Walking in His will

“Walking in His will”—safest place for a person to be is in the will of God

(review 5:1-14 & preview v.22-33)

v.15-21 Paul exhorts to several “intentional actions” the Ephesians ought to take as they “walk in the will of God”. He starts v.15 w/ “see then”—see to it, be sure of this, be intentional a/b this…

Living for God in Paul’s day didn’t just happen: there were some “intentional actions” that needed to be taken, some “informed decisions”.—How much more, nearly 2k years later might we conclude that truly living for God & walking in His will ain’t gonna “just happen”.

v.15 “walk circumspectly”—walking in the will of God requires us to pay attention to where we walk & how we walk

Circumspectly: cautiously; w/ watchfulness every way

Sometimes it’s good to step back & take spiritual inventory: what has influence in my life? What are my priorities? Am I aware of these things? Or am I a sleepwalker? Look back at v.14. (share story of girl on rt.3)

Jesus told his disciples to “watch & pray…what could ye not watch w/ me one hour?”…they fell asleep, not cognizant, not aware of what was happening or a/b to take place.

Parable of the Tares & wheat—,

Walking circumspectly & watchfully requires prudence: ,, —what has priority in my life? What does not?

v.16 is a continuation of the sentence & thought: what has your time?

Paul exhorts them to “redeem” the time: “redeeming” means: ‘procuring deliverance from captivity by the payment of another’

The world loves to steal our time, matter of fact, we give the world our time & it gladly takes it: but when Paul says redeem the time b/c the days are evil he refers to stop allowing the world & the evil associated w/ it to occupy your time.—don’t waste it by giving it to the world, redeem it, deliver it from the captivity the world imposes on it.

Paul’s emphasis is this: stop wasting time on things of the world b/c the world is evil. See we can wastefully allow the evil of the times to dictate how we conduct our time.

So rather than forfeit the days that God has given us to the evil, empty, miseries of the world, we ought to redeem them to do the will of God.——does the world dictate how you spend your days?…pay attention to how & where you conduct your time

v.17 “understanding what the will of the Lord is”

The will of the Lord is for us to deliver our days from worldly sorrow & empty misery & temporal efforts of happiness & joy. We could choose to give our days to anguish & depression b/c the days are evil & we could waste the time & opportunity God has given us here on worldly lusts, OR we could be wise & understanding what the will of the Lord is & therefore do the will of God…but 1st it requires “understanding” it.

We all say that “God is good”—so, is what He wills us to do, have, experience, & be, good also? (recognize that God’s will is so much better than my sin)

If we understood the will of the Lord to indeed be what it is, as something very good (the best possible thing actually), RATHER than the common misconception: thinking the will of the Lord is some prison we must succumb to out of obligation to God…if we understood just how good the will of God is then we would have a deep hunger to actually do it.

God’s will is benevolent, good, acceptable, righteous, & holy.

God’s will is that the world would not have possession of our ways or our days. STOP giving away your joy, time, & energy to the world! The world will depress you, disappoint, discourage, & deceive you! It’ll give you saltwater when what you really need is living water. “dry & thirsty land where no water is”

v.18—notice the contrast: to walk in God’s will we’ve got to make the intentional decision to not give ourselves to a worldly system or substance but to be filled w/ God’s Spirit: His will is that we find joy in experiencing & doing His will. — “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.”

There is nothing like being filled w/ the Spirit of God.

It’s not that we get more of the Spirit of God, He gets more of us! It’s not that we finally get all of Him, it’s that He finally gets all of us!

v.19-21 these are all intentional actions we can take that evidence our surrender to His will & being filled w/ His Spirit. Notice a few things:

Being filled w/ the Spirit means that God is the center of attention,(notice the end of vss.19-21)—I surrender to Him, He gets all of me & it’s all a/b Him. The focus is not ME being filled w/ the Spirit, the focus is Him being the center of attention. (when we say someone is full of themselves, they are the center of attention)

You can’t be filled w/ the Spirit of God if you’re full of yourself!

All of these things involve other people also—that tells me that the will of God & the fulness of His Spirit is connected w/ the fellowship of other Christians.

Our fellowship ought not be founded on our fav. Sports team or political party…but what does Paul say? Let God be the focal point of your fellowship: foundation your fellowship on worship.—everything we say & do has God as the center of attention: see

In what we speak, to be joyful & edifying,

expressing gratitude for God’s provision;

in our decision making & interaction to be purely motivated by the fear of God (filial fear: a holy awe or reverence of God & his laws, which springs from a just view & real love of His divine character, leading us to shun & hate everything that can offend such a Holy Being, inclining us to aim at perfect obedience)

These intentional actions of praise & humility are born out of a watchful walk, submission to God’s word & will.

Then, as Spirit-filled Christians, we can be who & do what God calls & desires for us as we “walk in His will”.

(Thanksgiving time—put it into practice)