God's Will

Sometimes we think about God’s will as a bullseye.  If you hit it, you are blessed, if not, a lightening bolt for you!  But I’ve come to think about His will as a way, or a flow.  Our God is a living, breathing God, so He is moving constantly in our midst.  We have the opportunity, even obligation, to move and flow with Him.

I like to think about God as a steady moving train.  I can hop on and enjoy the ride, or I can hop off and act independently.  Whether we are acting out some heinous crime or simply doing what we want, we are separated from Him.  This causes the “now” part of judgement.  The separation causes feelings of abandonment, shame, guilt, even stress, worry and anxiety.  Never ignore these feelings!!  They don’t belong in the life of a son or daughter, so please ask God why they are there.  Hop back on the train and enjoy life!

This begs the question, can we miss the God train?  Truly, we can work our way so far from God that His Spirit is no longer able to influence us.  Our hearts become terribly hardened by the influence of the enemy and our experience in this world.  The continual rejection of the Spirit and His work is called blasphemy.  I’d say it is a worthwhile use of this life to seek Him wholeheartedly, allowing His Spirit to soften our heart and create an increasing sensitivity to Him and His Presence.

There was a time in my life where I had worked my way so far from God’s will that all I could see was darkness surrounding me.  The harsh reality of this world was crushing on my shoulders and I could no longer recognize God.  As I looked at all the horrible things going on I questioned God, “Where are You and what are You doing?”  I felt lost.  In my own way I had hit a wall and was forced to the sidelines.  I was faced with the reality of my willfulness.

So many times I have heard well meaning christians say, “I just wish I could see the writing on the wall.”  I think in essence this is the flesh desiring His will to once again be an external law.  When we are young, we are trained by the rules and regulations of our parents or other authority.  We have to learn to submit to these external expectations so we can one day grow into a mature adult, able to conduct ourselves even when the boundaries have been removed.

The same is true with spiritual maturity.  When we are young in faith we innocently follow what we see written in the Bible or what we hear from our spiritual leaders.  As we submit to these external instructions, the Holy Spirit is able to reveal more and more of God’s nature, or His heart.  This causes a transformation from our old hardened self into a new being.  What this means is that our softened heart is able to sense and see God in this world.  Following Him becomes as natural as it once was to follow the way of the world.  

Lets pause for a moment.  If you know you don’t know this intimately or haven’t experienced this, please pray for God to reveal these things to You.  It may take time, maybe even years, but one day Father will cause you to know these things in an intimate, personal way!

When I was willing to allow God to deal with my willful ways, he began to massage my hardened, wounded heart.  As with any hardened muscle, it hurt!  But God’s purposes were for good, and He was willing to let me suffer for a time because there was great joy and freedom on the other side.  He was transforming my thoughts, rewriting 30 years of thinking.  He actually used my anxiety to train me back into His Presence and His will.  Learning to follow His promptings was a bit mechanical at first.  I would get going in my day, doing my thing, and when the anxiety swelled I would stop and submit to God in that moment.  The anxiety was an indication that I wasn’t walking with Him.  I was learning to surrender; learning humility as I submitted to His way continually.  It’s these little things that the Lord uses to teach us to recognize His prompting and to live according to His will.  As we mature, we simply flow in Him, or in other words, in His Spirit.

Every journey is different, but it is important to note that my journey to freedom took 10 years of focused living.  If there is some habit or way of living for which you are asking freedom, it takes patience and perseverance.  But never waver in Your faith that God will fulfill His promises.  Don’t become discouraged or give up!

In His time of fixed order, God is able to quicken us, or get us back up to speed.  Time and time again I have seen God completely “fix” the mess I have made.  Once I truly surrendered my life and my ways, I noticed God sped my maturity to catch up with His train, or where He intended me to be.  He restored my life so nothing was wasted.  

True surrender can only come by the Spirit and is a daily process.  Our mind can say, “I surrender”, but our will can still be engaged and in force.  There is a death that must happen for life to spring forth.  Again, pause and pray that Father would reveal this.

So what is life like on the God train?  Let’s just say the temptation to do the things we know are wrong melts away as we experience a whole new way of living; one filled with the things our soul truly longs for.  When we taste and see for ourselves the Lord is good, our addictions to idols become a thing of the past with increasingly less appeal.  We are focused on and attached to the Spirit of God.  

The God train doesn’t take us out of the world.  We are in the world but not of it.  We still go through valleys and dark forests.  Fear still surrounds us.  But we stay on that train and we pass through; we do not remain in the darkness.  As we continue and increase in faith, we begin to rise above our experience.  This means that while we still encounter difficulty, sadness, loss, evil... these things loose their grip (influence) on us.  We cling to God and believe Him, and experience peace and joy that only He can provide.  At first it may only be in glimpses, but these moments become normal as we live life on His terms.  He reveals more and more of His nature in us, basically this means that He unveils what Jesus has given us the moment we believe in Him.  

Keep on, keep seeking God, my friends!