Understanding the Will of God

I attended a seminar yesterday and I want to share the note I took with you. They are off of the power point to I am going to put them all in quotes, as they are pretty much exactly what Jonathan Rouke taught. I hope you are as encouraged as much as I was/am. I hope that I did not misquote him and that you also get the main point. This will not be as easy for you to understand, not because Jonathan did a poor job teaching it, but because I am not able to type fast enough to get everything he said.

Serving the Body by Helping Christians Understand the Will of God 3/5/09
Jonathan Rourke

"Somewhere along the way God’s will has come to be needed to found, but where did it get lost? There is no one set of decisions that bring us ultimate happiness, or don’t allow us to ever have that happiness. Many people are so inwardly focused that never are in the Lord’s will.
There have been many ways in the Bible that God has spoken His will to His people over the years, but He only communicates His will to us today through His Word.
Where are we going in the process of leading people to the right decision?

The 4 quadrants of God’s will.
There is a private element and a public element. The private ones are in the heart and the public ones are seen by others. We don’t need to find it, as it is in His Word, but we do need to understand it and obey it.

1. Walk in the Spirit. Eph. 5:15-21, Matt. 7:21, Col 4:12, Gal. 5:16- either you are wise or unwise. We need to be walking in the Spirit, and you can’t walk in the Spirit if you’re not saved. This is the starting point. We are never given commands in the Bible to do something that we can’t actually do. If we walk in the spirit, and if we know the Word of God we will obey it. Many will want to come into Heaven but only those who do the will of God will enter. The will of God was clear 2000 years ago and it still is today. There is resistance to walking in the Spirit and that is our sin nature. What should we do to over come the will of the flesh? There is no artificial system that allows us to defeat the flesh. The only way we can control the flesh is by walking in the Spirit. How can we walking worthy of the Gospel? How can we balance the scale? There is no possible way for us to balance the scale in our flesh; but with God on our side we can balance the scale, because God is on the scale to balance the scale with the Gospel.

2. Fight the Flesh, 1 Thes. 4:1-8, Romans 12:1-2. Do His will and continue in sanctification. We must control our lusts and passions. We need to fight against our lusts and not be in the cross hairs of God’s wrath, as He is the Avenger. God cares what we do with our bodies.

3. Submission to Authority, Romans 13:1-7, 1 Peter 2:13-17. This is the start of the external, visual part of our obedience to the will of God. Submission is an element in the Christian faith that needs to be done. This is difficult, but necessary for our walking in the Spirit. We will be judged if we don’t submit to authority. If we are going to live our life according to Romans 12, then we need to be submitting to the authorities that God has put in place over us. We can resist submitting to authority, or we can line up under it and obey it. If we fight against the authority that God has put in place we are fighting against God’s authority and directly against God. Submission is the will of God, because when we submit to authorities we will silence the ignorance of foolish people. All authority will give an account to God, not to the people.

4. Rejoice in Trials, Eph. 5:20, 1 Peter 4:19, 1 Thess. 5:16-19. 'Bad things' happen when God allows them to happen to us. Sometimes God’s will and purposes are not revealed to us. God loves us and He only gives us what we need. Sometimes obeying God brings trials. Rejoice and give thanks in all things, for this is the will of God.

Conclusions.
We have to start from the inside and work our way out, not the opposite. Prov. 12:15, 13:10, 19:20. The stubborn, rebellious nature of man is revealed when we have to submit.

The will of God is not some secret code that will get you a worry free life. We are called to a standard that we might please God. The will of God is about His pleasure, not ours.

Implications.
Accept what God has ordained. He will guide your steps. Prov. 3:5-6.
Obey what God has commanded, John 15:10. They will know that we are His disciples if we obey.
Request what God has promised, James 1:5."