LIVING IN THE WILL OF GOD

LIVING IN THE WILL OF GOD

"From Him are all things" (Rom. 11:36)

Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven belonged to the poor in spirit (Mt. 5:3). He also said that only those who do the will of the Father would enter that kingdom (Mt. 7:21). The kingdom of heaven is eternal, and only that which has been done in the will of God will be found there. The poor in spirit are those who are conscious of their human insufficiency and who therefore submit to the will of God completely.

In this sense, Jesus was perpetually poor in spirit. He lived as God intended man to live - in perpetual dependence on God, refusing to exercise the powers of His mind apart from God. Consider His words:

"The Son can do nothing of (out from) Himself......I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak as the Father taught Me.....I have not come on My own initiative, but He sent Me.....I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself Who sent Me has given Me commandment, what to say and what to speak..... The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His work" (Jn. 5:19,30; 8:28,42; 12:49; 14:10).

Jesus never acted merely because He saw a need . He saw the need, was concerned about it, but acted only when His Father told Him to.

And when Jesus came to earth, He did not just go around doing whatever He felt was good. Even though His mind was perfectly pure, yet He never acted on any bright idea that came to mind. No. He made His mind a servant of the Holy Spirit.

Although He knew the Scriptures thoroughly by the age of twelve, yet He spent the next eighteen years as a carpenter, staying with His mother, making tables and chairs, etc., He had the very message that dying men around Him needed, and yet He would not go out into the preaching ministry. Why? Because the Father's time had not yet come.

Jesus was not afraid to wait.

"He who believes will not be in a hurry" (Isa. 28:16).

And when His Father's time came, He went out of His carpenter's shop and began to preach. Often thereafter, He would say concerning some course of action, "My hour has not yet come" (Jn. 2:4; 7:6). Everything in Jesus' life was regulated by the timing and the will of the Father.

There were many good things that Jesus could have been done, that He never did, because they were outside the scope of His Father's will for Him. He was always busy doing the very best things. And those were enough. He had not come to earth to do good things, but to do the will of His Father.

Soulish Christians are so intent on doing `their own thing' that they are frequently irritable and restless. Some of them end up having a nervous or a physical breakdown finally.

"Every plant which our Heavenly Father did not plant will be rooted up" (Mt. 15:13). The question is not whether the plant is good, but who planted it. God is the only legitimate Originator of anything. The Bible begins with the words, "In the beginning God." So must it be with all our actions: They must have originated in God, and not in our minds, if they are to last forever.

"He who does the will of God will abide forever" (1 Jn. 2:17). All the rest will perish.

So, let us ask ourselves this question:

AM I LIVING AND LABOURING IN THE WILL OF GOD?

Are you Alive

Jesus said, "...I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10, NIV). Have you discovered the joy and peace of personally accepting Jesus' invitation to life? Perhaps you have believed in the existence of God and His Son and have tried to live a good life, but have never consciously invited Him to be your Savior and Lord. No matter who you are or what you have done, at this very moment, you too can make the decision of a lifetime. Right now Jesus is knocking at the door of your heart. He offers you the same wonderful life which millions through the centuries have received with life-changing results. He has already paid the penalty for your sin. He is asking you, in the quiet of your heart, to put your trust in Him. Here are four spiritual points that will help you discover how to know God personally and experience the full life He promises.

• 1. God loves you and wants to have a personal relationship with you.

God's Love: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16, NASV). "Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom You have sent" (John 17:3). God wants you to know Him. Why is it that most people do not have a personal relationship with God? Because:

• 2. Our sin cuts us off from God so we cannot have a personal relationship with Him and experience His love.

We have all sinned. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23, NASV). We were all created to have a personal relationship with God, because we all choose to go our own independent way, our relationship with God was broken. The fact that we are selfish and self-centered is obvious because we either rebel against God or don't really care about Him. This is evidence of what the Bible calls "sin." We are cut off from God. "The wages of sin is death..." [spiritual separation from God] (Rom. 6:23). God is holy (pure and sinless) and we are sinful. A great gap cuts us off from God because He cannot tolerate sin. People often try to find a full and meaningful life through their own efforts. They try to live a good life or be religious. But the Bible clearly teaches that there is only one way to bridge this gap.