| Have
you ever seen one of those movies where a little girl is kidnapped? The
bad-guys have her hidden away somewhere almost impossible to find. The
loved ones have to jump through a series of hoops delivering the ransom
money, usually in a totally unrealistic time-frame? Sheer panic reigns.
The kidnappers are in total control reveling in the futility of the
searchers to find their captive. No mistakes are allowed by the
kidnappers. Miss one step of their instructions, fail to carry out
things exactly as they say, show up late for one pay-phone call, and the
child will never be found. Everything that the loved ones do must be
done perfectly and according to the bad-guy’s plan if they ever want
to find the child. The terror of what might happen to the victim is both
frightening and motivating. Sound familiar?
For many Christians today, the race to
"find God’s will for their life" is equally dreadful. The
primary motivation is fear. They are afraid of not doing things
"right", afraid of missing the things that God specifically
wants them to do, and consequently, afraid of the painful punishment
they surely will receive from Him if they don’t follow-through on His
game plan. God’s the kidnapper, His will for our life has been taken
and hidden away, and it’s now up to us to jump through His hoops if we
ever want to see His will again.
Could this be true? Does God have such
a cruel sense of humor that He actually gets a kick out of hiding His
will from His children? If you had a gift for your kids, would you hide
it from them in such a way that they could not find it for hours, days,
months, years, or ever? Would it bring you joy to watch them agonize
over their inability to unearth it? Think about it. Wouldn’t you
instead do whatever was necessary and within your power to make sure
they find it? Come to think of it, maybe you wouldn't hide it from them
at all! Maybe, the supreme act of love would be to lay the gift right
out in front of them so they'd have to stumble over it not to see it:
What shall we say then? That
Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness,
even the righteousness which is by faith; but Israel, pursuing a law
of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they did
not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled
over the stumbling stone, just as it is written, "Behold, I lay
in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, And he who
believes in Him will not be disappointed."
(Romans 9:30-33)
What are we talking about when we use
word "will" anyway? It is, as it pertains to God, a noun that
can be translated as what He has determined shall be done; God’s
design, purpose, plan, or intention; what He takes pleasure in. The
Theological Dictionary of the New Testament defines God’s will as
"the purpose of God to bless mankind through Jesus Christ."
Friends, here is what I want you to consider. Set aside just for a
moment the idea that God’s will is primarily something we are on the
hook to find and then do. Is it possible that the will of God (a.k.a.
His design, His intention, what He has determined shall be done) is that
we would trust solely and whole-heartedly in the finished work of Jesus
Christ for our righteousness? In fact, the bottom-line here is that the
will of God is summed up in Christ himself. He is our righteousness and
that of the entire world. He
is the will of God made known to us through the written Word! God’s
will is to bless mankind through the person and work of His Son…and He
has already done it! Reconciliation, justification, redemption,
sanctification, forgiveness, righteousness, and new life are ours in Christ alone. The doing of God’s
will is now for all men to simply believe it, not search for it, and
even the believing is from Him!
Many want to "work the works of
God" (John 6: 28) seeing only that His will is something we are to
find, then do. Jesus said that "this is the work of God, that you
believe in Him whom He has sent" (John 6:29). Man is so incurably
caught up in the doing that he runs right past the believing. We choose
to please God with our work for Him while God takes pleasure in
our trusting in His completed work for us. In fact, "without
faith it is impossible to please Him" (Hebrews 11:6). If you want
to do the will of God, then believe in His Son, "for whosoever
shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and
mother" (Mark 3:35). There is from God "the promise of life
which is in Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 1:1) but only "when you
have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised"
(Hebrews 10:36). All men will eventually be made alive in Christ at the
end of the ages, but new life now and in the age to come, is given to those who do the will of God, namely
trusting in His Son.
When Jesus explained to the multitudes
that He came "not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent
me" (John 6:38), He made it very clear what the will of God is:
"And this is the will of Him
who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but
raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that
everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him, may have eternal
life; and I Myself will raise him up on the last day."
(John 6:39-40)
The will of the Father is the same now
as it was then. Whosoever will trust in Christ and His finished work at
Calvary will be saved now, while all others He will make alive at the
consummation of the ages. This is the purpose, the intention, the plan, the
will of God for you "that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as
Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you
shall be saved" (Romans 10:9). If you have placed your faith in Him
for your salvation then you are in His will. You are in Christ (1 Cor.
1:30) who is the will of God! Heck, even those who don't believe in such
condition because of God's will. Do you see the sovereignty of our
Father and how trying to discover His will is like trying to find a
swimming pool that you are already swimming in?
Do you have decisions to make in life?
We all do. Think about those choices, pray about them, ask a friend,
weigh the consequences, then get on with it. Do not fear. God works all
things according to His will. If your
circumstances turn out to be difficult after you’ve made your
decision, it does not mean you are out of God’s will or that He is not
with you. He lives in you. You could not get rid of Him if you wanted
to! His will will be done.
For many Christians, clear evidence
that they are in God’s will is that their circumstances are good. They
insist that if things at work, home, church, and in their community are
going well or are profitable in some way that those circumstances
indicate that they are in line with God’s will. Conversely, missing
God’s will and being thrown into the heavenly dog-house is evidenced
by adverse, difficult, seemingly senseless circumstances that leave us
wallowing in self-condemnation and guilt.
In Steve McVey's book, Grace Rules,
he describes how our expectations concerning the will of God can lead us
to some erroneous conclusions:
"If Satan can’t paralyze us
with fear about moving forward in God’s will, he will try to make us
think that we have missed it…Christians often make decisions with
certain expectations about the results of their choice. When the
results don’t turn out the way they hoped, they may think that they
have somehow gotten out of the will of God. This is a lie that will
cause a person to become unproductive in spite of the fact that he is
exactly where God wants him. When a person believes he is out of
God’s will, he will lose all motivation to act in confidence and
faith."
-Grace Rules, Knowing God’s
Will, p.137.
If difficulties, pain, hurt, heartache,
and suffering meant you were no longer in the will of God, then Jesus
and Paul should have second-guessed all that they did! Do you think that
there were a few well-meaning observers of Paul's life who told him he
must be out of or not doing God's will because of the constant
affliction he had to endure while preaching the gospel? Peter, who loved
the Lord, tried to stop Jesus from going to the cross because, in his
mind, that could not have been the will of God. And how could Paul have
possibly rejoiced in the sorrow of the Corinthians? Surely, they must
not have been in the will of God:
I now rejoice, not that you
were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of
repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God,
in order that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. For
the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance
without regret, leading to salvation; but the sorrow of the world
produces death.
(2 Cor. 7:9-10)
A dear brother of mine, Grant Miller,
once gave me a beautiful analogy of how easy God has made it for His
children to not only enjoy our relationship with Him but also the
freedom He has given us in Christ to make decisions in life. Grant
compared our heavenly Father to an earthly Dad who loves and accepts His
child unconditionally, having provided all that the child needs for life
(2 Peter 1:3). He takes his little girl by the hand to the park where
every piece of playground equipment imaginable is available and waiting
to be enjoyed. As the little girl and the Dad look out over the swings,
and slides, and merry-go-rounds, the anxious child turns and looks up to
the one she loves more than anyone and asks, "Which one can I play
on Daddy? I want to play on the ‘right’ equipment. I don’t want to
disappoint you. If you only want me on the red swing-set, I’ll go
there. If you only want me to slide on the yellow slide, I’ll make
sure I do that. Please, Daddy, won’t you tell me? I want to please you
and not let you down." The patient father kneels down next to his
pride and joy, puts His arm around her and says, "Sweetheart, you
already please me because you’re mine. Now go and play on anything
you’d like." Our Father relates to us in a similar fashion. You
don’t have to live in bondage to fear about your decision-making. Go
enjoy the playground!
Isn’t it interesting how we typically
limit the importance of knowing God’s will to only the "big"
decisions of life. Think about it. We are in a veritable panic to know
who God wants us to marry, where He wants us to work, what church to He
wants us to attend. But as far as what clothes to wear to the company
picnic, whether or not we should take Main Street or 3rd to
the food store, or how many lights we should leave on before we go out
for the evening is of no consequence. Why not? If we are desperately,
anxiously seeking God’s thumbs-up or thumbs-down on whether we give to
the church building fund or not, why don’t we spend equal time looking
for His hidden agenda on which detergent to use? Is one aspect of His
will more important than the other? If so, then where do you draw the
line? You don't need to. Just live life knowing that God is working in
you to will and to work for His good pleasure.
So many Christians today are paralyzed
in fear of disobeying or missing the will of God. As they contemplate
what they deem to be the monumental decisions of life, they examine
every aspect of that choice in the hot light of the potential doom they
will incur if they don’t choose rightly. The fear is so great that
they don’t do anything. This, many have called "the paralysis of
analysis."
Did you know that there is not one
verse in the New Testament that tells us to go out and find or seek
God's will? Yet most Christians speak of this heavenly treasure hunt for
His will as something that is biblical, normative, and incumbent upon us
to pursue. And typically it is insinuated that if we don't find it,
we're in big trouble. Don't misunderstand, God's will is
something you can know, understand, and do. But it is not dug up by us,
it is revealed and carried out through you by Him:
And Isaiah is very bold and says,
"I was found by those who sought Me not, I became manifest to
those who did not ask for Me." But as for Israel He says,
"All the day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient
and obstinate people."
(Romans 10:20-21)
How does the revelation of His will
come to us? By the Spirit and through the word of God, God's revelation of Himself and His
will for man. His will is found in His Son and all that has already been
accomplished by Him through the cross for the world as revealed in the Scriptures. It
is not found in our feelings, in circumstances, counsel from
others, fleeces, ad infinitum. His will is the reconciliation of all men
unto Himself through Christ revealed to us in His word. He will
ultimately accomplish all of His will. In the meantime, the
doing of His will is placing our trust in Him that we have been
reconciled:
Now all these things are
from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the
ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling
the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and
He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore we are
ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we
beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who
knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the
righteousness of God in Him.
(2 Corinthians 5:18-21)
God has a purpose for mankind that has
been set forth and revealed to us in and through His Son. Would you
consider today that the will of God is not should I choose this job or
that job, should I travel on vacation here or there, should I marry this
person or that person, should I eat at McDonald’s or Burger King? His
will is found in the person of Jesus Christ. He is the will of God and
you grow in grace and in the knowledge of Him, you will know "the will of God, that which is good and
acceptable and perfect" (Romans 12:2). He has "made known to
us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He
purposed in Him" (Ephesians 1:9). His will, that which gives Him
pleasure and is His divine intention, is that all men be saved. He will
do what pleases Him, some being saved now and some being saved at the
consummation of the ages.
Are you still searching for God's will
for your life? If so, it is time to stop and rest! Your hide and seek
days are over. No more looking for a needle in a haystack. Rejoice, dear
friend, the will of God is no longer an abductee! It has been released
and revealed to you and anyone else who will hear it and receive it. The
ransom has been paid and, through faith in Christ whom He
lovingly revealed to you through the Scriptures and by the Spirit, you’ve not
only found the will of God, you've done it. Your search is over. Live
life confident that God's will, not only for you, but for the world will
be done!
Love,
John Moneypenny
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