His will

How do you know it?

We see the will of God as we look at nature. It was certainly His will to create this universe. We praise Him for creating all things and keeping everything in tact. But what is the will of God for your life? and for mine? And do we ever find it? How do we find it?

Does it guide your life? or do we just cast lots.....or in our world, roll the dice?

Ephesians 1:9–10 ESV

making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

We see Paul speaking of a mystery of his will, making it known to us. It was a plan of God’s to send Jesus. His will.

Can God do anything that He chooses? He has that right. And we know God is good so whatever He chooses will be good, it will be right.

in this verse we see His will working through a plan.

let’s jump right back to the first verse of the letter of Ephesians, what does it say?

Ephesians 1:1 ESV

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus:

Eph

Paul is declaring he is an apostle of Jesus by the will of God. Paul gives this same statement in Romans and Corinthians.

This teaches us that the will of God is at work in causing people to be called and to live out that specific calling as Paul did.

How did Paul know this was God’s will for him?

He had a very unusual and exceptional calling as Jesus came face to face with him. Some call this Gods directive will.

Not many will have that kind of experience with their calling. So how do you know what you are called to do? how do you know God’s will for your life?

this question is not as simple as it may seem. we first must see how Gods will has worked out in scripture.

One clear answer for you and I is digging into His word.....His word is His words from His lips. So, maybe we aren’t so far off from Paul.

Have you ever done a word study in the scriptures? How about on the will of God?

listen to this verse.

1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 ESV

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Very clear, to the point. Rejoice always! continually pray and giving thanks in all things.

it states this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

But when we read acts 2:23 we find a will of God that takes on a meaning.

Acts 2:23 ESV

this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

this definite plan shows the will of God being unchangeable, permanent.

Gods will certainly does work this way at times but it would be a mistake for us to always view His will this way.

in the Greek there is two words for will. this is one of them. it is Gods sovereign will.

This will of God will happen because God will make it happen. We see this perfectly in the cross of Jesus.

but the other aspect of the will of God is His like what we saw in Thess.

it is His preceptive will. it incorporates His law.

We know that God will for us is to obey His decrees. to live worshiping Him alone, to love Him first, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. to not steal, murder, or covet. We see God’s preceptive will throughout the word of God.

we also can see another aspect of Gods will. His permissive will. take the story of Joseph.

God allowed all the negative things to happen to Joseph like his brothers selling him, the king putting him in jail.... and all these events caused Joseph to prove himself as a man of God and put him in a place to save the Israelites lineage.

Joseph saw this and realized God’s hand in it all.

Genesis 50:20 ESV

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

So when you and I are asking the question.....what is Gods will for my life? we need to not try and figure out His sovereign will for us, He will accomplish that regardless.

But we can look to scripture and see His word speaking to us loud and clear about how He is calling us to live.

how many things does scripture tell us to live like?

to be humble, faithful, forgiving, loving, merciful, righteous, graceful, patient, kind, compassionate, this list goes on and on.

this is God’s will for our lives. His will that we can truly know and be certain about. as for the future, God knows and if we needed to know, He could tell us as He did with Paul, also many others.

for us, it is trust and obedience to the will of God that we can know.

Ephesians 3:4–11 ESV

When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of his power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord,

Eph 3:4