Trusting God in the Fog

I feel tonight that if I've ever had a an encounter with the Holy Ghost and as God would speak to me about the services uh upcoming, but specifically this service, I cannot help but feel and know that God is in what what I will preach and teach tonight. And if you will cling to what the spirit has to say to the church, I believe you're going to be enriched and your futures will be altered with the revelation that God has given me on the subject that I will be teaching tonight. Oftent times we use words faith and trust like they're the same thing. I believe we would all agree tonight that they are connected but they are not identical. Heaven knows the difference and I think that we need to know the difference. Many people will will make this proclamation. I believe in God but I will stand on the side to say not everyone rests in him. Why? How can you say that, pastor? I I I'll give you a good analogy. Faith says God is real, but trust says God is right. Faith believes God can change things, but trust believes God is good even when things don't change. Right. We are living in a season where faith is applauded, miracles are celebrated, but tonight I stand where trust is tested because trusting God means you've got to let go of understanding God.

I I feel like I need to say that again. Trusting God means you have to let go of understanding God. Well, I'll trust him if I can understand him. Trust is not about the understanding of God. I've heard it said, "I've got faith in God. I' I I I believe. I've got faith in God." But the real question that I propose to us tonight is, do we trust him when his will doesn't match our expectations? Some of you tonight will sit or are sitting in where I will preach and will lift my message tonight from, you're sitting in a fog of not understanding what God is doing. But I've come to help you in the Holy Ghost tonight. I've come to instruct you and help you trust God in the fog. Trust God in the fog.

As I began to look and prepare for this message, I was I was reminded this afternoon that when a pilot flies in thick fog, they do not trust their eyes because human vision becomes unreliable very quickly. What feels level might actually be a dangerous descent or a bank. So pilots are trained to do these three critical things. Number one, trust the instrument, not their senses. Pilots rely on the ultimeter, the attitude indicator, the heading indicator, the air speed. Tools that tell the truth when the sky doesn't. Many fatal crashes, it is said, happens because pilots trusted what they felt instead of what the instruments told them. Number two, they follow the air traffic control. In low visibility, pilots often fly by instrument flight rules, IFR. They listen carefully to instructions from a voice they cannot see, guiding them safely through unseen terrain and traffic. They have to follow that unseen voice. But number three, just as equally as important, they got to stay on the flight plan even when they can't see where they're going. pilots, they stay locked into a pre-established route because deviating just a little in a fog can be deadly.

You may say, "Pastor, how does that apply to me?" I can tell you how it applies to you. Fog can simply mean what I'm going to preach tonight. Seasons of confusion, seasons of waiting, seasons of testing. Would anybody in this room just be honest and say, "I feel like I've been or I'm in a fog." Fog represents those moments when God doesn't plan that. God's plan isn't clear. Prayers are unanswered. Direction may seem uncertain. Emotions are conflicting on the inside. Circumstances are limiting your visibility. You can't see where you're going. Your trust in your feelings is so tempting. But can I tell you in the spirit, it's dangerous to t to trust your feelings in a fog. But if you'll hear your pastor tonight, God's word is still the instrument. God's word is still the instrument that we follow. Just as instruments tell the truth when eyes would often lie, scripture, scripture tells the truth when your emotions lie to you.

So with the help of the Holy Ghost tonight, I feel a call from the air traffic control booth tonight. It's the spirit of the living God and he sent me. The spirit tonight has sent me to tell you he will give you guidance you can't see but you must obey. You got to obey what the spirit is saying. That that that little check in your spirit. That prompting to wait. That redirection that doesn't make sense yet for ignoring the spirit in a fog season is like turning off the radio in a storm. So, if you're willing and you're ready, I've come to minister to you tonight that you can you can survive by trusting God in the fog. Faith is your spiritual eyesight when you enter a fog. Faith is what we we walk by faith and not by sight.

That's why Hebrews 11:1 say, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Proverbs 3:5-6, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Lean not to thine own understanding." Won't you just turn to somebody and tell them, "Stop leaning. Stop leaning." Because faith is our spiritual eyesight. You don't see it, but you know it's there. Faith in God is believing what God has said in spite of what you see. 2 Corinthians 5:7, for we walk by faith and not by sight. And when I begin to read this arh today, he was talking about the eternal hope that we have in him. Go read the scripture. Go read uh verse number six and verse number seven. For what he was saying is we are at home in the body but we're absent from the Lord. In the middle he gives us a faithful scripture for we walk by faith than not by sight. But verse verse eight says we are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Now what was Paul telling the church at Corenth? He was what he was basically saying, none of us have ever been to heaven, but we walk life and live life every day believing it's a real place and that when we die, if we have lived and obeyed the gospel, we will go to that place.

That's called faith. Though we haven't seen it with our eyes, we still believe it to be real. But if you believe that it is real, could it be said like this? Faith is what gets us saved. I started thinking about this this afternoon. Faith is what gets us saved. Faith is what gets us to an altar. Faith is what causes us to repent. Hebrews 11 and6. But without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must first believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Faith gets you in action to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. If you never believe he is, you'll never get the Holy Ghost. If you never believe he was born of a virgin, he he lived and he he became our sacrifice. He did bled, died, rose again on the You're never going to get the Holy Ghost. That's what faith does. It gets us saved. Let me I tell you know that faith gets us praying. You believe he will hear your prayers by faith. Why? You pray. What does faith get you to believe for a breakthrough? You believe God can give you the needed breakthrough or miracle. So you believe by faith God's going to get my break.

God's got a breakthrough for me and my family. God's got a breakthrough for my marriage. God's got a breakthrough for my children. I believe that's what faith does. Faith says God's able. Somebody say God's able. Faith says God is powerful. Faith says God can do the impossible.

But hear me. I'm coming for us tonight. Faith is not the same as submission. You can believe God can do it and still be frustrated if he doesn't do it your way. I believe God can, but I want him to do it my way. Faith believes God can part the Red Sea. But trust walked forward when the waters hadn't moved yet. Israel had faith when they left Egypt, but trust failed when the wilderness got uncomfortable. When God put them in adverse situations. When God put them in situations where they had to trust him. when they were they left Egypt with a promise. But when God put them in the wilderness, they started murmuring and complaining. Their trust in him began to fail. I like to look at faith this way. Faith will shout on a Sunday, but trust will obey on a Monday. James 2:19 said, "Thou believest there is one God. Thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble." And I started thinking about this. Even demons believe, but they don't trust. I I think we can we we try so hard, we give ourselves credit, and we should that we believe, but at at the level of belief, we're at the same playing field as the enemy, at the devil.

They believe and even tremble, but they don't trust. Trusting God is resting in who God is. You're pastor tonight. Trust goes deeper than belief. Trust is not loud most of the time. Trust is not flashy. Trust is not going to get a lot of attention.

Let me tell you what trust is. Trust is just settled. I'm just settled in who I am and what I believe and I know God in his time and in his will is going to bring it to pass. I'm just going to keep walking. I'm going to keep believing. Why? Because I trust him. I trust in who he is. Proverbs 3 and5 said it, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart." Somebody say, "All." Not half of our heart, not your praise heart, but your pain heart that starts praising and trusting even in the bad times, even in the times we don't understand, even when the bills are lined up. You know, God, what are you going to do? All of it. I trust him. Here's something for us SEC tonight. If you don't hear anything that I say, faith agrees with God, but trust surrenders to God. Trust says, "I don't like this, God, but I still choose to love you and serve you. I don't like what you're doing, but I still know you're faithful." Isaiah 26:3, "Thou wil keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee." Why? Because he trusteth in thee. I started reading this and I started, Lord, what what what are you trying to say in the spirit?

And and here's here's the word. Peace is not the absence of trouble. Peace is the presence of trust. I'm gonna say that again. Peace is not the absence of trouble. Peace is the presence of truth or trust. I can trust him no matter what. Why? Because thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee. because he trusteth in thee. Peace. Peace. Wonderful peace. I can have peace in the midst of trouble. We often look at faith that faith is for victories. I drew I do believe that faith is for victories. You believe God can. You believe you're going to you're going to overcome and you're going to be victorious. Faith is for victories. But what if God has reserved trust for adversity? I started thinking maybe we've had this all mess. Faith shines in the testimony services. Faith is loud when man, God did it. Oh, he did it. Let me tell you where trust is proven. Trust is proven in the hospital room. Trust is proven when when he ain't answered all the prayers and you're just sitting beside the bedside and you say, "I trust you, Lord." Faith shouts when you open the mailbox and checks are in the mail, bills paid off, debts, they're dismissed.

That's faith. That's dancing. That man, we get to shout, we get to huck a buck, man. We we get on Facebook and tell everybody and rightfully so. Let me tell you what trust does. Trust worships when the job's gone. Trust says, "I don't know what you're doing, God, but I trust you." Job 13 and 15, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust him." Job didn't say, "I understand him." He said, "I trust him." Trust does not require an explanation.

Listen to what Habach said. When I read this, it was like, "Holy Ghost, you you listen to this reading. Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines, the labor of the olive shall fail, the field shall not yield no meat, the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls. Yet will I rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. Why? The Lord God is my strength and he will make my feet like hind's feet and he will make me to walk upon my high places. Although, listen, I want to read that. Although the fig tree shall not pro shall not blossom, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. That's not faith for provision. That's trust in God's nature. He's not worried about the provisions of the flesh. He's saying, you know what? I'm going to trust in God's nature. He's going to see me through. He's going to be just who he said he would be. I just wonder sometime when God removes the blessing, he's checking to still see, do I want to bless her? Do I want to bless her? Oh, I love the blessing, but I just wonder some I wonder if he's checking.

Do you still trust me? Do you still believe me? Do you still trust my character? You do you trust my ways above your ways?

Why is trust so hard? I can tell you why trusted. You don't know why trust is hard? Trust is hard because we like control. Y'all mighty quiet tonight. Y'all just soaking it in. And that's what I want you. We say, "God, I trust you, but just tell me your plans. God, I trust you, but tell me when it's going to happen. God, I believe you. I trust you, but just tell me how it's all going to work out." No. But God says, "No, you know what? I ain't going to tell you any plans, but will you obey me? And no plans, just obedience. I I've got the revelation on why he won't tell us his plans. Isaiah 55:8-9. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. If God told us what he was thinking, we couldn't even comprehend it. If God told us the plan, we couldn't understand it. That's why trust begins when understanding ends. I don't know what you're doing. My understanding of this situation, I'm at my wit's end. I don't know what you're doing, God.

I don't know how. I don't know what to say. I don't know how to respond. I don't know how to act. Trust. Just trust in God. Just let him know. God, I don't know your thoughts and I don't know your plans and I don't know your ways, but until you reveal it, until you show, until you bring us through, I will trust you. I still trust you.

Often times our struggles happen when understanding ends and trust is trying to be forged and formed in our lives. I started thinking, what are some of the greatest struggles that I have tried to help people through? And there's no way I can I can write them all down and process them all, but I I do have a few delayed answers. You need an answer and God says, "Yeah, just wait. God, I need a yes or a no. He said, "No, just wait. Just come near. Just draw near. Just pray. Just trust." Another common struggle that I've seen is when God closes one door and he hasn't opened another one yet. Closed doors will frustrate us. Why? Because our understanding ends. As long as the door opens, there's a possibility. As long as the doors open, God, you make But when the door closes, it's a sign that understanding has ended. And God said, "Okay, just trust me." But probably, if not the greatest, it would be right there at the top. It's when God puts you in a silent season. Where are you? Where are you, God? I've prayed and they ain't got any higher than that roof. I've been obedient. I've been faithful.

I've give sacrificially. I check the boxes of everything you've I I'm living a holy life. I'm giving of them my tithe and all. I've even given to missions. I've even given the special. I've given to other people. I I've extended benevolence and I've done for others. And now you're silent. I don't know about you, but I don't like silent treatment. I don't like when my wife is silent. She don't get silent often, but I don't like it. Or when I or when we we're talk and she just Come on, tell me what you're thinking. I I said, "Tell me what you're think." No, I don't want to do. Y'all ain't never done that before. Well, just talk to me. Sometimes I feel like that's the interaction with God. Please tell me what's going on. Tell me where I'm at. Tell me what how long is this season going to last? How long am I going to be here? How long is this going? No. But never mistake silence with absence. Never mistake his silence as absent. He'll never leave you. He'll never forsake you. Lo, I am with you always. We are just getting a good lesson and learning and trust. Trusting God in the fog. Pastor, how much do do I have to go through to prove to God that I trust him?

I wish I knew the answer, but here's what I've got for you tonight.

Anybody know how an anchor works? An anchor holds you and will only let you go so far. Trust is the anchor for the soul. For the spirit of God empowers faith, but it also stabilizes trust. When I started looking at Romans 8 and 28 and we know all things work together for good. All things. I look back over my life and had not that happened. This wouldn't have happened. Had that not take place, this wouldn't have took place. If I hadn't went through that season of life, I wouldn't be here today. If we can embrace, brother Paul where we are. If we can embrace SEC families, uh, individuals, uh, those that are watching online, those that will listen to this podcast, uh, if we can just come into a an agreement with God, uh, I will trust you and know all things will eventually work together for good. That's what trust believes. God, you're working even behind the scenes. You get you're behind the screen of life working and what you don't know is God sees what you don't see. God, show me. No, you're in a fog. You can't see it. But you got to trust the instrument. You got to trust the air traffic controller that's in another world of sitting high and looking low.

And he's saying, "I see what you don't see. I see what you can't comprehend. And here's what the revelation you got to get tonight is. Even when you can't see him, even when you can't feel him, even when you can't comprehend, God knows what he's doing. He knows what he's doing. You're not your your your your valley, your situation, your dilemma didn't catch God off guard. He knows what he's doing. That's why faith says, "God, you're able." But you know what trust says? God, you're enough. I know you're able, but if you choose not to, you're all I need. You're enough.

What's God calling this church to in this season? I'll tell you in the spirit, he's calling us deeper. Not deeper shouting, deeper trust. Not deeper, not not deeper miracles, not deeper revelations, not no deeper shout. Not not deeper of of everything. Nope. Deeper trust. What's that? Look, if God's calling you for anything in this in this 2026, he's calling you to go deeper in your relationship of trust with him. Trust him when you don't get the apology. Trust him when you don't get the answer. Trust him when you don't get the miracle you prayed for. Because trusting God means even if he doesn't do it the way that I won't, I still won't walk away. You don't have to do it my way, God. Do it your way. You don't have to do it the way I thought you would do it, God. No, you do it the way you want to do it. And I'm still going to be here serving you with gladness. I'm still going to be a servant with my hands lifted unto you, saying, God, you are faithful. Do it the way you want to, God. Because when I come forth, I shall be like pure gold. I know I look to my right and you're not. I look to my left and be behold, I go forward, I go back.

You I I cannot comprehend you where you are right now, God. But I know one day seasons are going to change. Seasons are going to turn. But because of my trust in you, when I come forth, I'm gonna be as pure God. If you're in a season tonight, and I'm coming to an abrupt quick close, if you're in a season where faith brought you this far, but your trust is being stretched, I want you to stand to your feet. Your faith has brought you this far, but you feel like tonight on a win, my trust is stretching me. My trust is stretching me.

Thank you for your transparency. Thank you for your honesty. And if this is not you today, you just log it back in your spiritual mind, in your spiritual man, because it may come for you this week. Your faith has brought you this far, but your trust is being stretched. What I saw today, it felt like in the spirit we were stretching. But there's something that you need to hear and know that if you stretch something far and wide enough, it will eventually break. But God sent me to tell us, I'm not breaking you. I'm just anchoring you. I'm anchoring you to a rock that's higher than you. I'm anchoring you to something that's beyond your imagination. It's beyond your comprehension because it's at your understanding and where it ends that trust begins. So if it feels like you're breaking, just know you're anchored to something greater than you. You're anchored to something more powerful than you. So what I need you to do in your spirit, man, and I you can say these words with me. Lord, I believe, but help me trust. Lord, I believe, but help me trust. I won't lean on my own understanding, but I will lean on you, oh God.

I don't know how you're going to get us through, but I'm leaning on you. I I'm not leaning on my own understanding, Lord. I believe, but God, you're calling me to trust you in this fog. Fog cause you to see things that are not even there. Fog will cause you to see things and you I'll tell you what, fog, I've seen this year and a couple people in this church, and I ain't going to call no names. I've seen people kill deer and I heard them out of their own mouth said, "Man, that fog messed me up. That deer looked bigger from where I was than when I got down there on it." It looked big. Sometimes fog make things look bigger than what they really are. Well, I thought it was this and you get down there on it and it wasn't as big as you thought it was. It wasn't as bad as you thought it was. Fog will distort the perception and reality of where you are. Looks big from where you are. You're looking through the lens with fog in them. But if you could just get a little closer, man, you ever said, "Man, it's not as bad as I thought it was." Because the closer you get to it, you realize God's still good.

Even on a bad day, he's still faithful even when I'm not. So, if I can trust God in the fog seasons of my life, he's going to see me through. He's going to help me. He's going to bring me through. But if I can master the trusting, I can stand before you as your pastor, Brother Ricky, and I can say 99.9% of your problem is not faith. It's trust. Do you know? My God, I feel the revelation of the Holy Ghost. Brother Chris, the Bible never says, "I'm giving you a measure of trust." He said, "I'm giving you a measure of faith." God gives you the measure of faith. But trust is something that's cultivated on the inside of us. Faith and trust, they're not identical. He gives us the measure of faith, but we have to cultivate that trust in him that says, "God, I trust you no matter what." My problem is not my faith in him. My problem tonight, do I trust God to do it his way, his timing? Do I trust him? So tonight, I would just ask when you go home that when you lay down, when you get in your living room, when you take your spouse by the hand, you just say, "Just as you trust them, I trust that woman impeccably, God, we trust you, and you're going to be faithful as your worth had declared.

God, you're going to be the same trustworthy God you have always been. I will not let the fog cause me to backslide. I'll not let the fog cause me to fall out with God. I'll not let the fog of life distort the reality of where I'm at. The higher you get, you get above that fog eventually. The higher you get, you get I got to go higher in him. I got to go deeper in his word. I got to go deeper in prayer. I got to go deeper in consecration. When you do that, I promise you, you're going to forge and form something called trust in God.

Would you lift your voice, Lord? God, I thank you that I can trust you on a Wednesday. I can trust you in the fog. I can trust you where I'm at. God, tonight, I'm not worried about our faith. Our fa faith is rooted and grounded in you. Our faith is knowing who you are. Our faith is knowing you were God manifest in the flesh. Our faith was is knowing that you died and was buried and you rose again. Our faith is anchored in the death, burial, and resurrection. But our trust today, our trust is going to be anchored to who you are. Our trust is going to be anchored to your ways. Our trust tonight is going to be anchored into your very nature. You know what's best for me. You know what's best for me. And I won't complain. I won't. Now, seal this word in our hearts. Seal this word by the Holy Ghost. Seal this word, God. And may it be a blessing to us in the days to come. And God, may we forever trust you in the fog of life. I trust you tonight. Faith has brought me this far, but my trust in you will be an anchor for my soul. In Jesus name we pray. Everybody say amen. Hallelujah.