Knowing And Doing The Will Of God / Part 3

Series – September 2010 – Grace & Truth Magazine

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. – Romans 12:2 NKJV

Knowing And Doing The Will Of God
Part 3

In Part 1 of this Series we saw that God’s sovereign will is His hidden plan that determines everything that happens – past, present and future. In Part 2 we looked at God’s revealed will for each of us. We conclude by looking at how God’s sovereign will and His revealed will relate to one another and to us.

SOME FIXED LIMITS ...
How do God’s sovereign will and His revealed or lifestyle will relate and overlap in practice? In this figure (Figure 1, right) the large circle represents God’s sovereign will, and a smaller circle represents His lifestyle will. The overlapping region inside both the small and large circle indicates action done according to His divine plan, which follows His command and is obeyed by someone. Here are two examples representing actions which fall into this region.

The Call Of Abraham: “The LORD had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country, from your family, and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him” (Gen. 12:1-4).

Christ’s Sacrifice: “Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: ‘Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come – in the volume of the book it is written of Me – to do Your will, O God’” (Heb. 10:5-7).

In both of these instances, God’s divine plan was revealed, and Abram and Jesus acted upon it and obeyed faithfully. In the case of Abram, it may perhaps have been after a brief stopover in Haran until the death of his aging father Terah, but he obeyed in amazingly consistent faith. And Jesus’ perfect life of obedience, even to the point of the most appalling death by crucifixion, was clearly foretold in the Old Testament (Ps. 40:6-8). He brought glory to God in fulfilling His perfect will to the total satisfaction of His Father. On two different occasions the heavens proclaimed it: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Mt. 17:5; 3:17).

In Figure 1, the other crescentshaped area to the right represents some action done in violation of God’s revealed (lifestyle) will, yet nevertheless fulfilling His sovereign plan. Here are two examples.

Ishmael’s Birth: Abraham and Sarah’s scheme to have a child by her maid Hagar is an example of an action falling into this area. What they did was wrong, showing a lack of faith. Sadly, the consequences remain today with the tension between Arabs and Jews in Palestine mirroring the antagonism between Ishmael and Isaac which was the result of the flawed behavior recorded in Genesis 16. Actions falling into this area tend to have lasting repercussions.

Christ’s Death: The death of Christ – with His betrayal by Judas, illegal and unfair trial and crucifixion on a barren hill outside Jerusalem’s walls – was the result of unlawful and sinful acts. Nevertheless, they were predetermined and allowed by God to fulfill His perfect purposes. They brought glory to Him, and blessing to us. Read these words of Peter: “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know – Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it” (Acts 2:22-24).

... WITH ROOM TO MOVE
There are some guidelines for decision-making which follow from this analysis, making use of the operating principle of wisdom. This is not human intelligence, but the divine wisdom which comes to believers from God above (Jas. 3:17).

As we don’t (and can’t) know God’s sovereign will in advance, it can’t affect our actions, but it can (and should) affect our attitudes. As James says to the harddriving business men and women of his day: “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.’ But now you boast in your arrogance” (Jas. 4:13-16).

Forward planning is fine, both in the short and long term (Paul did it often), but it needs to be couched in provisional language, without arrogance or self-seeking, showing a humble submission to working out God’s plan for our lives.

In areas where the Bible gives a definite command, His lifestyle will for us is to listen and obey. His Word is our guidebook, giving us all the instructions we require. There is no room for situation ethics, based on the premise that different situations demand different approaches, and what is morally wrong in one situation may be all right in another. The command to abstain from sexual immorality is an absolute, and does not depend on such things as the level of commitment of the partners in an extra-marital relationship, for example.

And over-indulgence (to excess) of any description is ruled out if we want to really understand the will of God for our own lives. “Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:17-18). It is striking that the only reference in the New Testament about being filled with the Spirit occurs here in relation to this form of excess, which is rife in so many societies, and has been for centuries.

When John says “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 Jn. 5:21), he had in mind the fact that knowing God in a fallen and sinful world means that some separating action is called for in our lives; it is not simply a matter of what we know about Him. It is a matter of how we behave in view of that knowledge, and what things we allow to displace Him in our affections.

In areas where there is no specific biblical command given, we have “room to move” in our decision- making. Again, the principle of wisdom needs to be applied. Some choices we make may turn out to be bad ones, and some good choices are better than others. We need to begin by understanding that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov. 9:10). Right at the outset of our decisions, big or small, we need to realize that a sense of reverence for our Creator God must underlie everything. And as James says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting” (Jas. 1:5-6).

Faith is trusting that God will never give us something that will cause us harm. Christians have the indwelling Holy Spirit, who desires to guide us into right belief and appropriate actions: “When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth” (Jn. 16:13).

This “room to move” particularly applies in everyday situations which have no immediate spiritual consequences, such as our choice of clothing, purchase of furniture and appliances, and various leisure activities. Here many options exist, which can be accepted or discarded. Prayer, God’s Word, advice from friends, and prevailing circumstances, can all be inputs into such decision-making.

But always the over-arching principle must be wisdom. Wisdom is more than just information; it is more even than knowledge, which by itself may make us arrogant. God’s wisdom comes from personal experience with Him. And so the oval containing the words “My Actions” (Figure 2, left) needs to be kept firmly in the double circle on the left, and not stray out into the crescent-shaped area to the right (Figure 3, right). This can only bring a sense of regret that our lives were not what they might have been had we been more prayerful, perceptive, faithful and wise.

May God help us in all our decision-making to apply the principle of wisdom, that we may both know and do the will of God. Like the early disciples, we need to display to the world outside that we have “been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).

By Ian Livingstone

A new Series begins in November.