Pray For Your Country!

2Chron 7:11-15

Subject: Prayer

Theme: Our generation of American Christians must desperately cry out to God to save our country from spiritual, moral, economic, and political disaster. If God does not intervene in a gracious and merciful manner, we have no other hope.

Introduction:

There has been a great deal of talk in recent months about our economic crisis in American.  Indeed the collapse of our economy has negatively impacted much of the world.  People are afraid for their future because of the current economic and energy disaster.  Anger, disillusionment, frustration, fear and anxiety are running wild in all sectors of our national life.  While it is true we are in a recession, there is still no need to live in fear and anxiety because our God is much bigger than these challenges, but we must make ‘break-through’ appeals to Him for His help.

Truly we serve an awesome sovereign almighty and righteous God who love us and desires to meet our every need in full accordance with His good will.  He is a prayer hearing God and a prayer answering God and is greatly interested in time with you.  Since God is so good, merciful, loving, and kind, you would think more people would look forward to spending time with Him in prayer.  But the truth is that many people only pray during a crisis, or an emergency.  They have failed to cultivate the holy habit of communion with God because of His greatness and availability to us.  Well, currently we are living in a crisis and we need to cry out to the Lord for His help.  The need is urgent.

What do you pray for regularly?  Is it merely me, myself, and I?  Perhaps you are faithful to pray for your family and a few church members, but do you pray regularly for folk outside of that circle? What will it take for you to pray regularly for your country?  Where does prayer fit into the situation of our nation?  What will it take to motivate you to cry out to God on behalf of your country?

Message:

I.                  The Condition Of Our Nation Is Evidence That We Need To Pray

A.     Think about the many challenges we face as a nation that directly affect our lives.

1.                  The high price and availability of gasoline.  Can we supply our own needs?  Why are we still dependent on foreign oil?  How long will we rely on the oil supply from countries who support terrorism?

2.                  The mortgage and banking financial collapse.  Thousands of people have lost their homes because of a few greedy individuals who influence policy and manipulated the housing market to line their own pockets and fill their own accounts with millions of dollars from average and honest Americans.

3.                  The collapse of the auto industry in America—Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors.  They all have consistently lost market shares to foreign import competitors, they are closing production plants across the nation, and thousands have lost their jobs and pensions.

4.                  Inflation has rocketed through the roof also.  Cost of fuel, food, and fresh produce is soaring by huge percentages.  Currently we are dragging through the remains of a serious recession.  Small businesses, family owned restaurants, markets, and Art museums are closing their doors.  These jobs are evaporating rapidly. 

5.                  Health care cost is still steadily climbing.  The cost of insurance, drugs-prescriptions, medical care is racing upward. The needs for medical care are steadily growing. The Affordable Care Act insanely shifts medical expenses to others through obligatory taxation….

6.                  Weak-cowardly leadership on the state and national levels.  They seem to have no principles, core beliefs, values, or sense of what is good and best for the country.  They do whatever will get them elected or re-elected.  They care more about their reputation in the media, than they do the real issues facing the country.    

7.                  The current war on terror will continue as a protracted conflict.  Many more lives will be sacrificed, and we need real answers, strategies, and resources to sustain it.  At home we live with the constant fear of another successful attack on American soil.  We grow increasingly unpopular with Europe and other parts of the world as we wage this war.

8.                  The value of the dollar on the world markets is far from strong.  It is not competing as vigorously as it has historically on the foreign markets.  The dollars buys less overseas.

9.                  There has been an uptick in the number and magnitude of natural disasters directly affecting our country.  Everything from hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, floods, and mudslides have wreaked havoc on our citizens and costing multi-millions of dollars of damage annually.

10.              Retirement loses from the sluggish stock market have been experienced by people you know well, live near, and work with.

11.              55 million babies have been aborted in our country since abortion was legalized (1973) and backed with federal funding.  People’s ‘rights’ of choice seems to be more important than babies' right to live.

12.              Divorces in our country have steadily escalated over the last four decade with minor declines periodically.  About 40 percent of American marriages end in divorce or a second divorce.

13.              There are more single parent homes in America currently and this is being promoted in the modern media as desirable and preferable to the traditional nuclear family.

14.              Crime and punishment—justice—seems to be displaced by a growing ambition to protect the rights of the guilty criminal, while ignoring the rights of the victims and the innocent. The interpretation of laws and new legislation seem to consistently aid or favor the criminals.

15.              The nuclear threat and potential disaster is a growing and looming threat from places like North Korea who love to draw media attention through new nuclear tests.  Iran is also clearly attempting to build nuclear weapons to use against Israel.  Again there is a growing hatred of America as we attempt to oppose these developments. Even countries we have poured billions of tax dollars into hate us and want to see us destroyed.

16.               America’s Bill of rights freedom of speech is being censored and silenced categorically and systematically.  We are being silenced and this freedom is vanishing in our land. Historically where despots have risen to power and dictators have ruled, the number one priority is always to control and eliminate the freedom of speech.

17.              The movement to redefine marriage is another threat against core Christian values and national strength. Recently the SCOTUS ratified “gay marriage” nationwide. While strange unnatural ‘weddings,’ ‘marriages,’ and ‘couples,’ are being portrayed as victims of civil injustice and inequality, Judeo-Christian morality is being snubbed. God has already defined marriage! Sodomy is still sin.

18.              Illegal immigration is a major problem; millions of unregistered people are currently living and working in America.  Politicians use this issue as a political football during election seasons, but none of them are doing anything meaningful to resolve the real problems of national security.  Economic growth through guest worker programs, and legitimate avenues of pursuing citizenship in our country still stand unresolved after more than thirty years.

19.              An entire ‘Christian denomination’ is accepting and promoting sodomy-homosexuality and even ordaining such individuals to the ministry.  Apparently they follow the values of our declining culture instead of the Scriptures.  The Bible is clear on this.

20.              False Prophets in the land are predicting positive prospects.  Everything is wonderful, prosperous, healthy, positive, and improving in their eyes.  Life is clearly not ‘peaches and cream’ in our country. They mislead thousands who could be concentrating their prayers on revival—a real spiritual awakening sent from God. 

      21.  Teen pregnancies are trending downward, but AIDS, STDs, promiscuity, adultery, and sexual rebellion plague our land as judgments on our ‘lose society.’ Ages 16-19 are when late adolescent boys and girls typically become sexually active. Among 18–19 year-olds, 63% of males and 64% of females reported vaginal sex at least once during their lifetime. One out of every two American girls between the ages of 14-19, has had premarital sex—that’s fifty percent.  One out of every four girls in America is infected with some form of STDs—that is twenty-five percent.
      22. Racial tensions are high, ethnic/interracial trust is gravely degraded, injustice is felt deeply, and respect for authority and law enforcement are extremely low--this condition is more dangerous than nuclear war! 

B.     The reality is that all of these problems should convince any honest person that we are under the judgment of God.  All of these things collectively should convince us of our need to pray for our country.  We have problems bigger then we are and we desperately need God to intervene on our behalf.  We cannot fix these problems on our own.  They scream to us that we are a rapidly deteriorating nation without any hope except God Himself.

II.               Our Condition Moves A Righteous and Just God to Actions of Judgment

A.     2Chronicles 7:12-13—clearly God will undertake to discipline and judge a nation for its national sins and moral failures.  Someone will say, “Surely God will not judge us, we are America…”  This is a statement of pride and error.  Others may say, “A good and loving God will not punish people….”  But, verse 13, is clear, God will confront and judge nations for their sins.

B.     Duet. 8:1, 6, 11-14, 16-20—Morally God must act against our nation.  If he saw fit to judge Israel whom He esteem above all other nations in the earth, then certainly he will deal with America’s sinfulness also. We have deliberately chosen to walk contrary to God’s will in every area of our national life.  I believe God has begun a corrective act of judgment on America.

C.     2Chronicles 7:19-22—If God allowed our nation to come to destruction, what will the rest of the world say?  We would be a symbol of those who forsake their God—“a proverb and a byword among all nations.”

D.     2Chronicles 7:22—in many ways we, as a nation, have forsaken the Lord!

1.      We have abandoned prayer in our homes and education system and adopted a humanistic philosophy.

2.      We resist Bibles and the Ten Commandments in our homes, public schools and in any federal government agency—they are considered hostile because they breed intolerance.

3.      Many have worked hard to remove the influence of Christian beliefs, symbols, and values from public life and policy.  This is the agenda of the ACLU!

4.      Constantly Christian values are attacked and belittled in the media.

5.      As a result, the nation has declined continually since the early sixties!

E.     America has enjoyed huge blessings and massive privileges at the generous hand of God.

1.                  We are individually and personally responsible to God for our economic and spiritual prosperity.

2.                  We are more accountable to God because of the abundance we have enjoyed.

a.       We have the Bible—KJV.

b.      Christian churches who preach the pure unadulterated Gospel of Jesus Christ.

c.       Missionary vigor of the last sixty years is the greatest in Christian history.

d.      Christian periodicals, TV, movies, broadcasts, radio, ect.

e.       The Devil would love to destroy our nation and destroy all of this potential for reaching the world with the Gospel.

F.      The weak and wicked politicians have no answers or solution—stop looking to them.

1.                  They believe in preferences instead of principles.

2.                  They build on sinking sand instead of solid rock principles (Matt. 7:24-27).

3.                  They are more interested in their personal advantage then the welfare of the nation.

4.                  They have no real answers for the challenges confronting us today (Ps. 118:8-9).

5.                  Vote according to Bible principle when electing officials

III.           The Conditions that will Secure the help of God in our Country

2Chron. 7:14, What are the conditions for God to hear us?

A.     God’s People Need to Get Under this Burden and cry out to Him for an awakening, 2Chron. 7:14.

1.      Israel is God’s earthly people, but real Christians are His spiritual children.

2.      We are the “household of faith”

3.      We as believers are a “holy nation”

4.      We are the children of God through faith in Jesus Christ

5.      Our nation could be spared “if” enough Christians will understand and fulfill our role.

B.     Humble ourselves before the Lord, 2Chron. 7:14.

1.                  Humility is not weakness, but wisdom

a.                   Prov. 16:18-19 (prideful or humble)

b.                  Prov. 29:23 (Pride or humility)

c.                   Job 35:12-13 (God will not honor pride)

2.                  We cannot handle the mess we are in currently; we desperately need God to intervene!  Do not allow pride to hinder our need to cry out to God.  Do not say, we are Americans and we can handle it….

C.     Pray—Cry out to God on behalf of our Country, 2Chron. 7:14.

1.                  Why are we still praying small selfish prayers?

2.                  What about praying for Godly leadership on the state and national levels?

3.                  What about praying for your country? 2Tim 2:1-8—Intercession?

4.                  What about old fashion revival praying?

a.                   Ps. 34:15-19, Cry out to God, cry out to God; He will deliver the righteous!

b.                  The burden is to be heart-felt, our heart is broken over the condition of our nation.

                                                                                       i.      Pray like you would pray for a loved one who is seriously ill and facing death.

                                                                                     ii.      With all your strength cry out to the only God who can save our nation.

c.                   The circumstances are impossible for man to resolve—we need God’s intervention.

d.                  If you do not like the way things are going, then cry out to God to change it!

D.    We Must Turn From Our Wicked Ways, 2Chron. 7:14.

1.                  Wicked?  Deliberate disobedience or rebellion against God in any form.  Not just murder or adultery, but also a hateful attitude, an unforgiving spirit, gossip, and doubting and questioning God’s Word.  These too are wicked in the eyes of a holy God.

2.                  Repentance is required if God is to hear our cry.

a.                   Confession is not enough!  Confessing all the time is not what God wants.

b.                  Repentance is a change of heart, mind, and attitude, that lead to a change of behavior.  We ultimately stop the wicked practices.

c.                   If God has convicted you of sin, then make a clean break with that sinful practice.  This is turning from our wicked ways.

IV.            God’s Threefold Promise, 2Chron 7:14

A.                      God will hear our prayers

B.                      God will forgive our sins

C.                      God will heal our country

Conclusion:

Every honest Christian will have to admit that our country is in a deadly decline.  We have been going down, down, down, down… There is no evidence at all of our slowing down, much less turning around.  You can make a difference in the future of our nation if you will cry out to God.  Every believer needs to get under this burden—somebody needs to go and get God.  We desperately need Him right now!

Do you really believe this promise? Do you truly love your country?  Do you care about the future of your children and grandchildren?  Do you really love your freedom? Are you willing to get on your knees and cry out to God?  Are you too proud to humble yourself and pray?  Somebody needs to get under a burden and trust God for a mighty spiritual awakening. Will it be you? This generation of American Christians must answer the call to pray for a mighty spiritual awakening and a moral revival.  Someone needs to commit to this ministry on behalf of our nation and future.  Will you be that intercessor?

Pray for your country regularly—weekly have a special time of national prayer. God is our only national hope....

Can I Really Know God?

The short answer is God can indeed be known by us! Yes, it is true that we cannot know everything about God, but it is equally true that we can know Him, obey Him, and fulfill His great plan for our lives.

Actually, the Great God of the Bible Desires to Be Known by Us!

This truth is mentioned in several places in the Bible with striking clarity and significance. Consider what God said through his prophet Jeremiah in 24:7, “And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the Lord: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.” When God saves us, he gives us a heart to know Him! Such knowledge is to lead to a deepening relationship with him and a more complete devotion to him.

Consider God’s call of Moses and how He revealed himself to the nation of Israel while they were in captivity in Egypt. In Exodus 3:4, we see the great Communicator in action, “And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.” Obviously God is taking the initiative to reveal Himself to Moses through this extraordinary miracle! Then a little later in Exodus 3:13-14, God reveals one of His names to Moses for the benefit of Israel, “And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? [14] And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” God takes up the cause to disclose truths about Himself to Moses and Moses is to communicate that to others.

 God reveals himself as the only true God. The Egyptians had many gods by many different names. Moses wanted to know God’s name so the Hebrew people would know exactly who had sent him to them. God called himself “I Am”, a name describing his eternal power and unchangeable character.

In a world where values, morals, and laws change constantly, we can find stability and security in our unchanging God. The God who appeared to Moses is the same God who can live in believers today. Hebrews 13:8, says God is the same “yesterday, today, and forever.” Because God’s nature is stable He is trustworthy; we are free to follow and enjoy him rather than spend our time trying to figure him out.

The great desire in the heart of our Lord Jesus Christ for all his disciples is that we might KNOW GOD! In fact, this is the very definition of eternal life—knowing God through faith in Jesus Christ. John records the prayer of the Lord Jesus in John 17:3, stating “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” This same truth was echoed by the Apostle John later in 1 John 5:20, “And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.” Eternal life is a faith-relationship through Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is through Christ that we enter a relationship with God (Jn. 14), and Christ is the revelation of God. It is the Lord Jesus who has “given us and understanding” enabling us to know God. How about you? Do you know God through Christ?

The Source of The Knowledge of God Must be the Scriptures.

Since Christ Jesus is the Way, Truth, and Life, think on what he says about the ability and role of the Word of God to reveal God. Consider John 5:39, where our Lord challenged religious people to “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” The Scriptures proclaim Jesus Christ! Any honest research of the Bible will bring us to the conclusion that the Bible is a “Jesus Book.” Accordingly, a person can be a “Bible scholar” and still miss the real message and primary Person of the Scriptures—Jesus Christ! Many people today use the Bible, quote the Scriptures, and point to proof texts to support their belief system. The problem in too many instances is they have gross misconceptions about God because they miss the centrality of Jesus in the Bible’s message. While they have embraced certain truths and concepts, they remain blind to the knowledge of God because they have not yet perceived the significance of Christ Jesus to understanding God! Honest Scripture research will bring us face to face with the testimony of the Lord Jesus. Beloved, the Bible is the source of the true knowledge of God.

Then in Hebrews 1:1-2, we find this important affirmation, “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, [2] Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds”. God has communicated to humanity in many different ways throughout Bible history. He even spoke through a donkey to a thick-head prophet! Today; however, he is communicating through the Son of God. The Lord Jesus is God’s final world to humanity and that essential message is recorded, explained, and revealed in the body of the New Testament. God is still reaching out to humanity through Christ Jesus as recorded in the Scriptures.

God is Communicating Through Scripture Today!

His desire to communicate to us in diverse ways is an activity of God that should lead us to appreciate Him more. This is amplified since due to our sinful condition He is not obligated to tell us anything at all. Today he is speaking through the Word of God!  

God Clearly Condemns Divination —the attempt to discern God’s message through such things as the pattern of tea leaves or the position of the stars. God does not speak to us through astrology or fortune-tellers. The Bible calls these practices abominations to God.

God Does Not Speak to His People Through Occult Practices. His Word speaks strongly against conjuring spirits—such as séances—and any form of magic that might attempt to give us direction for our lives. Soothsayers and seers were among the people that God clearly told his children to avoid.

We are to stay far away from such things as tarot cards, Ouija boards, crystals, magic charms, and other such paraphernalia associated with the occult. They are not methods that God has used in the past, is using today, or will ever use.  We need to know the Scriptures, for without them we are headed for error. Consider the warning of the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 22:29, “Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.”

Let each of us take Christ’s sober warning to heart. We are prone to err and destined to make huge mistakes in beliefs and judgment if we are ignorant of the Bible. My soul trembles every time I hear someone assert, “I believe what I believe, and that is all that matters.” While they claim to know what they believe, they do not know why they believe it! They may claim the Bible says it, but does the Bible actually teach their ideas? Honestly, they do not know what they do not know! They are trapped and imprisoned by their misconceptions and false ideas. It is painful for me to witness this; yet I am confronted with it too often. When I attempt to show them what the Scriptures actually say and teach, they refuse it clinging to their fables, myths, half-truths, traditions, and misconceptions. They have been fooled by the devil and poisoned by untrue ideas. Beloved, this is an incredibly dangerous predicament in which to live. I definitely would not want to die believing these errors! Biblical ignorance is deadly, and could be eternally damning!

So, to answer the question, “Can I really know God?” the answer is yes! Wonderfully and absolutely YES! The greatest Communicator of all time and eternity has spoken to reveal Himself in the Bible. To know him, read, study, meditate on, and research the most reliable source of spiritual information in the entire universe, the Bible.  To discover the greatest reality of all time and eternity, start reading in the Gospel of John in the New Testament. Read through this single book several times back-to-back. You will find there the historical record of God living among people as a man for the purpose of revealing God to them. You will also find that those who trusted Jesus Christ as Savior entered into an eternal relationship with True God. Yes, the True and Living God is revealed in the Bible and through his Son Jesus Christ. I encourage you to journey on in the knowledge of Him. I challenge you to venture on believing the Word of God in order to grow in your knowledge and experience of Him. You can know God profoundly and deeply!

Thinking Biblically & Hearing From God

Will God’s plan for me simply pop into my head someday or should I actually do something to obtain His guidance? Can I simply pray asking for wisdom from God, or do I have other responsibilities that I must satisfy to obtain wisdom from God? These are good questions! Some teachers say that all we need to do is ask and God will give us wisdom in generous measures (James 1). Other teachers tell us that we must research the Bible with a commitment to act on the wisdom God gives—through diligent study of the Bible we gain wisdom. The first prescription requires little of the believer while the second depends almost entirely on the believer’s efforts. Which way is correct? Before I answer the question consider this passage:

A good man sheweth favour, and lendeth: He will guide his affairs with discretion. (Ps. 112:5)

Personal generosity is healthy and good, but it should be exercised with a fair amount of discretion. That is, we must be discreet, responsible and restrained exemplifying sound judgement and prudent management. Discretion is generally the ability to make sound decisions. We are challenged to “guide” our “affairs with discretion.” Thoughtfulness, planning, measurement, and care are to be exercised as we address matters of personal and commercial business.  

Furthermore, discretion involves carefulness, maturity, prudence, and good judgment in spiritual decision making as well (Ps. 112:5). It is the ability to use God-given discernment while making decisions pertaining to routine and peculiar matters. Such capability can be learned by the people of God. Yes, sound decision making that fulfills God’s plan for our lives can be learned through the Word, the Holy Spirit, prayer, and disciplined decision making. Understand, this quality must be cultivated, developed, and intentionally pursued. Each believer should make a conscious choice to cultivate spiritual discretion.

The answer to our original questions is “both.”  Yes, we are to pray earnestly to God for wisdom, but we must also cultivate the development of spiritual thinking for the sake of making decisions consistent with God’s Word and will. Yes, we can hear from God through thinking biblically, and God imparts wisdom when we ask and as we study the Word. 

Theme: as responsible believers, God expects us to actively cultivate discretion related to His will

GOD’S WORD ASSURES US SPIRITUAL DISCRETION CAN BE CULTIVATED.

The Bible repeatedly makes this claim and assures us that each child of God’s life can be an exercise of discretion.  God uses His Word to develop within us discernment—a sense of right and wrong, good and bad. The Spirit helps us distinguish between character and image, and substance and vanity.  God helps us realize what ‘right’ looks like so that we can recognize the right from the wrong, and decide between good, better, and best in a given situation.

In order to lead a life that reflects God’s wisdom and discretion, and to limit our susceptibility to misconceptions we must cultivate spiritual discernment.

Phil 1:9-11, And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; [moral discernment in ethical matters]10, That ye may approve [recognize as genuine through examination—appraisal] things that are excellent [better, or of greater value]; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; 11, Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.

In effective service for the Lord, we must use our intelligence and exercise discernment. Otherwise, our efforts are apt to be futile. So Paul is here praying not only that the Philippians will continue in the display of Christian love, but also that their love will be exercised in full knowledge and all discernment.

Love that is thus enlightened will enable them to discern the things that are more excellent. In all realms of life, some things are good and others are better. The good is often the enemy of the best. For effective service, these distinctions must be made.

Love that is enlightened will also enable them to avoid what is questionable or downright wrong. Paul would have them sincere, ⁴ that is, utterly transparent, and blameless in view of the day of Christ. –Believer’s Bible Commentary

Think Session:

Moral Discernment Exercise: What if someone who is truly saved and genuinely loves the Lord desires to unite with the church, but they are HIV positive and have openly communicated this fact? Should this be a condition for excluding from membership? Would it be morally wrong to pry into his or her past? Do we feel a moral obligation to inquire about how they contracted the disease?

Appraisal Discernment Exercise: I know that it is time to purchase another automobile for my family of six. What should I buy? How much does my budget allow? What would actually meet our needs?  Consider that it is good to buy a reliable vehicle that satisfies our needs—everyone in the family fits safely and it gets us from point A to B. It is better to buy a pre-owned (minimal depreciation) one that fits our budget—we can actually afford the car note, insurance, and maintenance. It is best to purchase a car in cash or with a huge down payment; a car that can be readily serviced here in the area.

GOD’S WORD SPELLS OUT HIS WILL FOR US IN SPECIFIC MANDATES.

Our tendency to misread God’s plan can be significantly reduced by “understanding what the will of the Lord is” (Eph. 5:17). God’s will can be known and understood by us!  Eph. 5:17,  says, “Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding [connect concepts together in the mind] what the will of the Lord is.” Understanding is like collecting the pieces of a puzzle and putting them together. The mind grasps concepts and sees the proper relationship between them. This requires serious thinking on our part—exercise your mental muscles.

“Understanding” implies placing precept together with practice as well. That is to mentally comprehend in order to govern ourselves according to God’s pleasure and will. This largely reduces misunderstandings, misconceptions, misapplications, and general misreading of God’s will! Again this demands discipline and exertion of mental energy. 

God’s Plan for our lives is not hidden, incomprehensible, nor mysterious. In fact God desires for His people to be well informed and actuating His will daily. But it may require engaging all our mental powers to arrive at what the Lord wants to achieve through us.

To guard against misconceptions related to God’s will, gain a practical awareness of specific Bible statements related to God’s will and their Implications.

Colossians 1:9-10, For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; ¹⁰ That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;

Note This Prayer for the Knowledge of God’s Will (Col. 1:9).

Paul’s primary request was that God would fill them with the knowledge of His will. There are two key words, “filled” and “knowledge” to consider. “Filled” refers to a filling out to completeness, and “knowledge” suggests a full, deep understanding. This is not an inner impression or feeling, but a deep and thorough knowledge of the will of God that is finally and completely revealed in the Word of God (Col. 3:16; Eph. 5:17; 1 Thess. 4:3; 5:18; 1 Tim. 2:4; 1 Pet. 2:13, 15; 4:19).

·        Such knowledge of God’s will does not come from a fleshly mind (which “puffs up,” 1 Cor. 8:1), but the Holy Spirit enlightens a believer’s inner person (1 Cor. 2:5-6, 13), with the Word of God.

·        “Wisdom” is, practical know-how which comes from God (James 1:5; 3:15), and it is also the ability to accumulate and organize principles from Scripture. Wisdom applies knowledge in the best way.

·        “Spiritual Understanding” speaks of clear analysis and decision-making in applying spiritual knowledge to various problems—the application of Bible principles to daily living. Understanding sees what agrees and what conflicts with God’s will. God’s will, revealed in the Bible, is made known to believers by the Holy Spirit’s teaching ministry.

Note This Purpose for the Knowledge of God’s Will (Col. 1:10).

Why did the Apostle Paul want the Colossians to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will? [1:10] Was it so they might become mighty preachers or sensational teachers? Was it so they might attract large followings to themselves, as the Gnostics sought to do?

·        No, the true purpose of spiritual wisdom and understanding is to enable Christians to walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him. Here we have a very important lesson on the subject of guidance. God does not reveal His will to us in order to satisfy our curiosity. Neither is it intended to cater to our ambition or pride. Rather the Lord shows us His will for our lives in order that we might please Him in all that we do. –Believer’s Bible Commentary

Exercise:

What does the Bible say about God’s will for us?

1.     God Wills that We Be Saved (2Pet. 3:9; 1Tim. 2:4).

2.     God Wills that We Be Spirit-Filled (Eph. 5:15-18).

3.     God Wills that We Be Thankful in Everything (1Thess. 5:18).

4.     God Wills that We are set apart from sin and unto His purposes (1Thess. 4:3-5).

5.     God Wills that We Be Submissive to Legitimate Authority (1Pet. 2:13-15).

6.     God Wills that We Suffer for Christ’s Sake (1Pet. 4:12-16, 19).

7.     God Wills that We Glorify Him with all our Opportunities (1Pet. 4:16; 1Cor. 6:20; 10:31).

The Lord Jesus epitomized all of these mandates and is the supreme example for all aspects of God’s will (see John 4:4; 5:19, 30; 1 Pet. 4:1, 2). Honestly if we truly lived this way in the energy of the Holy Spirit, there would be little else to consider or to decide upon with regard to God’s plan. Also bear in mind that God does afford us a measure of latitude and freedom in decision making. There are times and instances when He in His sovereignty literally leaves the choice with us.

Conclusion:

Eph 5:15, See then that ye walk circumspectly [exactly, precisely, diligently, accurately], not as fools, but as wise,   (Also Col. 4:5)

Walk or proceed with clear direction from God. Live each day knowing exactly what God expects and with confidence in the type of life He prescribes. Once you know what He requires, proceed with precise adherence and compliance. Walk circumspectly before your Lord. Much like a person walking a tight rope across the Grand Canyon proceeds with preciseness and accuracy; let us walk with exactitude in the plan of God for us. Again He has disclosed His will in His Word there is no reasoned to be mystified regarding His plan.

Yes, there will still be times when we need to make a decision and we will feel uncertain about how to proceed. This is no indication that God has failed to direct. It may mean we need to dig some in the Word and pray far more for wisdom from God. It may also mean we need to connect spiritual principles one with another like the pieces of a puzzle in order to discern God’s plan in a particular matter. I am afraid God has been blamed far too often for hiding His will when the key to knowing it is a matter of research on our part.

The Lord never intended for His will to be mysterious or confusing. He does not hide it and taunt us as we try to find it or figure it out. God’s will is not hidden nor is it lost! Through the Word, the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and prayer we can understand exactly what God’s will is and make decisions in the light of it. In doing so, we limit and reduce our vulnerability to deceptions related to His plan for our lives. God not only want us to know His will but to execute it daily with precision and accuracy to His glory!