Discovering God's Will

God Is At Work In You

We Have A Choice!

God created us with a free will to make decisions on our own. He did not make us robots that are controlled every moment of our life. We have the ability to make decisions that are right and wrong. This is what differentiates us from every other thing that God created.

19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, 20 by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.

Moses gives the people a choice that they could make. They could follow God and have life and blessing or reject God and have death and cursing. The people had to make a choice.

Application

We too have a choice. We can receive the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ or we can reject the salvation of Jesus Christ. If we choose to reject the salvation of Jesus Christ we must face the penalty of our sin. The penalty of our sin is death and destruction in the lake of fire for eternity.

17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 18 He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”

And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His [b]only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

We too have a choice. We can receive the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ or we can reject the salvation of Jesus Christ. If we choose to reject the salvation of Jesus Christ we must face the penalty of our sin. The penalty of our sin is death and destruction in the lake of firer for eternity.

If we reject Jesus Christ we choose the lake of fire. If we choose to believe Jesus, we choose eternal life. It is that simple!

Jesus Gives Us His Holy Spirit!

When a person chooses Jesus Christ to be their Lord and Savior, He gives them His Holy Spirit.

16 I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; 17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.

13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise,14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.

Jesus gives every believer the Holy Spirit to help transform them into Christ-likeness.

29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

Both To Will and Work

The Holy Spirit is God’s Communicator to us!

Apart from Christ we have carnal will and mind. This means that it is void of knowing God and his purposes. The carnal mind is all about satisfying the things of the flesh.

5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Believers in Jesus Christ set their minds on the things of God. They understand His purposes, because the Holy Spirit reveals them to us.

12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God,13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. 15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. 16 For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.

Application

As the Bible teaches, when we receive the Holy Spirit, we may know things freely given to us by God. The Holy Spirit is the communicator of God to us. It is kind of like a cell phone. If we want to communicate with someone, we must have a phone in order to communicate. Without the phone, we cannot receive messages or send messages. The Holy Spirit is our spiritual cell phone. The natural man does not have a phone and therefore; cannot hear from God or talk to Him.

The natural man has only his own internal thoughts and will. He has no direction from the Father. The only way to get instruction from the Father is through His Son Jesus Christ.

Jesus *said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

For His Good Pleasure

God changes who we are!

Before we can focus on doing God’s will we must understand what it means to be His child. Many people rush into doing what they believe God wants, before knowing His heart. We must come to know God before we can understand His will. This comes simply from spending time with Him and developing a relationship with Him. If you try to do God’s will without spending time with Him you are doing your own will.

4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples

Application

Abiding with Christ changes your will. He begins to replace those desires of the flesh with desires of the spirit. Example: Before knowing Christ I struggled with selfishness and pride. My mentality was, get what is yours before someone else gets it. If someone else tries to take it from you, stop them because you deserve it more than them. When I came to know Christ, he revealed to me that I deserve nothing yet He is going to give me everything. I was lost but he found me. I was spiritually blind but he made me see.

Being leads to doing!

When we begin to know God intimately, we will come to know the Father’s will. He reveals it to us and we will take pleasure in living in it. It will ultimately bring Him glory. God’s will is not a matter of accomplishing a task, but rather knowing Him and living your life out of this knowledge.

17 Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, 2 even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to [a]all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. 3 This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

Conclusion

God’s will is for you to have eternal life! The only way you can receive it is by having a personal relationship with Him. Are you willing to enter into that relationship today? You can do that by repenting of your sins and receiving Jesus Christ as your Savior. He will forgive you of all your sin and give you His Holy Spirit. At this point you can begin living in the will of God!