Living in God's Will

 

The Bible tells us to wait on God and to be led by His Spirit (Proverbs 3:5-6; Romans 8:9). If you want to walk in God's will, then wait on the Lord to tell you what to do and when to do it (Proverbs 3:5-6). Follow His perfect peace within your spirit. Do not make decisions out of fear, but out of faith and obedience. If you do not feel the Spirit prompting you to do something in particular, and you do it anyway, you are operating out of fear or presumption, and you may miss God's perfect will for your life. We do not have to sit idle, but we seek God's will for each day.

Get your advice from the Bible, not from people! People can confirm to us what God already spoke to us from His Word, but do not rely on anyone but God to tell you what to do. Ahithophel is a good example to show us why we cannot always trust a person’s advice. He started out as King David’s advisor and he had the reputation of someone who could hear from God (2 Samuel 16:23). However, he turned against King David because of David’s mistreatment of his granddaughter Bathsheba and her husband. 

We never know the reasons behind someone’s advice. They may have self-centered motives or misguided, worldly considerations. Paul commended the Bereans for being noble, because they searched the scriptures daily to prove if the words the preachers were expounding were God’s Words (Acts 17:11). Rather than following the direction of our circumstances, or some advice that is not based on scripture, we only follow God’s peace within us (Philippians 4:7). That is how Jesus lived. He only did what He saw and heard our Father doing (John 5:19).

The reason you have insecurity or confusion, and no peace about some decisions in your life at this time, is because God is not telling you to do it right now. You keep trying to summons the energy to do it, but you only feel conflict within. That is humanistic thinking. So, relinquish the decision to the Lord. Wait on the Lord's peace and just enjoy His presence until then. Never forget that God has a perfect plan for our life. We thwart His purpose when we independently make our own choices. We only succeed as we submit to His will (Proverbs 3:5-6).

You may repeatedly go to God for an answer and He remains silent. That means that you do not need that answer right now, so He is there just to hang out with you. Words are not always necessary when friends get together. Sitting in companionable silence with us is something God loves to do. You do not need to speak either. Just sit in His presence, allow His love to flow over you like a waterfall and enjoy being still. God will direct you to accomplish His purposes in your life in His timing and way (Isaiah 55:11).

Prayer:

Father God, as we walk in Your Spirit, our decisions are not based on the desires of our flesh, but on Your will for our life (Galatians 5:16, 25). As you lead us by Your Spirit, we do not fulfill the works of our flesh, but we walk by Your Spirit and reap the fruit of righteousness (Isaiah 32:17-18). Please strengthen us by Your Spirit and teach us to walk in Your ways (Ephesians 3:16, 5:18). We hinder You by our humanistic efforts, so teach us to walk by Your Spirit and to wait on Your timing.

Thought for the Day:

As long as we live in surrender to God’s Spirit, we will walk in God’s will.

Surprise Revelation

In writing to the Romans, Paul laments over his unsuccessful attempts to overcome the flesh in his own strength and to put on the mind of Christ. He realized the wretchedness of his humanity. He struggled with our need to be holy, and his inability to reach this level of consecration (Romans 7:19-24). Then, God surprised Paul with a revelation (Romans 7:25). He was thrilled to realize that we do not have to suffer under the weight of condemnation any longer, because Christ already set us all free from the law of sin and death on Calvary’s Cross (Romans 8:1-2). 

As authentic Christians we now live by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:2). Our transformation rests firmly on the rock of the gospel of Christ (Romans 12:2; Psalm 18:2). We live by His faith in love, filled with the fruit of, and following the leading of God’s Spirit on a moment-by-moment basis (Galatians 5:1; 5:22-23; Ephesians 5:18). We no longer strive to earn God’s love or to live a holy life. We simply walk in obedience. We live on earth to glorify our Father, not by our own efforts, but only by the power of Christ within us.

Jesus loves us so much, that for our benefit he gave Himself up to the horrific death on Calvary’s cross. Through His sacrifice, we are now acceptable to God in Christ (1 Peter 2:5; Romans 15:7). We have been crucified with Christ. Therefore, it is no longer we who live our life, but Christ, the Messiah, who lives in us. The life that we now live in our body on this earth, we live by faith in, devotion to, dependence on and complete confidence in the Son of God (Galatians 2:20, Amplified Bible).

Jesus is our only hope of experiencing God’s glory (Colossians 1:27). We could never be good enough in our human effort to earn a place in Heaven (Ephesians 2:8-10). Jesus gave up His glory in Heaven to take the form of a man, and He humbled Himself and willingly died in our place (Philippians 2:8).  Now, we can put on the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5). We renew our mind by reading God’s Word, and we walk in the Spirit. Therefore, we will no longer succumb to the negative suggestions of our carnal nature (Romans 12:2; Galatians 5:16).

We completely surrender our will to God’s will for our life and we live in perfect union with Christ. Our old sinful nature is crucified with Christ, and sin has no more power over our choices. Just as the Son could do nothing of Himself, we too are nothing without Christ in us. The only effort we need to make in order to walk in the reality of this victory is to totally surrendering control of our life to God. In doing this, we successfully enter His rest (Hebrews 4:3).

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, our Father exalted You with a name above all other names. One day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that You, Jesus Christ, are Lord (Philippians 2:9-10). We were buried with You through baptism into Your death.  In the same way in which You were raised from the dead through the glory of our Father, we too are raised to live a new life through You. We are no longer slaves to sin, because You set us free from sin’s power when we died with You on Calvary’s cross (Romans 6:4-7).

Thought for the Day:

Just as God the Father, Son and Spirit are united as one, Jesus died so we can share in this same unity of oneness with our triune God. - 1 Corinthians 6:17

 

 

 

 

 

 

Emerging from the Chrysalis

 

(Please, read “Flexing our Wings” from my previous post first.)

Union with Christ Series: “We are dead, and our life is hidden with Christ in God.” - Colossians 3:3

The emergence of the caterpillar from the chrysalis as a butterfly holds many correlations to our own emergence from carnality to spirituality. Since we are used to crawling around in the earthly realm of life through our own efforts, we hesitate to trust our self to God’s leading and guidance in this new spiritual kingdom. We are afraid to take flight and to rely on His Spirit. We struggle with the concept of letting go of the control over our life. We falter in our decision to totally trust our life to the mercies of God.

We continue to attempt to maintain control over many areas of our existence, until the circumstances of life come crashing down around us. In utter defeat, we let go and completely surrender our will to the Spirit of God. As we see the light of God’s grace, we feel drawn to respond to His invitation to finally die to our carnal self and to experience a totally new life in Him (1 Peter 2:24; Galatians 5:16). We slowly recognize our self as a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). In our success as surrendered Saints of God, we face the world from a new perspective.

We hear the testimony of other people who took this leap of faith. They were blown by God’s Spirit into the realm of the Heavenlies, which most people only glimpse from the earthly realm. They tell us that the only way to fully live is to completely die to our own desires, ambitions and goals, and to hide our life with Christ in God (Luke 9:23; Colossians 3:3). When we follow their lead, we suddenly feel the urge to spread our wings and to trust our self to the winds of the Spirit. We look forward to total freedom in Christ. Soon we flap our wings and take off into the unknown.

Prior to Salvation, we lived as exemplary children of Satan. He used our body and soul to express his nature and agenda in this world. Our spirit was dead in Adam’s sin (Ephesians 2:1). Now that we came to faith in Christ, Jesus uses our body, soul and Born Again spirit to accomplish God’s work in the earth. We drift on the currents of the Spirit and experience a totally new relationship with our God and the world around us. We look down into the realm of self-centered flesh, where we once squirmed like a worm, and we are amazed at our former foolishness.

We stop resisting the desires that God places in our heart, and we soar into spiritual heights that we never imagined existed. We forsake our carnal striving to keep the Law, which was once such a precious shelter for us. We commit to live a surrendered life to the will of God. We count our self dead to sin, and alive to God in Jesus Christ (Romans 6:11-12). We leave the world of stress and struggle forever, because this world no longer matters to us. We have an eternal perspective now that turns our former worries and stress into petty concerns.

We can hold a funeral for our flesh and celebrate our new life in Christ. Old Testament Joseph is a good example to us. He was his father’s favorite son, only to be sold by his brothers. He was used as a slave and worked his way up to a high position of authority, only to be sent to prison because of a lie. He was given authority in prison and interpreted dreams for his inmates, only to be forgotten when they were released. Joseph had plenty of opportunities to learn contentment, as Paul did, whether he was exalted or struck down (Philippians 4:11-13).

Joseph, Paul and a host of Saints before us give us an example of how to die to the desires of our flesh and to accept with joy the path God chooses for our life. They learned Godly contentment (1 Timothy 6:6-8). God flooded their life with His peace, which surpasses human understanding (Philippians 4:7). He gives us joy in the face of debilitating circumstances. We still have times that overwhelm our soul with mourning, even Jesus felt this way (Mark 14:34). However, we trust in God’s faithfulness, knowing He will work everything out for our good (Romans 8:28).

Prayer:

Father God, as we rest in our confidence in Your faithfulness, we enter into Your eternal rest (Hebrews 4:11). We cease from our striving in this life. We rest in the assurance that You are changing us from glory to glory. We trust You to faithfully fulfill the promises of Your Word. We determine to live and move only under the direction of Your Spirit moment by moment throughout the day.

Thought for the Day:

The mystery of the gospel of grace is Christ living in us, reflecting the glory of God in our lives and His joy in our hearts, regardless of our circumstances.
- Colossians 1:27



Thank you, Mike, for the use of your lovely photo.
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