Elder Chew Chong Kiat

Are You Ready to Receive God’s Will?

INTRODUCTION
Many Christians desire to know the will of God but not all are ready to receive it. It is good to have a desire to know God’s will, but let it not be out of vain curiosity.

It IS the will of God for the children of light to know the Father’s will, so that they can live in the light and lead those who are in darkness into the light of God’s will.

Deuteronomy 29:29 "The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law."
Ephesians 5:17 "Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is."

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE WILL OF GOD

1. We need the will of God to understand the meaning of life. Without God’s will, man will do what is right in his own eyes. Knowing and doing God’s will is what life is; and it gives significant meaning to one who lives in light of His glorious will: doing what God wants, being what He wants us to be and knowing what He wants us to know. This is the chief end of man: to serve Him and glorify Him and to enjoy Him forever.

2. Doing the Will of God is the secret to happiness. How can man be really happy? Don’t look further! It is no secret at all: Happiness is always a by-product of obedience to the sovereign will of God. Read the Beatitudes and Christ’s Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5-7) and the description of the blessed man in Psalm 1, and we will have to conclude that happiness is a by-product of obedience to the will of God. Although God gave prohibitive commands, they are not meant to diminish happiness, but rather to promote it, so that we will not cross over the boundaries to our own hurt and misery. When God speaks clearly in His Word of His will for us, it is so that we will do it for our blessing. Obedience produces holiness and holiness produces happiness and God gives us happiness by revealing His will to us.

3. Because You Only Live Once(YOLO-The Biblical Way). We cannot rewind the life we have wasted doing our own will. If we do not know or if we do not do the will of God, there are consequences. We bring harm to ourselves and to others, especially to those closest to us. Although the sins can be forgiven and God will not hold it against us in the judgment, the consequence of sins remains as a reminder from God that we have wasted our lives in doing our own will. However, when we do the will of God, we enjoy the full life God intends for us, as was the case with man before the fall.

THE PRE-REQUISITES TO RECEIVING GOD’S WILL

1. Obtained Mercies of God

This was the basis that Paul used to appeal to believers. Rom 12:1 "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God…." For one to know the will of God, he must be one who has experienced the mercies of God. He is one who has accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour. Once we were lost in sin and degradation, without hope and under the wrath and impending judgment of God, but now we stand justified before God because we have obtained mercies. Only such a one driven by God’s mercies will present himself willingly as a living sacrifice to do God’s will. Otherwise, doing the will of God will be a burden.

2. A Surrendered Life. "…that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice…"

To present ourselves as a living sacrifice is to live a surrendered life to God to do His will, to say with Christ, "Not my will but thine be done".

It is ironical that many seek to KNOW the will of God, when they really have NO HEART to obey. What is the point of knowing? The will of God is not always "pleasing" in our eyes. The best of saints struggle when they know the will of God for them. But a surrendered life will submit and DO God’s will. I can only imagine how Abraham struggled when God called him to leave Ur of the Chaldees and when God commanded him to sacrifice his son Isaac to God. HeHe had obtained the mercies of God and had surrendered his life to do ALL that God said. This is not an option to one who knows that Jesus Christ has died for him.

3. A Holy Life. "…holy, acceptable unto God…"
The Lord is holy and His secrets are with them who are sanctified and who fear Him and depart from evil. "What man is he that feareth the Lord? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant" (Psalm 25:12,14). Are we keeping ourselves undefiled so that God can use us? God reveals His will to those who are ready to obey His will.

4. A Separate Life. Rom 12:2 "And be not conformed to this world..."
This is an extension of a holy life. Negatively, we must reject what the world tells us and every high thought that exalts itself against what God reveals. The man of the world described in Psalm 1, who walks in the counsel of the ungodly, stands in the way of sinners and sits in the seat of the scornful, cannot expect to receive the will of God. He is completely under the control of the world, molded by the philosophy of it. Whatever the world dictates, he is a slave to it. He is swept along with the tide and has no ability to resist. The media plays a large role in controlling him. This man cannot receive the will of God. He has no heart for the will of God. 1 John 2:15 "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."

THE RESULT OF ONE WHO RECEIVES THE WILL OF GOD RIGHTLY

1. A Transformed Mind. The man is "transformed by the renewing of the mind" through the will of God by the illumination of the Holy Spirit. The mind is renewed, old ideas are torn down and new godly principles take over. This man has become a new man and his neighbours will notice it though they may not welcome it. The change is radical as suggested by the word "transformed" which has the meaning of "metamorphosis" in the Greek.

2. A New Relationship to the Will of God – "be transformed by the renewing of the mind that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God".

To "prove" is "to test and examine to see if a thing is genuine or not". A man with a transformed mind will discern that the will of God is good, acceptable and perfect.

· Good. (Excellent, useful, pleasant and joyful). He knows that God is good and all that happens to him may at times be bitter to the taste but it does good like medicine, for it shall all work out for good. He can say that the will of God is good ALL the time. Even when he is diagnosed with an incurable sickness, afflicted with sorrows, he can say that it is well with his soul because he knows it is God's will for him in this life.

· Acceptable. (Well pleasing). The will of God will please a surrendered saint well, even when it may seem evil. This is the same word used in Romans 12:1 where the offering of ourselves to God is acceptable and well pleasing to God.

· Perfect. (Free from defect, lacking nothing to completeness). The will of God is complete and not disproportionate. We need not worry that it is deficient in any aspect. It is perfect, mature and lacking nothing in every sense. Man’s plan may fail due to limited wisdom and lack of foreknowledge, but not God’s.

May God’s will be revealed to you as you seek it and examine if you are ready to receive it.