Reinhard
1 God’s Will and Your Will
Jer 29:11-13 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord , thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. 12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. 13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
God has clearly shown His Will in His written Word, the Bible. God has promised us peace. Through Jesus Christ, we can have peace with God and have the peace of God that passes all understanding!
God has promised to answer our prayers! We can study His Will, that is His Written Word, the Bible and then pray according to His Will. God has promised that as we abide in Him and His Words abide in us, we can ask what we will and it shall be done unto us!
John 15:7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
God in his sovereignty has made clear in His written Will that we as believers have a part in using our own will as we pray and claim God's promises.
There are areas for our lives where it is clear what God expects from us. There are other areas in our lives, where we are trusted to make good choices based on the wisdom and abilities that God has given us.
God in his sovereignty stands behind His Written Word. It is much better than having an insurance policy. As we are in relationship with our Heavenly Father through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, we can claim God's promises! We cannot earn God’s favor or grace by works. We simply chose to believe God and stand on His promises to us.
One Wednesday evening, I heard a sermon that was on 'John 15:7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you'. God had promised answered prayer!
The next day I was able to pray, claim God's promise and then see the prayer answered. Part of my duties at the time was overseeing a group of mechanics. The next day at work my supervisor challenged me to see about getting an inoperable vehicle fixed. I had the opportunity to pray. In a short while, I had the insight of how to have a needed part made out of another part. I told a mechanic that if he would make the part, he could have the rest of the day off. In a couple of hours the part was made and fitted. The vehicle was working again. I began to see that we can ask specifically based on God’s Word and believe for results.
We can study God's Word, the Bible, and find God's Will for our lives. We can research God's promises and then claim them.
As I was growing up in Connecticut, my parents would take me regularly to a church where the pastor would ask the members for testimonies. That is, to tell of how they had seen God's intervention and help in their lives during the past week. My dad would often start his 'testimony' by quoting from Psalm 103. I found out that God truly stands behind His Word and His promised benefits.
Five blessings that are God’s Will
Psalm 103:2-5 lists five benefits that are clearly God’s Will for believers today:
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities;
who healeth all thy diseases;
Who redeemeth thy life from destruction;
who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;
Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
While there are many other benefits to being a child of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, this passage provides a great starting points for areas that we can believe God’s provision for. We claim God's promises; we act on them!
1. Forgivesness of sins: '3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities;'
God forgives all our iniquities as we ask Him to. Iniquities can be defined as habitual sin. As Christians, we don’t plan on sinning. However, if we do, we can ask God for forgiveness and He has promised to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
The blood of Jesus Christ covers our sins. We cannot pay for our sins through our own efforts. Jesus Christ on the cross once and for all paid for our sins. At the same time, we have to ask for God to forgive us of our sins.
Heb 9:12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
In the Old Testament, the Israelites had to bring animal sacrifices for a covering of their sins. Jesus Christ, once and for all time, paid for our sins on the cross. When we become a Christian, we receive that forgiveness that Jesus paid for. If we sin again, we can ask for forgiveness and receive complete cleansing. Jesus is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness!
A followup verse is 2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
God promises to forgive our sins as we repent by turning from wickedness. Each of us has to judge ourselves in the light of God’s Word on what sin is in our lives. We want to obey God with his help! If we recognize that we are having trouble overcoming a sin in our life, we can pray and ask God for help in overcoming temptation. More will be said later in this book. A favorite verse on this topic is: Matt 26:41
41 Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."
2. Healer of diseases: ' who healeth all thy diseases;'
God has promised to heal all of our diseases as we trust Him! We can see in the Bible that God healed people in the Old Testament. God healed people when our Lord Jesus Christ was on earth. God healed people in the book of Acts. Peter, one of the disciples, said that it was not their power but the Name of Jesus, that had made a man whole. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. The Name of Jesus Christ has the same power today as in the first century.
God made healing available to the children of Israel under the Old Covenant:
Ex 15:26 and said,"If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you."
As Christians, we are under the New Covenant, that is, the New Testament. We have a better Covenant than the first Covenant. God healed people in the OId Testament who came to Him in faith. God is still willing and able to heal us in our present time!
Some Christians are not convinced it is God’s will to heal them. This topic will be addressed more in a later chapter. I believe that it as much God’s will to heal people physically as it is to save them spiritually. Just as in salvation, the Word of God has to be shared with the person. The Word of God must be heard and then acted upon.
3. Protection: 'Who redeemeth thy life from destruction;'
God has promised to redeem our life from destruction. This applies both spiritually and physically. We know that when we become a Christian, we have eternal life and are headed for heaven. At the same, as we live wholeheartedly for God, we have the angels of God around us, protecting us.
Psalms 34:7 The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.
As we claim and speak God’s promises of protection over our lives, the angels are listening!
Psalms 103:20 Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.
God’s promise of protection is better than any contract or policy that man can make or give!
Psalms 91:9-11 Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; 10 There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. 11 For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
Psalms 121:7 The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
4. Lovingkindness and tender mercies: 'who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;'
We claim God’s great loving kindness and mercy in our lives!
God simply asks us in turn to be merciful to others.
Matt 5:7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
God promises that as we walk in the fear of the Lord (defined in Proverbs as hating evil), His great mercy is available for us.
Ps 103:11 For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
Ps 103:17 But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children;
5. Renew our youth: 'Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.'
We can put God’s Word in our mouth and be satisfied by it! We can meditate on God’s Word! We can read it out loud! We can confess it over our lives and our families.
A well know verse on being renewed like an eagle is: Isaiah 40:31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
As we spend time in God’s Word, studying it, thinking on it, praying it and sharing it, we can be strengthened! God’s Word is unlike natural man’s words.
Jesus said, John 6:63b the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
We think of Caleb in the Old Testament who after being sent as a spy into the promised land and then was delayed forty years, said he was as strong then as he was forty years earlier:
Joshua 14:11 As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in.
We know that God kept Moses strong at one hundred and twenty years of age:
Deut 34:7 And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.
God's will is to keep up us
We know that it is God’s will to keep us! We can claim God’s keeping power over our lives!
Jude 24 Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
Research God’s promises to know God’s will for our lives! Study God’s Word directly for ourselves. Sadly, there are misconceptions about God’s Will. One will be mentioned here.
Some think that Paul’s ‘thorn in the flesh’ mentioned in 2 Corinthians was an actual physical ailment when in fact the passage clearly explains that it was a demonic attack.
Paul could have the victory over the enemy each day through God’s grace. We too can have God’s victory each day. We too can resist the devil’s attacks on our lives and make him flee from us.
2 Cor 12:7-9 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. 8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. 9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Sometimes we hear of well known Christians, for whom God’s promises did not seem to work. We have a choice of looking to someone else's experiences or to looking at God’s clear promises in the Bible.
The example is given of how an airplane pilot has to rely on his instruments when outside there are no visible landmarks because of bad weather or darkness. In the same way, we should always keep looking to Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith.
Heb 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
We are mindful of God’s sovereignty. God is in heaven and we are here on earth. At the same time, God in his sovereignty stands behind his Word.
2 Cor 1:20 For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.
God will help us know His Will and will help us make good choices.
As Christians, we can pray and ask for God's specific will in our lives. God has promised to instruct us and teach us in the the way we should go.
Ps 32:8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.
A Christian may be deciding between several options. They may have two career paths to choose from. They have a choice of relationships to pursue. They may have choices where to live. I believe that we as Christians can know and sense the leading of the Holy Spirit. A fundamental point is to remember that we want to be obeying God in what He has already told us through His Word and leading. Still, there may be instances where we feel we have done all we know to do and are still not clear on a particular course of action. In the book of Romans, we are given a recipe for knowing God's will:
Rom 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
As we have our minds renewed by the Word of God, we can know the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. From my view, if we don't have to make a decision right away, we can stop thinking about it for a while and instead meditate on the Word of God. We can pray God's promises from the Bible over our own and others lives. God is not limited in communicating with us. The issue is more of whether we will listen to God! In the Bible, we read numerous examples of God speaking to people through dreams, visions, a prophet, the counsel of other Christians and audibly.
Prov 15:22 Without counsel, plans go awry, But in the multitude of counselors they are established.
God even spoke through an animal when a man of God persisted in going the wrong way:
Num 22:28 Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, "What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?"
My experience has been that God primarily communicates through a sense of peace when I'm going in the right direction. If I start to go in the wrong direction, I start feeling a lack of peace showing up as uneasiness.
The other evening, I was about to go out and felt a check to wait a bit. In a few minutes, a friend called and asked for some help. I got the call in time to change course without having to backtrack.
We see Jesus, while here on earth, praying all night before He chose His twelve disciples. Sometimes we have to spend time waiting on God in prayer and in God's Word as we seek God's direction.
Luke 6:12 Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.
It is possible at times to know God's will instantly on a matter. We trust God to help us make good decisions quickly when we need to! We thank God for giving us the ability to choose. We use that right and that power to make choices pleasing to God. We trust God to warn us if we do make a mis-step.
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