Finding the Will of God
Romans • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
Introduction
Last week, we started out our study in Romans by looking at our calling according to Paul. He said that we were called to be “saints”. We talked about what that meant and about removing the impediments to sainthood, and then looked at the types of behaviors and actions that will build us up and cause us to be more saintly. Today, let us look at the next passage. Again, I found it hard to do more than a couple of verses at a time because the Word of God is so rich, it preaches volumes!
“What is God's will for my life?” What Christian has not asked a question like this? We ask these questions about the big things obviously, should I marry this person or not? Should I go to college or not? Sometimes we ask even pertaining to mundane things like one's career, where to live, what groceries to buy etc.
The question I have for you today is how can you know the will of God? Paul mentioned his desire to live in harmony with God's will as he made plans to visit his brethren in Rome and he says he prayed regarding those plans… Read with me what he says:
For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the Good News of His Son. How unceasingly I make mention of you, always pleading in my prayers, if somehow by God’s will now at last I will be granted a good journey to come to you.
Paul's comments provide an opportunity for us to consider some thoughts related to the will of God, especially on how to determine God's will for our lives. It might be of benefit to first review some facets of God’s will.
Facets of God’s Will
Facets of God’s Will
I don’t want to be a big theology preacher, I would rather be a Bible preacher, but sometimes theology helps us to understand concepts, so if you will bear with me, I want to describe the will of God using these theological terms, just because they are so descriptive of God’s will.
The Proclaimed Will
The Proclaimed Will
First off there is the proclaimed will of God. God has made His will known in many respects –
in everything give thanks; for this is
God’s will for you in Messiah Yeshua.
Did you know that it was God’s will for you to constantly give thanks to God? Well it is! How about this:
For this is God’s will, that you silence the ignorance of foolish men by doing good.
God’s will is that our behavior actually shuts up the foolishness of the world. They can scream and cry as long as they want about how they think we are so bad about this or that, but in the end, they will be silenced. Look at Tim Tebow.
God will share His will through the mouth of prophets:
At many times and in many ways, God spoke long ago to the fathers through the prophets.
But pastor, that says it happened in times past. OK, how about this one?
Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them, named Agabus, stood up and predicted through the Ruach that there was going to be a great famine over all the world. (This took place during the reign of Claudius.) So the disciples decided to send relief to those brothers and sisters living in Judea, each according to his ability. This they did, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.
Back to Hebrews, it says He made His will known through Jesus.
In these last days He has spoken to us through a Son, whom He appointed heir of all things and through whom He created the universe.
One of the “typical” and sometimes very “glamorous” Pentecostal ways is by being directly led of the Spirit of God.
“I still have much more to tell you, but you cannot handle it just now. But when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on His own; but whatever He hears, He will tell you. And He will declare to you the things that are to come.
Did the word of God originate with you? Or did it reach you alone?
If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that what I write to you is the Lord’s command.
It is this proclaimed will of God that instructs us that we must be, and what to do to be saved. The only way we can really know God’s proclaimed Word is to know it! By that I mean, we need to know that that which God has declared as an eternal universal truth is contained in scripture.
All Scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for restoration, and for training in righteousness, so that the person belonging to God may be capable, fully equipped for every good deed.
The Providential Will
The Providential Will
The problem with this kind of God’s will is that while it may indeed be His will, there are times where He doesn’t answer this way. Sometimes, for whatever reason, God doesn’t speak to a situation that obviously. See, what I really believe Paul is saying in the text, and the will about which he is speaking is the providential will of God. Let’s look at what he says:
always pleading in my prayers, if somehow by God’s will now at last I will be granted a good journey to come to you.
Paul is actually looking for a way “in” the will of God. What does that mean? It is definitely worth looking into because he says the same thing later in Chapter 15:
Then, God willing, I may come to you in joy, and together with you find rest.
What was Paul speaking of?
I believe there is a will of God that is implied by our circumstances. Consider this passage:
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. What is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
Look it says there that because we do not know what will happen tomorrow, we ought to plan based on what the “Lord wills”. So how do we know? Well, for one, if God closes doors, He is probably indicating that this is not His will. But is this scriptural?
Sure, look at:
Now this is the confidence we have before Him—that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have the requests we have asked from Him.
We may not know what God’s providential will is for us, and this is precisely why Paul talks about having to “find a way” in the will of God.
Consider what this historian had to say about the role of God’s providence in the founding of our nation.
Perhaps no principle of early American life was more motivational, more blessed, and more fixed in the minds of the men and women who forged this nation than the doctrine of the providence of God. Pilgrim Pastors, Patriot Preachers, and Founding Fathers alike spoke and wrote regularly and often about the providence of God. They wrote and spoke of the “kind providences of God,” of their firm reliance on “Almighty Providence,” and of the “many merciful providences” with which He has blessed our people.
The providence of which they spoke was not some blind, clock-like mechanism of a distant deity, but the direct interposition of the Triune God by which He sustains, cares for, and governs the world which He has made.
This understanding of “Almighty Providence” was not only true for our puritan preachers, but our most esteemed Founding Fathers. Though they chose not to make sectarian religious tests a prerequisite for holding federal office, our Founding Fathers nonetheless envisioned and established a national government on a distinctively Trinitarian, Christian law order. This is clear from their proclamations and official acts, as well as the supreme law of the land, the Constitution (and the Declaration of Independence, its preamble) signed in the year of our Lord (Jesus Christ), as well as those treaties which were made in pursuance thereof.
For the Founding Fathers, the doctrine of the providence of God was inextricably linked to the idea that Jesus Christ was the Creator who decrees law and sustains life. It was these men who pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, having acknowledged their “firm reliance on divine Providence.” It was these men who repeatedly passed laws calling for days of national thanksgiving, humiliation, and prayer in response to the work of providence which they specifically defined in their official acts in terms of Jesus Christ and the moving of the Holy Spirit. It was these men who officially recognized the Trinitarian view of providence when they signed the Treaty of Paris in 1783 on behalf of the United States,
“In the name of the most holy and undivided Trinity, It having pleased the divine Providence...”
The providence of God is more than a distant, unattainable doctrine professed by ancient clerics. It is a living, breathing reality which should fire the spiritual passion and calm the soul of every true believer in Jesus Christ. It is motivation for the believer. It is hope. It is life.
-Author Unknown.
Benjamin Franklin wrote in 1787
“In the beginning of the contest with G. Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for the Divine protection — Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. … I have lived, Sir, a long time; and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs the affairs of men!”
Did you know that America was colonized due to the efforts of an ambitious navigator with humble beginnings – rather than perhaps the greatest fleet ever assembled for just such a purpose– which “discovered” North America about 70 years before Columbus. This is providence!
In August of 1776, George Washington’s army of common patriot citizens like you and me was faced with an overwhelming force of professional soldiers of the British Army in what was known as the battle of Long Island. Facing certain defeat and a sudden end to the war that would one day give us the freedom we enjoy today, the providence of God intervened and sent a dense curtain of fog, that was as well-timed — and accurate — as any artillery smokescreen, permitting the American armies to escape to fight another day.
In what is considered to be the turning point in the Pacific campaign of World War II, The Japanese planned to attack the Island of Midway, expanding their hold on the Central Pacific. American intelligence intercepted Japanese plans and knew of the impending Japanese attack. The Americans sent their entire carrier force, including the recently damaged "Yorktown," to intercept the Japanese force. The Americans succeeded in sinking four Japanese carriers, losing only the "Yorktown."
Historians say that so many coincidences happened that day that it seemed surreal, “almost as if an unseen force were directing the course of the war.” Two leading Japanese officers -- Genda, Admiral Nagumo’s air officer, and Fuchida, the leader of the aircraft carrier Akagi’s air group -- while present were physically incapacitated and did not actively take part in the battle. Their participation may have made a difference.
The timing of the U.S. carrier-plane attack on the morning of 4 June caught the Japanese while they were in the process of changing out the weapons on their aircraft. The Enterprise’s dive bombers, were at their maximum range and would never have found the enemy, but one lone Japanese destroyer got mysteriously separated from the rest of the fleet, and led these lost bombers right to their target.
The entire book of Jonah deals with God using providence to get a message through to the prophet that he would be unable to run until he had accomplished the task that God gave him to do. Think of it, God gave Him a task, he tried to run away, then there was the shipwreck-
“Fine God, I’ll have these sailors toss me in the ocean- I can’t very well go do what you ask me to if I’m dead can I?”
God sent a giant fish to give His answer… “GULP!”
“OK God you win!”
God provided that fish to swallow Jonah, but that provided Jonah with the credibility he needed to preach the word from God because the Ninevites were fish worshippers. To be deposited on their shores by a fish would have been a tremendously powerful sign to them. God’s providential will guided Jonah.
During all my time of secular work, God always gave me a better job by causing my current job to become intolerable – or in some cases, causing it to disappear entirely. How many times has God dried up a resource on which you counted and caused you to look elsewhere? In so doing, God may be moving you by His providence. The root of the word providence is “provide”.
The Permissive Will
The Permissive Will
Finally there is the permissive will of God in your life. These are things that God permits because of free will, but are either, not approved by Him or not significant enough for God to take a position on. Whether you have the strawberry or chocolate shake with your lunch is not relevant – unless you are allergic to strawberries of course!
God allows things to happen that are not necessarily according to His desired will. He permits people to sin and even hurt other people. He is obviously not pleased, and will one day render judgment but He permits people to have free will nonetheless.
Finding God’s Will
Finding God’s Will
So with this in mind, how do we “find” God’s will?
Search the Scriptures
Search the Scriptures
First of all we need to be thoroughly familiar with God’s stated will- the scripture.
Make every effort to present yourself before God as tried and true, as an unashamed worker cutting a straight path with the word of truth.
The old King James actually says, STUDY to show yourself approved.
Seek Sage Counsel
Seek Sage Counsel
But we need to go beyond that. We need to seek the counsel of other wise men and women of God.
Without guidance people fall,
with many counselors there is deliverance.
A fool’s way is right in his own eyes,
but the wise listen to advice.
Supplicate the Supreme
Supplicate the Supreme
But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all without hesitation and without reproach; and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, without any doubting—for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord— he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
Wisdom is the understanding that tempers knowledge. In other words, Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a berry. Wisdom is what tells you not to use that berry as a filling for your dessert pie!
So, we can ask God for wisdom concerning our decisions.
Sift for God’s Providence
Sift for God’s Providence
Finally and most importantly, we must be looking for God’s providential will.
Commit your way to Adonai.
Trust in Him, and He will do it.
He will bring out your vindication as light,
and your cause will shine as noonday.
From Adonai a man’s steps are made firm,
when He delights in his way.
Though he stumble,
he will not fall headlong,
for Adonai is holding his hand.
I was young and now I am old,
yet I have never seen
the righteous one forsaken,
nor his children begging for bread.
All day long he is gracious and lends.
So his offspring will be a blessing.
Aren’t those amazing promises of God’s providence? They are truly like gold, but just like gold you sometimes have to sift for them. Be ready to give God permission to close the door on your choice if that is His will If He closes the door on your choice, look for alternatives.
At the same time, be alert to the providence of God that is blessing certain paths which you should consider taking instead of the one you’re on.
Conclusion
Conclusion
As Christians, we should earnestly endeavor to seek the will of God. As Paul writes to the Colossians:
Epaphras, who is one of your own, a slave of Messiah Yeshua, greets you. He is always laboring in prayer on your behalf, so you may stand complete and fully assured about everything that is God’s will.
Prayer is indeed a mighty tool for gaining wisdom and the will of God, but even in our prayer, we must take the example of Jesus and specifically ask God for His will.
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Let’s Pray
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