YOU ASKED FOR IT Part 4 – What is God’s Will?
(James 4:13-15 NIV) Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
(1 John 2:17 NIV) The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
- The sovereign will of God.
What God is doing on the earth.
- The moral will of God.
What God has already said in His Word.
- The personal will of God.
What God desires for my life.
The more I get to know the sovereign will of God and the moral will of God, the better I will discern the personal will of God.
Two Questions We Need to Ask the Lord Every Day:
What am I doing that I should not be doing?
What am I not doing that I should be doing?
PUT IT TO THE TEST
(1 John 4:1 NIV) Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God…
- Am I in a right relationship with God?
(Romans 12:2 NIV) Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.
- What does the Bible say?
(Luke 21:33 NIV) Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
- What would Jesus do?
(James 3:14-17 NIV) But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.
- Have I sought godly counsel?
(Proverbs 11:14 NKJV) Where there is no counsel, the people fall; But in the multitude of counselors there is safety.
- Do I sense God’s peace?
(1 Corinthians 14:33 NKJV) For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.
(Colossians 3:15a GNB) The peace that Christ gives is to guide you in the decisions you make…
- Is it my will or God’s will?
(Matthew 26:39 NLT) He went on a little farther and bowed with His face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from Me. Yet I want Your will to be done, not Mine.”
I want what God wants – period.
(Luke 9:23 NIV) Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.
Every death in Christ is always followed by a glorious resurrection!