What Is God's Will For My Life?

Good Morning Beloved Family,
This is a day the Lord has made so let’s rejoice! Amen?
For those joining us for the first time today we are glad you are here with us this morning. 

Today's Message: What Is God's Will For My Life?

I am often asked, "What is God's will for my life?"
or "How can I know God’s will for my life?"
Knowing the will of God. How does one know what is God's will?

Early on in my preaching, it became sort of an essential aspect of my message. I recall when I began teaching the Bible, I was frequently asked what the message was going to be about. I was, however, never quite certain if it was because they are particularly interested, so as to prepare for it, or if it was the deciding factor as to whether or not they'd stay and listen. Sometimes, I'm still not...

I also recall one particular time after I gave my answer, someone asked, "So, what makes you think that you can say anything that already hasn’t been said before? The Bible has been preached for years!" 

I do know, that the books and passages of the Bible, has indeed been preached for thousands of years, however, I also know that through each person God assigns to the task, in His is generous grace, He also blesses each one of us with a unique skill set, varying talents and gifts, as well as passions. So I suppose,
you can never know the impact that the will of God may take you. I know in my case, it's been an insatiable desire to know Him more. 
  
There’s an endless string of decisions that are being made by people all through their lives, and quite often both young and old, want to know what God desires for them to do in a particular set of circumstances. For some, "Should I go to college after I graduate? What college should I attend? What courses do I take?" I frequently am asked, "Should I accept this career opportunity? Who should I marry? Should we put our children in public school, or home school? What about Christian schools?" And also "When should I retire? Does God want me to spend my retirement years serving Him, or is it OK just to do what I want?" I've been asked a great many questions pertaining God's will.

All are very exigent questions, throughout our lives, we all have extensive decisions to make...

How can we know what God wants us to do? There is usually a general confusion surrounding this question. There are those, who think that since God is mysterious, He is somehow disinclined to reveal to us know His will as if He gets some kind of amusement from concealing it. Many seem to approach the question, as if there is some sort of a divine lottery, hoping we can somehow get the lucky ticket. There are those who are awaiting a voice. Some kind of inner voice or external voice giving them a command for them to do something. This is likely, the most common.

So then does He give us impulses? Does He send us some direction? Yes, He does!
God doesn’t reveal Himself audibly anymore. He has closed the canon of Scripture. The Word of God is in totality complete. It is the, "Faith once for all delivered to the saints." God now speaks to us through His Word. I’m going to be very pragmatic in handling this.

Let me just say three words here, Matthew chapter 6. I'm know that's a familiar territory for many of you. As you already know, Matthew chapter 6, Jesus is instructing His disciples about how to pray. For those of you who may not be as acquainted with this Scripture, allow me to go over it quickly.

“Pray, then, in this way:

‘Our Father who is in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name. 
‘Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven. 
‘Give us this day our daily bread. 
‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 
‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’

For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions."

Matthew 6:9-15 

This is a routine kind of praying. So if you want to know God’s will, this is where you start. You seek God's will for you by praying for it, you start by asking Him for it... 

You are essentially saying to God, I am concerned that Your name be honored. I am concerned that Your kingdom be advanced, and I am concerned that Your will be done. If you want to know God's will, you pray for it.

Now let me interject, that you don't want to pray for it in the broadest sense, that God would just simply fulfill His will, in a prayer subsuming all time, space and eternity either. Praying for God's will is a personal thing. It’s a very personal thing. It's saying, "God, I want your will done." This is the mindset required, it's a necessary mindset that establishes a person in the will of God. But you have to want that. This must be our daily position. We want to be in the place of God’s will. We want God’s will to be done in and through our lives.

So, of course, Jesus, being the perfect servant the Lord Jesus set the example, who when facing the worst possible case scenario, a painful death on the cross, and all at the hand of those He came to preach to. And even upon facing this worst case scenario, the impending painful, horrible death on the cross, He knelt praying, "Father, Your will, not mine, be done."

If you truly desire to know God's will, that's imperative! It's critical.

Now, with respect, I'd also like to say, if you are at all concerned with having things go your way, your will, your plans, your fulfillment, you really do have very little, or no hope of fulfilling the will of God for your life. If you will recall, much earlier on in His life He said, "I have come to do the will of Him who sent me." And the apostle Paul followed Jesus by His example and himself, while facing potential death said, "The will of the Lord be done."

I believe that must be the underlying foundational mindset of anyone seeking to know God's will for their lives. Praying from your heart, setting aside your own agenda, your own wants and desires, seeking God's will be done, for a particular situation, whatever that might involve. I can promise you this, that if you do not have it from the heart, commitment to the will of God, the attitude needed, expressed through prayer, you will not experience God's will in its greatest fullness. 

The natural man, lives according to the flesh, that's why he seeks his own way, and as many us know, either through our own lives, or by experience with others, often becomes quite frustrated when he doesn't get it.

There are then two competing issues, or will's in your life. One is the desire of your own flesh, what you want, the way you want it, when you want it, how you want it; and there is the will of God. 

So a good question, we must all ask ourselves, is "Are you willing to do the will of God from the heart whatever it involves, whatever it means?" If there is even the slightest hesitation in your answer,

There is going to be a conflict, between your own will and the will of God. Holding onto your will, will not yield the will of God.

Now allow me to further explain or define the will of God for you so we know exactly what we’re talking about.

There is the will of decree. The will of purpose. The bound eternal plan of God, it is referred to in the Scriptures in a number of passages. The will of God that is His purpose that He does accomplish. It is the will expressed in the all too familiar passage of Romans 8:28. The will of divine purpose, as with the redemption of man.

He purposed His Son to become flesh and into the world to live and to die and to rise again and to descend to the right hand, and to send the Holy Spirit and establish the church. He purposed that the church would go into the world and preach the gospel message.

He has purposed that the church would be the collected redeemed that would be raptured.  
He has purposed there will be a period of time that will occur called the Tribulation, which will end with the return of Christ, the establishment of 1,000 year reign of Christ, the Millennium, which fulfills of all of the promises to Abraham and David. At the end of that time, the destruction of all of the ungodly men and demons and the establishment of the new heaven and the new earth, which is the eternal state. The sweeping plan of redemption is God’s will of purpose, and every purpose of the Lord shall be performed! 

You can believe it, you count on that, every word of every promise, every vision of every prophecy will be fulfilled.

"He made known to us the mystery of His will."
Ephesians 1:9

God's will, His eternal plan and purpose, which was mystery before He revealed it. He has revealed it to us! God’s will, which was once hidden, has now been revealed, which He purposes to express His kind intention toward us in Christ. Are you guys taking hold of that? The purpose of God to be kind to sinners and redeem us through Christ. 

"also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory."
Ephesians 1:11-15 

From the very beginning, it was His plan that we would receive an inheritance, "According to His purpose, and He works all these things after the counsel of His will."

So what then can we take away from all of this?
God's divine will, according to His eternal purpose and plans, which He is working out.

That brings us to God's will of desire, or the things God will's not to occur.. we know, that there are things that do not please God. For example, in Ezekiel 18, God says, "Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, 'rather than that he should turn from his ways and live?'" We also know, that God doesn’t find any pleasure in sin, an act of sin. God doesn’t find any pleasure in perpetual sinning. 

Beloved, pay close attention to this, He certainly does not find any pleasure in eternal sin. And that is essentially what Hell is. One example the beings, angels and people, existing forever in a state of sinfulness and permanent hatred of God; Yet God allows it. That remains a mystery.
This component of His will, remains somewhat mysterious to us, as it is not fully expounded in Scripture. If you would like, you can also read Luke 13 on your own.

So we have the will of God's purpose, the things that will come to pass, and the will of desire, the things that go against the grain of His own pleasure. 

Anyone know the next component of God's will?

The next component of God's will is the will of command. The commands found in Scripture that God wants us to obey. God’s will of command. However, God allows us each the freedom, or free will, as to obey or in many cases, disobey His commands.

So when people ask me, generally speaking, "What is God's will for my life?" I always explain, that pretty frankly, God does want something from you. He has a will for your life. Now, if He has a will for your life, don't you think it’s pretty obvious that He would like you to know what it is? I mean, that just makes sense? You can agree with that, would you not? 

Great, so we are able to at least make that association.. OK, so if God has a will for your life, and we can say that He does, and we have figured out that since He does, and it's pretty obvious He wants for you to know what it is, so where do you ascertain, in what obvious place, that He would have placed it? And usually, rather quickly, most respond in a questioning sense, "the Bible?" Bingo! 

As a Christian, a believer in Christ, we are limited to one source, one book, the Holy Bible! And that's where we can always go to determine God's will for our lives. God, in His infinite wisdom, has placed all the necessary tools needed for the Christian faith, all in one place... His Word.

Now, just to add a little something to that, I actually had a young man, exclaim, "No offense pastor, but I know that isn't right, because there is nothing written in the Bible about me! I wasn't even born yet!"

In revisiting the initial compelling question, does God have a will for your life, the definitive answer is, Yes! Yes, He does, Now, if He has revealed His will in Scripture and you aren’t doing His will revealed in Scripture, then what gives you the right to think that you can demand from Him, His will that isn’t revealed here?

Therein lies the denouement. You have no hope of discovering God's specific will for your life, which has not been, if you are not obeying God's will, which has been revealed in Scripture. Let start with the basic will of God. God desires you to be saved. And we know from Scripture, in Peter's account,
I believe it's recorded in 2 Peter, chapter 3. Now, if by chance I'm not completely accurate on which chapter or verse, no need to reach out to me to let me know that. (smiling.)
God is not slow or slack about His promise, but that He is patient toward you, not wishing that any shall perish, but for all to come to repentance. I can assure you that God, is not just hanging out somewhere, wasting His time, Peter knew this and was referring to God's final judgment. That's the reason God just doesn't "take care of Satan" now, as many have asked. God is patiently waiting, for those that are His own, which is you and me, to be saved, because He does not want you to perish in Hell. That's the reason why God has not just shut down the world.

However, as I have previously stated, I do believe, in these current events with the Covid-19 virus, that God is revealing His capacity to do so! Without warning or notice, the All Powerful God in fact literally can shut the world down! Rest assured, God, though being patient, will fulfill His promises of judgment upon the earth.

If you haven't embraced His offer for salvation, by confessing Jesus Christ as Lord, and repented of your sin, you are not saved. If you are not saved, you are not a Christian. If you are not a Christian, God's will for you, is that you will perish in Hell, for all of eternity. That's it! Period! And that said, nothing else really matters. If you don't have Jesus, you aren't capable of knowing or understanding anything else of God's will, this He has revealed to those who are His own. Those who are saved.
When you are in the will of God, you surrender your own will, to His. You're under the control of the Holy Spirit, which is revealed in Scripture and your life, and your relationships are changed by it.
Because you are literally dominated by the Spirit of God.

And this is how the world has succumbed to the will of Satan, resulting in the illusion of being a free agent versus being a "servant" for Christ. Therefore, the world has fallen into the trap drunkenness, adultery, sexual immorality, stealing, murder, gluttony etc. 

And if that be the case, you're going down or if you want to up, you must have a relationship with God, fellowship with Jesus. That's it, that's all there is to it. There's no other way.

"Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more. For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you."
1 Thessalonians 4:1-8

So, rather than ask what is God's will for my life, the more pertinent question now is.. 
and O Lord, I pray that they can see it clearly..

Are you going up?
Or are you going down?

And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;

the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.

Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen

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