Doing The Will Of God

July/August 2004

This morning as I asked the Lord what He felt I should read in the Scriptures, He told me to read Ephesians. Dutifully opening to chapter one, I read in verse one:

Ephesians 1:1
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus:

I paused as I thought about the will of God. The Lord began to remind me how unique it is to have a will. The will is, in fact, what we share in common with divine beings. God has no form or comeliness. His ways and His thoughts are higher than ours. His motives are always love, and His holy character draws us to Him.

What is it that is common between us and God? His will and our will. We both have one. According to the verse above, by the will of God, Paul was an apostle of Jesus Christ. By doing the will of God, we receive our promised blessings, our plan, purpose, and destiny, and the salvation of our souls.

Hebrews 10:35-39
Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.
For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.
For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.

Thus at the core of the fight between the Kingdom of God, and the realm of the enemy, is the battle for the human will. It is when we yield our will to the Lord Jesus Christ that freedom comes. It is when He yielded His will to do the will of the Father in the garden, that He gained deliverance and freedom for all of mankind that desires to have it. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt…It was at this point of decision to yield His will, that His battle was so intense that He sweat drops of blood. Focused on that moment, all the hordes of hell sought to torment and thwart the Lord from His purpose – to yield His will to the Father.

How many of us today have yielded our will to the Father and to the Lord Jesus Christ? Perhaps we have let Him borrow it for a season, or maybe even rented it to Him, letting Him support us in ministry until the times got tough, and then we took back our wills and stopped listening to Him.

If you love me, keep my commandments said the Lord six times to His disciples[1] as He was on His way to being arrested and fulfill the will of the Father on the cross.

Ephesians 1:9
Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:How glorious is His will toward us! How wonderful it is to be changed into His image, to become one with Him as Jesus prayed in the garden in John 17. Where is this change most apparent? It is most visible in our wills becoming exactly His.

The one thing God requires is that we change who is on the throne in our hearts. When we are on the throne, we live independently from Him. This is the opposite of faith. We refuse to live by every word (i.e. every rhema word of revelation which He will speak into our hearts when we become still) that proceeds out of His mouth. Sometimes, we trust Him when we are desperate enough and have exhausted all other options; otherwise we are content to “sense”, “feel led”, or vaguely guess that we know His will for the dilemma of the day. The will of the Lord for our own lives is found in the Scriptures, and specific assignments are outlined day by day as we gather His revelation manna each morning.

We need never guess His will. We need never lean on our own understanding, lest we invent our own religion, and wind up sacrificing like Cain. We can labor to enter His rest anytime we choose, and sit at the Master’s feet like Mary.

In I Samuel we find a familiar phrase: Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. But there is further truth in these verses which we must explore:

I Samuel 15:22-23
And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey [i.e. to obey the specific voice of the Lord] is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.

What does God delight in? Our simple hearing and obeying His voice. Hearing requires humility and increases faith (I Peter 5:5-7; Revelation 3:19-22; Romans 10:8-17, I Kings 19:12; Psalm 23:1-3; Deuteronomy 8:2-3). Obeying requires yielding our will to Him after we have humbled our hearts to hear His voice.

Today, I urge you to confess with your mouth afresh that Jesus is the boss of your life. Today, ask the Father for forgiveness for your sin of independent-mindedness, and lack of communing with Him. There is no reason to feel uncomfortable with laying down the sins of stubbornness, rebellion, witchcraft, and idolatry which accompany the failing to hear the voice of the Lord and obeying it (I Samuel 15:22-23). Quite the opposite. We can run as children toward our Lord, lightening our load of hindrances and hardness of heart, jettisoning that very willfulness which hardens and separates us from intimacy with our beloved first love, Jesus Christ.

Father, how glorious is Your will for me today. I not only seek and desire to obey it, but I will obey it quickly today as You speak and reveal it to me. My schedule, my agenda – I lay it all down before You, and I will not allow it to compete for My time with You today. I draw near in stillness, beside those waters wherein You restore my soul. I quiet the noise of my soul, and enter the secret place in the Spirit that Jesus went to prepare for me. I worship in Your house today, the quiet stillness of my heart, and I yearn for Your thoughts for me today. I love you, and I appreciate all the things You have prepared for me today, in Jesus’ wonderful name, Amen.

All glory to the One from Whom all blessings flow. The Lord is well pleased in those who spend time with Him. May He say of you and I today, Well done thou good and faithful servant!

All our love in Christ,

Paul & Rita Norcross

[1] In some of the most thrilling Scriptures during Jesus’ last fellowship with His disciples before going to the cross, Jesus shared this thought six times: John 14:15, 21, 23-24, 31; 15:10, 12-14.