I was talking with an individual the other day about last months newsletter, in which I wrote about the need for man’s will to be in complete submission to God’s will. It was an interesting discussion to say the least. He felt that when things are going wrong in your life it is because you are not in the will of God. But, when things are going right it is a witness to your being in God’s perfect will. Then he said that on four or perhaps six occasions during a given year he would have to take something to the Lord to make sure it was not his will but the Lord’s that he was following.
I only had an hour with him and since this statement was at the close of our time together I left there with out being able to have him explain further the meaning behind the statements he had made. I really don’t think this person is alone in his reasoning concerning man’s will versus God’s will. That if things are going right you are in the will of God and if they are going wrong you are out of the will of God. Personally I feel that our being in or out of the will of God does not always determine whether the circumstances of life are either good or bad. It’s not so much what we are going through but who we are going to.
Being in the will of God is the inward place of rest and contentment that comes
when one listens not to the accolades of fame nor the curses of men but resides
in that place of perfect reliance on the grace of God in reacting to those
circumstances that brings us into His glory and purpose.
Are we out of His will if bad things are happening to us?
But lets take a look at what the person was saying. What if things are not going well in your life? What if predicaments of all sorts surround you on all sides, and the intent, or foolishness or ignorance of men or yourself seems to come together to do you harm? Didn’t God say to us in Heb. 13:6, “So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.” If the Lord states that I shouldn’t fear what men shall do to me then He must mean that there are times in our lives when men shall do unkind things to us! And when they do then we should already have a lifestyle in which we find ourselves resting in the provision that He is our helper.
But if the Lord really wants to help us then why doesn’t he stop those who desire to harm us in the first place? So if he doesn’t stop them, then he must be allowing it to happen. If he allows it to happen then the help the Lord is concerned in giving us is so that we are not overwhelmed by the situation, but we overwhelm the situation with our Christ-like-ness that only can come when our will comes into alignment with His will. After all we all know that bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people all the time!
Are we in His will when good things are happening to us?
So what if you are a good person and good things are happening in your life? What if blessings not curses surround you on every side and the intent of men and the work of your hands seem to come together to do you well? Does that prove that you are in God’s will?
If our Father in heaven, because of the legal hold sin has oven the world, permits the good, the bad and the ugly things of life to come upon us then our life is not to be determined by ‘our self’s’ reaction to the external circumstance of life but in our submitting our will into the hands of a loving, all knowing Father. Believing that Father knows best and whatever the outcome may be to learn to rest in the knowledge that He is always good and will always be there for us in every situation.
If that is true then we should accept it without being prideful because of how good our life is, or grumbling about how bad things are, or cursing because it is so ugly. Some things are difficult, because it deals with life and death, and I do not in any way say that we should like or enjoy the suffering it brings. However, there are precious gems to be mined in the high and low encounters of life that can be found in no other place. Each hold something precious for us to receive if we just do not get swept away by the accolades of praise or by the curses that come from the unfairness that life can often bring. Perhaps He has placed us there because we are the only one that can bring forth His purpose out of the situation. Perhaps it is a part of our destiny.
Like the individual, many think that God’s will on earth is always full of peace and prosperity for those whom the Lord loves. But as long as we live on this earth it would be better to learn from Paul when he said in Phil. 4:12, “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”
He who finds himself giving every thought, every action or word spoken over to God’s will finds themselves winners in every encounter. Whether it be in the face of joy or sorrow, failure or success, death or life, we may, under all circumstances find the victory that our Father wants so much for us.
God has chosen carefully, the circumstances that make up our lives because they offer the shortest route,if we use them, to reach the destiny He has desired for us.
How do we know when we are in His will?
Someone once said for us to fully grasp what it would be like when our wills are totally given over to His will we would have to understand that it is by grace. And what is grace? To say it is God’s unmerited favor is right but still it says so little about it. We all remember Eph. 2:8. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” To grow in grace you must live in love. To be saturated by His love is the only way we can live in total communion with the Father, enabling our every thought, words and actions to fall into alignment with His.
I remember when Pastor John Arnott said that the Father’s Blessing was “a return to our first love.” It was a profound simplification of what was happening to us during this outpouring. But how can we fully understand the love of the Father, his overflowing and infinite love? Think my friends of the most tender love you have ever experienced, the deepest love you have ever felt, the strongest love that has ever been poured out upon you and put upon it all the love that humanity has ever felt, and it would pale in comparison to God’s infinite love. This is the land of God’s grace, and to be able to walk and to live in His land of grace, is to live in the heart of His love, the home of His will.
Perhaps we need to give up and give in!
This is where the will of God is to be found. It is not found in our self-dependence or in our self-effort. Could it be that to grow in grace is to let God do the work, as we grow without a care and without any anxiety. Then we will grow because it is our nature to grow and to be beautiful. Not one flower that grows worries about its care but Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If we find ourselves being tired of being tired perhaps we are straining too much in self-growth.
Matt. 6:28, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil or spin.” Certainly this speaks of a growth process that we know little of. It speaks of a growth out of rest and without effort and yet it speaks of a life crowned with glorious results. Could it be that if we gave our will over to His will we too shall live a life like this? Saint Augustine wrote, “God having completed his work of creation, rest as if to say, ‘This is the destiny of those who are my people; to rest as I rest, to rest in me.’”
If we were to ask a lily how it grows I would not be surprised if it would tell us that they are not concerned nor conscious of their growth. If we, like the lilies, would turn our attention toward the giver of life instead of toward our own selves then we too would find ourselves lost in His love, living in grace and fulfilling His destiny for our lives.
All our love,
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