The Will Of God
“THE WILL OF GOD” by James Wilson
If you’ve got your Bibles this morning, let’s turn to Romans chapter 12. The Book of Romans, chapter 12. We have a Pastor Terry Prather Memorial Fund now, which if you haven’t contributed to and would like to, see Mrs. Ruth Prather about it. What we’d like to do, and it has been suggested, is to get a new Lord’s Supper table down here, a new communion table down front, with an inscription thereon, and possibly a new pulpit as well that would match. I don’t know, I just was messing around here in church the other day, when I was down here working. And I just got into some cleaning up and some straightening up and rearranging things and just kind of messing around. And I dragged this old pulpit out, because I thought it might have matched the piano and the paneling a little bit better–and the organ a little bit better–than that old thing we were using. I don’t know if I like it or not. It’s kind of wobbly, and I don’t have enough room for all my stuff. I don’t have a great memory like Jack Van Impe or anything like that; I need notes and things like that. I need some helps to preach by. So that’s something that you can think about as I try and find somebody to make the new pulpit and the new communion table.
Romans chapter 12, getting down to business here. I’m going to try and preach to you a message this morning on God’s will. This message wasn’t easy for me to build. I’m not really sure why. God’s will a lot of times is kind of hard to pinpoint–which we’ll get into a little bit later in the message. But it was tough. In fact, the Lord has laid this on my heart for a few weeks now, and I kind of have skipped and tiptoed around it, because it has been difficult–for me anyways–to find material on this thing. But hopefully, as we preach along the way, we can find something that will be helpful for you in finding God’s will for your life.
Romans chapter 12, verse 1: “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. 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. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” Let’s go to the Lord in prayer:
Now, heavenly Father, I ask your blessing upon this message. And, God, it’s just something I’m not really sure about, because I need a lot of divine intervention here, Lord God. I’m going to need a lot of unction from on high. Father, I pray that the Holy Spirit of God would fill me just now and give me the words which you want me to speak, Lord God, and refrain from words which you don’t want me to speak. And God, I ask you to bless this congregation. I pray that you rebuke any devil or unclean spirit that’s in this room here this morning. God, I pray that you clear out any outside distraction which would cause our minds to wander off the focus of the word of God here this morning. God, I pray that you help me to preach this message which conviction from the heart, Lord God. And may it be hot off the table hearts of the hearers, Lord God. And, I pray that the Holy Spirit would just have His will and His way, have His freedom and liberty to move and to woo and to impose His will upon all those who hear this message. Father, I pray and ask your blessing on it. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen.
You know, you’re here this morning for a lot of different reasons. A lot of you are here this morning maybe because, you might say, “Well, my wife made me come to church this morning.” Or you’re here this morning, and you might say, “Well, my husband made me come to church this morning.” If you’re a young man or a young lady, maybe you’d say, “My parents made me come to church this morning.” One of the ski lift operators asked Joanna the other day when she was waiting to get on a chair lift, “What are you going to do tomorrow? You going to come back and ski some more?”
And she says, “No.”
And he says, “Well, what are you going to do? You going to go to the beach instead?”
And she says, “No, I’m going to church. Going to church. This is what we do on Sundays. We come to church.”
Some of you are coming to church today because you don’t want the preacher to come visit you during the middle of the week and ask you, “Well, why weren’t you in church on Sunday?” Some of you might say, “Well, I have a Sunday school I have to teach, so I have to be there.” Or, “It’s my day to watch the nursery, so I have to be there.” Or you might say, “Well, I come to church so I can see all my friends and keep up on things. And there are some plans, and I’ve got some catching up to do. I want to see my friends.”
You might say, “Well, I come to church because it makes me feel good. It makes me feel like I did something. It’s a good way for me to round off my week–come to church. And to start and begin a new week.”
You know, those are all good reasons. Those are all good reasons to be here. And, bless God, we’ll take any one of those reasons that we can get to be sure you’re here to hear the word of God. However, if your spiritual life runs a little bit deeper than that, you are here because you’ve been studying your Bible, you’re fervent in prayer, you’re seeking God’s face, you’re seeking God’s favor, you’re engaged in some sort of spiritual warfare in one way, shape, form or another. Oh, the singing is good. It’s great, in fact. The fellowship is sweet. And this tithe check is just burning a hole in my pocket. But, to tell you the truth, those are all just appetizers. I came here to get fed, brother. I want to hear God’s will for my life.
And if you’re like that, you come here so that the preacher will feed you. And what does the preacher feed you? He feeds you God’s will. God’s will.
Oh, it comes in many different dishes and entrees and meals and combinations of the sorts. But it’s all God’s will. And every hungry sheep who comes to hear a preacher preach, or cracks open a Bible, or reads some kind of a spiritual book for instruction in righteousness, gets a bowlful of God’s will, so he doesn’t go away hungry.
Jesus said in John 4:34, “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me. That’s my meat.” His disciples came and asked Him. They brought Him food, and He said, “Oh, I’m not hungry.”
They said, “Well, have you eaten already?”
And He said, “My meat, my sustenance, the thing that keeps me alive, the thing that keeps me going, is to do the will of Him that sent me.”
You know, every good child wants to do his father’s will. Every once in a while, when your kids are feeling right with God, or feeling agreeable, they might come to you and say, “Dad, Mom, what do you want me to do? What do you want me to do next?”
I don’t know, some of you are looking at me like, “Yeah, brother, you know, what kind of kids are you raising here?” That happens every once in a while. Your kids are in a good mood and in your good graces, and they’ll walk up and say, “What do you want me to do next?”
We read of the parable there in Matthew chapter 21, where a father came to his two sons and asked the first, “Go, and work in my vineyard.” And the first one said, “No!” But later he repented and went and worked in his father’s vineyard.
Then he came to the second son and said, “Son, go work in my vineyard.” The second son said, “Yes, father, I’ll go,” but then he left. He didn’t go into the vineyard. He went and did his own business. And Christ asked the question, “Which one did the will of his father?” Well, the first one, of course. The first one. Why did he go? He knew his father loved him. He knew his father needed help. He wanted to please his father. And probably, the most important and most formative reason, is that he didn’t want to get into any trouble. So he thought he’d better seek his father’s will before he ran off and did anything that was rash.
You know, when your child is living right, he’ll ask you, “What do you want me to do?” And you’ll reply, “Did you do your chores?”
“Yes.”
“Did you do your homework?”
“Yes.”
“Is your room clean?”
“Yeah, Dad, it’s clean.”
And then you’ll either say, “Well, go out and clean the garage and do something else or some other chore, wash the car, do the dishes,” or you’ll say, “Go outside and play.” You never know; the kid’s got a 50-50 chance by asking that question. But it’s better than just going off half-cocked and walking out the door and risk getting in trouble, risk going against your parents’ will and doing what you will instead.
When he knows he’s doing your will, he performs that will with a clear conscience. Mom may come to him and say, “Junior, where do you think you’re going?”
“Dad said I could go outside and play.” Boom! There he goes. He’s got God’s blessing.
Or he could be outside in the garage cleaning up a mess, and his big brother would come out to him and say, “What are you doing out there? Keep your nose out of my stuff!”
“Dad said for me to come out here and clean up the garage.”
And he can perform with a clear conscience. He can perform a lot better, because he knows he’s got Dad’s blessing. He knows he’s doing his father’s will.
And we all like to know we’re doing the right thing, amen? We all like to know we are. We all like to seek some blessing in one way, shape, form or another. So we come to hear God’s will.
Now, the verse says here, “Prove God’s will.” “…Prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Why does it say prove it? Why do you need proof? Because there’s an opposing will. There’s God’s will, and then there’s another will that opposes God’s will.
Why?
You say, “Well, it’s the devil’s will.” No, not necessarily. The devil can sway you. The devil can persuade you. The devil can put his will into your heart. But, where it all comes down to where the rubber meets the road, brother, it’s your will. It’s your will.
Some religions teach you that nowadays you don’t have your own will. They call this “Hyper-Calvinism.” How many of you have ever heard that before? Hyper-Calvinism. And they’ll teach you that you don’t have a will of your own, that everything you do is God’s will. They call that unconditional election. We believe in a conditional election. They call that irresistible grace. We believe that you obtain that grace by that conditional election which you elect to do of your own free will. They say that God programmed your life before you were ever born. They call that predestined before the foundation of the world. They say, “You’re just living out your program. Before you were born, God said, ‘You’re going to do this, you’re going to do that. This thing’s going to happen to you, that thing’s going to happen to you.’ And what you’re doing is just living out that program that God made for your life, which He predestined before the foundation of the world.”
Most of these people are called Church of Christ. Ever hear the joke about the Church of Christ preacher? He was out on a roller rink. And he was roller skating. He was going around on Christian Date Night, you know, and he was going around the rink, and he was skating. All of a sudden he slipped and he fell and he broke his arm. And an ambulance came and loaded him into the ambulance and took him to emergency. And they took him to the hospital, and they set his arm. And while he was up in the hospital room, he was waiting for his wife to come get him. And he’s sitting there and he’s thinking, “Whew! Thank God’s that’s over with! It’s just one of those programs that I had to live out in my predestinated life before the foundation of the world.”
Well, we believe and we teach that man has his own free will, a will of his own. And God does not impose His will on that free will. He gives you choices which will test that free will of yours. But God doesn’t impose His will on yours. That’s up to you. It’s free. It’s your own will.
The Bible says in Leviticus 22:18 that there was a freewill offering provided for the children of Israel. Why? Because someone may just feel like giving an offering to God of their own free will. They may not particularly be giving atonement for some sin that they have committed. They must just feel in their heart like Job felt and think, “Well, just in case…” Or, “This is just something I want to do between God and me, just for God, by Himself, alone, for God, between me and Him.” And it’s called a freewill offering. And you could bring whatsoever you wanted of your own free will.
In Exodus 35, verse 5, we read about the children of Israel who came and brought their offerings of gold and tapestry and materials and things which they needed to build the tabernacle of God. And it says in Exodus 35:5, “Take ye from among you an offering unto the Lord, whosoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it, an offering of the Lord, gold, and silver, and brass.” Verse 21 says, “And they came, every one, whose heart stirred him up, and every one whom his spirit made willing.” Not the Lord’s Spirit, but his own spirit, made him willing. “And they brought the Lord’s offering to the work of the tabernacle of the congregation, and for all his service, and for his holy garments.” It says in verse 22, “And they came, both men and women, as many as were willing hearted and brought bracelets and earrings and rings and tablets and jewels of gold. And every man that offered offered an offering of gold unto the Lord.” Verse 29 says, “The children of Israel brought a willing offering unto the Lord, every man and woman whose heart made them willing to bring for all manner of work.” Now, does that sound like they are programmed? Predestined? If they were programmed, predestined before the foundation of the world, and they were just carrying out God’s will, why did they bring of their own free will, of a willing heart? Why didn’t they just get up and come like a robot? Like, “I programmed you to do this. Now, do it!” No questions asked.
Paul said in Romans 7, “For to will is present with me.” In fact, in Colossians 2:23, it says to beware of will worship. Brethren, you’ve got your own will. God gave it to you. You have your own sovereignty, your own individuality, your own entity–and God won’t impose on that free will.
Was it God’s will for Lucifer to rebel? No, that was Lucifer’s will. Was it God’s will for Adam to eat of the fruit? No, that was Adam’s will. Was it God’s will to spare Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah? No, that was Abraham’s will. Was it God’s will to spare Israel when they made the golden calf? No, He wanted to wipe them out. That was Moses’ will.
Was it God’s will for you to reject Christ and go to hell? No, that’s up to you. That’s up to you. God gave you the choice. He gave you the ultimatum. He gave you the chances.
Christ said, “Not my will, but thy will be done.”
The Bible says in Romans 16, “Ye have obeyed from the heart.” You know what obedience means? The definition of obedience? It’s when you submit your will to someone else’s will. Opposing wills.
Sometimes it gets confusing, doesn’t it, brother? It gets confusing. Am I doing my will, or am I doing God’s will? Whose will am I following?
That’s why the Bible says here, “Prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.” The Bible says, “Prove all things.” Prove them. All things. “Hold fast to that which is good.” Prove means to know by trial or to verify. Find the thing out. And then, when you get it right, and you’re sure, hold fast to that which is good.
Now, this passage here in Romans chapter 12 and verse 2 has three progressions of God’s will. The first is good; the second is acceptable. And the third is God’s perfect will. Each one represents a step up to higher ground. You say, “Well, how do we prove them?”
The Good Will of God
First of all, let’s look at the good will of God. The Bible says in James 4:17, “Therefore, to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” The good will of God is not hard to figure out, brother. Ever since Adam took of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, man has known in his heart whether what he’s doing is good, or what he’s doing is evil. You know it’s good because it’s not bad. It’s not bad. That’s how you know it’s good.
You know, even when the world says, “Bad is good, and good is bad, and everything’s relative, and we go by Einstein’s theory of relativity,” you know what’s bad. Nobody’s got to tell you it’s bad. It’s there. And if it’s not bad, brother, then it’s good. It’s good.
You know, if stealing is good, why did you wait until nobody was looking before you stuck that thing in your pocket? Why didn’t you just walk up to the lady at the cash register and say, “I’m going to steal that Snickers bar,” and go over and put it in your pocket and walk out of the store. You know, if stealing was good, how come you waited until it was 2 a.m. in the morning, when it’s dark out, before you went up and stole that thing from the side of that person’s house? Why didn’t you just walk up to the front door and knock at 12 noon and say, “Um, I’m going to steal your boat today. Thanks. See you!” And back your pick-up up to the tongue of that trailer and just haul it off.
You know, if you think bad is good, how come you’re sneaking around when you do it? Amen? How come you lie about it? How come you wait until it’s dark. How come they call them “night clubs”? So your deeds won’t be manifest. You do them at night.
How come you don’t introduce your date to your mom and dad? How come? If it’s good, why are you sneaking around? How come bars don’t have any windows? Because they don’t want anybody looking inside to see what you’re doing. If it’s good, how come you’re sneaking around?
How come you don’t let your kids watch the movies you rent and bring home? Why? Because you know it’s not good. Is it good?
You say, “How can I prove what’s good?” Well, you can prove what’s good usually with God’s word, His Bible. It’s in there. And it generally applies to everyone. And it applies to how you live in general, and the way in which you live your life. Are you living the good life? Or are you living a bad life? Is the way you do things good, or is it bad? And this is to lives in general, and it generally applies to everyone who lives a life. Everyone. It’s a very all-encompassing term. God is no respecter of persons. What’s good for the goose is also good for the gander.
You know, everyone is commanded to do good and live right. John Smith may come up and he may kneel down beside his bed and pray and say, “God, is it OK if I get married? Am I asking a good thing or am I asking a bad thing?” And you crack your Bible open, and you look up verses of Scripture like Proverbs 18, where it says, “Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing.” Well, that sounds pretty good to me. Or, 1 Timothy 4, which says that forbidding to marry is a doctrine of devils. Or say, “It’s OK if I marry, and, God, you don’t forbid me to marry.” Being married or finding a mate must be good thing.
Now, suppose he comes to his altar at night and kneels down at the bed and says, “God, can I stay single? Can I stay single?” And he opens up his Bible, and he goes through there and he’ll find a verse like 1 Corinthians 7:1, where it says, “It is good for a man not to touch a woman.” Or verse 8, where it says, “It is good if you abide even as I.” Paul says, “I’m single.”
You say, “Well, one of them’s god to be bad. We can’t have them both of them good.” You can’t? You can too. They’re both good, and the good will of God. They are both acceptable to God, and either way you choose is not bad. They’re both within the realm of good. You see how that works? It’s good because it’s not bad.
You say, “Well, what about the gray areas, Preacher?” There are no gray areas. There aren’t any gray areas.
You say, “Well, what about drinking? The Bible doesn’t come right out and say, ‘Thou shalt not drink liquor’!” Oh, it doesn’t? It doesn’t? Maybe not in those words, but if you crack that Book open and look around a little bit, you’ll see where not everything is good if it’s taken in moderation, as the world says today. Open your Bible up to Proverbs 20, verse 1, and read where it says, “Wine is a mocker. Strong drink is raging. Whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.” Or look over here in Proverbs chapter 23, and verse 29, “Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contention? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine. They that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder. Thine eye shall behold strange women, and thy heart shall utter perverse things. Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. They have stricken me, thou shalt say, and I was not sick. They have beaten me, and I felt it not. When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.”
Or maybe you’ll run through there and come across Habakkuk 2:15, where it says, “Woe to him that giveth his neighbor drink, that causeth him to be drunken.” Read those things! When you put those verses of Scripture together in your mind and you think about and they all add up- -you stack them up and put them in front of you–and you ask the question, “Now, is that good? Is that good? Does that sound something like, it’s good?” No, brother, that doesn’t sound good at all. In fact, it sounds pretty bad. Pretty bad.
You say, “Well, the Bible doesn’t say, ‘Thou shalt not smoke.’ I believe that’s quite a gray area.”
Oh, it doesn’t? It doesn’t? You know why God never says anything about smoking tobacco in the Bible? Because He never thought anybody would be fool enough to set a weed on fire and then to inhale the smoke into your lungs! You know, they didn’t start doing that until the times of the Raleigh brothers, back there in the 16th and 17th centuries.
You say, “Well, why did God create tobacco then?” Rat poison. That’s what it is. You guys are lighting up rat poison, and you’re inhaling the smoke. That’s what makes you feel so funny. You’re smoking poison.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile of God, him shall God destroy, for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” I guarantee you, brother, if this room suddenly filled with smoke, there isn’t one of you who would say, “Ahhhh, whew. This is good. This is really good!” I guarantee you, you’d be up and running for that back door, reading all the fire exit signs on your way out. And the first thing you’d do, when you got to a phone, you’d call 911 and ask the fire department to come out here and put out a fire, because something bad is going on in this building. Brother, it’s not good. It’s not good.
It is God’s will for you to be good, brother. And the next time you find yourself in an uncomfortable situation, just ask yourself, “Why am I feeling this way?” And look at the situation, and ask the question, “God, is this good? Is this good, or is this bad?”
The Acceptable Will of God
Then we come to the acceptable will of God, the next step up. “Acceptable” represents a higher spiritual plane in the will of God. From good to acceptable. God’s Spirit. Spiritual matters are more acceptable to Him than fleshy matters. It’s good for a man to bear the yoke when he is young, the Bible says. And it is good. But you know, you ought to bear the yoke. It’s good for a man to work for a living. But you know, that’s not something that’s really a spiritual offering to God, and spiritual service for the Lord. Everybody should work. That’s something that you ought to do. The Bible says, “If any would not work, neither should he eat.” That’s something that you do for yourself. But if he bears a spiritual yoke, if he’s under a spiritual burden, this is more acceptable to God, because God is Spirit, and these are some of the things that God is concerned with.
God told Cain, when he brought an offering of his hands, when Abel came and brought an offering of creation, a lamb without spot and without blemish, and offered his blood up on the altar to God, he gave forth a spiritual offering to the Lord. It was something that God created. And when Cain brought forth an offering to the Lord, he brought God a curse. A few chapters before, He said, “Cursed be the ground for your sake. In the sweat of your face you shall make a living. You’ll have to plant your food. You’ll have to dig your food out of the earth.” And what does Cain do? He brings forth an offering of his own work, of his own hands. He brings a curse.
You know what God tells him? He says, “If thou doest not well, thou shalt not be accepted. If you do well, you’ll be accepted. But if not, sin lieth at the door. I’ll only accept that which is spiritual, which is right.”
The Bible says in Ezekiel 20, verse 40, when God is speaking to a backslidden Israel, “I will only accept you in my holy mountain.” In Jeremiah 6:20 He said to backslidden Israel, “Your burnt offerings are not acceptable unto me.” The Bible says in Romans 12:1, “Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” God accepts spiritual service for Himself. He expects those kinds of offerings to Him. The Bible says in 1 Peter, “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” God says, “If you want to do something righteous and holy and spiritual for me, I’ll take it. I’ll accept it. I’ll receive it. I’ll take all I can get.” I never heard of the Lord turning down someone who wanted to serve Him, have you? Unless he was just nuts and going off half-cocked in a direction God didn’t want him to go. I’ve seen that happen before.
When you come to God and say, “God, here am I. Send me,” I’ve never seen God turn anybody down. Have you ever seen a soul-winner come to the preacher, turn in all his gospel tracts and his pocket New Testament and say, “Here. God is just not accepting all those souls I win to Him any more. God won’t accept it.” Have you ever seen a Sunday school teacher come to the preacher with all his material and the Sunday school lesson and say, “Here, God’s just not accepting those children which I’m teaching, which I’m nurturing in the admonition of the Lord.” Brother, you’ll never see it.
You ever see a missionary come off the field and say, “God’s just not accepting all those heathen which I’m winning to Him.” You just won’t see it. Why? Because God accepts it.
If you volunteer for the mission field, brother, or service for God, you just see what happens. That’s how you know. That’s how you prove it. God will accept it. God will take it.
There’s so much work to be done, God will accept all the help He can get. In Judges chapter 4, God couldn’t find a man to judge Israel, so He raised up and accepted Deborah, a prophetess–a woman!–to rule, to judge the nation of Israel. In 2 Kings 5, God couldn’t find a man in Syria to speak to Naaman the leper to go the prophet which is in Israel, Elisha, to get healed of his leprosy. So He accepted a little girl, a little handmaid to Naaman’s wife, and says, “Would to God that Naaman my lord would go to the prophet which is in Israel. He’ll recover him of his leprosy.” God says, “I’ll take her. I’ll accept it. I’ll take whatever I can get.”
You say, “Well, how do I prove it?” Start serving the Lord and see what happens. That’s how you prove it.
The Perfect Will of God
And last of all, we’ll look at the perfect will of God. The perfect will of God. Now we’re getting up there, brethren. Now we’re getting up high on the spiritual plane. We’re taking one of the last, top steps. Now we’re shooting with pinpoint accuracy. And when a Christian gets to the point where he wants the perfect will of God for his life, watch out! Watch out! Because things are going to start happening.
When he can come to the point and say, “Lord, I’m being good.” And, “Lord, I’m doing service for you which I know is being accepted. Now, just exactly what is it you want me to do with my life? What is your perfect will for me!” Look out, brother! Things are going to start happening! Things are going to start moving. Things are going to go. Hang on! Hang on!
Every child of God should desire God’s perfect will for his life. Did you know that? Every child of God should seek that. Not be content with just that which is good, and that which is acceptable. Everyone should want to be right in the center–bull’s eye–of God’s perfect will for his life. And when you find your niche, your spot–you, being the peg, find the hole in which you fit–then everything else starts to fit as well. Things start to work for you. Things start to go your way. Things start to begin to make sense.
God’s perfect will for you may be in the electrical field. Why? Because He wants you to reach some electricians. God’s perfect will for you may be to work in the machine shop. Why? Because He wants you to reach some machinists for Jesus Christ. He’ll put you in different spots and different places, because He needs you there. And it’s His will for you to be there. And there are some places in this town which you go, and people that you associate with, that no preacher in this town could ever get ahold of, no preacher in this town could ever find. Why? Because they just don’t put themselves in the circle where they can be reached. So what does God do? He puts you in their circle. He puts you in their circle. God’s perfect will.
He may call you to be a pastor. Why? Because He wants you to reach Christians who are in your church. He may call you to be a missionary. Why? Because He wants you to reach the heathen. He’s got His will for you. And you should prove it.
You say, “How do I prove it?” God will show it to you.
“When will He show it to me?” When you are ready.
“Well, when will I be ready?” When you are yielded. When you are yielded.
The Bible says in Romans 6:13, “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.” You want to be used of God? You want to be an instrument in His hand? You want to be a tool which He uses for His honor and glory? Yield! Yield! Say, “Here I am, God.”
The definition of that word “yield” is to give way, to surrender, or to succumb. And when you can honestly say–I said honestly say, not just lip service, but from the heart–when you can say, “God, I’m all yours. Do whatever you will with me. Whatever you want me to do, I’m here, Lord. I’m here, and I’ll do it,” you yield your will to His will.
A group of ministers got together during the days of Dwight L. Moody, and they wanted to see a citywide revival. And so they got their ministerial association together, and they had a meeting, and they said, “Brethren, this town is just going to the devil. What we need is revival to shut down some of these saloons, and shut down some of these movie houses, and some of these houses of ill repute. And we need God’s word, God’s Holy Spirit on this town. I suggest we have a citywide revival.” And they got together and they talked it over. And they said, “Well, who can we get to be our chief guest speaker?”
And without question they nominated Dwight L. Moody. “We can get him in. We’ll schedule him. We’ll work it all out. We’ll work out the details of the meeting. We’ll have citywide revival.”
And one young preacher got up, and he said in his ignorance and frustration, “Dwight L. Moody this! Dwight L. Moody that! All I ever hear about is Dwight L. Moody! Does Dwight L. Moody have a monopoly on the Holy Spirit?”
And there was dead silence in the room. Finally one old wise minister of God, some preacher stood up, and he said, “No, son, Dwight L. Moody doesn’t have a monopoly on the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit has a monopoly on Dwight L. Moody.” He was yielded.
Dwight L. Moody wrote and he said these words: “This world has yet to see what God can do with a man who is wholly submitted unto Him.”
If you yield your will to God’s will, God will use you. God will show His perfect will for your life.
Not only that, when you are yielded, you are content to wait. You’re content to wait. Do you ever come to a sign on the road, when you’re at an intersection, and there’s a big yellow sign, an upside down triangle? And inside that yellow sign it has the word “YIELD.” You know what you do? You sit there and you wait contently for the cars to go by. You succumb. You surrender to all those cars. You’re content. You wait.
The Bible never says to “seek” God’s will. The Bible never says, “Go find God’s will.” The Bible says, “Prove God’s will.” God’s will will come to you. In Exodus 14, when the children of Israel left the land of Egypt, and they stood on the banks of the great Red Sea, and the armies of Egypt came in behind him, they cried to Moses and they said, “You brought us out here to slay us in the wilderness.”
Moses lifted up his hands and he said, “Stand still. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will show you. He’ll show you.”
The Bible says in Psalm 46, “Be still and know that I am God.” Paul said, “Whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” I’m content wherever I am. Now, there was a man who was in God’s will.
The Bible says in 1 Timothy, “Godliness with contentment is great gain.” In Exodus chapter 2, Moses was content, the Bible says, to dwell with Jethro in Midian. And in Exodus chapter 3, God called him to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt into the Promised Land. God’s will.
Some of us have just got to sit and wait, brethren. Be content where you are. Serve God where you are. Be the best of what you are right now. Then maybe God will choose you. Then maybe God will put His will on you.
We had this brother, Ronnie Powell, there in Pensacola Bible Institute. And when he graduated from the Bible Institute with his degree, he didn’t go anywhere. And all the other young preachers were hot; they were anxious to get out there and serve God any way they could, take a church, work in a church, do whatever they want. But Ronnie Powell said, “No, I’m going to wait for God’s perfect will. I’m not going to go out there and make any mistakes–go out there halfcocked in all different directions. I’m going to wait for God’s perfect will.” And he was content to be there and go to church and work as the custodian and the maintenance man around the grounds there of that school and that church. And he waited.
And the brethren gave him a hard time. “You’re just sitting on your blessed assurance,” they said, “and here you have all this knowledge, and you can preach and you can teach, and you’re just wasting it here, sitting on your rear end, waiting for God’s will. Why don’t you go out and do something?”
During the time Brother Ronnie Powell was there at PBI, he studied for his master’s degree. And he obtained his master’s degree. And I’ll never forget what he said during that graduation, when he came up to receive his master’s degree. He said, “Well, I appreciate God for this, and Brother Ruckman for that, and Brother McGaughey for this, and this, and that, and the other thing.” And he said, “Now, I want to ask you one thing. Which one of you here today can tell me what God’s perfect will is for my life? Just stand up and tell me.” Nobody raised their hand. Nobody dare said a word, of course.
But he said later on a young man came to him out of the congregation and stopped him at the door on the way out, and told Ronnie Powell what God’s will was for his life.
It takes gall, brother! It takes guts!
When God puts His will on you, He won’t tell somebody else. He won’t give it to somebody else to give to you. He’ll let you know, brother. He’ll let you know. And then, when He dumps it on you, He’s going to dump it right in your lap.
You know, when I got called to preach behind this pulpit and this congregation in this ministry right here, it came to me as quite a surprise. And when I first got out of Bible school, I was one of those young men who wanted to run off half-cocked in all different directions, and serve God with what I knew and what I had. And I did nothing but frustrating myself and the grace of God in the process. There were times when I tried to put myself in the ministry, and nothing would ever happen. Until finally, after years and years and years of beating my head against the wall, I finally succumbed to the fact that I should be content in the state in which I am. And it wasn’t until then that I said, “God, if you just want me to be an electrician and serve you, witness on the job, give my tithes and offering to the church, teach Sunday school, help the preacher out, go on visitation, if you just want me to be a lay person–” In fact, when I spoke of Florida and Bible college and things like that, people would ask me, “What are you studying for the ministry.” I got to the point where I’d quit saying, “Yeah, I’m called to preach. I’m going to be a preacher.” I just started saying, “Well, I just want to go learn the Bible, and learn about God. I just got saved and wanted to know what there was to it. I wanted to learn.”
Until finally, I said, “Lord, if you just want me to be a lay person and teach Sunday school, give my tithes and offerings, and be an electrician, then, fine, God. If that’s what you want me to be, I’ll be content.” It wasn’t until then that God said, “Well, I want you to go into full-time service.” And I didn’t go looking for it, brother. It just was dumped right in my lap.
And when you submit yourself to God’s will, when you yield yourself to God’s will, He’ll open a door here, He’ll close a door there, He’ll open a window there, close a window there, He’ll guide you this way, guide you that way, send somebody along your way. And before you know it, you’re right in the middle of God’s will.
And God’s not going to waste His time with you, and God’s not going to wish you on anything or anybody, until He’s got you in the position where you’re totally yielded to His will–and then He can work with you. Then He knows you’re going to make the right moves. When He knows you’re willing, that you’ve submitted your will to His will, then He’ll put His will on you. God won’t waste His time on you otherwise.
God’s will for a lost sinner is to be saved. The Bible says, “God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” God didn’t predestine you before the foundation of the world, that you’d reject Christ and go to hell. That was up to you, brother. If God was willing for you to perish, He wouldn’t have sent His Son to die on the cross for you. The Bible says that God prepared hell for the devil and his angels–not for you. That’s why if a man goes to hell and burns forever, he’s referred to as someone who is lost. He’s somewhere where he is not supposed to be. He’s not in God’s will.
John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Won’t you yield to God’s will? Won’t you yield?