- How To Find, Follow And Fulfill God's Will by kerminator
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Blog: Southern Etiquette or life in Dixie
How To Find, Follow And Fulfill God's Will
By Andrew Wommack @
http://www.awmi.net/extra/article/find_follow
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How to Find, Follow & Fulfill God's Will - Book
How to Find God's Will • Free MP3 Download
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This month on television, I begin a new series called How to Find, Follow, and Fulfill God’s Will. I’m also releasing a new book and set of study guides for this teaching that I’m really excited about because this is what changed my life.
I was a fairly typical kid until my senior year of high school. As I neared graduation, I realized I was going to have to make decisions about my future that would determine the rest of my life. One thing I believed very strongly was that God had a plan for my life. I didn’t have a clue what that plan was, but I was determined to find out! I started seeking the Lord.
I asked the leaders of my church, but they couldn’t offer any clear direction. So, I started reading the Bible as I never had before. It was normal for me to study the Word from nine at night till one or two in the morning throughout my senior year of high school. I didn’t get any specific guidance; I just knew my answer had to be in the Bible somewhere, so I was devouring it.
I graduated from high school and began college still with no clear direction. I was a math major because that was my best subject. However, I was still seeking the Lord with all my heart for His perfect will for my life. In the middle of my first year of college, I came across Romans 12:1-2, which says,
"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. [2] And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."
These verses changed my life. The last part of verse 2 promises that I would prove the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God if I would do as instructed.
That’s what I wanted. I began a four-month study of what it meant to be a living sacrifice and to renew my mind. The results were more than I could have imagined.
Just four months after I got this promise from the Lord, God showed up. I had a life-altering encounter with the Lord on Saturday March 23, 1968, that I’ve never gotten over and never intend to get over.
God did reveal His will to me. It didn’t come all at once, but it came. As Romans 12:2 says, you prove the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. It comes in stages, or steps.
Within sixty days, I was led to make radical decisions that set my life on a course that has brought me to where I am today. Everything God has done in my life over the last forty-five years began with me seeking Him to know His will for my life. This is the starting line.
You will not fulfill God’s will for your life accidentally. It doesn’t come to pass through fate or the “sovereignty of God.” You have to have a revelation of God’s will and pursue it in order to fulfill it. It takes effort to accomplish God’s will for your life. And until you know God’s plan for you, it’s impossible to achieve it.
After I minister on this at my meetings, I often give an invitation for people who aren’t sure what God’s will for their lives is. It’s not unusual for 80 percent of the people to respond and admit they don’t know. I find this amazing. I couldn’t live if I didn’t know for certain that I was doing what the Lord called me to do. Like Moses, I think if the Lord isn’t directing my steps, I’m not moving (Ex. 33:15).
I urge you to make sure you are doing what the Lord created you to do. It’s not enough to hope so or assume it will all work out.
Ephesians 5:17 says, “Be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.” You’re commanded to know His will.
The good news is that the Lord wants you to know His will for your life more than you want to know it. It’s not hard to know. But it does take effort. You aren’t going to discover God’s will until you search with all your heart (Jer. 29:13). As long as you can live without knowing God’s will, you will. But when you want to know and follow and fulfill God’s will more than anything else, then you will.
Knowing God’s will is a starting place, but that’s not the end. Moses knew God’s will for his life, but he tried to accomplish it in his own strength and own timing. It cost him forty unnecessary years in the wilderness and the children of Israel thirty years’ extra bondage in Egypt. This same mistake is being made today.
Some people have some revelation of what the Lord wants them to do, but very few are depending on God to accomplish it. They get a word from God and make a paragraph out of it. They lean unto their own understanding (Prov. 3:5) and often make a royal mess of things. Like Frank Sinatra, they do it their way. That’s a recipe for disaster. And you don’t have to look very far to see the disasters of people who have tried to do the right thing the wrong way.
We need to know not only God’s will but also His plan for accomplishing His will. That takes time, effort, and maturity. Preparation time is never wasted time. Proper preparation will actually save you time in the long run.
Then we must add patience to our faith in order to fulfill God’s will (James 1:4). Anyone can start a race, but not everyone crosses the finish line. Certainly, not everyone wins the race. It takes a combination of many things in order to finish well.
I used to run sprints on the track team in high school. Then they moved me to a cross country race. That was a 1.75 mile race when I had been used to running 400 yards. In my first race, I took off like a rabbit. I was ahead of everyone and couldn’t understand why the others were holding back. But about the half-mile mark, I was pretty much done. Everyone passed me and I came in dead last. It took everything I had to even cross the finish line. I learned it’s easy to start, but it takes a lot more to finish well.
Likewise, many people start their race in life well but don’t have the stamina to finish. Everywhere I go, I talk to people who have basically left the race or are just walking now—plodding along with no hope of winning.
I’ve heard that 80 percent of all people who enter the ministry quit within five years. And of the 20 percent who stay, 80 percent are nearing burnout. That means only 4 percent of ministers last more than five years and are still thriving, instead of just surviving. That’s a terrible statistic, but I can believe it’s true. I’ve seen countless ministers come and go and others struggle just to keep their noses above water.
This is not how it has to be. The Lord not only calls us but also equips us to do His will. There is a way to finish our course with joy (Acts 20:24). But it’s not going to happen automatically. We live in a fallen world. Things go from good to bad, order to disorder. Left alone, nothing gets better on its own. It takes constant attention to keep a house up, a car running, our yards groomed, and our lives on track. There is a biblical way to finish strong.
I consider the joy and peace I have in the Lord to be two of my greatest assets. I’m not struggling to accomplish God’s will. In fact, although we are reaching farther with the Gospel than ever before and have more demands on our time and resources than ever before, I’m doing it with less effort than ever before. I believe that’s the way it’s supposed to be. We should build up momentum as we go through life. It shouldn’t take the same or greater effort the longer we live.
There is a right and wrong way to run our race, and I feel that most of the hurt and pain we suffer is self-inflicted. Of course, we have an Enemy who is seeking to destroy our lives. But we have a Friend who is with us every step of the way and giving us supernatural strength. As Paul said, “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).
Our race should be supernatural, not just natural. It’s Christ living in us (Col. 1:27). We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Phil. 4:13). There is a way to finish strong (2 Tim. 4:7).
It would be a shame to come to the end of our lives and not have a sense of knowing we accomplished what the Lord created us to do, yet this happens every day. People are rushing toward eternity while letting this precious time we have here on earth slip through their fingers. This isn’t a dress rehearsal. This is the real deal. We have to make our lives count.
I pray the Lord reveals His will to you and how to accomplish it in a greater way than He ever has before. Together, as each of us does what He instructs us to do, we will make a big difference in this world.
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kerminator
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- Re: How To Find, Follow And Fulfill God's Will by kerminator
11 y
2,415
I only have one purpose writing this blog; your freedom to the truth! Do not let some mislead person take you away with their false ideas ...
* Pray that the Lord God reveals His will to you and how to accomplish it in a greater way than He ever has before. Together, as each of us does what He instructs us to do, we will make a big difference in this world. Amen! **
Here is one key to your eternal future; be it Blessed or otherwise!
The key to accepting the Gospel {Great news} is the Faith and Total Belief in it!
Jesus. An amazing figure whose life and death seemed to change the world. His teachings have been appreciated by almost all people since he walked the Earth. Some say he spoke the greatest words ever spoken. He scandalized the powerful of his day and gave hope to the hopeless. But for many He seems to be so much more. There are those even today that seem to know him. Not like we know about Washington, or Gandhi, or Napoleon, or that guy on TV, but the way we know our friend, or spouse, or child or parent.
Intimate. - Real. - Alive.
***
This past weekend I heard an excellent message on the difference between belief and faith. It was a message that made me rethink my belief system. It made me rethink my faith. It was the realization that belief and faith are not the same thing.
“If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us[c] from Your Majesty’s hand. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
- Daniel 3:17-18
The speaker used the previous passage to break down the difference between belief and faith and I believe I got it. I think I am finally grasping hold of what I have been missing.
There is a distinct difference between belief and faith. What is belief? It is a principle, proposition, idea that is accepted as true; opinion, conviction; religious faith; trust or confidence. What is faith? It is the confident assurance in the character and nature of God; a strong or unshakeable belief in something, without proof or evidence.
We looked in Daniel and the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. In those two verses above, there is a clear difference between belief and faith that I had never seen before, and as the speaker pointed this out, it all sank in and I experienced another aha moment as well as a moment of peace.
In verse 17, the men DE CLARE that even if they are thrown into the furnace, God is able to deliver them from it as well as deliver them from the King. Those are strong and powerful words. They state that God is able. They do not say that God will but that if He so chooses, then He will. They believe in God. They believe in the power of God. They believe He can deliver them from King Nebuchadnezzar. This was their belief.
Now comes the moment when faith steps in, as they proclaim that even if God does not deliver them, they still would not worship or serve the King’s god. Their faith said that even if they were to perish, it still did not change that God is good. Biblical faith is not placed in the outcome of a situation but instead in God. This was so profound for me. It was a moment of realizing that every battle belongs to the Lord and He controls the outcome. My faith says that God is good no matter the outcome of my situation. I believe that God can save the day. I believe that He can work miracles. My faith says that whether or not I follow Him will not be dependent on things working out to my benefit. It says that I will follow Him no matter what.
Then came those great passages in Hebrews 11. (33-39)
“who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning;[a] they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.
39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promise.”
As he read that passage, I heard things that I had never paid attention to in the past. Through faith there were those who conquered kingdoms, shut the mouths of lions, escaped the sword, and much more, but then there were those who were put into prison, stoned to death, tortured, sawed in two, killed by the sword. What a mix. No matter how good or how bad, whether or not they received what had been promised to them, their faith was not shaken. They chose to follow and obey God even when they could not see the outcome, choosing to follow even when the outcome may not have been one that they would have chosen. They each had a faith in the character and nature of God.
Faith is what pleases God. “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” Hebrews 11:6.
I learned that my faith is not about all of my beliefs and convictions. I have a ton of those, but those things are not what pleases God. What pleases God is when I put every ounce of my trust, my faith in Him even when I do not know the outcome, when I do not understand and when I may not get my way. Amen!
In order to have that kind of faith, I must draw near to Him. I have to pursue Him. “Come near to God and he will come near to you.” James 4:8
So where do you find your faith?
Is it found in a belief system or it is found in Christ?
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kerminator
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