I had been studying a couple of topics quite thoroughly since the last time I taught in case I was asked to teach again. So there was two to choose from in my mind. But I had recently bought a book on knowing the will of God and decided I would throw that into the list and ask my wife what she thought I should teach. As thick headed as I am, I did not see the irony of the request I made to God and the providence He had in providing a book I thought I bought because of who the author was! It did not take long before I knew what God's will was in this case, despite my lack of an eye for irony. The book was an eye-opener and God was gracious to me.

Knowing the will of God is not as hard a thing as you might have thought it was. God has a plan for every one of His children, but if you are having problems discerning God's will or His plan for your life, it is more than likely because you have not been doing His will in the first place! Have I lost you? Hang in there! It will get clearer.

Have you ever been in prayer and asked, "Lord, what is your will?" or, "What should I do, Lord?" I hope we all have but how did you get your answer? Did you feel like you were on an Easter egg hunt and God was up in heaven saying, "you are getting warmer"? Do you think that the answers come from a voice from heaven? "Go to India," it says. Or, do they come after you have slipped on a banana peel and landed on a picture of China and you say, "Ah ha! China it is." I think you know that this is not how God works. His will is not elusive and it is not the fortuitous conjunction of circumstances and impulses as some have suggested. There are concrete principles that may be simply stated and actually put into practice.

Let's begin with a simple assumption. Since God has a will for us, He must want us to know it, and it would makes no sense to hide it from us. If He wants us to know it, how could we expect him to communicate it to us in the most obvious way? Through the Bible, His revelation! What one needs to know about God's will is clearly revealed in the pages of His Word. God's will is, in fact, very explicit in Scripture. It is what might be called His "revealed will".

SALVATION

It is God's will that men be saved. Paul said, "For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our savior; who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth (1Tim.2: 3-4). It is God's will that men be saved. The first step in knowing God's will is to first do God's will; and that you be saved is where it all begins. If you are stumbling around in life and tossing up some periodic prayers to God but have never come on your knees to the foot of the cross and met Jesus Christ, then you are not even in the beginning of God's will. God has no reason to reveal to you anything particular about your life because you have not met qualification number one: Salvation. If you want to know God's will, then do God's will: be saved. Believers do God's will. Look at Mark 3:31-35. What is Jesus saying here? In order to be related to Him, one has to do the will of God. Turn it around; to do the will of God, one must be related to Jesus. See also 1John 2:15-17. Who is going to abide forever- those who do the will of God. If you have never committed your life to Christ, you can not expect anything at all from God. He owes you nothing. He is not obligated to you in even the slightest sense. If you do know Him, then tell someone who does not know Him this truth.

You say you do not know what God's will is, but I will tell you what His will is. First, that you know Christ and then that you tell your neighbors about Him. That is His will. We often sit around twiddling our thumbs, dreaming about God's will in some far distant future when we are not even willing to stand up on our feet, walk down the street, and do God's will right now.

As believers in God's family, if we do not know God's will, what are we? Uninformed? No. Searching? No. We are stupid. I know that sounds rough, but it is a biblical concept. Eph. 5:17 tells us not to be foolish but to understand what the will of God is. What is the difference? Nothing. We can help from being foolish. If we had no choice but to be foolish or stupid about God's will, the bible would not command us to "not be foolish." So how do we keep from being foolish? The next verse (18) tells us to "…be filled with the Spirit…" and that is the teaching of the word of God. People say, "Why hasn't God revealed to me who I should marry", or "Why won't He show me which job to take or which car to buy", etc. People expect answers to these and more without even doing that which God has clearly stated as His will: being Spirit filled.

Let's be more specific. What does it mean to be Spirit-filled? When you were saved, the moment you received Christ, the Holy Spirit came to live within you. There is no Christian who does not possess the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9). The Spirit does not come in doses. You cannot ask for an extra dose. It does not come and go. You cannot loose It. it is funny that sometimes people will pray that God would send them the Holy Spirit. He is already here! And with Him came completeness in Christ. God has given us everything we need as believers. 2 Peter 1:3 tells us that we do not need anything else. Do people need to ask for more love for so-and-so (Rom. 5:5), or more strength (Phil. 4:13), or patience or more this or that? No! We are complete, not lacking anything (Col. 2:10)! What are we looking for? What are we asking for? James said to ask for wisdom. What we need is wisdom - and that is the sense to know what you already have and not ask for it. If you have the Spirit, you have power.

The Spirit-filled life is to be saturated with the things of Christ, with His Word, His Person. To be controlled by the Spirit - to allow the influence of the Holy Spirit to control every aspect of your life is to be Spirit filled. So how do we do that? The only way is to read the book that discloses all He is. The bible. Read the word! But don't read it as just a collection of verses, read them the way they were written: with flow and context. A lot of those epistles can be read in less than half an hour. Read the same epistle every day for a month and you will be saturated in the word. Reading the Word of God is a life-long process. After a while you will not only know what the bible say, but where to find it as well. Don't be a concordance cripple. Read and know the Word. It is God's will. Some less important things in all of our lives could stand some planned neglect so that we might give ourselves to studying the Word of God. To be Spirit-filled is to live a Christ-conscious life. And there is no short cut to that.

1 Thes. 4:3-7 tells us that God desires every believer to be sanctified. What does sanctified mean? Sanctification is the process of making a believer holy, pure, set apart. Let's use the word pure. Paul is talking about practical purity and he gives us four principles in this text.

Stay away from sexual sin. It does not say avoid sex. But it does mean to stay clear away from certain things. Pornography is a good example of what to stay clear of. Sex was designed for the beauty of marriage and no where else. It would be absurd for anyone engaged in sexual immorality to think that they are doing God's will or for them to ask God to reveal His will to them. Why should God disclose any further will to such a person? Stay away from sexual immorality. It’s a simple principal to understand. You can be blessed by God only so long as you are controlling what you do for His honor. When lust controls you, you have crossed the line. It’s a simple principle.

Control your body. See 1Thes. 4:4. In Greek there are two possible meanings for this word vessel: wife or body. What Paul is saying is that we are to control our bodies. That is purity. Our bodies are to be kept in subjection to be sure that we are honoring God. I am not interested in telling you what is right for a person to wear to how much you should eat or whether smoking or drinking is all right; these are issues of a mature understanding of Christian liberty. But I will say that nothing, which gratifies the body to the dishonoring of God, can have a place in the will of God.

Subdue your passions. In verse 5, Paul tells us not to act like the rest of the world acts guided by lustful passion. Don't act like the godless. We are called to be light and salt. We are supposed to stick out like sore thumbs. But I must warn you: when a sore thumb sticks out, it gets bumped and there is pain. We will talk more about that later.

Treat others fairly. In verse 6 we are given our last principle. Do not take advantage of other people. Some people step on others' necks to get what they want. There are many ways to use others: in a business way or in a self- gratification way. Those who do not like to live by these rules are warned in verse 8 that if they mistreat others that they really mistreat and despise God. Really, the sum of what Paul is saying is in verse 7. God's calling - God's will is that we be sanctified, holy, pure.

 

We need to learn what submission is. In 1peter 2:3-15 we see that it is the will of God that we submit. What kind of submission is he talking about? There is in scripture the submission of children to parents believers to other believers, but Peter is calling for a specific submission that make you the best kind of citizen in the society in which you live.

Who is it that we are trying to reach? The world. If we are not the epitome of what a citizen should be in the world, we will certainly harm our testimonies. God not only commands our submission to those in authority, He clearly tells us the reason in verse 15. Do you know what critics of Christ look for in Christians? Faults. How are we going to prevent them from finding faults? Eliminate the faults. We need to put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. How do we silence the critics? By living an exemplary life within society. This is Peter's point. Christians take the lawful routes to make needed changes. He works and strives to be the best man he can be to make the best contribution to society he can make inside the law. And he does not abuse his freedom by hiding his malice under a blanket of Christian liberty. He does the right things not just some of the time, but all of the time because it is right and it is God's will.

Submit to bosses, authorities, and God lovingly and willfully because it is His will. Have you ever stopped and noticed that the world cannot distinguish us from itself? Why? Ever see a man with a Christian slogan on his bumper driving like a maniac in traffic? We ruin our witness when we do not submit and obey EVERY law of the land that does not contradict God's law. Now that is a challenge, isn't it? Try it for a day and see just how hard it really is. You will be surprised just how many things we neglect to do right in just obeying traffic laws! We need to be different. To be light and salt involves submission.

Jesus taught that real greatness centers in being of service to others. He also encouraged His disciple's aspirations for greatness. But in the will of God, greatness follows along behind suffering, often far behind. If we sign on with Jesus with greatness in mind, we had better be aware that suffering comes first.

Peter, in 1Peter 5:10 tells us that suffering is par for the course for Christians. This is why he wrote in 4:19 that it is the will of God. Now you may be thinking, "boy, do I suffer. I bear a real cross. My parents or my husband or my mother-in-law is my cross." But that is not the kind of suffering Peter is talking about. Look at verse 3:17. We are to suffer, not because we have failed to be the right kind of young person, not because we are antagonistic, grumpy, lazy, or out of whack somewhere, but we should suffer for doing what is right. Verse 4:13 tells us that we ought to be happy about it. Look also at verse 14-16. Do you see what is par for the course? If you are a Christian who is living a godly life in an ungodly world, YOU WILL SUFFER. 2Tim. 3:12 also makes this perfectly clear.

Now, what if you are not suffering any persecution? It is possible you are not living a godly life in the face of the world. This is a hard truth for a Christians to contemplate and realize. Believe me, I know. I feel convicted even as I type these words. Life can get real cushy, can it not? If we go out and begin to tell people to repent and believe, you will feel persecution. But it is more than handing out tracts. Evangelism involves living a godly life in the face of an ungodly world and it will bring persecution because the world does not like Jesus. If you are waltzing through life comfortably, it either means you are not living a godly life or you are living it out in the bushes somewhere where the ungodly world cannot see it.

Suffering is linked to faith. This is revealed in Phil 1:29. It is given to us to believe and to suffer. This is God's will. Look at the Acts ch.4. Here is the record of how Peter and John both suffered in the midst of preaching Christ. It got real ugly when they got the opportunity to preach to the Sanhedrin! But they did not run away or back down. Sure they were persecuted but they moved ahead in confidence that this was God's will and opportunity. But what was probably the most interesting thing about the whole thing was that after they were persecuted for preaching Christ to undoubtedly the toughest crowd to reach, they went home to the brethren, praising God and having a wonderful time, hoping to go back!

This is a beautiful thing, you see, because they submitted themselves to suffering. They were not trying to slip the gospel into someone's back pocket. This kind of boldness brings opportunities you never had before, and God gave them even more boldness.

This is one of the problems with evangelism today, in this world of tolerance. Christians are not willing to stand nose-to-nose with the world and tell it like it is concerning Jesus Christ. The gospel is emasculated to accommodate everybody's prejudice. But we need boldness. Pray that God will reveal to us the boldness waiting inside.

I am not talking about masochism here; for no one should take pleasure in being abused, spiritually or otherwise. And we do not want to go around saying, "Poor me. I am persecuted. Am I not spiritual?" We are talking about a willingness to be bold and face the world and let the chips fly. Do not EVER water down the gospel. If the truth offends, then let it offend. People have been living their whole lives in offence to God; let them be offended for a while. Just remember, the world does not persecute Christians because they dislike them; they do it because they dislike Jesus. Paul said that he was enduring the suffering that was meant for Jesus. Are you willing to suffer for Him who suffered for you? Are you willing to confront the world? That is the will of God.

God's will is that you be saved, Spirit-filled, sanctified, submissive, and suffering. His word makes all this clear. But, undoubtedly, you want to know what specifically is God's will in your life. If you are doing all five of the basic things, then do whatever you want! If all five elements of God's will are operating in your life, who is running your wants? God is! "Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart" (Ps. 37:4). But remember, God did not say He would fulfill all the desires there, if you are living a godly life, He will give you the right desires.

We need to be on the move for Christ. Opportunities happen when we are living a godly life because God directs our desires. It is easier to turn a tractor-trailer around when it is moving than when it is sitting still. Get into the mainstream of what God is doing and let Him lead you to that perfect will. Don't sit around waiting for that celestial crane to move you towards God's will. Do His revealed will and get moving on the desires in your heart for Him. Acts 16 is a good example of moving for Christ, being turned and hitting Gods perfect will.

The will of God is not primarily a place. The will of God concerns you as a person. If you are the right you, you can follow your desires and you will fulfill His will. But as a final bit of scriptural advice, read Romans 12:1-2. And whatever happens in your life, along the way give thanks, for "this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you" (1Thes. 5:18). He is using it to shape you into His will.