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Your Will Be Done

How do you know what Gods will is for your life?

It is a matter of aligning yourself to God’s will.

If God’s Kingdom is His rule then submitting to His rule means aligning yourself to His will.

How do you do that?

Your desires become God’s desire....

John 14:14 ESV

14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

If somebody asks me - how do I know God’s will for my life? - my first question is - Tell me about yourself?

What do you WANT to do?

What are you good at?

What are the unique gifts, passions and abilities that God gave you?

The way that God made you should tell you something about who he created you to be and the specific tasks he has for you.

The principle is that when it comes to God’s will, he doesn’t just dictate his will, but he gives us meaningful participation in how, when or even whether or not we do the things that we do.

God even tells us to ask him for what we want.

That doesn’t mean that we get everything we want.

Of course we don’t get everything we want, but we get everything that we want because he wants us to want it.

Your desires become God’s desire… (lets finish it.)

…when God’s desires become your desire.

God says, go ahead and ask for the desires of your heart… God delights in giving his children what they want.

But there is another side to it.

Our desires are shaped by knowing and following his heart.

Psalm 37:4 ESV

4 Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Some people read that verse and hear, “God wants to give me everything I want!”

Look at the first part of the verse.

Why do you want what you want?

Because you delight yourself in the Lord.

In other words, His desires have become what you want.

You really want to see his rule and authority established on earth as it is in heaven.

You really want to see Jesus exalted and magnified as Lord of all, uniting heaven and earth as one.

You really want to see His body in all of its diversity functioning as one with Christ as the head -each part supplementing the others.

When you have God’s heart for the world, go ahead and ask - you can’t go wrong!

But when it comes to knowing and doing God’s will, people struggle with either

becoming to rigid - “ I need to know exactly what God wants me to do - like there is only one right answer!”

Or becoming to relaxed - “I don’t think God really cares what I do as long as I’m not hurting anybody.

So which is it?- Is it possible that God cares about every decision that I make, but that some decisions are more important than others?

What is God’s plan for my life?

The Four Spiritual Laws is a popular evangelism tool that begins with the first spiritual law that often appears on the cover of the tract: “Did you know that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life?

I think that would get anyone’s attention - God loves you and has a plan for your life!

Psalm 139:13–16 ESV

13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

Some people take that to mean that God has pre-planned our lives and all of our decisions for us.

I don’t think that is what is means.

God certainly knows are lives before we are born and the choices that we will make.

But experience has taught me that God uses His interventions somewhat sparingly.

He respects our choices, even if its not what he would want for us.

So where does God intervene and what choices does he direct?

God’s plan is for you to know Him.

God’s will for you is, first of all, for you to know Him and to have a relationship with Him.

Galatians 1:3–5 ESV

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Jesus died for our sin to deliver us from bondage to sin and to evil.

That bondage keeps us from knowing God and obeying God.

While God does not always intervene in our choices, His greatest intervention was to give us the choice to choose Him.

The fact that you have the ability to respond to God and to come to Him is because of His will.

God’s will is that He want’s you back and He has made a way for you to come to Him.

That has always been His desire since before you were born.

Ephesians 1:5 NLT

5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.

That is the first thing that anyone needs to know about God’s will - that God’s will, His desire is to know you and too have a relationship with you.

Once you know that, and you begin to want that too, God’s will empowers you to be able to respond to Him.

Philippians 2:13 ESV

13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

I know and I talk with people who struggle with their own will - they have thoughts and desires that they don’t really want.

Maybe it’s even grown to the level of addiction.

Or they struggle with mental health issues like intrusive thoughts.

There is a power to be found in aligning yourself with God’s will.

God wants you even more than you want Him!

Your response to Him may be weak, but God works in you to help you respond when you just do the little bit that you can.

Don’t beat yourself up about not being perfect, just use whatever grace you are given to respond the best you can.

And watch God meet you more than half-way.

Davinci panted a famous painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel of God and Adam. Adam is reaching out to God, but his finger is bent, his attempt a reaching God is weak. God is reaching back. His arm is outstretched and his finger pointed. God is making all the effort, while encouraging man to do what he can.

When it comes to God’s will, you may find God’s will to be unattainable, and you’re not wrong about that, but God’s will is that He also makes a way for you to come to Him.

God’s plan is for you to be like Him.

We started out by saying that your desires become God’s desires when God’s desires become your desire.

That speaks of a process of learning to know God and then having our desires shaped to resemble His.

That is also God’s will - that our will would be formed by His will.

Romans 12:2 ESV

2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

What does this scripture tell us about God’s will?

We don’t automatically know God or His will.

In fact, God’s will is often the opposite of what this world thinks and believes - even about God!

So how do we learn to know God's will?

There is a process of testing and examination.

In other words - trial and error.

One of the ways that we learn to know God’s will is by making mistakes!

Author Mark Twain is attributed with the saying, “ Good decisions come from experience. Experience comes from making bad decisions.

If you want to know if something is God’s will or not, try it out (unless you already know how it will go)!

Then I just have one more question for you; how is that working for you?

Paul gives us a clue as to how to know the difference.

God’s will is good (doesn’t cause harm),

acceptable (it actually works),

and perfect (leading to good long-term results).

Try measuring your decisions by that standard.

Peter suggests another test.

You are going to like Paul’s better because this one involves suffering.

1 Peter 4:1–2 ESV

1 Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.

Peter’s suggestion is to compare your own thoughts and desires - your will - to that of Jesus.

Jesus was completely unselfish - he was willing to suffer and die for us.

Our sinful nature is selfish - we tend to want what is best for us or what makes us feel good.

Becoming like Jesus may mean suffering.

Peter is saying that when we begin to want what what God wants, we no longer care about what it does for us, or even if it makes us uncomfortable, because its not about us its all about living for Him!

So that may change our definition of “good, acceptable and perfect”.

Because it is not in relationship to what we might want or think is good, but think in terms of the Kingdom and God’s ultimate goals.

The truth is that sometimes things happen that leave us perplexed.

How can human suffering and tragedy be Gods’ will?

Well, it may not be exactly what God wants (I don’t believe that God ever wants or causes bad things).

James says that God is not the source of temptation or evil.

But I do believe that he uses bad things to eventually bring about good things.

I think the best thing we can do at those times is to broaden our perspective- what might God be accomplishing eventually that is bigger than what we can immediately see?

God’s plan is for you to join Him on His mission.

Colossians 1:1 ESV

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

This is just one example of Paul saying that he is an apostle by the will of God - he says it over and over again.

It is his way of saying that when he writes his letters, he is writing in an official capacity.

He represents an authority greater than himself - he is acting as an agent of the Kingdom of God.

Paul is unashamedly playing “the God card.”

Do you know what “playing the God card is?” It’s when you do something and then say, “God told me to do it.” Supposedly, nobody can argue with you after that. I mean, who can argue with God?

If you play “the God card” you had better be right!

I think Paul was absolutely right, because he was also tested - he was on the wrong side before he was on the right side.

And like Peter, he also passed the test of suffering - he definitely wasn’t in it for himself.

He had the mind of Christ.

He acting on behalf of Jesus as part of His mission.

Paul’s entire life was devoted to obeying Christ who sent him to the Gentiles.

Acts 9:15–16 ESV

15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. 16 For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”

God had a specific plan for Paul’s life and tasks that he was to accomplish,

But it was not about following a script, it was about Paul cooperating with God.

Paul, upon seeing the vision of Jesus, became yielded to God and His will.

To be honest, Paul thought he was doing the will of God by persecuting Christians, but that was Paul doing his own thing in God’s name.

This time, God intervened - Paul, you got it all wrong!

Paul became a chosen instrument, a tool in the hand of God.

What does an instrument do?

Whatever the person using the instrument wants it to do!

When you play an instrument, it becomes and extension of your body.

When you use a tool it becomes and extension of your hand or your arm.

The tool does whatever you want it to do.

The instrument is played to express what is in the mind and heart of the musician.

So back to “playing the God card” - is Paul playing God or is God playing Paul?

If you are know your instrument well, sometimes its hard to tell the difference.

2 Corinthians 8:1–5 ESV

1 We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, 2 for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 3 For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, 4 begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints— 5 and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.

Paul is describing what he witnessed among the believers in Macedonia when he took up an offering for the church in Jerusalem that was going through a famine.

They first decided that it was the will of God that they should give.

I guess they trusted that if Paul says it is a good idea,

and Paul being a servant of God, he is suggesting a way that they can partner with God in helping the Jerusalem believers.

God is using the Macedonian Church as his instrument.

But then as they are giving, their generosity goes to a totally unexpected level.

They are not just giving out of obligation, but they have a real passion for giving.

This strikes Paul as being something that is above and beyond the ordinary.

They are exhibiting a supernatural joy in generosity!

As Paul describes it, as they gave themselves to doing God’s will, their giving took on a life of its own.

They are giving themselves over to giving.

And the more they give, the more they want to give!

The more they do God’s will, the more they want to do God’s will

The instrument seems to play itself!

Their will has become God’s desire and God’s desire has become their desire.

And they are caught up in a moment of ecstatic giving!

It’s a total love fest of doing God’s will and seeing God’s will done.

A love fest is when God’s will and our will are so intertwined, we no longer care who wanted what first.

If you want to know God’s will, then do God’s will.

Jesus said it this way:

John 7:17 TPT

17 If you want to test my teachings and discover where I received them, first be passionate to do God’s will, and then you will be able to discern if my teachings are from the heart of God or from my own opinions.

When we pray, “Your will be done.” - that is not just a prayer, that is a commitment!

That is like saying, “what do you want me to do?”

You should not ask that question unless you are actually prepared to DO whatever the answer will be.

When it comes to asking God about his will or his plan for our lives, perhaps we don’t get an answer because we are not ready to do whatever the answer may be.

We want God to give us direction, but we are only inclined to obey if we like what he says.

People want a word from God; what did you do with the last word that God gave you?

Jesus said, you will understand when you obey.

If you don’t understand God’s will, check your obedience.

Some of our learning God’swill is going to be by trial and error.

I wish it were not so, but I have found it to be true for me.

Sometimes I just have to back up and say, “OK, I got that wrong,”

Sometimes I realize that what I thought was about Him was really all about me.

Sometimes I have to die to myself, to get the mind of Christ.

But when we pray His will and we do His will, we find our desires being shaped by his desires.

The will of God becomes a natural, or a supernatural part of our own being.

Psalm 40:8 NLT

8 I take joy in doing your will, my God, for your instructions are written on my heart.”

The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13)

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen