How do I understand what God’s will is for my life? Have you ever heard someone say or maybe you, like me, have said these words… “I’m searching for God’s will” When I hear this statement this morning, it sounds as if I believe the will of God is lost.
For some, God becomes some cosmic Easter Bunny who has hidden His will, like eggs, and expects us to search under every bush and rock to find the prize egg. He sits on His throne saying, “You’re getting warmer!”
Maybe you think God’s will comes through some dramatic experience. Let’s say that you’re walking down the sidewalk and you step in a left over banana sandwich and you say; “I hear You Lord. I am supposed to go to India and feed the hungry” Or you dream one night that you are planting a huge garden of chili peppers and decide, from the dream that God must be calling you to go to Chile as a full-time missionary.
Does God have a will for me and is there any way to understand the will of God for my life? Yes God has a will for you and if God has a will He must want us to understand it.
I want to look at the five steps of unquestionable will of God for your life.
1. God’s will is that I be saved: 2Peter 3: 9
There is no “will” unless there has been a salvation experience. It amazes me how many people want God to give them some kind of direction, yet they have never gone the direction of the cross. “It is God’s will that people be saved.
There are people who 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. If this is you then you are not even in the beginning of God’s will.”
People will come seeking God’s will for their life yet they refuse to let go of their grip on this world.
The only thing I can tell you is that FIRST you must surrender your heart and life to Jesus. That is step number one.
John MacArthur says “There is a world out there that needs Jesus Christ. God wants them to be saved and you and I are the vehicles for the transportation of the gospel.” (pg. 18)
John 6: 37-40 “37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. 40 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.””
1Thess. 5: 8 “8 But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.”
1Tim. 2:3, 4 “3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
You say you don’t know what God’s will is. Above everything else in this world God’s will is NUMBER ONE that you come to Jesus Christ and be saved. Not only does God want you to know Jesus as Savior but he wants your neighbors to know Him as well.
Too many sit around dreaming of some far off land in the distant future yet they are not even willing to stand up and walk in His will in the here and now. God’s number one desire for you to be in His will is to be saved.
2. God’s will is that I be Spirit-filled:
MacArthur asked, in his book; “If we do not know the will of God, what are we? Uninformed? No. Searching? No. We are being foolish.”
Now you might think that statement is a bit rough and uncalled for but listen to what Paul says in Eph. 5: 17NIV “17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.”
Do you remember the illustration I used last week, with the packet of green tea and a glass of water? I have often told you that when we ask Jesus into our hearts the Holy Spirit moves right in and this is true. So why do I so often find myself praying for God to send His Spirit to our services? How many times have I set in churches and heard sincere people pray or I have prayed myself, “Oh God, send Your Spirit, or God give us more of Your Spirit,” as if The Holy Spirit comes in doses”
I have to confess that I am guilty. You have heard me pray for the Spirit to come and fill this place. If you are here and you are saved…the Holy Spirit is here, RIGHT?
At the moment I received Jesus Christ as Lord in my life, His Spirit took up residence in me.
Just like the packet last week, if you don’t tear the end off of the packet it doesn't matter how much you stir the water, nothing will happen.
In all its concentrated form the powder inside the packet is useless unless it gets released.
The Holy Spirit is in the Christian all the time as a compact, concentrated, powerful, and personal force of divine energy.
The question is, has He ever been able to release that power?
Ro. 8: 9NIV - 9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.” If you don’t have the Spirit, you might want to back up to #1
Ro. 5: 5NIV - 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”
2 Pt. 1: 3NIV - 3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.”
Acts 1: 8NIV - 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."”
When the disciples were on the boat and the storm was raging around them, Peter looked and saw Jesus walking on the water he asked Jesus “Can I come to You?”
Why in the world would Peter want to get out of the boat and walk out on the water to where Jesus was? He knew that the only place to be was where Jesus was. That was the place of power. That was the place of security.
Peter never thought about the fact that he couldn't walk on water. All he knew was he was scared and he wanted to be where Jesus was.
Peter was most powerful when he was standing next to Jesus. But when Jesus was arrested and Peter denied knowing Him his power was gone. Peter repented and when Pentecost came he was filled the very same power that he knew, standing right next to Jesus Himself.
Peter began to do some mighty powerful things because that same power that once stood next to him was alive and working in him.
Do you know what the Spirit filled life is? It’s being saturated with the things of Christ…with His Word…with His person. How do we do this? By getting in His word, which is why we have been issued the challenge to read the book of Philippians for the month of October. The more we saturate our lives with His Word the more we able to release the power of the Holy Spirit to fill every nook and cranny in our lives.
To be Spirit filled is to live a Christ-conscious life, and there is no short cut to doing it. The only way you or I can be saturated with the thoughts of Christ is too saturate ourselves with the Word of God. There is no secret formula to becoming “super Christian.”
God’s will is, not only that you be saved but also filled with his Spirit.
3. God’s Will is for me to be Sanctified:
What does sanctified mean? Let’s use the word pure and look at 1 Thessalonians 4: 3-7.
“1Th 4:3-7 NIV - 3 It is God's will that you should be sanctified: [pure] that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, 5 not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; 6 and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister. The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before. 7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.”
Macarthur writes “It is absurd for a young person (or anyone else) who is living in sexual impurity to say, “God, show me Your will.” Such a person is not even doing what this text of Scripture says is His will. Why should God disclose some further will?” (pg. 38)
Not only are we to keep ourselves sexually pure but we are to treat others fairly.
“Some people step on other people to get what they want or to get where they want to be in life. Don’t do it because the Bible makes it clear that “the Lord is the avenger of all such.”
You may not like those rules and feel that God is narrow minded.” Then verse 8 is for you. “He who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.” (42)
2Tim. 2: 21-26NIV 2Ti 2:21-26 NKJV – “21 Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work. 22 Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 23 But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. 24 And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, 25 in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, 26 and [that] they may come to their senses [and escape] the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to [do] his will.”
Being sanctified…holy…set apart for God is a mighty powerful weapon in the hands of God.
God’s will is for you to be, first of all, saved. Second His will is that you be Spirit filled. Third His will is for you to be sanctified.
