Finding the Will of God
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intro
intro
“The safest place to be is in the will of God” - Corrie Ten Boom.
This is a woman who helped Jewish people escape concentrations caps by hiding them in her house. Had she been caught her fate would have been the same as those she tried to helped.
Tracking the will of God
Tracking the will of God
The KoiSan are the best trackers in the world. Their bows dont kill an animal by instant force, they use poison that can takje minutes to take effect and an antilope can get very far away in 10 minutes.
So they have to track it, sometimes for many km’s.
At times, when the sand is soft its easy to follow the trail. And at trimes in our life its also easy to follow the path of God.
But sometimes the animal crosses a stream or runs over hard fground.
When this happened the animal leaves no trackible trace. So what do they do? They just guess the direction? No. That will always lead to failure.
When they loose the trail they go back to the last track they found and they begin doing something called casting.
They move 5m out and look around the last in a complete circle. If they find no tracks they move 10m out, then 15, then 20, they can cast as far as 50m on a circle aroun=d the last confired trace and everntually the hard ground will end, or the animal will have left the stream and they will find the ytrack again.
they just look foir clues.
This often happens to us as well. We come to a situation where we cannot easly discren which way God wants us to go. And the last thing we should do is guess.
When we loose the obvious trail, we must also begin casting. Looking around for clues as to which direction God wants us to go.
This is how the Christians casts for the will of God:
1. Walk by Faith
1. Walk by Faith
5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
These two verses have encouraged believers everywhere in their quest for God’s guidance, and for those who have sincerely met the conditions, the promise has never failed.
But when we say, “I’m trusting in the Lord,” what are we really affirming?
That we belong to God.
That we belong to God.
No unbeliever could honestly rest on the words of Proverbs 3:5–6. While a sovereign God can rule and overrule in the life of any person, saved or lost, it is clear that the life of the unsaved person is motivated and energized by the world, the flesh, and the devil.
Only a believer can have the guidance of the indwelling Holy Spirit or understand the teachings of the Scriptures, and only a believer would really want to understand and obey the will of God.
That God has a plan for our lives.
That God has a plan for our lives.
21 There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand.
It is inconceivable that our loving Heavenly Father would give His Son to die for us, and then abandon us to our own ways!
We are not our own because we have been purchased by God, so it’s reasonable that our Master should have a perfect plan for us to fulfill for His glory.
Ephesians 2:10 assures us that the good works God wants us to accomplish have already been determined;
in Philippians 2:12–13, God assures us that He works in us to accomplish His good pleasure.
The talents we were born with and the gifts we received at conversion are brought together by the Holy Spirit so that we can do what God has called us to do.
That this plan is the best thing for us.
That this plan is the best thing for us.
How could a holy God will for His children anything less than His best, and how could a loving God plan anything that would harm us?
We have no reason to fear the will of God, because His plans come from His heart.
11 The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
Unless we see the will of God as the expression of the love of God, we’ll resist it stubbornly, or do it grudgingly, instead of enjoying it.
Faith in God’s love and wisdom will transform our attitude and make the will of God nourishment instead of punishment.
That the Father will reveal His will in His time.
That the Father will reveal His will in His time.
It’s through “faith and patience” that we receive what God promises, and it’s as dangerous to run ahead of the Lord as it is to stubbornly lag behind.
2 Also, that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good; and he that hasteth with his feet sinneth.
9 Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.
The horse rushes ahead and the mule won’t budge, and both attitudes are wrong.
Even the great Apostle Paul didn’t always know exactly the way God was guiding, and he had to pause in his work and wait for divine direction.
2. Commitment
2. Commitment
Knowing and obeying the will of God can’t be a halfhearted endeavor on our part, a hobby we indulge in when there’s an emergency or when we “feel like it.”
God wants us to trust Him with all our heart and acknowledge Him in all our ways.
Successful athletes make winning their full-time pursuit, and this shows up in the way they eat, sleep, exercise, and relate to their coaches and teammates.
The word for this is commitment, and commitment involves obedience.
13 Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded.
In the Book of Proverbs, the wise father repeatedly gives his son loving calls to obedience.
1 My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments:
20 My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother:
1 My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.
The will of God isn’t a curiosity for us to study, it’s a command for us to obey;
The will of God isn’t a curiosity for us to study, it’s a command for us to obey;
God isn’t obligated to reveal His will unless we’re willing to do it.
17 If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.
This commitment is spelled out in Romans 12:1–2, another familiar passage about the will of God.
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Before I can “prove by experience” what God’s will is, and discover that His will is “good, pleasing and perfect” (NIV), I must give Him my body, my mind, and my will, a total commitment of my total being.
3. Instruction
3. Instruction
1 My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments:
13 Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life.
9 Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.
In order to “trust in the Lord,” we must have His Word to instruct us, because “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”.
Scripture is “the word of faith” which generates and nourishes faith in our hearts, and we can depend on His Word.
5 Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
To deliberately act apart from the instruction of the Scriptures is to rebel against the revealed will of God.
13 Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded.
To ignore the Word of God is to deprive ourselves of the guidance we need for making the decisions of life.
27 Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge.
Most of the situations, opportunities, and decisions the average person encounters in life are already dealt with in the Word of God.
Consult a topical index to the Bible, or even to the Book of Proverbs, and you’ll see how thoroughly Scripture deals with the practical affairs of life.
Of course, we can’t expect the Bible to specifically tell us the name of the person we should marry, which job we should accept, what car we should buy, or where to spend our vacation, but if we’re saturated with God’s wisdom and sincerely seeking His will, we’ll be ready for Him to guide us by His Spirit and the providential circumstances of life.
24 Man’s goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?
God overruled Joseph’s brothers’ envy and used their evil deeds to build Joseph’s faith and save Jacob’s family (Gen. 50:20).
At the time, nobody could understand what the Lord was doing, but He was working out His perfect plan.
In the school of faith, sometimes we don’t know what the lesson was until we’ve passed—or failed—the examination!
Reading and meditating on God’s Word ought to be a daily habit with us.
34 Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.
If you want your faith and spiritual discernment to mature, there’s no substitute for the disciplined, systematic reading of the whole Word of God.
But there’s another factor involved, and that’s prayer, because the Word of God and prayer go together .
9 He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.
If I won’t listen to God’s instruction, why should God listen to my petition?
4. Counsel
4. Counsel
18 Every purpose is established by counsel: and with good advice make war.
If experienced generals seek counsel as they wage war, shouldn’t we seek counsel for the battles of life?
It’s dangerous to rely on our own wisdom and experience and to ignore the wisdom and experience of other believers who have successfully walked with the Lord.
15 The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise.
The first source of wise counsel is Christian parents.
22 Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.
1 A wise son heareth his father’s instruction: but a scorner heareth not rebuke.
Not everybody has the privilege of being raised in a godly home, but even then, the Lord often provides “substitute parents” who can share the wisdom of the Lord.
Christian friends can also listen, counsel, and pray.
9 Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so doth the sweetness of a man’s friend by hearty counsel.
How we accept and apply rebuke is a test of how devoted we are to truth and wisdom and how sincere we are in wanting to know God’s will.
31 The ear that heareth the reproof of life abideth among the wise.
Friends who flatter us and avoid telling us the truth are only doing us harm.
23 He that rebuketh a man afterwards shall find more favour than he that flattereth with the tongue.
Conclusion:
Our Lord Taught us to pray and each day our prayers should include the will of God.
“Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven”
But to pray for the will of God and yourself not activly persue his will is a divine waste of time.
Praying for a wife.