Knowing God's Will - Maurice Warburton

Maurice Warburton returns to Listooder to consider the words of David in Psalm 40:8, whose delight was to do the will of God. He began by explaining that many young Christians feel under serious pressure to know the will of God, seeing the will of God as the 'holy grail', something that will bring ultimate completion to their lives. But God does not often reveal His will to us in that way, and certainly does not reveal to us the entirety of His plan for our lives. For one thing, our minds could not cope with the detail of those things. God's will, rather, is revealed to us progressively. Maurice demonstrated that even the Word of God was not given all at one time. God revealed Himself to Moses, who recorded the words in the first five books of the Bible, through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Then through different individuals over many centuries to comprise the inspired cannon of Scripture. So it is with the will of God throughout our lives. God reveals each step to us, as and when we need it, when we seek Him. But to understand the leading of God, we must first be a child of God. To be outside of the family of God, to be unsaved, is to be as far from God's will as it is possible to be. 2 Peter 3:9 tells us that God is 'not willing that any should perish', it is not God's will that any should fail to accept His salvation. God calls all men everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to Him. A Believer, however, by the very nature of having their sins forgiven, is already on the right path, and is found within the will of God. But beyond that, there are general principles which every Christian should abide by, for it is only these principles that will keep us fully in the blessings of God's Will. 'If ye love Me, keep My commandments' (John 14:15). We should love the Lord with all our heart, soul and mind and we should love our neighbours as we love ourselves. It is the will of God that we keep His commandments. Believers are to honour all men, and honour those in authority over us (1 Peter 2:17). It is God's will that we respect and obey the laws of the land. It is wrong for a Christian to rebel against authority, whether that be in churches, in schools or in the community. Of course, the commands of that authority must be in line with the commands of God. In employment also, a Christian is commanded to be obedient, diligent and hardworking (Ephesians 6:5). In the family setting, it is the will of God that husbands love their wives with the love that Christ had for the church, and that wives submit to their husbands. For children, the instruction of Scripture is also clear. 'Honour thy father and thy mother' (Exodus 20:12). Outside of the family, but within the wider family of God, we should 'love one another' (John 13:34). There should be no jealously, anger and bitterness within the church of Christ. This is not God's will for our lives, or our relationships with others. It is His will that we keep ourselves pure, that we 'abstain from all appearance of evil' (1 Thessalonians 5:22). In the blatant sexualisation of the world today, in magazines and in the media, there is no purity. It is God's will that we remain pure, just as with alcohol, we must abstain from the appearance of evil. 'Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise' (Proverbs 20:1). Then what about our relationship with God?  'But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in His law doth he meditate day and night' (Psalm 1:2). It is God's will that we study His word, that we consider it and that we speak about it. It is His will that we pray over His word, making our requests known to Him in prayer (Philippians 4:6). It is His will that we serve Him, that we go 'into all the world, and preach the Gospel' (Mark 16:15), preaching Christ, sharing the Gospel through every opportunity that the Lord gives us. This is the general will of God, the principles by which God would have us to live. To follow the commands of God is to live for Him, to commune with Him and to serve Him. And it is by living in the will of God, that we will present Christ to others. The love of God will consume us and shine through us. The Holy Spirit will guide us. By living in the commands of God, by following the general principles outlined in Scripture we will be brought closer to Him, and will then become sensitive to His leading. As unnatural as it seems to say, it will then no longer be necessary to seek God for every finite detail of our lives. The pathways will become clear, and the decisions more obvious. You see, by following the will of God through the clear principles of Scripture, our heart's desire will become aligned with the desires of God. The decisions we naturally make, the relationships we enter into, the careers we begin and the work that we do for Christ will all be honoured of God if we are applying the general principles of Scripture. 'Delight thyself also in the LORD; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart' (Psalm 37:4). So many believers today sit waiting for the Lord to speak to them, rather than simply stepping out and pursuing the instinctive desires that the Lord has given them. If we love Him, we will keep His commandments. And if we keep His commandments, then we will know that our desires are His desires and that our will is His will. We can step out in the faith and in the knowledge that He will bless us as He promised to. But is it really that simple... What if I go off in the wrong direction? What if I take a wrong step? In Acts 16, Paul and Silas where choosing where next to go and preach the Gospel of Christ. They were about to head into Asia when we read that they are 'forbidden of the Holy Ghost', then, just as they tried to move off to a place called Bithynia, 'the Spirit suffered them not'. It was then that the Lord spoke to Paul, and sent them into Macedonia. If we are sensitive to the leading of the Lord, and to the inner guidance of the Holy Spirit within us, we will not find ourselves going in the wrong direction. God will intervene and gently draw us back to the right path. Some doors will open, some doors may close, but God's path of blessing will always be made clear. 'Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths' (Proverbs 3:5-6).