Finding God’s Will

So often we think of God’s will being a specific path and that missing it will cause us to miss His perfect will. One problem with this understanding of God’s will is that it only takes one of us to mess up getting God’s will right for us to cause the entire universe to fail in their goal of following God’s will. Like a string of dominos once one falls the entire line goes down. There seems to be some truth in this when we look at the concept of original sin. After all by one man sin entered into the world and death by that one man we call Adam. And it is also true that by one man the world is redeemed. The entire world, even the entire universe is in the process of being recreated to God’s original intent.

But often the ways of God are often multifaceted (think Sovereignty of God vs. free will of man or individual vs. group responsibility). It would appear that God’s will is for a destination and he will allow us choices to arrive at the destination. For example God did not plan on Israel to have a king, and yet when they demand a king God grants them their request. Even though they clearly disobeyed God ultimately the King that they eventually got became the human ancestor of the Messiah! God uses our free will to bring about His will for our lives.

If you want to know what God’s will for your life is, I know what it is and I’m here to tell you (grin)!

For believers, God’s will is for us is to be conformed to His Son’s image (Rom 8:29). This in reality means that His desire is for us to be conformed to God’s image. What I mean by that last sentence is that not only is Jesus God, He also looks just like God. (John 14:9)

God’s plan for us is to be conformed to Christ’s image. The human author of the book of Romans in the Bible calls this transformation and it is accomplished by the renewing our mind. (Rom 12:2) The word transformation in the Greek could be translated morphed. Like a caterpillar we are called to morph into a new creature, a “spiritual butterfly.”

From the very beginning the core of Christianity is centered around change. To adapt is not an easy thing it is easier to stay the same. Too often we see our rigidity as a virtue. Character doesn’t make you hard, nor does it make you soft. Godly character makes you pliable in the Holy Spirit’s hands.

The Bible is all about change:

• Transformation = change
• Conversion = change
• Repentance = change
• Sanctification = change

Getting ready to change

Pastor Val