Series Title: The Heavenly Reserve Bank of God (Ephesians)
Message Title: Understanding God’s Will, Ephesians Chapter 5
Scripture: Ephesians 5:17
10 and find out what pleases the Lord.
17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.
I must first apologize before we undertake this task of Understanding God’s Will, for it is more an attempt at making clear of this topic in my own mind as it is giving you an explanation on the understanding. What I am about to present is something that some of you may disagree with, since you may have a more ‘traditional way’ of understanding God’s will for your lives. However, my presentation is Biblically-based and supported by Augustine, Henry, the Wesleys, Whitefield, Spurgeon, Murray, and Randy Alcorn (of all people).
Augustine of Hippo, once said, "Love God and do as you please." Now, that seems to be a contradiction to what the present day church teaches about knowing the will of God for your own life. The church and seminaries tend to say it’s a more than that. They say, it’s much more complicated than that! But, to say it’s more than that is in itself to say that a simple-minded person may not be able to follow God’s will for their lives, simply because he or she would be too simple minded to understand the church’s directions to understand God’s will for their lives.
God’s desire, God’s will… In Scripture, in the Greek, the same word is used for both. And, it’s God’s desire that all should be saved. Or, rather it’s God’s will that all be saved. A matter of preference in translation. So, you see, we owe some of our understanding of the matter, however clouded it might be, to the interpretation or translation that we are currently using, NIV, KJV, NKJV, etc. And, we owe some of our misunderstanding of the matter, to those same translations. But, the problem doesn’t really lie with the translation, it’s how some selfish scholars and churches have taken God’s simple intentions, and complicated them.
So what’s the real deal? What’s the Bible tell us? What do the respected Bible scholars tell us about God’s will? That knowing God’s will is as simple as Augustine said it was, “Love God and do as you please.” For in loving God you will realize through the manifestation of His Spirit in you what is the will of God for your life. Or, in other words, if you love God, you’ll know what He wants. So, it’s who you are!
My friends, the will of God for your life, for this church, for this world is not just wrapped up in what we do, but who we are! What builds us personally into what God wants or desires, or wills us to be? Is it those back-breaking, mind-wrenching decisions that we believe shape our character, or could it be also, and yes it is, those daily, or minute by minute, ‘from the hip’ [quick or snap] decisions that collectively mold us into what God wants us to be.
What God cares about for your life, and His will, is that we choose to follow His direction in spiritual and moral choices. Psalm 37:3-7 says,
3 Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. 4 Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: 6 He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. 7 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.
When we go to the Bible we see four very simple representations of God’s will. We see:
A Divine Will – that which governs all things.
This one is simple, everything on this earth follows God’s will. Watch a leaf falling to the ground, and remember that is God’s will. Enjoy the beauty of the setting sun, and know that is God’s will at work. God’s will was at work in the creation of the world, and is still at work in sustaining it. If it wasn’t for God’s desire [will], our atoms would fly apart and vaporize like hairspray at the hair salon.
A Royal Will – that people should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.
God’s Royal Will is that we all be saved. (2 Peter 3:9; 1 Timothy 2:3-4).
(2 Peter 3:9) The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
(1 Timothy 2:3) This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
It can’t get any plainer than that!
A Revealed Will – that which is given to us follow and is explained in the Bible. [hence the title ‘Revealed’]
Once we are saved, God has a further will for us. He wants to GROW us. This is called sanctification. Meaning, there are certain things he wants us to do and not to do. His Revealed Will is found in His Word, which tells us how we should be living our lives, and what we should be doing as we are living those lives. In Ephesians 2:8-10, we see an example of God’s Revealed Will for Christians:
(Ephesians 2:8-10) For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
His revealed will is something that we do, and want to do. When we are letting the Word of God dwell in us richly, we will know what God’s revealed will is, and what He directly wants us to do in many situations. What that means is that we simply need to have a daily Bible reading plan. It doesn’t mean we search the scriptures for God’s will on whether or not we should go to Mongolia or South America, when we don’t want to! It’s plain and simple, His will for us is in our best interests, too. Remember Psalm 37:4.
A Providential Will – that which is provided for and to us, through prayer and Godly relationship, by the Spirit of God during circumstances and life situations.
God wants you to know His will for your life, therefore it is simple: Psalm 37:4…
This tells me that OUR relationship with God will determine how quickly we are able to ascertain God’s providential will for our lives, or rather, what direction we should go when we come to a crossroads in our life.
In summary:
Let’s put in an application and run it through:
As an example there is the question of what to do at a certain point in one’s life. The question: Should I accept this job? (let’s pretend the job is lower paying, but is a ministerial position of some sort)
God’s revealed will tells me that I should be pursuing those areas or jobs, that glorify Him.
God’s revealing in my heart when I pray brings a peace about the acceptance of the position.
God’s simple rule: Psalm 37:4-7
4 Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: 6 He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. 7 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.
My own conclusion in this matter is that knowing God’s will for my life, for the most part, is designed by God to be simple and straightforward. Yet, the church has convoluted or complicated the matter, perhaps because they were afraid that people would seek answers apart from the Bible or prayer. Or, perhaps the church was seeking a way to ensure they would be needed. Or, maybe even it was because the church wanted to influence the direction of its members. For whatever reason, countless books, articles, and papers have been written telling the uninformed ‘how to really know the will of God for your life.’
My friends, knowing God’s will for your life should not be some life-long search that ends in pain, but dynamic, inspiring, and reassuring. God loves you, and since He loves you, He desires to show you the easy road.
