This week we started the first in a four week series on "Discovering God's Will". How do you know what God really wants for you life? How do you even know if you are living within the parameters of God's Will. These are all questions that we ask from time to time. The other question that so often haunts us is what do we do when we find ourselves in the "Battle of the Wills"? This is the area of our life where our "will" usually superseds God's will. We toss and turn, we pray, we seek advice but how do we know if we are really where God wants us to be? This week I am using these two verses:
Jeremiah 29:11 11For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Proverbs 3:4-64 Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. 5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. 6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. [a]
I think that so many people take the first verse out of context thinking that by believing in God and serving him leads to prosperity. The verse says that the plans are to prosper you. This means that he is going to use you for his glory and purpose. This can be deceiving because when they look around and people have more than they have, they say, "hey wait but I serve the Lord more than they do". Living in God's will means that we are readily available to him and what he wants us to do for him. It does not meant that we serve him and he waves a magic wand over us and presto we get everything that we want.
In this series we will discuss the three types of God's Will.
The Providential Will
The Moral Will
The Individual Will
The Providential Will is God's plan for the world and what he is executing from beginning to end. Like for instance, the second coming of Christ. It is going to happen whether you want to believe it or get on board with it. God has always used ordinary people to carry out his divine Providential Will. The question that we must ask our selves is whether we are going to get on board with it.
The Moral Will of God is the way that the scripture lay out the instructions for our life. It is impossible for us to live out the will of God and contradict his word. God cannot lie and he can not contradict himself. If our behavior is against what God's word says, then we are in conflict with God's will. Even though this seems like a no-brainier, it is not. We are so driven by self motives that we justify our sin and even use Scripture out of context to support our decisions.
The last will is the Individual Will of God. This is where our plans meet with Gods plans so that we may prosper his kingdom. This is where we must make a decision and make it right away. This is the should "I stay or should I go", to borrow some theology from The Clash. This is a never ending process as we make decisions throughout our life. You see where we are today is where we have prepared to be. The place that we stand is because of decisions that we have made in our life. We have all been dealt circumstances but then out of those surroundings we made decisions and so we have arrived where we are right now. I remember growing up my football coach used to say, "Who you are to become you are now becoming". So much of this has to do with whether we sought the will of God before we made decisions or whether we pushed our will off on God and asked him to rubber stamp it. I hope that this week you will listen to the pod-cast (http://www.lakeviewonline.net) and share with me your thoughts on this subject. I hope you have a very blessed week and slow down long enough to discern God's will in your life
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