Today we want to consider how we can
find God's perfect will for our lives.
This is a very, very important subject.
The Bible speaks in Romans chapter 12 about
understanding the perfect will of God.
It says, don't be conformed to this world,
Romans 12, 2, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that you may prove
what the will of God is, that which
is good, acceptable and perfect.
There is a will of God for your
life, which is perfect.
You know, from the time you are born
again, from the time you've given your life
to Christ, till the end of your appointed
days on earth, God has chalked out, mapped
out, marked out, prepared a perfect blueprint, a
perfect plan for every detail of your life,
where you should live, whom you should marry,
what you should do, what your earthly occupation
should be, what all trials you should go
through, what all temptations you should face, and
what ministry you should have in His body.
These are all part of God's plan for
your life.
And you will never know or fulfill that
plan unless you have a longing.
See, God doesn't force anyone to walk in
His plan.
God doesn't even force people to go into
heaven.
He doesn't stop people from going to hell
if they want to go to hell.
God is a rewarder of those who diligently
seek Him.
The Holy Spirit is in the world, moving
around, turning people towards God, stirring believers to
respond to His call, to surrender and seek
God's perfect will.
But if the Holy Spirit finds that you're
not really serious about doing God's perfect will
in your life, He will just leave you
alone.
He won't pursue after you.
He may try a few times, but if
He finds that you're not eager about doing
God's will because you won't be able to
make so much money then, or you won't
be able to get on in the world
if you seek God's will, well, then He'll
just leave you alone.
And in eternity, you'll have a lot of
regrets.
Because when you map out your life, you
map out as a blind man.
You're totally blind concerning the future.
You don't even know what's going to happen
tomorrow.
You're totally blind concerning all the dangers and
the pitfalls that are in front of you,
made by men and made by Satan and
his demons.
And as far as the future goes, we're
totally blind.
And it's like a blind man trying to
walk through an unknown path.
Isn't it good for such a man to
have a guide whose eyes are wide open
and who can see into the far distance?
And that's exactly what God wants to do
for us.
God knows the whole future.
He knows exactly what's good for us.
He knows every pitfall, every snare that's prepared
for you by men or demons.
And He can protect you from all of
them.
And He can lead you in a path
in your earthly life that will be so
perfect that one day when you come to
the end of your life and you stand
before the Lord and look back over your
life, you'll realize you could not have made
a better plan yourself.
You know, I see it like this, that
if I knew all the factors that are
going to affect my life in the future,
and if I knew every single thing that
would happen to me along this path and
this path and the other path, the alternatives
I have to choose, if I knew every
aspect of the future and I knew myself
as God knows me, my abilities, my personality,
the plan I would make, if I had
God's wisdom, would be exactly the same as
what God has made for me.
Because all of us seek our own interests.
We seek what is good for us.
Do you know that God also seeks what's
good for you?
There is a verse in Jeremiah 29 where
God says, I know the plans I have
for you.
Jeremiah 29 verse 11.
They are not plans for a calamity, but
plans for your welfare, to give you a
future and a hope.
God's perfect plan for us is something that
is for our welfare.
That which is the very best for us.
And therefore, if you are a wholehearted disciple
of Jesus Christ, you will seek His plan
in every area of your life.
You'll say, Lord, I don't want to live
in any city or town where you don't
want me to live.
I don't want to marry any girl or
any boy whom you don't want me to
marry.
It's your choice that's going to be uppermost
in every single area of my life.
I want to spend my money the way
you want me to spend it.
I want to spend my time the way
you want me to spend it.
And I want to do only what you
want me to do on this earth.
If you are such a person, I want
to share with you some principles by which
we can prove the perfect will of God.
I want to put this in the form
of 12 questions that we ask ourselves if
we are to find what is God's perfect
will.
Sometimes we can be faced with an issue
concerning which we are not sure.
Is this God's will or is it not?
And if we ask ourselves these 12 questions
and seek to answer them honestly to ourselves,
as we come to the end of the
list of those questions, it will become more
and more clear to us what the will
of God is.
I'll read those questions to you first and
then we'll go through them one by one.
First of all, the first question we need
to ask ourselves is is this thing I'm
considering contrary to any of the teachings of
Jesus and the Apostles or to the spirit
of the New Testament as far as I
know?
In other words, is there something forbidding it
in God's Word, in the New Testament especially?
Secondly, is it something I can do with
a clear conscience?
Third, is it something I can do for
the glory of God?
Fourth, is it something I can do in
fellowship with Jesus?
Fifth, can I ask God to bless me
as I do it?
Sixth, will my doing it blunt my spiritual
edge in any way?
Seventh, will it be spiritually profitable and edifying
to the best of my knowledge?
Eighth, would I be happy if I were
found doing it at the moment when Jesus
returns to earth?
Ninth, what do wiser and more mature brothers
think about it?
Tenth, will my doing it bring dishonor to
God's name or ruin my testimony if others
know about it?
Eleventh, will my doing it cause others to
stumble if they know about it?
And twelfth, finally, do I feel free in
my spirit to do it?
As we look at these twelve questions one
by one, it will become more and more
clear what God's will is concerning any area.
First of all, if something is forbidden in
Scripture, we don't need to think about that
a second time.
That's very clear.
In Scripture, should I tell a lie here?
Well, does Scripture say anything about telling lies?
It certainly does.
Is there any excuse for me not to
forgive this person?
In those areas, Scripture is absolutely clear.
We must forgive and we must always speak
the truth.
There are many other areas like this where
God's word is crystal clear and we don't
need to pray or seek God at all.
And if you are considering something which is
contrary to God's word, is it contrary to
the spirit of the New Testament?
There may not be a particular passage in
Scripture that's pointing to that particular matter which
I'm considering, but if I've understood the principles
of the New Testament, I can ask myself,
is this contrary to the spirit of the
New Testament?
And by that itself, I should know.
That is the first question.
And that's why it's important for us to
know what the Scripture says.
In 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17,
it says, All Scripture is inspired by God
and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction,
for training in righteousness, so that the man
of God may be adequate, equipped for every
good work.
So there we see that Scripture has been
given to us to correct us and to
lead us in the path of righteousness and
equip us for every good work.
So if you're not familiar with the teaching
of the New Testament, there may be situations
in your life where you don't know what
God's will is, and you won't know because
you do not pay attention to Scripture and
you're not studying the Scriptures.
This is why it is so important to
give ourselves to a careful study of the
New Testament in order to find God's will
in the areas where that will is revealed
in Scripture.
And then it will be much easier for
us to know God's will in those many
other areas of our life which are not
revealed in Scripture.
For example, if you're considering a job or
considering marrying someone, that's not mentioned in Scripture.
But if you have spent your life seeking
to obey God's will in every area that
you have seen it in Scripture, God will
make sure you don't miss His will in
such important areas as marriage.
That's the benefit we get by obeying God's
word.
Secondly, you need to ask yourself, is this
something you can do with a clear conscience?
Conscience is not a perfect guide, but it's
a very healthy guide to show us what
God's will is.
In 1 John 3.21 it says, If
our heart does not condemn us, we have
confidence before God.
This is the thing that gives us boldness.
As you consider this course of action, you
find in your conscience a freedom.
Or does your conscience disturb you?
That this is not good.
This is not something that Jesus would want
you to do.
If your conscience disturbs you, don't do it.
So think of these two things.
Is it according to God's word?
Is it something I can do with a
clear conscience?