MESSAGES
Demands of Commitment-Part III
From Egypt to the Promised Land
Overcoming Obstacles part - II
Overcoming Obstacles Part -III
Receiving the Promises of God -I
Receiving the Promises of God - II
Reformation: Going Beyond the Obvious
Well Done is Better Than Well Said
When the Church is Gone - Part II
When the Church is Gone - Part III
When the Church is Gone - Part IV
|
THE WILLS OF GOD ROMANS 12:1-2 The first couple of times that I read this scripture, I would
wonder why God put the wills in the particular order that they
have, good, acceptable and perfect.
Being the ordered person that I usually am, I thought there
is no pattern here. I thought it should be perfect, good and acceptable,
showing the order of importance or desire. I have since come to believe that they are written
in the order in which we live. As humans we
blew a hole in God’s perfect will a long time ago. God’s
perfect will for man can only be seen in the creation of man.
That means that it must be viewed in the first 3 chapters
of Genesis. For the sake
of time, I will only be looking at selected verses from Genesis
1, 2, and 3. Also as we are looking at God’s will for
us as seen in the creation, I hope to show how God’s will
then is still God’s will now. GENESIS 1:26-31
1.
God’s perfect will for mankind was a perfect and sinless life. God made Adam and Eve perfect, without
sin. They were designed
to live forever in there beautiful home.
2.
In God’s perfect will for mankind
man was to rule over his environment.
Adam and Eve were given dominion over
ever living thing on earth. In
fact they were to rule over all of the earth.
3.
God’s will for mankind was a fruitful
life - Genesis 1:28 Man’s life was not only to be fruitful by
reproducing himself, but man was also to have a happy life. God put him in a beautiful home, suited for
all of his need, where he had no worries and no dangers to contend
with. He was to enjoy life.
4.
Genesis God gave Adam a command. He told him not to do this one thing, and He
wanted Adam to obey him so he told him what the penalty for disobedience
would be. Was death God’s
will for man? No life was God’s will for man. But a life of obedience.
5.
Genesis God
did not want Adam to be alone.
Though Adam was surrounded by life, there was no one like
himself. God recognized that Adam could not be happy
without a mate, someone like himself.
So God created another human being, a woman, a helper for
Adam. Within all of us there is still that desire
for human companionship
6.
God’s will for mankind was a life
of fellowshipping with God – Gen. 3:8-9 God walked in the garden with Adam and
Eve. They talked face to
face. God gave them instructions. He brought the animals to Adam to name them. God knew Adam and Adam knew God. God and Adam were close and God still wants
to be close to man. 7. God’s
will for mankind was eternal life. Had Adam and Eve not sinned they and
their descendants would have lived forever in there beautiful
home with God there to guide them, to fellowship with them, to
love and care for them. But
Adam and Eve did sin and the penalty for their sin was the introduction
of death, sickness, disease, hatred and all manner of wickedness
in mankind and his environment.
We have been living in the good will of God since then.
We can not live continuously in the perfect will of God
because the perfect will of God requires a perfect man in a perfect
environment with perfect union with God. But
the divine will is absolute and unchangeable.
It is not based on anything outside of God Himself. In other words, what God wants He wants and
no one can change what He wants.
PSALMS 33:11 The
word translated counsel here is the Hebrew word etsah which is
also translated purpose. So
the purpose or will of God stands forever.
It may sometimes seem that that enemy has stopped the will
of God, but he has not stop it. It is mearly delayed. For God’s will shall be done on earth even
as it is in heaven. Since
the fall of mankind God has been working in the earth
to bring about His perfect will.
Until God’s perfect will is again instituted, mankind
operates under the good will of God and or the acceptable will
of God. The good will of God is needful because of man’s
sin. The acceptable will
of God is needful because of man’s free will.
Since for the time being we cannot operate in the perfect
will of God because of sin, we now operate in the good and/or
acceptable will of God. I SAMUEL 8:1-22 In
the perfect will of God, mankind and God were to share in a family
relationship where God served as the head of the family.
After the fall of mankind the relationship was that of
theocracy, where God was to rule over man and man was to abbey
God much as a slave would obey his master.
Here in these verses NUMBERS 22:1-6, 12 In
verse 12 God is clear with Balaam concerning His will for this
matter. This is His good will. In the perfect will of God there would be no
wars, no jealousy, no fears, no hatred of one another and thus
no need for one to curse another.
God clearly tells Balaam, “You shall not curse this
people because they are blessed.” NUMBERS 22:15-22 God
had already made His will known to Balaam, but knowing what God
said did not wipe away Balaam’s desire to go.
So God told him “If the men come to you again, go
with them but what I tell you, you must do.”
But Balaam did not wait for the men to come to him.
You see his heart really was set on going with them.
This angered God and had it not been for the wisdom of
a donkey, Balaam would have been slain by the angel of the Lord. If you finish the rest of
this story you will find that Balak took Balaam to several places to try to entice him to
curse the Israelites. Balak thought a change of scenery might
help change Balaam’s mind. But changing locations won’t
change God’s will. Sometimes we think that changing certain
aspects of our life will make us happy. Those who are single think that having a mate
will make them happy. Those
who are married think that being single will make them happy. Sometimes we think that moving to a new city,
or changing jobs, or hanging out with a more popular set of people,
or dressing more like others or just plain old being someone different
than we truly are will make life better and make us happier. We
must learn to face the source of our problems. Moving to escape
problems or making incorrect changes in our lives only makes solving
the problems more difficult. Problems rooted in us are not solved
by such superficial changes. In fact, making changes without knowing
the good will of God only distracts us from the need to change
our heart. We want to change external influences because
it is often more difficult to focus on our real internal problems. But just as changing the viewpoint from which
Balaam viewed Israel did not did not change what God said to him
and what Balaam was compelled to do, whining and insisting that
God move on your behalf and even going out and making changes
on your own will not make God move nor will it make God change
His will. God will allow
us to step over into His acceptable will, but it normally comes
at great price and with a warning that should make us consider
if we really would not rather stay in His good will. In your free time this week read 2 Chronicles
18. In it you will find
the story of a man who tried to stop the will of God. I want you to understand that though God has
given us free will, it is still God who allows us to exercise
our free will. We can do
nothing, not even make choices except the Lord allows us.
Only God can stop God from having His way.
If God so desires, He can use anything and anyone to bring
about His will, because He is all powerful. Just because He does not force His will on us
does not mean that He is not able to do so.
God allows us to operate in His acceptable will, but His
desire is that we will choose to obey His good will.
When we obey God’s will here in this life we are promised
that we will live with Him eternally in the life to come.
It is in the life to come that we will experience the perfect
will of God, a sinless and fruitful life where we man rule over
the environment, sharing in rulership and fellowship with God,
and living eternally. In the end God will have His perfect will. ROMANS 12:1-2 Whether or not we will participate in
God perfect will depends on our willingness to submit our wills
to him in this life, give up the world’s way of approaching
life and take on God’s ways, attitudes and character.
It is best that we submit to the good will of God, and
often God will allow us to operate in His acceptable will.
To know the good and acceptable will of God we must seek
him diligently through prayer, praise and reading His word.
When Christians make decisions without first knowing the
will of God we stand in jeopardy of operating outside of the will
of God because we are then operating based solely on our own will.
To operate outside of the will of God is to sin and James
There are many who continue in rebellion
to operate outside of the will of God. How do we know this? 1 TIMOTHY 2:3-4 For
this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come
unto the knowledge of the truth. To know that God’s will
is for all to be saved and to continually resist his call to salvation
is to be in open rebellion against God and this leads to eternal
damnation. MATTHEW 7:21-23 If you will not submit to the will of
God now and accept Jesus as savior and Lord, you will be denied
life everlasting with him later.
If you will not know Him in this life, He promises to deny
knowing you in the life to come. Will you
of your own free will today choose to submit yourself to the good
and acceptable will of God today so that you can have access to
his perfect will in the life to come? |