Foundations of Faith
KNOWING AND DOING GOD’S WILL (II)
In Mar00 we established that (1) God wants us to know His will and (2) He has a specific will for each of His children.
3. God has certain criteria that we must satisfy before we can know His will. (a) We must not be “conformed to this world” but “transformed by the renewing of [our] mind” in order to know “what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God” (Rom. 12:2). (b) We must “walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time” if we would understand what the will of the Lord is (Eph. 5:15-18). (c) We must not be allowing active sin in our lives, but daily confessing and repenting of known sin (Psa. 66:18). (d) We must sincerely want to be totally emptied of our own will and earnestly desire the Lord’s will for our lives. We must seek to be like our Lord who said, “I seek not My own will, but the will of the Father who has sent Me” (John 5:30); and “I delight to do Thy will, O My God; yea, Thy law is within My heart” (Psa. 40:8; Heb. 10:7; Luke 22:42). (See Assignment 5)
(e) We must be faithful in carrying out that which we already know to be God’s will if we would learn His will in new areas and for new decisions (John 7:17). In short, there is no way of knowing God’s will if our state of soul before Him is not right.
4. We must actively seek God’s will through prayer, dependence, and waiting upon God. David prayed, “In Thee, O Lord, do I put my trust … for Thy name’s sake lead me and guide me” (Psa. 31:1-3). Also, after praying that God would reveal to him any wicked way in him, David asked the Lord to lead him “in the way everlasting” (139:23,24). And immediately upon his conversion on the road to Damascus, Saul of Tarsus prayed, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” (Acts 9:6).
5. We must quiet our soul and spirit and allow the Holy Spirit liberty to communicate His will to us. Moses exhorted his people, “Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord” (Exod. 14:13; see also 2 Chron. 20:17). Elijah experienced in succession a strong wind, and earthquake, and a fire, but it was with “a still small voice” that the Lord revealed Himself to the prophet (1 Ki. 19:11-13). “Be still, and know that I am God,” we are exhorted (Psa. 46:10). And the Lord said of Israel, “Their strength is to sit still” (Isa. 30:7, 15).
Having laid the foundations, let us consider ways in which God’s will is revealed to us. First and foremost, it is revealed through the Scriptures. We are told that it is God’s will that we abstain from fornication (1 Thess. 4:3), that we give thanks in everything (5:18), and that none should perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9); 1 Tim. 2:4). And we certainly are not limited to those verses that explicitly state what God’s will is; surely the Scriptures are full of statements of God’s will-His commandments, His statutes, His words, His desires, and the perfect example given to us by the Man Christ Jesus-for us. For this reason
we ought to become as familiar as possible with God’s Word. Whenever we study the Bible, let us ask what we can learn about the character of God in the passage and then what we can learn about God’s will for our lives.
The Scriptures give mainly guidelines and general principles for our walk through this world. How does God reveal to us the specifics of His will concerning higher education, marriage, career, job, areas of service for Himself, expenditures of leisure time and money, purchase of material possessions, charitable giving, and so forth? Let me suggest a few ways as starters:
1. By the Scriptures. I do not mean to be repetitious. In a previous paragraph we considered the Scriptures as the means of providing general guidelines and principles as to God’s will for our lives. Here I refer to the Holy Spirit’s bringing a particular Scripture to mind that helps to confirm us in the will of God. As a personal illustration of this, a number of years ago while I was planning a business trip to the Netherlands the Lord seemed to burden my heart with stopping in London on the way home to visit a certain Christian couple there; I ticketed accordingly and reserved a rental car for pickup at the London airport. The morning I was to fly from Amsterdam to London I awakened to find snow falling heavily; on the radio I learned that the snowfall was heavy in the London area as well. What should I do? It was very tempting to call up and book a flight straight to New York. But I prayed. I sought to empty my mind of my personal fears and my own will. All of a sudden the words of 2 Cor. 12:8 came flooding into my soul:”My grace is sufficient for thee.” I was filled with peace that the Lord would safely lead me to my destination in the London suburbs. As I set out by car the snow on the roads was already melting and I had a wonderful visit with my friends.
2. By impressions. We have just shown how the Holy Spirit may impress a Scripture verse upon our soul to indicate God’s will for us in a certain matter. I would suggest that the Spirit speaks to our spirits in other ways as well, no doubt far more often than we are aware. For example, when driving, has the thought ever come into your mind, “You had better check the side view mirror once again before changing lanes”?
Sometimes when we pray for guidance, the Holy Spirit immediately impresses a thought or picture upon our minds. (For example, see Sep99, “Prayer for Mislaid Articles.”) But we need to be careful, especially if the guidance is exactly what we had hoped for, to make sure that we are truly emptied of our own will and that the guidance is consistent with God’s Word.
Perhaps more often we do not receive an answer immediately. It is important not to become discouraged at this point. Rather, we must continue to pray often and wait on the Lord for guidance in the particular matter. At the Lord’s perfect time, whether we are praying or not, the Holy Spirit may strongly impress upon our mind the guidance we are seeking. (See Assignment 6)
Running the Race
Assignment 5: Write out verses in Psalm 32 and Matthew 6 that show that we must seek to know and to do God’s will with single-minded dependence upon Him.
Assignment 6: Write out a total of four verses in Psalms 25, 27, and 37 that speak of our waiting on or for the Lord.