How to know God's will for your life

How to know God's will for your life.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

1. The Viewpoint Will of God. God wants you to think divine viewpoint, ISA 55:7-9; PRO 23:7;
2CO 10:5.

PRO 23:7 For as he thinks within himself, so he is. He says to you, “Eat and drink!” But his heart is not with you.

1TI 5:17-18 Those pastor-teachers who have ruled well with the result that they keep ruling honorably, they must be considered worthy of double honor, most of all those who work hard to the point of exhaustion in the study of the word and the teaching of doctrine. For the Scripture says [DEU 25:4], “You shall not muzzle the bull while he is threshing,” also “[DEU 24:15] The laborer is worthy of his wages.”

1TI 5:19-20 Do not receive an accusation against a pastor-teaches except on the basis of two or three witnesses. Those who continue in the sin of receiving or making accusations, reprimand in the presence of all, in order that the rest of the congregation also may have respect.

1SA 24:4 And the men of David said to him, “Behold, this is the day of which the Lord said to you, ‘Behold; I am about to give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it seems good to you.’” Then David arose and cut off the edge of Saul’s robe secretly.

1SA 24:5-6 And it came about afterward that David’s conscience bothered him because he had cut off the edge of Saul’s robe. So he said to his men, “Far be it from me because of the Lord that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord’s anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, since he is the Lord’s anointed.”

2TI 4:14 Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds.

ISA 54:17 “No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; And every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, And their vindication is from Me,” declares the Lord.

2CO 13:8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but only for the truth.

1. The Viewpoint Will of God. What does God want me to think? He wants you to think divine viewpoint. (ISA 55:7-9; PRO 23:7;
2CO 10:5).

2. The Operational Will of God. What does God want me to do? The operational will of God involves everything that a Christian should do to the glory of God.

3. The Geographical Will of God. Where does God want me to be? This category has to do with location.
The directive will of God = the same as the desire of God, NUM 22:12.

NUM 22:12 And God said to Balaam, “Do not go with them; you shall not curse the people; for they are blessed.”

It was the directive will of God that called Abraham out of Ur of Chaldea, and it was the directive will of God to which he responded.

The permissive will of God is permitted but is not God’s desire,
NUM 22:20.
The permissive will of God = God permitted Abraham to lie twice about Sarah not being his wife.

The overruling will of God = Jesus Christ controls history,
NUM 23:5,8,23,25-26.

GEN 12:17 But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.
GEN 20:3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is married.”

The overruling will of God also took place when God took Abraham’s father from Abraham when he was in Haran.

Haran was part way in the directive will of God and when Abraham got hung up, then God overruled him and killed his father and that hauled Abraham into the land.

1. Guidance through prayer, ACT 11:5.
2. Guidance through objective thinking of Bible doctrine, ACT 11:6.
3. Guidance through perception of doctrine, ACT 11:7-10.
4. Guidance through providential circumstances, e.g. the people we meet, ACT 11:11.
5. Guidance through fellowship and comparison of spiritual data, ACT 11:13-14.
6. Guidance through recalling of doctrine, ACT 11:16.

PSA 1:1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!

7. Guidance through disaster.

ISA 29:24 They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine.

Bible doctrine in the soul + free will in man = divine guidance, the execution of the will of God.

Abraham was getting doctrine in Ur of the Chaldea, but because of his family and relatives, Abraham never reached spiritual maturity until he was totally separated from all his relatives.

GEN 12:1 “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives and from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you.”

It was necessary for Abraham to have a change of residence because his spiritual growth was the most important thing.

Doctrine was available to him in Ur of the Chaldea up to a point and when it ceased to be available, God had to uproot Abraham and get him out of there.

It ceased to be available when Abraham’s family and relatives and friends and social life and perhaps even his celebrityship - when these things got in the way of his advance toward spiritual maturity.

As long as God’s people do not separate from those weirdos who are in reversionism, they will be dried up spiritually as well.

Abram’s name is also interesting.
“Ab” = father.
“Ram” = high and windy places.

Abram was called father of heights because his father, who was one of the chief priests in Ur, named his son after the only high place around.

Going over 100 feet in the air was the famous temple, the last 75 feet a famous tower, on top of the tower another famous temple, the ziggurat of Ur, and Abram was named after the ziggurat of Ur.

Abram was obviously ear-marked for a life of religion and idolatry.

HEB 1:4 We have become as much better than the angels, as we have inherited a more excellent name than they have.
HEB 6:9 But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way.

HEB 7:19 (for the Law made nothing perfect), and on the other hand there is a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.
HEB 7:22 so much the more also Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant.

HEB 8:6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.
HEB 9:23 Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

HEB 10:34 For you showed sympathy to the prisoners, and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an abiding one.
HEB 11:40 because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

HEB 12:24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.

There is another meaning of Abram’s name -
“Ram” = an empty high place, to remind us of the principle of grace, and to give us the development of that concept of spiritual common sense.

God takes zeros and turns them into a hundred, but He does all the work!

Spiritual common sense starts with the principle of no illusions about self.