Matthew 6:9
"This, then, is how you should pray: " 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
In order for God’s Kingdom to COME, His will MUST be done ON EARTH as it is IN HEAVEN.
We must do God’s will.
In order to DO God’s will, we must first know what His will is for us.
God’s Kingdom is made up of people who know God’s will for themselves and for God’s Kingdom.
So, the obvious question is the one you’ve asked yourself a million times sense becoming a Christian:
What is God’s will for my life?
It is the RIGHT question, but we are not going about discovering it the right way.
We’ve all come up with a number of methods for finding it.
There’s the “Random Finger Method.”
You close your eyes, open your Bible, stab your finger down on the page and then open your eyes to discover His will for your life.
Then there's “Astonishing Miracle Method.”
Pray for a burning bush. There you will find the will of God.
We have the “Cast the Fleece Method.”
Test God to see what he wants you to do.
We have the “Still Small Voice Method.”
Wait for God to speak in a still, small way.
We have the “Open Door Method.”
If God opens up an opportunity, it is His will.
Another version of this is the “Closed Door Method.”
If it is too difficult, it is not God’s will.
I’ve done ALL of these.
I’m not saying these are completely without merit.
But we’re acting as if we can just point a satellite dish in the right direction and pick up the signals God is sending.
What if spending all of our time searching for God’s will is actually making it harder?
Maybe trying to find a shortcut to the mind of God is not the best way.
Jesus’ first words to His disciples were, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Jesus gave these men all the information they needed to do God’s will.
The last words of Jesus to His disciples were, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations.”
We discover that these men are now ready to accomplish God’s will.
These disciples did not say to Jesus, “Excuse us, Sir, but before we follow you, can you just tell us what God’s will is for our lives?”
No. They dropped everything and walked with Him.
Moment-by-moment, and day-by-day.
And this, clearly, became God’s will for their lives.
Let’s deal with a false expectation associated with seeking God's will.
What most of us really want is for God to reveal the future to us.
We want to know where we’re headed.
We think, if we knew, we could be preparing for it and not wasting our time.
That is putting the cart before the horse.
Certainly we should have goals and work toward them.
But the biblical principle is about living in the present by trusting the Lord.
Believing that He will direct us.
Believing that He will guide us towards what He wants us to do in the future.
Do you think if I knew where I would be today back in 1979 I could have better prepared myself for the present???
Or would I have made a horrible mess of things?
I got here by living by faith.
I had to trust in the Lord each day.
I didn’t always know what was next. No. I NEVER knew what was next!
That is the process through which God prepared me for this moment.
We are to make ourselves available to the Lord, and He then directs us.
He can only accomplish His will for our lives if we allow Him too.
We do not need to know the future. Sorry!
That is for Him to decide. Sorry!
Hasn’t He promised in His Word to guide and direct our lives?
Therefore, by faith, we must accept that this is exactly what He is doing.
And when we let Him lead, He gives us the abilities to accomplish His will in our lives.
But God cannot direct us if we do not let him direct us.
Romans 12:2
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.
We are to be transformed from living a life where we seek worldly rewards, where we have selfish goals to one of living for the Lord.
2nd Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
By living a godly life, by rejecting worldliness and letting God transform us, then, and only then can He accomplish His will for our lives.
He will give us the LIFE WE WANT!
Not because it is what we want, but because when He leads us in to it, it becomes a life we want!
Okay, okay.
I know you want something you can write down, something to use as a guide.
The Bible doesn’t tell us which pair of shoes to put on in the morning, or who we are to marry, or whether we are to be a baker or a bricklayer, a salesperson or a physician!"
But, it does give us principles by which we can make really good decisions.
Isaiah 30:21
Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it."
1. God leads us through His written Word.
Psalm 119:105
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
2. God leads us through the inner prompting of the Holy Spirit.
Proverbs 16:9
In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.
3. God leads us through the counsel of wise, qualified, trustworthy people.
Psalm 1:1
Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.
4. God leads us into His will by giving us an inner assurance of peace.
Colossians 3:15
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.
So, what is the full potential for us if we allow God’s will to direct us?
Isn’t Jesus our example?
Jesus went about being directed by doing what He saw the Father doing.
John 5:19
Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.
What was Jesus directed by the Father to do in His earthly ministry?
Acts 10:38
How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.
Jesus could have just come down and died for our sins.
Instead, He also demonstrated what the Father really wanted to happen here on earth by healing, delivering, and carrying out the work of the kingdom.
It was the will of God for the sick to be healed, the lame to walk, and the demons to be cast out!
Jesus demonstrated to us that:
The kingdom of God is where God reigns and where His will is done.
That is what Jesus showed us.
If we go about doing what we are directed to do by Jesus, will we not be used like Jesus to further the Kingdom of God on the earth?
Based on the work of Jesus:
We know that the kingdom of God includes physical bodies being healed:
Luke 10:9
Heal the sick who are there and tell them, 'The kingdom of God is near you.'
The kingdom of God includes casting out demons, and setting the captives free.
Luke 11:20
But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you.
Where God reigns and His will is done, there His Spirit also reigns!
Romans 14:17
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,
The idea of God's will being done here on earth just exactly as it is in heaven, is completely foreign to some Christians.
Why? Because it sounds too good to be true!
The reason so many Christians today are living far below God's standard here on earth, is because they have accepted human reasoning and experience over what the Word of God has to say.
They believe it's normal for a Christian to be sick because they aren't getting their prayers answered for healing.
They don't believe that demons are really at work, because they've never seen anybody do what Jesus commanded and cast them out.
How is the church any different from the rest of the world, if we both have just as much sickness and just as many people dying from disease?
People in the early church were getting healed right and left.
Everybody who came to Jesus to be healed got what they needed!
When Jesus told them to lay hands on the sick and they would recover...
There was no hesitation about checking to see if it was the will of God.
We need to re-examine the early church experience, and bring it forward.
God's Word was not presented with just words!
1st Corinthians 4:20
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.
God wants His will to be done on earth, just as it is done in heaven.
In heaven, there is no poverty.
There is no sickness or disease.
There are no symptoms of a fallen world.
We all dream of going to heaven someday, but how many of us believe God when He tells us that He wants His perfect will done here on earth, just like it is in heaven?
Discovering Gods will involves the following two things:
1. Asking what most glorifies God in any particular action.
2. Studying the Scriptures to see what they say about your daily living.
I tell couples that if they want their marriages to work they must BOTH do their DAILY work!
Then and only then will they be able to solve the larger issues that they face.
The key is wanting God’s will, not our own.
Psalm 37:4
Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.
God’s ultimate concern is not to get you or me from point A to point B along the quickest, easiest, smoothest, clearest route possible.
His ultimate concern is that you and I know Him more deeply as we trust Him more completely.
What if God’s will is simply that we have a meaningful, and fulfilling relationship with His Son, Jesus?
And what if that relationship is the very thing that guarantees that we will have a meaningful and fulfilling future????
What if Jesus really is the answer to all of our questions?
