Category: Knowing God's Will

A Lot to Learn in 2016, part 2 - Decisions

1/18/2016

A Lot to learn in 2016 part 2 - Decisions

Lot looked around and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan toward Zoar was well watered, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) 11 So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company: 12 Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom. 13 Now the people of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord. Genesis 13:10-13

Lot had a problem. He did not have his own walk with the Lord. Abraham interacted with God - both hearing and speaking to Him - and Lot just followed Abraham. There is a problem with this kind of living. Eventually you will have to walk on your own. What will happen then? How will you know, follow, and experience an interactive relationship with God? What will counteract your heart - which according to Scripture is deceitful and wicked. This was Lot’s problem - and as we will see in this part of, “A Lot to Learn in 2016,” it does not go well for those who follow in Lot’s steps.

Abraham and his nephew Lot were both in the business of raising livestock. When you prosper in this endeavor you will eventually have problems - and they did. Their herdsmen began go quarrel over pasture land. Rather than have a growing enmity between their servants, Abraham proposed that they separate from each other so that enough pasture land would be available for their herds. This was the moment where Lot would have to make his own decisions - and the first one is indicative of a man who does not know how to follow God himself - but who relies on other people to hear God for him.

Abram offers him any of the land that was before them. Lot got first choice. What he chose was the land near Sodom and Gomorrah. He chooses a place where the people were wicked and sinning greatly against the Lord. He chose on the basis of what "he" saw. Scripture says that he looked and saw that this land was “like the land of Egypt” and therefore he chose it. In Scripture, Egypt is not considered a good place to be. In addition to this - we also learn from the passage that the place Lot chooses is “near” Sodom. The problem here is that we also learn that the men of Sodom were considered “wicked exceedingly and sinners against Jehovah.” Lot’s first choice was to live by what his eyes saw and what his selfish desires wanted. He didn’t consider that by doing this he was moving closer and closer to sin. He did not consider that he would be taking his family into a place where there would no longer be Abraham’s godly influence - but the influence of exceedingly wicked sinners.

Lot moved his tents as far as Sodom. The phrase used here in Hebrew means he moved “near” Sodom. There was enough in Lot to know he shouldn’t go into Sodom - so he did the next best thing - he moved near it. Here is a lesson we need to learn from Lot. What you move toward in your life - is likely what you are going to become. Having followed a godly man (Abraham) Lot now was going to have as his strongest influence, ungodly, exceedingly wicked men. If Lot had his own relationship with God he may have done this to influence those men - but we know that what he saw was their prosperity - and the “good life” and place they lived. There is going to be more - much more to this in our next installment. But . . . before we go there let’s consider something in our journey together. There is a “Lot” to learn even at this point.

What drives your decisions in life? If our decisions are made with what we see with our eyes as our primary information - we will wind up in a mess. If we are seeking “the good life” as defined by the world around us - we will once again wind up in a mess. If we joyfully grab first choice in things (and don’t consider others better than ourselves - Philippians 2:1-3) and want first place - we will surely wind up in a mess. Lot’s decisions were driven by the (1) Lust of his eyes; (2) the lust of his flesh; and (3) the boastful pride of life. By the way, these three things are all defined as sin and worldliness in 1 John 2:15-17. Lot made a choice that increased the worldliness in his life - and then deceived himself by thinking that only by moving “near” sin he would be fine. These kind of choices don’t bring blessing - except in the immediate gratification of our fleshly lusts. The long-term results of these kind of decisions - are disastrous in our lives. Let me state this positively though - so you will have something to do on when making decisions.

First - make decisions by wisdom, which is defined as seeing life from God’s perspective. We look at things through His Word, His Spirit, and the wisdom that comes from spiritual sight. Don’t just seek an answer - seek Him and ask Him to give you His eternal perspective on your choices. Second - make decisions in light of long-term (honestly - eternal) joy and delight. Ask yourself, what is going to last? What is going to be an eternal blessing? What will benefit me spiritually - so that I can take it with me when I leave this world? Lastly, make decisions that move away from sin - not toward it. Consider the sins of your past - and the sins God wants to deliver you from in life. Don’t move toward those things - and especially don’t think you can get nearer to them without them influencing you. If God wants you to minister to someone or minister somewhere that is one thing - because that doesn’t move you closer to sin - it moves you closer to sinners - but only for God’s purposes of leading them to Christ and influencing them for godliness and the gospel. A parallel question to this might be, “Am I moving toward influencing others - or being influenced by them?” You can move toward sinners or sinful situations if the first is true - your seeking TO influence them. But if you are going to BE INFLUENCED - you need to move toward godliness and be sure that their influence brings you closer to God.

May God help us to make good, godly decisions. May we be wise and seek and desire His perspective in all things. May we be seeking eternal benefit in life rather than a quick fix high. And may we truly learn from Lot in this situation (as well as in any we face this year) that there are much better ways of decision making than the ones he chose.

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A "Lot" to Learn in 2016, part 1

1/6/2016

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"Genesis 12:4 - So Abram went forth as the LORD had spoken to him; and Lot went with him.
One man heard and knew intimacy with God and one did not. One man walked with God and one man did not. One man knew an amazing level of blessing in his life and one did not. One man experienced immediate satisfaction of his desires and one did not. One man was directed by himself and his wants and one was not. One man eventually lost just about everything in his life and one did not. One man had a legacy of godly descendants and one did not. Such is the history of Abram and Lot. And if you will pardon the pun - there is a "Lot" we can learn in 2016 from this man , Lot, and his choices. I hope you will join me for several posts as we seek to learn a "Lot" that will benefit us in this coming year.

This passage begins with a man who walked with God and responded to Him when God initiated in his life. Abram was a man drawn, led, and blessed by the grace of God. God started this relationship - and Abram followed as he gave himself to God and the plans He had for him. He "went forth as the LORD had spoken to him." God spoke to Abram and he immediately obeyed and went with the LORD. Abram was not a picture of perfect obedience - but rather of a man who entered into a relationship with God and embraced submission to God's will. Whether it led to immediate obedience or at times to an eventual obedience colored with discipline on the edges, Abram 's desire was to hear God and go forth in a direction led by Him.

Lot's introduction is that he was a man who "went with Abram." What we see in Lot is that he was willing to tag along with the man of God - but he himself was not walking with the Lord. Thus, there was a measure of blessing because of his nearness to a man who was following God. The problem though was that Lot was not building his own walk with the Lord - and eventually the abundance of our heart is going to be expressed in our lifestyle and our choices. Please understand that the blessing of following God is that you get God - not that you get blessed. You do get blessed, but even that is tempered by the reality that your blessing is what God considers as blessing - not what you want at the time. Lot was along for the ride with Abram, but what would happen if a situation arose where he no longer was around him? That is actually what we will learn before these articles are over.

So . . . how goes it with you? I know many who have little or no relationship with God in their lives. They either have a man or woman of God whom they tag along with in life - or they are living off the spirituality of their teachers - whether they be a pastor, a Sunday School or Community Group teacher - or even a favorite radio or TV preacher or podcast. Will they be blessed - yes, in a measure, but what happens when that influence is no longer around? What happens when more and more the manifest state of their heart or inner man is expressed through their life? How much of life is truly us "following" the Lord, hearing Him and and going where He leads - and how much is that I've either heard or seen a man of God hear from God and I come along for the ride.
Lord, help us to have a genuine experience with You this year. Please deliver us from Lot's error, and just tag along with others who have genuinely walked with You and sought You. We want to experience You ourselves - and walk and teach as one who has an intimate knowledge of the God of Whom we speak.

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The Need to Strongly Will the Will of God, part 3 - Free to Choose God's Will

6/23/2014

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May the Lord bless you this week and help you to know that because you are in Christ, you are free to make a choice to strongly will the will of God.

This week I am going to address a couple of things on a theological level. That is because it is important for us to understand what is true of us because we are saved. Something glorious happened to us – on the level of our will – when we came to know Jesus Christ. Something marvelous happened when we came to life spiritually. When we did, by the grace of God, there was a freedom given to us on the level of our wills. Let’s talk about this today.

Before God saved us we were bound in our sin. Ephesians 2 tell us that we were dead in our trespasses and sins – we were being driven and controlled by the spirit that is active in the sons of disobedience. The fact is that we did not have a will free to make whatever choices we wanted. We were bound in sin and our choices would be consistent with the world system, our own flesh, and the devil. Until God’s grace came to us by God’s wonderful mercies, we could not choose God’s way.

Then came the wonderful day when God drew us to Himself – and we were saved. On that wonderful day we were not only forgiven of sin – given the righteousness of Christ as a gift – born from above with God’s very life now within us - but one other glorious thing happened as well. We were set free from sin’s bondage and could begin to make choices to do God’s will. What a glorious day it was when we were set free to choose the things of God!

We can now choose to do the will of God. That was not true of us before – because of our bondage to sin. But now we are free to follow the Lord. Read this wonderful statement in Romans 6:12-14 about this truth. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

Look at what Paul says here in Romans 6. First, we need to see what he says lastly in these verses. He says that sin is no longer your master because you are now under grace. Two things to remember here. The first is that at one time sin was your master. You couldn’t do these things Paul was commanding you because you were not free. You had a master – and your master was sin. BUT . . . now you have been set free to make choices to tell sin to get lost. You can tell sin that it will not be reigning in your body – and using the members of your body as instruments of unrighteousness. This is astounding news!

The second thing to note in this Roman’s passage is the number of times Paul is giving “strong commands” for the believer to make “strong choices.” He is saying for them to make some strong stands as they make strong choices.

“Stop letting sin reign in your body!”

“Stop obeying the strong desires of sin!”

“Stop presenting your members to sin!”

“Stop being an instrument of unrighteousness!”

“Start giving yourself to God as one alive from the dead!”

“Start giving your members to God!”

“Start being an instrument of righteousness!”

Seven strong commands are given – and Paul (and God who is inspiring Him to write this) is expecting believers to obey them. This means that we CAN obey them now. That is implicit in the commands themselves.

But what I truly want you to get here is how powerful Paul’s statements are! He is not saying things like, “If you feel like it today – you might want to give it your best shot – you know to maybe give yourself to God.” He is almost like a spiritual drill sergeant snapping out these commands. Stop doing this! Start doing this! Give yourself to God – give your members to God – be in instrument of righteousness! If anything, this passage alone should show us that God desires for us to STRONGLY CHOOSE these things. This is not an exercise for the weak willed or the weak minded. We are to make very bold choices – not based on our own strength – but based on the facts of what has happened to us because of God’s grace in the gospel.

Next week I’ll say more on these commands in Romans 6, but for now I want to admonish you based on what we’ve seen today. Where are you today? If you are not willing to make strong choices for God’s will – you are going to be in trouble. The trouble you will face is from you not being willing to “put your foot down” when it comes to sin – self – Satan – and this present world system. If you are unwilling to say, “NO – NOT TODAY! I AM NOT GOING TO GIVE MY BODY TO SIN! I AM NOT GOING TO CHOOSE TO DISOBEY GOD! I GIVE MYSELF TO HIM! I AM GOING TO PLEASE HIM AND BE AN INSTRUMENT OF WHAT IS RIGHT – NOT OF WHAT IS WRONG! GOD, BY YOUR GRACE I WILL STAND UP – I WILL TAKE UP YOUR CROSS AND FOLLOW YOU! If you are unwilling to use your will to will the will of God – you will flounder, falter, and unfortunately fall. You truly have a choice! But, God will not make it for you! He has freed you to be able to make it! He has empowered you to be able to make it! He has and will give you spiritual wisdom and knowledge to know what to do! But, in the end, He calls you to obey – to choose – and if there is going to be victory and the experience of overcoming sin – YOU MUST CHOOSE! Choose precious saints of God! Choose His will – choose His way – and choose to rely on Him totally to empower you as you make it. Truly, there is no other way.

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The Need to Strongly Will the Will of God, part 2 - Knowing and Doing

6/23/2014

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Last week we examined what it means to act with our wills – choosing to do the will of God in our daily lives. God gives us all that we need to do His will as believers, but He will not absolve us of making the choice to do so. So the question naturally results from this – how do we get into a place where we will choose God’s will on a more consistent basis. (The truth is that we want to get to where we choose nothing other than His will – but this article takes into account that we are in the process of sanctification in the nitty gritty of every day life).

     One of the major problems we have in consistently choosing the will of God is that often we do not know what His will is. Ignorance is never a good argument for disobedience – especially when God has given us His Word as well as His Spirit, Who teaches that Word to us. This is why Paul prayed for the Colossians after they came to know the Lord. His prayer is a reminder to us of the kind of things we need if we are going to consistently choose God’s will over the world’s ways or our own flesh. Let’s take a look at this prayer in Colossians 1:9-12.

     “For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.” (Colossians 1:9-12, NASB)

     The first thing Paul prays for these new believers is that they would be “filled with the knowledge of His will.” Therefore the first thing we learn about knowing and doing the will of God is that it is not natural. The Fall has resulted in us being blinded and incapable of knowing God’s will on our own. If we are going to walk in God’s will – and indeed “will” to do God’s will – we will need for God to teach us and reveal to us what His will is.

The second thing we learn about choosing God’s will is that it requires “spiritual wisdom and understanding.” Again, this is not something that we learn like we would learn Math or Science. We need the Holy Spirit to open the Scriptures to us in such a way that we end up with “spiritual wisdom.” This phrase refers to the way we view the world around us. We begin to see things as God sees them. Until we do this we don’t have wisdom and will more than likely walk in foolishness consistently. (It may be helpful to know that foolishness here refers to any conduct where we are walking outside of God’s will or contrary to what God desires in our lives.) Whereas spiritual wisdom refers to seeing things as God sees them, spiritual understanding refers to grasping what we see in a way that we begin to comprehend concepts and relationships between things. But the word used here has a highly practical meaning as well. We not only get things in our heads – but we begin to get the skills necessary to walk out mental concepts as lifestyle choices.

     This kind of information comes to us from God as we read, study, memorize, and meditate on His Word. Without God’s revelation (written word) and illumination (Holy Spirit instruction) we are blind to truth. Some will balk at this, but in doing so they only reveal that they still have issues with pride and the self-life. It would be wise for us to be reminded of several passages of Scripture in this regard. God tells us in twice in Proverbs, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” (Proverbs 14:12 and 16:25) We also read in 1 Corinthians 1:20-21, “Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.”

     The world’s wisdom will not do the will of God for its wisdom is opposed to Him. This teaches us an important truth. If all we are getting is the world’s information sources each day, we will not walk in God’s will. In order to choose His will consistently in our lives, we MUST have a regular input of His spiritual wisdom as well as His spiritual understanding. Humility is required to do this. We MUST admit that we don’t have these things – and that they only come as we seek God for them.

     As we close this week’s look at walking in the will of God, we need to answer a very simple question. The question is this: “Are we filling our minds and hearts with the kind of information that will lead to us knowing God’s will?” If our lives are filled far more with the world’s wisdom – we will walk in worldly ways. We will not have the information we need to walk godly – choosing God’s will over our own fleshly wisdom and the wisdom of the world. We will find ourselves far more convinced of the world’s take on things, which will subsequently move us far more consistently with actions and a lifestyle that agrees with the world and disagrees with God. If we are going to be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, we will have to be filled with His will, His thoughts, His reasoning, and His plan of action. Anything else will result in us choosing the same foolishness the world has always chosen – and missing out on the blessing of walking in the will of God.

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Articles

A Lot to Learn in 2016, part 2 - Decisions

A "Lot" to Learn in 2016, part 1

The Need to Strongly Will the Will of God, part 3 - Free to Choose God's Will

The Need to Strongly Will the Will of God, part 2 - Knowing and Doing

Biblical Articles

Categories

​Articles

A Lot to Learn in 2016, part 2 - Decisions﻿

A "Lot" to Learn in 2016, part 1

The Need to Strongly Will the Will of God, part 3 - Free to Choose God's Will

The Need to Strongly Will the Will of God, part 2 - Knowing and Doing

Biblical Articles

Categories

Articles

A Lot to Learn in 2016, part 2 - Decisions