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God’s plan is the best
The Bible teaches that God has a specific plan for each of our lives (Eph. 2:10). He has planned a career for us, chosen a life-partner for us and even planned where we should live and what we should do each day. In every case, His choice must be the best, for He knows us so well and He takes every factor into consideration. It is wisest then to seek His will in all matters – major as well as minor.
The New Testament urges believers to walk as Jesus walked, following His example. The guiding principle of Jesus’ entire life and ministry was to do the will of His Father. He never moved until His Father told Him to.

And when He did move, neither the threats of His enemies nor the pleadings of His friends could stop Him from doing what His Father required of Him. His daily food was to fulfil His Father’s will (John 4:34). As men crave for food to nourish their bodies, He craved to do the will of the One Who had sent Him.
Every believer should have a similar hunger to fulfil all the will of God. How easy it is to pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven,” and then to do just as we please, without seeking God’s guidance in our daily lives.Man’s greatest honour and privilege is to do the will of God.

This was what the Lord Jesus taught His disciples. He once said that only those who did His Father’s will would enter the kingdom of Heaven (Matt. 7:21). He also said that His true brothers and sisters were those who did the will of God (Matt. 12:50).
The Bible likens believers to sheep.

A sheep is a foolish animal, unable to find its own way around, and extremely short-sighted. Its only safety lies in following its shepherd wherever he goes. This is a very humiliating fact for self-confident man to acknowledge. His pride will rebel at the very suggestion of his being so stupid in spiritual matters.

Yet this utter distrust of self is an inescapable preliminary to knowing God’s guidance in our lives. David took the place of a sheep before the Lord and thereby experienced Divine guidance – “The Lord is my Shepherd…. He leads me…. He leads me” (Psa. 23:1-3).
God often allows failure and confusion in our lives in order that we might see the total depravity of our hearts and the unreliability of our fallible intellects, and thus learn the necessity of clinging more closely to Him. One of the chief lessons which the Lord sought to teach His disciples was that without Him they could do nothing (John 15:5). They were very slow in learning this: so are we.
Peter declared that God sets men free from sin so that they can do His will (1 Pet. 4:1,2). Paul asserted that believers are created anew in Christ Jesus so that they can walk in a path God has already mapped out for them. He therefore exhorted the Ephesian Christians not to be foolish, but to understand what the will of the Lord was for their lives (Eph. 2:10; 5:17).

He prayed for the Colossian Christians that they might be filled with the knowledge of God’s will. He told them that his co-worker Epaphras was also praying for them that they might fulfil all the will of God (Col. 1:9; 4:12).

The apostle John taught that only those who did the will of God would abide forever (1 John 2:17).Men are urged to come to Jesus merely to receive forgiveness. In apostolic times, people were told that forgiveness of sins was to be only a prelude to a life dedicated to the fulfilment of the whole will of God.
Acts 13:22 seems to imply that David was called “a man after God’s own heart” because he desired to do the will of God alone. David himself tells us elsewhere that he delighted in doing God’s will (Psa. 4:8). He was not a perfect man. He committed many sins, some very serious ones, for which God had to punish him severely.

Yet God forgave him and found pleasure in him because basically David wanted to do all of God’s will. This encourages us to believe that in spite of all our imperfections, we too can be men and women after God’s own heart – if only our hearts are set on doing His will..
Unless man humbles himself and takes this lowly place, he cannot know the ways of God. “He will teach the ways that are right and best to those who humbly turn to Him”, said David in Psalm 25:9 . Self-confidence may be all right for the man of the world but certainly not for the child of God.

Herein lays the reason why many believers miss God’s plan for their lives. Confident of their own abilities, they do not earnestly seek the will of God. They depend instead upon their own genius and are thus led astray.
The humble man who recognizes his limitations and leans heavily upon God will ascertain the Divine will without difficulty. The self-confident Doctor of Theology, on the other hand, who depends on his Seminary training, will be left groping in the darkness.
We read of Enoch that he “walked with God” (Gen. 5:22) – i.e., he did not rush ahead nor lag behind, but walked in God’s appointed path as one under the yoke – for three hundred years. As a result, God testified that He was pleased with Enoch’s life (Heb. 11:5). This is the only way that we please God – by living and moving under His yoke, in His perfect will. Only thus shall we be able to stand before Him without regret when He comes again.
God itself is the king for Israel is the perfect will …
In 1-Samuel  8 :5-19 1 And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said; Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the LORD.
And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee.

Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and show them the manner of the king that shall reign over them. And Samuel told all the words of the LORD unto the people that asked of him a king.1Sam: 8. 5-10 and it is only the permissible will of God.
In Abraham life Isaac is true perfect will and Ishmael is the permissible will…..
And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her. Gen 17:15.16
And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.
But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year. . Gen 17:20-21
When Jesus sought the Father’s will in the garden of Gethsemane, He prayed again and again “in desperate prayer and the agony of tears” (Heb. 5:7-JBP)And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt……. He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done…. And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words.Here. Jesus submitted himself to His Father will.
In King Saul and Solomon life…..It is possible for a believer to miss God’s perfect will for his life. Saul was chosen by God to be king over Israel, but eventually as a result of his impatience and disobedience, God had to reject him.

True, he remained on the throne for some years more, but he had missed God’s will for his life. Solomon is another example. He pleased God in these earlier years, but fell away later through marrying heathen women.
Twice in the New Testament we are exhorted to take a warning from the example of the Israelites who perished in the wilderness. God’s perfect will for them was that they should enter Canaan. But all except two of them missed God’s best through unbelief and disobedience (1 Cor. 10:1-12; Heb. 3:7-14).

Many believers have similarly missed God’s perfect plan for their lives through disobedience and compromise – often in marriage or in the choice of a career.
Each of us has but one life. Blessed is the man who like Paul, can say at the end of it, that he has finished his God-appointed task (2 Tim. 4:7).If you have disobeyed God in some matter, turn to Him in repentance now, before it is too late.

It may yet be possible for you, as in Jonah’s case, to come back into the mainstream of God’s plan for your life.”The world and all its passionate desires will one day disappear. But the man who is following God’s will is part of the Permanent and cannot die” (1 John 2:17-JBP).
“Live life then with a due sense of responsibility, not as men who do not know the meaning and purpose of life, but as those who do. Make the best use of your time, despite all the difficulties of these days. Don’t be vague but firmly grasp what you know to be the will of God” (Eph. 5:15-17-JPB).
Hence, man’s greatest honour and privilege is to do the will of God and  It is foolish to move into the future on our own when God is waiting to guide us. His plan is the best. If we yield to Him, He can save us from Satan’s snares and take care on God’s perfect will for our lives through carelessness or disobedience.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and mind…..and He will direct your paths” (Prov. 3:5,6). There are many who never come to knowledge of God’s will, because they simply do not believe God will guide them. Faith is a prime prerequisite when we are seeking God’s guidance
In Hebrews 11:6, we are told that without faith it is impossible to please God. The verse goes on to say that those who come to God must believe that He is a rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him. The evidence of a person’s faith is found in his persistence in prayer.

The one who doubts will stop praying very soon. But the one who believes will lay hold of God until he gets an answer. God honours earnestness because it is the product of a strong faith. We cannot receive anything precious from God without intensely desiring it first. “He satisfies (only) the longing soul” (Psa. 107:9). God has said, “Then you will seek Me, inquire and require Me as a vital necessity and find Me; when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jer. 29:13).
There are some decisions for which we don’t need to wait for a perfectly clear indication of the mind of the Lord. For example, if you are seeking the Lord’s will as to whether you should commence a journey on the 15th or the 16th of the month, you need not wait indefinitely for a clear word from Him.
Yet there are some decisions for which we must wait until we are perfectly clear about the will of God. When considering marriage, for example, we cannot afford to be uncertain. We have to be perfectly sure of God’s will before deciding.

Such a decision is obviously of greater moment than the former one, because its effects are more far-reaching. The more important the decision, the longer we usually have to wait to be sure of God’s will.If we trust in the Lord, we won’t be afraid to wait. God often allows failure and confusion in our lives in order that we might see the total depravity of our hearts and the unreliability of our fallible intellects, and thus learn the necessity of clinging more closely to Him.

One of the chief lessons which the Lord sought to teach His disciples was that without Him they could do nothing (John 15:5). They were very slow in learning this: so are we.Self-distrust”Do not rely on your own insight or understanding…..and He will direct your paths” (Prov. 3:5,6).
The one who does not distrust his own natural wisdom in spiritual matters has yet to learn one of the fundamental lessons of the Christian life. Meager intelligence cannot by itself deprive a man of the knowledge of God’s will, if the man leans upon God. But proud dependence on one’s own cleverness and foresight can. Paul says in Philippians 3:3 that a believer should be characterized by a lack of confidence in him.
Paul was a mighty intellectual, but he still had to distrust himself and lean upon God. From his own experience he writes to the Corinthian Christians, “If any man among you thinks himself one of the world’s clever ones let him discard his cleverness that he may learn to be truly wise. For this world’s cleverness is stupidity to God” (1 Cor. 3:18,19-JBP). Worldly wisdom is a hindrance to the knowing of God’s will, and so must be discarded.
Unless man humbles himself and takes this lowly place, he cannot know the ways of God. “He will teach the ways that are right and best to those who humbly turn to Him”, said David in Psalm 25:9 (TLB).

Self-confidence may be all right for the man of the world but certainly not for the child of God. Herein lays the reason why many believers miss God’s plan for their lives. Confident of their own abilities, they do not earnestly seek the will of God. They depend instead upon their own genius and are thus led astray.

“In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths” (Prov. 3:6). We are sometimes eager to know God’s guidance in one area of our lives, but not so keen on having His direction in other areas. For example, we may earnestly seek God’s will in marriage, but may not do so when looking for a job.

Or it could be vice-versa. Or perhaps we may seek God’s guidance how and where to spend our month’s annual leave, but may never ask Him how to spend our money.
This is because we are inclined to want God’s guidance only when it is convenient for us. Selfish motives often lurk, unknown to us, in our hearts. We seek God’s will in some matters because we don’t want to make mistakes that might cause us suffering or loss.

The motive is not that we might please God but that we might be comfortable and prosperous. Hence we fail to receive God’s guidance, for He has promised to guide only those who acknowledge Him in all their ways, those who gladly accept His direction in every area of their lives.
There are many areas in which God’s will is already revealed to us in the Scriptures. For instance, the Bible says that God wants us to be holy and thankful:”This is the will of God that you should be consecrated – separated and set apart for pure and holy living….”Thank God in everything – no matter what the circumstances may be, be thankful and give thanks; for this is the will of God for you (who are) in Christ Jesus” (1 Thess. 4:3; 5:18).
Similarly, we are told that God expects us to love our neighbours as ourselves (Rom. 13:9). If we have received God’s forgiveness and salvation, we should desire the same for our neighbours. God’s will is clearly revealed in the New Testament: we are to be His witnesses (Acts 1:8).
Loving our neighbours implies a concern primarily for their spiritual needs, but does not exclude their other needs. God has said, “I want you to share your food with the hungry and bring right into your own homes those who are helpless, poor and destitute.

Clothe those who are cold and don’t hide from relatives who need your help. If you do these things, God will shed His own glorious light upon you…..Then when you call, the Lord will answer. `Yes, I am here.’ He will quickly reply.

All you need to do is to stop oppressing the weak, and to stop making false accusations and spreading vicious rumours! Feed the hungry! Help those in trouble! Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you shall be as bright as day. And the Lord will guide you continually” (Isa. 58:7-11-TLB). God delights to reveal His mind to those who are unselfishly concerned with the needs of others.
God will not show us the second step before we take the first. “As you go, step by step, I will open up the way before you”, is His promise (Prov. 4:12 – Paraphrase). He is interested in our every step.

“The steps of a (good) man are directed and established of the Lord, when He delights in his way and He busies Himself with his every step,” (Psa. 37:23).Here is another promise of guidance for the obedient: “I will instruct you (says the Lord) and guide you along the best pathway for your life; I will advise you and watch your progress, (but) don’t be like a senseless horse or mule.”

(Psa. 32:8,9-TLB). (The horse is characterized by impatience always wanting to rush ahead whereas the mule is characterized by stubbornness often refusing to move forward. We must avoid both these attitudes).

God speaks to us through our consciences when we are disobedient. We should therefore be careful to heed the voice of conscience always.

Jesus said, “Your eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is sound and fulfilling its office, your whole body is full of light” (Luke 11:34). What did Jesus mean by the eye? In Matthew 5:8, He connected spiritual vision with purity of heart. So the eye must refer to the conscience which when obeyed constantly, leads us to purity of heart.

By itself, conscience is not the voice of God, for it is educated and determined by the principles on which a person bases his life. But if it is obeyed constantly and brought in line with the teaching of the Bible, it will reflect God’s standard increasingly.

The promise in Luke 11:34, then is, that if we keep our conscience clean we shall have God’s light flooding our lives – and thus we shall know His will. If we fail to listen to the voice of conscience in our daily lives, we shall fail to hear the voice of the Spirit when seeking God’s guidance. Instant obedience to God whenever He speaks to us is one of the secrets of guidance.
Unconditional yieldedness
“Make a decisive dedication of your bodies – presenting all your members and faculties – as a living sacrifice, holy and well pleasing to God….so that you may prove (for yourselves) what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Rom. 12:1,2).

The New Testament exhorts us to become bondslaves to the Lord. Paul called himself a willing bondslave of Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, there were two classes of servants – the bondslave and the hired servant. A bondslave, unlike the hired servant was never paid. He was bought by his master for a price and as a result all that he was and all that he possessed belonged to his master. This is what every believer must recognize himself to be.

Our time, money, talents, families, possessions, minds and bodies – all – belong to our Master and our Lord, for they are His by right of purchase on the Cross (1 Cor. 6:19,20).
We are therefore exhorted to present our bodies to God, once for all, as a living sacrifice, even as the burnt offering in the Old Testament. The burnt offering, unlike the sin offering, was wholly offered to God and signified the offerer’s utter dedication unto Him. When a man offered a burnt offering, he received nothing back. God could do whatever He liked with that offering.

It was symbolic of Calvary’s Cross where the Lord Jesus offered Himself utterly to His Father saying, “Father, not My will but Thine be done.” This is what it means to present our body as a living sacrifice to God: we must die to our own will and choice as to how and where our body should be used by Him. Only thus can we know His will.
The Spirit of God Who comes to live in us, when we are “born again” is opposed to the spirit of this world and therefore desires to renew our thinking completely. God’s ultimate purpose for us is that we might be conformed to the image of His Son.
This is the primary part of His will for all of us. Everything else – whom we should marry, where we should live and work – is secondary.

All of God’s dealings with us are directed towards this end – that we might become like Jesus (see Romans 8:28 and 29). But this can be fulfilled in us only as we allow the Holy Spirit to renew our minds daily. The more our minds are thus renewed, the more accurately shall we be able to discern the will of God at life’s crossroads.
If we want to find God’s will, we must first fulfil the following conditions:. We must believe that God will reveal His will to us. Such faith will be characterised by earnest desire and patience. We should be willing to wait for God’s time.. We must distrust our own cleverness and humbly lean upon God. We do not have to discard our intellectual abilities, but our confidence must be in God and not in ourselves..

We must be willing to do God’s will in every area of our lives, and not just in a few. We must be obedient to the light God has already given us, and should keep our consciences clean always.. We must yield ourselves without reserve to God and be willing to accept anything He chooses for us.. We must walk with God daily, listening to what He has to say. We must allow Him thus to renew our minds and deliver us from worldly thought-processes.
May the Lord lead us to do His willing in our life..Amen.

Tags: God’s willing is the Secrete of all the Success, SUNDAY MESSAGE ON 16.12.12