually happened? The organizers placed ten checkpoints from the starting point to the end; the rule was that the runners must obtain a ticket at each of these checkpoints, ending with the number ten. This was done probably to avoid shortcut routes. This young man, whether willfully or ignorantly, did not obtain one of the ten tickets. He arrived happily, thinking he was the first place winner. But when the organizers examined his tickets and found out that one was missing, he received no prize.

Of what is this object lesson reminding us? “Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law” (James 2:10, 11).

Don’t try to do things your own way - just do them exactly the way the Lord wants. God must be obeyed implicitly if we want to obtain His blessings. We have in the Scripture a few examples of people who did things their own way, only to find that the result was bitter disappointment.

Remember the experience of Abel and Cain as recorded in Genesis 4:4-8.

“Cain came before God with murmuring and infidelity in his heart in regard to the promised sacrifice and the necessity of the sacrificial offerings. His gift expressed no penitence for sin. He felt, as many now feel, that it would be an acknowledgement of weakness to follow the exact plan marked out by God, of trusting his salvation wholly to the atonement of the promised Saviour. He chose the course of self-dependence. He would come in his own merits. He would not bring the lamb and mingle its blood with his offering, but would present his fruits, the products of his labor. He presented his offering as a favor done to God, through which he expected to secure the divine approval. Cain obeyed in building an altar, obeyed in bringing a sacrifice, but he rendered only a partial obedience. The essential part, the recognition of the need of a Redeemer, was left out. . . .

“Cain and Abel represent two classes that will exist in the world till the close of time. One class avail themselves of the appointed sacrifice for sin; the other venture to depend upon their own merits; theirs is a sacrifice without the virtue of divine mediation, and thus it is not able to bring man into favor with God. It is only through the merits of Jesus that our transgressions can be pardoned.”4

Remember what the prophet Samuel had to tell King Saul when he was too impatient to do things God’s way?

“Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal. And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king” (1 Samuel 15:19-23).

After Saul had sinned in disobeying God’s voice, he thought he had done something great in God’s sight. But Samuel had to tell him that his action amounted to rebellion. Yes, when we do something our own way, we sin against God. ”We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). The things we think we can do right without God are nothing but foolishness in His sight. A “thus saith the Lord” is our only safety. The apostle Paul said, “I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet” (Romans 7:7).

“This danger [of not being connected with Jesus but under the control of Satan] is common to all. You will be tempted to choose your own way and to have your own will, while disregarding the will of God. . . .

“Let nothing draw you away from the work of character building, but do your work for time and for eternity. . . . Live a life of consistency and fashion your character after the divine Pattern. If you live carelessly and do not watch unto prayer, you will surely fall a prey to the enemy and will yield to enticements to sin; thus you will lay upon the foundation stone, wood, hay, and stubble, which will be consumed in the last great day.”5

“It is a terribly hard struggle to give up your own will and your own way. But this lesson learned, you will find rest and peace. Pride, selfishness, and ambition must be overcome; your will must be swallowed up in the will of Christ. The whole life may become one constant love sacrifice, every action a manifestation, and every word an utterance of love.”6

Sister White wrote to a wayward soul: “You are not happy; yet you imagine that if you could have your own way unrestrained, you would be happy. Poor child! you occupy a position similar to that of Eve in Eden. She imagined that she would be highly exalted if she could only eat of the fruit of the tree which God had forbidden her even to touch, lest she die. She ate, and lost all the glories of Eden.”7

“If you suffer with Him, [Jesus] will crown you with glory in His everlasting kingdom. If you are willing to sacrifice all for Him, then He will be your Saviour. But if you choose your own way you will follow on in darkness until it is too late to secure the eternal reward.”8

“Jesus wants you to be happy, but you cannot be happy in having your own way and following the impulses of your own heart. . . . Our notions, our peculiarities, are wholly human and must not be humored or indulged. Self is to be crucified, not now and then but daily, and the physical, mental, and spiritual must be subordinate to the will of God. The glory of God, the perfection of Christian character, is to be the aim, the purpose, of our life. Christ’s followers must imitate Christ in disposition. . . . Like Christ is the watchword, not like your father or your mother, but like Jesus Christ - hid in Christ, clothed with Christ’s righteousness, imbued with the Spirit of Christ. All the peculiarities given us as an inheritance or acquired by indulgence or through erroneous education must be thoroughly overcome, decidedly resisted. Love of esteem and pride of opinion, all must be brought to the sacrifice.”9

You, who are thinking to have your own way, please read the story of the prodigal son in the 15th chapter of Luke, from verse 11 onward.

This younger son had become weary of the restraint of his father’s house. He thought that his liberty was restricted. His father’s love and care for him were misinterpreted, and he determined to follow the dictates of his own inclination, but the outcome was disappointment.

“Do not think that if you take your position for the Bible truth you will lose your position. You had better lose your position than lose Jesus. You had better be partakers of the self-denial and self-sacrifice of the Lord than to go in your own way seeking to gather to yourself the treasures of this life. You cannot carry any of it into the grave. You will come up from the grave without anything, but if you have Jesus you will have everything.”10

“[Isaiah 44:22; Jeremiah 31:34; Isaiah 55:7; Jeremiah 50:20 quoted.]What assurance here, of God’s willingness to receive the repenting sinner! Have you, reader, chosen your own way? Have you wandered far from God? Have you sought to feast upon the fruits of transgression, only to find them turn to ashes upon your lips? And now, your substance spent, your life-plans thwarted, and your hopes dead, do you sit alone and desolate? Now that voice which has long been speaking to your heart but to which you would not listen comes to you distinct and clear, ‘Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest; because it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction’ (Micah 2:10). Return to your Father’s house. He invites you, saying, ‘Return unto Me; for I have redeemed thee’ (Isaiah 44:22).11