God's Will?

It’s funny, typically speaking, I don’t hear a lot about God’s will from other believers except in times of prayer or in times of crisis. My family is entering a season of uncertainty, as I will be without a job at the end of next week. As different potential directions or jobs are presented, people will pray that God will open a door in a certain direction or provide a certain job, if it is His will. Is this the correct way for us to pray? Do we not know God’s will? Scripture mentions God’s will in relation to what it is for our lives on only five different occasions in the New Testament. Here, according to scripture is God’s will for our lives:
1. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. (Romans 12:2)
2. It is God’s will that you should be sanctified, that you should avoid sexual immorality, that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. (I Thessalonians 4:3-4)
3. Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. (I Thessalonians 5:16-17)
4. For this is God’s will, that by doing good, you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. (I Peter 2:15)
5. It is better to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. (I Peter 3:17)
There you have it; plain and simple. God’s will isn’t tied to some job, house, city, occupation, or other decisions we make on direction. Rather, we can accomplish God’s will in any place or situation in life. This is the free will piece. God is Sovereign. Therefore, He can accomplish his will through our lives regardless of the choices we make. The only time he can’t, is when we choose not to do the above five things. The even cooler part is that he grants us grace in these five areas, because there is no way for us in our flesh to accomplish these all the time. This should be freeing! I can be a player for God no matter where I am, for he is sovereign.
So, what does God’s sovereignty have to do with me and accomplishing his will? Well, I think a lot. Knowing that God is in control and that he wants us to be players in what he is doing should motivate us to action. The Bible mentions God’s sovereignty 289 times. Amazing is the fact that 209 of those are in Ezekiel alone. Thus, if you want to truly dig into God’s sovereignty that might be a book to camp in for a little while. Along with that interesting fact is that God’s sovereignty is only mentioned five times in the New Testament and only once in a prayer, where a group of men get it, at least a little bit. In Acts 4, Peter and John are brought before the council to be ordered not to speak about Jesus again. This great scene unfolds, where Peter boldly tells them what they have done. In other words, he has begun to connect the dots. He realizes that everything was a part of God’s plan. Jesus was supposed to be captured and crucified. God used men who were against him to accomplish his plans and purposes. Peter and John are starting to realize this and instead of praying, Lord get me out of this situation, deliver me from jail, they realize that may not be what God wants. So, beginning in verse 23, we see a group of believers who almost don’t know what to pray. They begin the prayer with Lord, you are sovereign. They recognize more deeply than ever before that God is in control. His plans can’t be thwarted by the schemes of evil men. They start to understand that God desires to use them to accomplish his purposes and plans on this earth. If God is in control and wanting to use us, then nothing is by accident or throws God off. Nothing can thwart what he wants to accomplish through us. As we begin to see this and understand it more clearly, we realize that a tough circumstance, like losing a job, might be exactly what God wants for us. Even things that men mean for evil, he can turn into good for our behalf. So, with this realization, what did they pray?
After acknowledging all that God has done, including a quick recap of creation and how he used Pilate and Herod to accomplish his plan of salvation and reconciliation, they get to the point in the prayer where they ask for something. Lord, enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Have you ever prayed that prayer? Not God, bless me; God change my situation; God I need your protection. Rather, Lord help me to proclaim the Good News without fear. Oh, that we could get to this kind of praying in the Church today. The prayer ends with Lord, stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your Holy servant Jesus. So, you might ask, what was God’s answer to their prayer? The place where they were meeting was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they began to speak the word of God boldly. In other words, God answered their prayers immediately, on the spot. I don’t know, but maybe instead of praying for God’s will, we should start praying for boldness in proclaiming the word of God, the God’s will could begin to be accomplished in our world.