The most complete alignment we can have for our lives is when we determine to know what God’s will is and endeavor, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to live accordingly. Most of the problems we get ourselves into is when we disregard God’s will and go our own way” (Isaiah 53:6). His will is not due to His insecurity or an “I gotta be the boss” syndrome. God’s will emanates from the Creator to the created because His way is the best way for us to function and thrive. Violating His will and determining that we know best is what leads to heartache and regret.
Jesus set the example for us when He said, “I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.” He even prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane “not My will, but Yours be done.” Jesus did not seek to please His Father so that He might be the Son of God. He sought to please His Father because He was/is the Son of God. We don’t endeavor to please God by obeying His will so we can become sons and daughters of God. We seek to please Him because we are sons and daughters of God. And we know that by remaining in the center of what pleases Him allows us to enjoy the optimal life here on earth.
So, how can we position ourselves to always do the will of God, no matter the consequences or how difficult it may be? First, we must commit ourselves to live in Micah 6:8.
“He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”
We maintain a posture of walking humbly with our God…in other words, assume a lower position than the Lord (that ought not be too hard) and approach every engagement or response to Him from that humble position. If we can continue the path of our life with that posture, there is only room for one will…His. Now, I realize this is easier said than done, but as a wise person said one time, “If you aim at nothing…you will surely hit it.” If we will humble ourselves under the mighty hand of our God, He will lift us up in due time. Jesus said,
“For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will but the will of Him who sent Me.”
Let’s have this attitude as our goal. When we commit ourselves to that kind of thinking, our minds are clearer because we are not constantly playing the game that propels us ahead of the next person and we cease struggling with God. That will cause you to walk with a limp.
How can I know God’s will so that I can walk in it? Let’s walk through a few absolutes that we can all embrace as the will of God, our Master and Creator.
We can begin with the eternal destiny of the human race. Peter writes in his second letter that God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. This is why the Lord Jesus would say, “This gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” God so loved all the world, not a select few, that He sees to it that the good news of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God is proclaimed to all nations. So, we know that it is God’s will that all should come to repentance and be reconciled to their Maker and Father.
Another absolute in determining the will of God is to agree with the apostle Paul when he wrote to the Thessalonians that “God’s will is for you to be holy.” This is the will of God for every follower of Jesus Christ. In this particular context in the church of Thessalonica, he was addressing sexual sins. But the grand scheme of life requires for us to be holy people of God. What does it mean to be holy? To be holy requires us to answer the question, to whom do we belong. We either belong to ourselves and are self-governing our own lives or we belong to God and we are allowing Him and His kingdom to direct our lives. Of course, it is the latter that each of us Christ followers should answer in the affirmative. Paul describes God’s people as “the church of God which He purchased with His own blood (Acts 20). He also wrote to the Corinthians, “You have been bought with a price.” If our heavenly Father is the One to whom we belong, then holiness would pronounce us clean and therefore sacred and consecrated to God. We are dedicated to Him, to the exclusion of all others.
To be holy before God requires surrender on our part. There is room on the throne of your life for only one. It’s like the bumper sticker I saw one time (responding to another sticker),
“If God is Your Co-Pilot, You Should Switch Seats.”
This is rooted in the act on our part of denying ourselves (you do realize that until you do this thing, you cannot do the next things), taking up our cross and following Him. We consecrate our members to Him as slaves to righteousness that will result in sanctification – purity and holiness. To be holy simply means that we have been set apart unto our Master and we have placed ourselves solely into His service. Yes, it is God’s will for you to be holy.
Another clear aspect of what God’s will is for you and for me is that we would be thankful in all circumstances. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians they should be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. Gratitude will cure a lot of ills and prevent many more before they even happen. When we have a thankful heart, our focus is off ourselves and on the object to whom we are thankful. We should start each engagement; each conversation; each dialogue about the condition and difficulties of our lives by first expressing gratitude to the Lord for what He has already done for us. It is interesting that the apostle writes to the church of Thessalonica (again) that we should be thankful in all circumstances. These executive types who lead without considering how challenging it is for the subordinates to walk it out. As Paul wrote another place, I speak (or write) as a fool. Our executive type isn’t an executive type at all; our Lord and Master has experienced everything that we have and will. He has been faced with every temptation that is known to man and yet He is without sin. The Lord Jesus could have the apostle write these words because He knows what it is like to be in “all circumstances,” and yet He remains grateful. The next time we have an experience that is counter to the one we imagined, there is something we can do before we move any further – we can remember that it is God’s will for us who belong to Christ to be thankful in all circumstances.
The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews gave us this gem– “patience endurance is what you need now.” Don’t you love it when someone offers their opinion or two cents worth into our lives? How does he know what I need? Mainly, because he is a human being. And all human beings deal with these issues. The smart ones maintain fellowship with fellow followers. It is in that context that we are most often afforded the opportunity to exercise patient endurance.
It matters not if we face adverse circumstances or if everything in our lives are hunky dory…we need to patiently endure whatever comes our way. Now, patiently enduring doesn’t always mean we completely acquiesce and withdraw from further discussion. But it does mean that regardless of the nature of our circumstances, maintaining an endurance that is patient and allowing God to do His work. Paul actually writes that we have need of patient endurance in our lives so that – so that what? So that you will continue to do God’s will. If we are all out of joint and escaping the dealing (suffering) of God in our lives, we won’t be able to know and do God’s will for us. So, take a breath in the moment that calls for endurance and do it with patience…knowing that it is God who is at work, even when we cannot see it with our human eyes.
Here is another one. Peter wrote in his first letter that it is God’s will that our honorable lives should silence those ignorant people who make foolish accusations against you. I suppose for the remainder of time as we know it, there will always be detractors to the Christian faith. Some of that is earned, where there are religious zealots that paint a picture of being a Christian, that quite honestly, would repulse me too. Just because we can expect some opposition to what we believe and practice in the faith, that does not mean that we can respond in kind. It is our conduct and behavior that speaks louder than any words we might speak, although it is vitally important that we have words to give an account of our hope. Peter admonishes us that when we are called upon to give reasons for our faith and in whom we have placed that faith, “…we respond with gentleness and respect keeping a clear conscience, so that those who slander you may be put to shame by your good behavior in Christ.”
While there will always be “ignorant people” (the apostle Peter’s words, not mine), who make unfounded and foolish statements about us (both individually and collectively), how we respond to that reveals to whom we belong. So, it is God’s will that we should live lives that are honorable and not swayed by the behavior of others. There is nothing that will stymie the impact of the gospel quite like when it is housed and delivered in the context of a lifestyle that speaks of anything but godliness and holiness. Remember, it is the will of God.
We cannot address the subject of the will of God without remembering a single act of God’s will and from which we receive our salvation. It is from Isaiah 53:10,
“… it was the will of the LORD to crush him.”
It was God’s will to allow the Son to be arrested, tortured, and ultimately executed on a rugged tree to become the sacrificial Lamb for all the human race. It was God’s will because He sees the end from the beginning and the beginning from the end. He knew the outcome and what that would provide for humanity. And yet, I believe the source of the crushing wasn’t primarily the suffering and eventual death of the Son. But the unavoidable moment when Jesus became sin for the human race, so we would not have to be encumbered and in bondage to the sin nature each one of us was born with. It was that moment when the Son was separated from the Father because of Him becoming the embodiment of sin and that is when He cried out the question, “My God! My God! Why have You forsaken Me?”
But, Isaiah doesn’t leave it there. He continues with the result of God’s will be exercised through the Son of God.
“He shall see His offspring; He shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. Out of the anguish of His soul he shall see and be satisfied…”
So we close this issue of The Kernels of Truth with the words of Jesus that apply to each and every one of us.
Mark 3:35 – “Anyone who does God’s will is My brother and sister and mother.”
We are not His brother or sister because we do God’s will (I know I have already addressed this, but we leak), but rather we do God’s will because we are His family.
And if we are to ascertain that which is God’s will, we must allow the Lord, through the work of the Holy Spirit to transform us into a new person, incrementally speaking, by changing the way we think. It is when we experience this metamorphosis of the mind and have offered ourselves to God as a living sacrifice that we can get a clear view of what exactly God’s will is and particularly God’s will for us.