Colossians 2:6-7 NKJV As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, (7) rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
John 1:1-3 NKJV In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (2) He was in the beginning with God. (3) All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
John 1:14 NKJV And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 8:28-29 NKJV Then Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things. (29) And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him.”
This idea is crucial to our understanding about God.
In verses 16-17, Jesus made a very important statement: God’s will is His Word or His will is His Word.
- God’s will is His Word and God’s Word is His will.
You cannot understand God’s purpose for your life without understanding God’s Word. He conveys His will with His Word.
We convey our will through our words. In our last will and testament, we use our words to communicate our will or what we want to happen.
There are three other things that we fall back on as human beings to try and determine God’s will for our lives:
These things will reveal a totally incomplete picture of what God’s will is for our lives.
Matthew 14:22-33 NKJV (22) Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. (23) And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there. (24) But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary. (25) Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. (26) And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear. (27) But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.” (28) And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” (29) So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. (30) But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!” (31) And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” (32) And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. (33) Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.”
These men had some wrong beliefs they were deceived by.
- Circumstances don’t give us any indication of the will of God.
He gave them an order to go to the other side. Do you think that it was Jesus’ intention to put them in danger in some way?
The storm blew up and immediately began to fight them.
Even though He was praying and they were obeying, they were still opposed by circumstances.
These guys are right in the middle of the will of God.
You cannot interpret by circumstances alone whether or not you are doing the will of God.
There are evil people that prosper greatly, so you cannot use whether or not someone is prospering to determine whether or not someone is in the will of God.
Circumstances do not always work in your favor.
- You will have to overcome misbeliefs.
The reason the disciples cried out when they saw Jesus was due to a tradition among these people.
Anybody who sailed or was on a boat, if you saw a vision or apparition, it was always interpreted as a bad omen and you were going to die.
These guys were superstitious even though they were followers of Jesus.
There are loads of traditions that church people have that are not right.
There are church people who are offended if they see someone wear a hat or cap inside of a building. They really get mad if they don’t take it off when you pray.
- Jesus told them, “Be of good cheer, do not be afraid.”
All twelve men were completely convinced by their emotions, they were about to die.
Their feelings or emotions told them they were going to sink.
None of them were ready to believe God’s Word concerning His protection and safety for them. Surely, if Jesus told them to go, then He would see to it that they were kept safe and protected even in the midst of the storm.
THEIR EMOTION WAS WRONG!
When the Children of Israel were about to be delivered from Egypt, God worked ten judgments on the Egyptians and their gods.
God demonstrated through these things that He was working on behalf of the Children of Israel.
God has promised Abraham that they were going to be delivered. (Genesis 15:13-14)
One week after their great deliverance, the Children of Israel forgot how good God had been to them already and began to judge God’s character based on the very first thing that does not seem to go right.
God will permit you to experience some negative circumstances just to show what is really in your heart. He does not cause them, but He may permit you to go through them to reveal those things to you. He does not want it to overcome you and it won’t if you turn to Him in faith. He waits to see what you are going to do.
Has He been so good to us all of these years only to have His character change to let you be destroyed.
The disciples had just left a great time of ministry where Jesus was performing great miracles (feeding the multitudes) and they forgot about that just that quickly.
Jesus had never ever done anything less than take care of them and provide for them.
- You don’t know God’s will by circumstances.
- You don’t know God’s will by tradition.
- You don’t know God’s will by what you are feeling.
Proverbs 14:12 NKJV (12) There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.
When we are left to our own devices and try and navigate through life based on what we see as being right, it will cause us to become deceived and to make mistakes.
- God’s will is not yet being done everywhere in the earth.
God does not automatically do His will in your life as some believe.
Luke 13:10-17 NKJV (10) Now He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. (11) And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up. (12) But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.” (13) And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. (14) But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath; and he said to the crowd, “There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day.” (15) The Lord then answered him and said, “Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it? (16) So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound–think of it–for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?” (17) And when He said these things, all His adversaries were put to shame; and all the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Him.
This woman was a daughter of Abraham (Jew). She has been attending this synagogue the whole time and even though she has a right to healing because of the covenant with Abraham, it has not happened for her. The healing was not hers because she had not been taught by the ruler of the synagogue. Matter of fact, he did not even believe it was the right thing to do when her healing came through Jesus.
She gets healed and he gets mad about it. No wonder there was no healing going on in that environment. He does not care if anyone receives or not.
This woman had a legal right in the mind and heart of God, yet she had not been healed because she had not been taught to receive what belonged to her until Jesus shows up.
You have to invite the will of God into your life. It is not automatic. (Matthew 6:10)
Obviously, you cannot pray this for the entire world but you can pray this for your life.
When you pray for God’s will to be done in your life, it will be done for you.
- When you know God’s will, you can pray with great confidence.
1 John 5:14-15 NKJV (14) Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. (15) And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
Confidence comes from knowing something. Confidence is developed through a knowledge that you have.
The more you know about something, the more confident you are going to be in that area.
All confidence comes from something that you have become convinced of.
If you are not convinced, you will not have confidence.
You will not have confidence in your prayers, until you have knowledge and are convinced about what you are praying.