IS THIS GOD’S WILL FOR ME?

That which is birthed of God will not die but live to fulfil God’s purposes. If I consult the Lord in all my decisions whether it be travel, job, marriage, further education, new projects etc…..whatever – if I get the witness of the Spirit to it, then I settle the matter that it is purpose for me and not permission. The story in Genesis of Abraham’s two sons, Isaac and Ishmael, clearly relates the difference between purpose, Isaac – God’s plan, and Ishmael – Abraham and Sarah’s “good idea” to try and fulfil God’s promise to them. The will of God fulfils itself.

God can do without my wisdom but He does not need my ignorance!

I must settle matters at the beginning – Is this God’s will for me? Once settled I stand in His gift of faith. God will try me, stretch me and cause me to grow as I trust Him to fulfil His word. Birth settles destiny.

Trials will come, I must push into God and remind myself of the well known quote:

“The will of God will never lead me where the grace of God cannot keep me.” I need to learn the difference between the trial of my faith and being out of the will of God. God’s peace amidst the testing in the trial is an indicator of His will and purpose for me as I submit to His mighty hand, whereas when I am out of His will there is the absence of the peace and joy of His presence and strife reigns.

DISAPPOINTMENT

What is disappointment? Usually it is related to me and how I feel about certain matters. Sometimes I can have a false expectancy. A disappointment is the way I process a situation and judge it because it does not suit my agenda, but in the greater scheme of things, I must see that God has an “appointment” for me – His purpose within the very situation which disappoints me.

Jesus said “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God,” Matthew 5:8. Do I see God in my disappointments and turn to Him for “rest”? Do I really believe that “ALL things work together for good to them that love God”….? Romans 8:28

The appointed times of God will not be frustrated. His purposes will come to pass, but will I recognise them when they come? Take, for example, the birth of Jesus Christ on earth. When the Appointed One, Jesus, turned up for His appointment, there was “no room in the inn”. He was not recognised. When He grew to manhood to fulfil God’s purpose on earth, the religious and legal systems of the day did not recognise Him as their expected Messiah, but others did, such as the Syro-Phoenician woman, (Mark 7:25 – 30), and the Centurion, (Matt. 8:5 – 13). They did not miss their appointments with the Lord.

My disappointments are often selfish, but I must lift my eyes and see the appointments of God in my life. This preparation in our circumstances is the working of God to rid us of all the spiritual dizziness, so our walk with Him becomes steadfast, tried and true to His purposes. Thus He will bring us to the place where we will not be disappointed with the happenings in our lives, we will see God “in all things”, as we recognise the presence of the “Appointed One”, the Lord Jesus, amidst it all.

In the midst of life’s trials when I lose sight of His purpose and my anguished heart laments, “Lord, I am so disappointed!”, tenderly He whispers, “My beloved child, look to Me for I……….AM NOT A DISAPPOINTMENT!”

Disappointment is an expectation of something that God did not initiate. Birth settles destiny!

You are not a disappointment,
You come where You are called
Into every situation
Of which You are Lord.
Bowing to Your pressure brings
You, Jesus, in that place
Where I am most needy
Of Your keeping grace.
No! You’re not a disappointment,
As I come before Your throne
In humble adoration,
To worship You alone.

BEFORE YOU CALL, I WILL ANSWER!!

Luke 23 records one of the accounts of the crucifixion of Jesus and two criminals. One of them, the dying thief, had no past experience other than sin, and no future opportunity to change anything. The cross on which he hung was the circumstance which gave him the PRESENT opportunity to relate to the ONE who accepted him just as he was, and enter in to all that the Father had made provision for BEFORE the foundation of the world. Jesus was “The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,” Revelation 13:8.

Do I realise that, just as the dying thief, there is nothing God requires from me, except to humble myself in my believing, to the FINISHED work of Jesus on the cross. God will bring the circumstances in my life, the cross, which will give me the PRESENT opportunity to accept and humble myself to the One, (the Lord Jesus) that I must relate to!

If God wants the glory, he must do the work! Phil. 2:13, “For it is God who works in you to will and to do of His good pleasure.” It is God who works in me “to will” and “to do.” He works the willing in the willing and the doing in the doing! God does NOT want me willing of my own efforts. Jesus was not willing to die, yet He was the sinless Son of God. In the garden prior to His death, He said,”Father, if it be possible, let “this cup” pass from Me.” So to be unwilling is not a sin. The sin would have been not to choose the Father’s will. But He humbled Himself to death on the cross with these words, “Never the less, not My will, but Thine be done.”

As I bow the knee and humble before the Lord, He will work His will in me for His divine purposes and His glory. God made the provision before the foundation of the world!

UNBELIEF

Read 2 Kings 7

……and consider:-

BEWARE OF UNBELIEF WHEN GOD SPEAKS!

“THEY LIMITED THE HOLY ONE”

Psalm 78 records the history of disobedience in the children of Israel and the consequences of wrong choices. We can learn from their mistakes but human nature is such that we usually learn from our own mistakes and experiences.

Verse 34 says of God, “When He slew them, then they sought Him! and they returned and enquired early after God.”

Verse 38, “…but God being full of compassion forgave their iniquity…..” again and again.

Verse 41, “They turned back …….. and limited the Holy One of Israel.” The children of Israel turned back in unbelief and limited the Holy One of Israel, God. How can I limit God, the Unlimited One? By my choices. We are all on a journey, in a process. None of us are “the finished article” as yet. The word “process” covers the work from the beginning to the end. The work is not done overnight. My whole lifestyle is governed by the choices I make, not a “once and for all” choice, but ongoing challenges as God comes again and again. What I am today is the product of my past choices. God has done the very best from His side, in line with my choice. Praise God!…..I have not reached the end of my journey, therefore I still have opportunity to make right choices in line with God’s purposes for my life.

God hems me in with circumstances according to the condition of my heart. If my heart is hard, my circumstances will be more difficult. If my heart is soft, God only has to apply slight pressure of circumstance. Sometimes when the pressure is off it is easier to go astray, so the Lord has to use His “process” to keep me returning and on track, to bring my heart close to Him so I am soft and pliable.

Jeremiah 50:6 “My people have been lost sheep………..they have forgotten their resting place.” Hebrews 4 speaks of the “rest ” of God’s people. It is a functioning position of the trust of a child in his Heavenly Father, and His provision for him.

Verse 37 of the Psalm records, “neither were they steadfast in His covenant.” God is steadfast from His side and He works with me in the “process” that I become steadfast. God deals with my heart whose function is to believe that He is who He says He is, when He brings the great and small challenges of life. I can stand at the crossroads of choice in career, health, relationships, finance etc. – the list is endless. God checks the motives of my heart, in faith or unbelief of the choices I make. “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” Romans 14:23

Will I make right choices in faith, AS GOD LEADS, or will I turn back in unbelief and limit God like the children of Israel?

THE SPENDING POWER OF GOD ALMIGHTY IS LIMITED BY THE CHOICE OF HIS CHILDREN!

My choice governs!

TO HURRY GOD….

To hurry God is to find fault with Him.

LET GO AND LET GOD

As children bring their broken toys
With tears for us to mend
I brought my broken dreams to God
Because He was my friend
But then instead of leaving Him
In peace, to work alone,
I hung around and tried to help
With ways that were my own.

At last I snatched them back and cried,
“How could You be so slow?”
“My child,” He said, “What could I do?
You never did let go.”

Anon.

GOD’S GOVERNING FACTOR

Our Lord Jesus said in John 14:13 – 14, “And whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask anything in my name I will do it.” There is a need for a deeper revelation that springs from the page because so very often we ask, but do not receive. We tack the words “in the name of Jesus” on the end of our prayers quite sincerely. However, sometimes we are sincerely wrong in our asking. Why is this?

The answer lies in James 4:3, “You ask and do not receive because you ask amiss.” The governing factor is that God will be glorified in the Son, (John 14:13.) Can I be trusted with what God wants to give me? Only God is the righteous judge of that. A man cannot and should not “bear testimony of himself.”

We are governed by what we believe. God is working with each of us individually IN our circumstances. If I did not have His restrictions of circumstance in my life, where would I be? He is there amongst it all teaching and directing me to bring me through with Him, learning to hear His voice. As I obey His voice becomes clearer.

My life speaks. We are “living epistles” for God and others to read. It is not WHAT I say, but how I live my life. God sees. God even knows me better than I know myself. He restricts, he ties me in to the Body of Christ to be accountable to Him and others, and He allows the restriction of circumstance to keep me on track, His track. I am in a learning process. We “Spend our years as a tale that is told,” Psalm 90:9. God sees the end from the beginning. God sees! God started His work in me and He will finish it. Philippians 1:6 “Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will finish it, even to the day of Jesus Christ.” God is not a messy worker. He is faithful to complete what He starts. Let me get this fact settled: I did not start this work in me. God did! This was His idea, not mine. I just answered His call on my life. I am somewhere in the process that He is working in my life, for His glory. The restrictions He permits are part of my learning curves to keep my eyes on Him.

In the world of celebrity, politics and finance there is so much abuse of fame, power and money. These privileges, if abused, can destroy them. This should not be so in the life of a follower of Jesus Christ. The governing factor is that my life, more and more as I learn, should glorify God.

Matthew chapter 4 records the temptations of Jesus. The devil tempted Jesus to tap into God’s power to do something as an individual to make a show of God’s power for his personal gain, that was not God’s will. That is our vulnerability, where we need the guidance of the Holy Spirit to strengthen us to refuse such temptations for our own personal glory, as the moment we succumb, God’s power is withdrawn as instant as flipping the switch to the off position in an electric socket. God will not give His glory to another. Jesus prayed, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.” God’s power is given for the extension of His Kingdom and for His glory. His power cannot be used for man’s glory or wrestled from His hand.

If I do not hold what God gives me by His grace, for His glory, He will remove it to teach me humility. A man must walk humbly with his God. A great lesson I must learn: God righteously will not give His glory to another.

A child asks his parent, “How can I hear God’s voice?” We teach our children that the first step is to listen and obey their parents. In the early stages the parents represent the voice of God to them. (We are accountable to God how we train our children in obedience and loving discipline – God sees.) As children learn to obey their parents they discover that God will speak to them personally as they grow older. A developing child may often ask for things that the parent may deny him because he has not matured enough or learnt how to handle. For example, a 10 year old is refused his request to use a chain saw. The child is loved but cannot yet be trusted with it. He has to be refused, he has yet to mature, to watch and learn from the parent until the day arrives when he is old enough to be taught to handle it, with great caution! Or he could destroy himself and others. So too, with us. God loves us but in some areas we cannot yet be trusted with God’s glory until we have learnt to carry and bear it to the glory of His great name, not mine. How much can God trust me with? Only God can answer that. He knows.

God is teaching us all by our individual circumstances that He is our Father, and we are His sons and daughters. Until we lose the belief that God has abandoned us we will never enter in to the abundance of His provision for us. His provision as my Father is there for me but I need to enter into His “rest” of the provision as I face my daily challenges. Otherwise, I will never enter into it.

Remember: Until we meet the impossible, we do not touch the resources of God.

Jesus declared and demonstrated to His disciples every aspect of God’s name e.g. Shepherd, Multiplier, Resurrector etc. which is His glory. At that time the disciples could not see it as their spiritual eyes had not yet been opened. God is purposing to bring me to a place to see, believe and prove that He really is my Father, and I really am His child. He wants to lead us into a place of maturity and responsibility so He can reveal Himself to us increasingly, in order that we may carry and bear, to the glory of God.

Yes indeed! In the purposes of God He is “bringing many sons unto glory.” Hebrews 2:10