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Will
of God
Will of God Greater Than
His Work
Miriam Booth, daughter of
the founder of the salvation Army, we a beautiful and cultured lady who began
her Christian work with great promise and achieved unusual success. Then
suddenly disease laid hold on her and brought her to the point of death. A
friend visiting her one day said it seemed a great pity that a person with her
capabilities should thus be hindered from doing the Lord’s work. She replied
with gentle graciousness, ‘It is great to do the Lord’s work but greater to do
the Lord’s will.’ (I John 2:17). ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical
Preaching》
Will of God Known and
Obeyed
David Brainerd was waiting
upon the Lord in order to ascertain His will concerning him. In 1742 he
received a communication from Mr. Pemberton of
The
late Tom Baird wrote:
Dispose
my will to will Thy will,
And
then to will is well:
The
willing will that wills God’s will
Within
God’s will will dwell.
── Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Will of God
God is said to speak to men
in “a still, small voice” (1 Kings 19:12), which may partially explain why we
find it hard to hear him when he speaks. It’s much like receiving a phone call
in a house with the T.V. going, the stereo blaring, and a house full of people
chatting with one another. To understand the caller, it requires asking the
friends to be quiet and turning down the stereo and T.V.
So
it is with hearing God. It may well require removing those distractions, those
areas of sin that deafen our ears to the voice of the Lord. ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Will of God
When David Livingstone was
asked if he didn’t fear that going into Africa was too difficult and too
dangerous, he answered, “I am immortal until the will of God for me is
accomplished.” ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical
Preaching》
Will of God
Just before Abraham Lincoln
issued the Emancipation Proclamation, a group of ministers urged him to grant
immediate freedom to all slaves. “It is my earnest desire to know the will of
Will of God
If it were in the will of
God, I’d plant an oak tree today, even if Christ were coming tomorrow.— Martin
Luther
Will of God
F.B. Meyer was sailing many
years ago to England from northern Ireland. He told the story of how it was
night and, as the ship entered the harbor, nothing was to be seen but a
confusing array of lights. Dr. Meyer wondered how the captain could hope to
navigate into the harbor safely at night in such a confusing jumble of lights,
and so he asked him. The captain took him up to the bridge and said, “You see,
sir, it’s really very simple. I’ll show you how. Do you see that big light over
to the left? And do you see that other big light over there to the right of it?
And now, do you see that outstanding light farther still this way? Well now,
keep your eyes on those three lights and see what happens.” As Dr. Meyer
watched, the big outer light on the left gradually moved in until it coincided
with the middle one. Then, as the ship turned, the light gradually merged into
the third. “There now,” said the captain, “all I have to do is to see that
those three big lights become one; then I go straight forward.”
The
point is that the believer also has three lights to guide him into the will of
God. When Scripture and conscience are lined up with outward circumstances so
that the three become one, we need have no fear. We may go straight ahead.
God’s will is clear. ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical
Preaching》
Will of God
God has his best things for
the few
That
dare to stand the test.
He
has his second choice for those
Who
will not have his best.
It
is not always open ill
That
risks the promised rest.
The
better often is the foe
That
keeps us from the best.
Give
me, O Lord, thy highest choice;
Let
others take the rest.
Their
good things have no charm for me
For
I have got thy best.
—
A.B.
Simpson
Will of God
A
middle-aged farmer who had been desiring for years to be an evangelist was out
working in the field one day when he decided to rest under a tree. As he looked
into the sky he saw that the clouds seemed to form into the letters P and C.
Immediately he hopped up, sold his farm, and went out to P-reach C-hrist, which
he felt was God’s leading. Unfortunately, he was a horrible preacher. After one
of his sermons a neighbor came forward and whispered in his ear, “Are you sure
God wasn’t just trying to tell you to P-lant C-orn?” ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Will of God
“I think I’ll be a preacher
when I grow up,” the small boy confided to his mother.
“It’s
a wonderful calling,” the mother agreed, “but why do you want to be a
preacher?”
“Well,”
resolved the youngster, “I figure I’ll have to go to church all my life,
anyway, and it’s harder to sit than to stand up and holler.” ── Michael P.
Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Jessica Hawn, former
church secretary who committed immoral acts with Jim Bakker (former host of the
PTL Club), and later brought down the PTL empire, said today (9-28-87) that God
gave her "real peace" about granting an interview to Playboy magazine
and posing for topless pictures. On 9-29-87 the news reports that she still
considers herself a Christian, but goes to God "one-on-one," not
through any church or organization. Also: she doesn't consider herself a
"bimbo." But her mother does. ── Source
Unknown.
Once while Francis
of Assisi was hoeing his garden, he was asked, "What would you do if you
suddenly learned that you were to die at sunset today?" He replied,
"I would finish hoeing my garden."── Source
Unknown.
One day Dwight
Morrow and his wife, the parents of Anne Lindbergh, were in Rugby,
England. After wandering through the streets they realized that they had
lost their way. At this moment an incident occurred that entered into
Morrow's philosophy and became a guiding principle in his life. He stopped a
little Rugby lad of about 12 years. "Could you tell us the way to the
station?" he asked. "Well," the boy answered, "You turn to
the right there by the grocer's shop and then take the second street to the
left. That will bring you to a place where four streets meet. And then, sir,
you had better inquire again."
"This answer
came to symbolize for Dwight Morrow his own method of approaching complicated
problems," writes Harold Nicolson in his excellent biography. "It
implied in the first place a realistic skepticism regarding the capacity of
human intelligence. It was in the second place an object lesson in the
inevitability of gradualness. And in the third place, it was a parable of how,
when the ultimate end is uncertain, one should endeavor to advance, if only a
little way, in the correct, rather than the incorrect direction."── Bits and Pieces,
December 1991, p. 14.
Writing about God's
sure guidance, British pastor Frank W. Boreham recounted a time when a minister
visited his home in New Zealand. Being young and inexperienced, Boreham
sought the counsel of his guest. He said that one morning they were sitting on
the veranda, looking out over the golden plains to the purple sunlit mountains.
He asked the minister, "Can a man be sure that in the hour of perplexity
he will be rightly led by God? Can he feel secure against making a false
step?" "I am certain of it," exclaimed the minister, "if he
will but give God time! As long as you live, remember that. Give God
time!" ── Tim LaHaye, How to Study
the Bible for Yourself, Harvest House, pp. 95-96.
When God bolts the
door, don't try to get in through the window. The will of God never will
lead you where the grace of God cannot keep you.── Source
Unknown.
As the golfer
approached the first tee, a hazardous hole with a green surrounded by water, he
debated if he should use his new golf ball. Deciding that the hole was too
treacherous, he pulled out an old ball and placed it on the tee. Just then he
heard a voice from above say loudly: "Use the new ball!"
Frightened, he replaced the old ball with the new one and approached the tee.
Now the voice from above
shouted: "Take a practice swing!" With this, the golfer stepped
backward and took a swing. Feeling more confident, he approached the tee
when the voice again rang out: "Use the old ball!"
The will of God, nothing
more, nothing less, nothing else.── Source
Unknown.
A lady once asked
John Wesley if he knew that he would die at midnight the next day, how would he
spend the intervening time. He replied, "Why, madam, just as I intend to
spend it now. I would preach this evening at Gloucester, and again at five
tomorrow morning; after that I would ride to Tewkesbury, preach in the
afternoon, and meet the societies in the evening. I would then go to Martin's
house...talk and pray with the family as usual, retire myself to my room at 10
o'clock, commend myself to my Heavenly Father, lie down to rest, and wake up in
glory."── Today in the Word, March 1989, p. 40.
Once while Francis
of Assisi was hoeing his garden, he was asked, "What would you do if you
were suddenly told you would die at sunset today?" He replied, "I
would finish hoeing my garden." ── Moody
Monthly, April, 1990, p. 76.
Walter Knight told
of an old Scottish woman who went from home to home across the countryside
selling thread, buttons, and shoestrings. When she came to an unmarked
crossroad, she would toss a stick into the air and go in the direction the
stick pointed when it landed.
One day, however,
she was seen tossing the stick up several times. "Why do you toss the
stick more than once?" someone asked. "Because," replied the
woman, "it keeps pointing to the left, and I want to take the road on the
right." She then dutifully kept throwing the stick into the air until it
pointed the way she wanted to go! ── Today
in the Word, May, 1989.
A bishop of a
century ago pronounced from his pulpit and in the periodical he edited that
heavier-than-air flight was both impossible and contrary to the will of God.
Oh, the irony that Bishop Wright had two sons, Orville and Wilbur! Wright was
wrong. Sure of himself, but wrong.
── Robert
P. Dugan, Jr., Winning the New Civil War, Page 38.
Do not hastily
ascribe things to God. Do not easily suppose dreams, voices, impressions,
visions or revelations to be from God. They may be from Him. They may be from
nature. They may be from the Devil.── J.K.
Johnston, John Wesley Why Christians Sin, Discovery House, 1992, p. 102.
If we want God to
guide us, our attitude needs to be right. Here are some guidelines as to how we
can play our part in arriving at right decisions.
First, we must be
willing to think. It is false piety, super-supernaturalism of an unhealthy
pernicious sort that demands inward impressions with no rational base, and
declines to heed the constant biblical summons to consider. God made us
thinking beings, and he guides our minds as we think things out in his
presence.
Second, we must be
willing to think ahead and weigh the long-term consequences of alternative
courses of action. Often we can only see what is wise and right, and what is
foolish and wrong, as we dwell on the long-term issues.
Third, we must be
willing to take advice. It is a sign of conceit and immaturity to dispense with
taking advice in major decisions. There are always people who know the Bible,
human nature, and our own gifts and limitations better than we do, and even if
we cannot finally accept their advice, nothing but good will come to us from
carefully weighing what they say.
Fourth, we must be
willing to be ruthlessly honest with ourselves. We must suspect ourselves: ask
ourselves why we feel a particular course of action will be right and make
ourselves give reasons.
Fifth, we must be
willing to wait. "Wait on the Lord" is a constant refrain in the
Psalms and it is a necessary word, for the Lord often keeps us waiting. When in
doubt, do nothing, but continue to wait on God. ── James Packer, Your Father Loves You,
Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986, Page 13.
The whole counsel of
God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man's salvation, faith
and life is either expressly set down in Scripture or by good and necessary
consequence may be deduced from Scripture, unto which nothing at anytime is to
be added whether by new revelations of the Spirit or traditions of man. ── From the Westminster Confession of Faith.
God's will for us is:
I. Sanctification is God's
will for us
A. Avoiding sexual immorality and impurity is God's will
for us - I Thessalonians 4:1-8
B. Wise living is God's will for us - Ephesians 5:15-21
C. Non-conformation, transformation, and renewal are
God's will for us - Romans 12:1-2
D. Continual rejoicing, ceaseless prayer, and constant
thanksgiving are God's will for us - I Thessalonians 5:16-18
II. Security is God's will
for us - John 6:38-40
III. Service is God's will
for us - Ephesians 6:5-9; I Peter 5:2
IV. Suffering is God's
will for us - I Peter 3:17; I Peter 4:19
── Source
unknown