We’re continuing this morning on the topic of God’s will.
Now if you’re like me and you are checking out teachings on the will of God, what you are really searching for is something like, God wants you to do A, B, C, and D. If you do those things, you are doing God’s will. You’ll be fulfilled in life and feel all warm and fuzzy and confident for the day of judgment when you stand before Him.
What you’ll find that offers this is manmade religion. It may be based on the Bible, it may be God-honoring, it will be partially His will, but can’t completely be His will for you individually.
Religion defines a standard and mold for us to strive to fill based on works. It tells us how to talk, how to dress, how to worship, how to act, but all with the goal of conformity to that mold. The root motive is fear of man and what people think of us.
This is how the leaders of God’s people could know the word of God word-for-word and yet look into the face of Jesus, the living word of God, and call Him a glutton, a drunk, a sinner, and even the prince of demons. They nailed Him to a cross, approved of His death, and the death of those who follow Him.
Man-made religion looks good and is appealing because of its clear rules and regulations, but it is far from God’s will for us! However, it is disconnected from God. It leads us to death and not life and certainly not into growth in our faith. We are left to do godly works apart from God and then must strive and do them by our own strength.
Colossians 2:16-23
16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. 18 Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. 19 They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.
20 Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: 21 “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? 22 These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. 23 Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.
God’s will for us is not to merely follow a list of do’s and don’ts and call it a fulfilled life. It isn’t to conform to other people, but rather to conform to the unique individual that God created and purposed us to be.
Sure, God gave us the law which is a large list of do’s and don’ts. The law is good. However, it just proved to us that we can’t do it. We need God! We need a relationship with Him! We need His grace and mercy and strength and guidance and so much more! We are totally dependent on Him to be or to do anything good with our lives!
God’s will for us can only be received, understood, and fulfilled through a relationship with Him. God’s will for us is to know Him and, by knowing Him who created us, to know ourselves.
There is something that God innately created within us that gives us a desire to be known, to be understood, and to have others be able to relate to us.
When others inaccurately judge us and don’t try to get to know us, it can be frustrating and hurtful.
When we meet somebody who simply gets us, it is so refreshing and encouraging. They share our likes and dislikes, our humor, our hobbies, and more. We just get to be ourselves around them. We can let our guards all down. We don’t have to be always mindful of what we do or say and how those are going to get interpreted by others.
We enjoy being around them and look forward to the next time that we get to hang out. We set aside special times to be with them and do special things, but we’re also good with them just being there in our everyday lives. Even our worst day is better just because they are a part of it.
They are our best friend.
This is God’s will for us; to live life together with Him. Nothing hidden, no guards up, no holding back, and enjoying just living life together!
God fully knows us.
He wants us to fully know Him.
This is God’s will.
In fact, this is the source of God’s will.
When we know God, we will know His will. It will not be a mystery. It will not be far from us. It will not be too difficult for us.
Deuteronomy 30:11-14
11 Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. 12 It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” 13 Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” 14 No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.
John 15:15-16
15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit – fruit that will last – and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.
To know God is to know His will and is to live a fruitful and abundant and fulfilled life!
He alone created us on purpose and for a purpose.
He alone knows and understands that purpose!
Galatians 4:8-9
8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you know God – or rather are known by God – how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?
Galatians 4:9 (TPT)
But now that we truly know him and are intimately known by him, why would we for a moment consider turning back to those weak and feeble principles of religion, as though we were still subject to them?
Galatians 4:9 (AMP)
Now, however, since you have come to know [the true] God [through personal experience], or rather to be known by God, how is it that you are turning back again to the weak and worthless elemental principles [of religions and philosophies], to which you want to be enslaved all over again?
To know and to be fully known. No separation, no guards up, no shame, no fear, no guilt; oneness. It becomes pretty easy in that state of relationship to know God’s will, right?
Is this a bunch of mushy, new age, relational hogwash? Nope! In fact, there is only one recorded prayer that Jesus prayed for you and I and it is for exactly this!
Jesus said:
John 17:20-26
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one – 23 I in them and you in me – so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
25 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
Jesus not only revealed the Father while in the flesh, He continues to make the father known to us today!
The purpose for this? So that God’s love and His very Presence may be in our lives. Even in the flesh, Jesus struggled to get His disciples to understand this reality and the importance of simply knowing Him.
We want details. We want specifics.
It is difficult for us to surrender control and to fully trust someone else; even God.
Let’s say that you are on vacation with your family and your phone is broken. You decide to go out for dinner, but have to drive separately. You are in an unfamiliar town with no GPS or mapping app. You don’t know the way to get from your vacation home to the restaurant. The other driver knows it very well.
Instead of the other driver taking time before you leave to explain to you the details of the route and landscapes to watch for, they just say, “Follow me.”
Although you know that this can get you to where you want to be, there are so many variables! What if they drive faster than me? What if I get stuck at a stop light? What if cars get between us? What if, what if, what if…
“Follow me.” gives you more anxiety and fear than peace and confidence.
That’s pretty much life with Jesus.
Even in the flesh, Jesus struggled to get His disciples to understand this reality and the importance of simply knowing Him and following Him and trusting Him. We’re not alone in feeling this way!
John 14:1-14
1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
“Don’t you know me?”
Ouch!
How many times do we pray, wanting details of how and when God is going to work everything out for us? We want the details and let’s be honest, we want God to do it all and do it now! His simple response to us is, “Don’t you know me?”
How is this going to work out? How is Your word going to come to pass? I don’t see a way that this is going to end well… Jesus simply says, “I am the way.”
But when? Jesus simply says, “At just the right time. Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in Me!”
Just before Jesus calls us His friend; no longer just His servants, He says:
John 15:9-12
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
What is God’s will? To know Him and to love. Love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength and love others as He has loved us. Faith, hope and love remain eternally, but love is the greatest and it never fails!
Take some time to get to know God.
The more that you get to know Him, the more that you will want to be like Him.
The more that you get to know Him, the easier time you will have recognizing sin
The more that you get to know Him, the less that you will want sin in your life.
The more that you get to know God, the better He gets and the better your life will be as well.
The more that you get to know Him, the more that you will want to tell others about Him.
God’s will for your life? Just get to know Him!