Which Will Will It Be?

Concerning God's will, we all have a lot of problems. We have a hard time determining what God's will is, or we might doubt God's will for us, we may deny God's will for us, or we may know what God's will is for us. But we all know that we have struggled with this area, of knowing what God wants us to do. But I believe that God has given us some basic principles for knowing what He wants us to do. Remember I am not saying that these are steps for knowing God's will, also I am not God so I could be wrong in my ideas. But from the word of God I see these principles in determining the will of God for us.

I would like to start with the clear area of God's will for us. Many of us don't notice but God has told us general areas of His will for us in the Word. So I will just post these concerning the will of God...

1 Thessalonians 5:14-22 ESV  (14)  And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.  (15)  See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.  (16)  Rejoice always,  (17)  pray without ceasing,  (18)  give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.  (19)  Do not quench the Spirit.  (20)  Do not despise prophecies,  (21)  but test everything; hold fast what is good.  (22)  Abstain from every form of evil.

 I believe that verse 18 can refer to this whole section.

1 Thessalonians 4:1-6 ESV  (1)  Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more.  (2)  For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.  (3)  For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;  (4)  that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor,  (5)  not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;  (6)  that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you.

1 Peter 2:12-17 ESV  Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.  (13)  Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme,  (14)  or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.  (15)  For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.  (16)  Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.  (17)  Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

2 Peter 3:9 ESV  The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

These are a few verses that tell us a general area of God's will. We can see the picture that God generally wants us to be holy. There are other verses that tell us about the will of God, and I challenge you to look them up and find them yourselves :P I don't need to do all the work.

So we know about these areas. God wants us to be holy, but how do we determine the more precise areas? Does God want me in this job? Or does He want me on the mission field? Does God want me to give money to missions? Or does He want me to save? Should I marry this person? Or does God have someone else? Does God want me in the ministry? Or does He want me to support the ministers? We all have questions like this. And we all have probably come to the point where we say, "Well if God wants me to do this, it will just happen." Now I believe this 100%, God's will will be done in our lives. But I don't believe that this is the way God wants us to do things. So I want to share a few principles that I see in the word of God, to knowing God's will.

I want to start with this,

Romans 12:2 GNB  Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God---what is good and is pleasing to him and is perfect.

Do not conform yourself. I like this version as it really paints a good picture. Do not conform to the world's standards. Do not conform your thinking to the natural standards of what is good, or what is bad. But instead let God inwardly change you. God makes us spiritually minded people. Galatians 5:25 GW  If we live by our spiritual nature, then our lives need to conform to our spiritual nature. Or in another version Galatians 5:25 ESV  If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. We are spiritually minded people, we need to conform to this spiritual side. How does the world make decisions? They base decisions on a few things, money, circumstances, and feelings. These are natural things, they are not spiritual things. I would like to use Job as an example.


By the world's standards, Job was doing everything right. All his circumstances were good. He had a good, loving family, he had growing wealth, and he had good health. Everything was going good for Job. He had all the money he needed. He also was at constant peace, happiness, and comfort. Job according to the world had made all the right decisions. But what happened to Job? As we all know God allowed Satan to take all this away. Bad circumstances came, he lost his money, and any comfort he had was gone. But Job was spiritually minded. He realized that God could give and take away. But Job's circumstances only got worse and worse. His wife told him to curse God and his friends called him a wretched sinner. But Job knew that God was in control. Job had these things right. Job knew that all good things came from God, and that God gives and takes away. He knew that God would not allow circumstances, whether good or bad, that were apart from His will to happen. Then the second thing, is that Job stuck to the truth he knew. Job did not curse God and die because he knew that God was in control of his life. He knew that God did not do anything wrong. Job 8:3 " Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right?"

So for us; when determining the will of God, we need to not focus on circumstances. When we have a good job, and we are praying about quitting to perhaps leave the ministry. We cannot take the first bad day of work as a sign from God to quit. We must also though not take a pay raise as a reason to stay. God wants us to be wise about what we are doing, but sometimes He calls us to do some peculiar things. But don't immediately think that if circumstances don't line up it is not the will of God, and vice versa. Don't assume because all the circumstances line up that it is the will of God. Circumstances are still a natural thing, and we are spiritual people. If God wants us to give us circumstances to watch for He will tell us. John 15:15 ESV "No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you." Do not take circumstances as an answer from God unless God Himself has told you through the word, or through His Spirit.


The second thing is money. Never take the lack of money, or the abundance of it as an object for the will of God. This may not concern money, but the principle behind it is the same. But Gideon had an army of 32,000 men. Gideon was confident in this army, and was ready for battle. But God told him no, and gave Gideon instructions that anyone who was fearful to go home, so 22,000 men left. So Gideon now only has 10,000 men. This was over half of army now gone. But God said this was still too many people. So he told Gideon to bring the people to the water, and whoever drank like dog was set aside, and whoever drank by kneeling were set aside. Now those who drank like a dog were numbered 300 men. This is a mere fraction compared to his original number. But this was the number that God told him to go out against the entire army of the nation of Midian. But God used 300 men to defeat well over 10,000 men. Now if Gideon had decided, "32,000 men is plenty." and went out to battle. He would have been out of the will of God. But God provided 32,000 men? In a nation that was hardly able to pull itself together? Wasn't this clearly the will of God? He gave Gideon these men, all the funds were provided. This wasn't the will of God for Gideon to have this many men. God wanted the glory in the situation and Israel would not glorify God in this situation. So God lowered the number. Sometimes we think that God provided all the money for us, and that we are in the will of God. We still need to pray about what to do, and seek God in the matter. Of course His provision can be seen as a sign, but don't assume that it is an immediate sign until you've prayed on the matter, and searched His word. Also do not assume that lack of funds are a sign against the will of God. Gideon had 300 men. This is not enough men to make one legion of men. Gideon did not have the proper amount of men to go into battle. And he is not making a small choice here, these are these men's lives. But he knew that God would provide victory. Do not assume that a lack of funds means that God does not want you to do something. Have faith in Him that He will provide. Unless of course He leads you against that through prayer, His Spirit's guiding, and His Word.

Then the last thing, feelings. Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that our hearts are deceitfully wicked and that we cannot know it. We cannot trust our feelings. We are very fickle, and our feelings change all the time. We all know that this is true. A movie, good story teller, or a book can do this to us easily. Imagine this with me.

Glass breaks. An alarm goes off. The lights in a nearby jewelry store go on. One problem, this is your store. Two burglars are seen standing in the building dumbfounded by the sudden alarm. They begin to scoop up handfuls of any jewelry they can grab.  They frantically scramble dropping precious stones all over the floor. As you run to the store you see a third man jump into the building. He ignores all the scattered jewels, and punches one of the burglars. The first burglar is done for the count. He quickly spins around and puts a kick into the other burglars head and his lights were put out. The man just saved your shop from these two burglars. But you notice something suddenly, he grabs the bags that they had and runs off with them, and most of your jewelry.

 Now its really not a great example, as there are many other better story tellers than I. But at first I bet you would have been glad for this unknown hero. But in the end I am sure that your mind changed about him. But we can really see how our feelings change. In countless movies a hero turns and we suddenly hate them, or a villain will become the hero, and we are instantly changed with all our thoughts. We cannot trust our feelings. They change too much. But what we can trust is God who never changes.

So how then do we know the will of God. All I really told you was what to watch out for. Don't base your choices on circumstances, good or bad. Don't base them on money, the provision of it, or the lack of it. Don't base it on your feelings or you feel good or feel bad about something. Instead we know the will of God in this way.

One, by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2) When our minds are not based on natural things, but on spiritual things we can know the will of God. How do we renew our minds though? We can't... Sorry... But God can.

Ezekiel 36:26-27 ESV  And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  (27)  And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

God will take care of these things for us. He will cause us to walk in His statutes, and He will make us careful to obey His rules. I want to make this clear. God's will is not determined by a formula. It is not found by praying for 10 hours on the subject, fasting for 3 days, and reading at least two books of the Bible. It is not found by talking to your pastor and asking your friends what they think. Finding the will of God is based on one thing and one thing alone.

John 15:15 ESV  No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

Knowing the will of God is having a friendship with Jesus Christ. Literally it is being best friends with Jesus. Be best friends with Christ. Think to your best friend and how you treat them, how you spend time with them, how you enjoy hanging out with them, and all those things... This is what Jesus wants, and He will make His will clear to us while we are hanging out with Him.

But please, don't base your choices on natural things, circumstances, money, and feelings. But let your friendship with Christ be what gives you the answer. Through prayer (talking to God), through worship (hanging out), through His word (God talking to you), and through just time in devotion (more hangout time). If Christ is your best friend, then He will tell you His will.

My Brain

Is a pile of mush... With being sick and all this work... haha... I am officially turned my brain into a pile of dead easily amused pile of mush.

Kaze...

Sick... Wagh... haha

Pray for Japan

I am sure everyone has heard about what happened. Please pray for Japan as things are really bad up north. Check any news site they will have more info.

We are fine here.

My Thoughts... ATM (At the Moment)

Praise God from whom all blessings flow...
Praise Him all creatures here below.
Praise Him above, ye heavenly hosts
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Amen!


I have no time, but this is my thoughts in condensed soup version

Update!

Not Really!... I am too busy to write anything significant right now...

Why Jesus?

So I have never gotten this question before, and I don't know why... I kinda figure it is because no one wants to ask me this. But I know that this is a very important thing to talk about... So please take the time to read.

Why Jesus? Why on earth follow Christianity? How do you know its real? What if it is all fake? And similar questions are pretty simple to answer... I am going to break this blog post into a few sections... Not really sure as I am writing this on the go... So if you are curious on any of these subjects than I would recommend reading to know my opinion.

So I am going to start in a dark corner of my mind, my intellect. I don't use this very often, but it is one of the things that drew me to Christianity. Most people think that Christianity is a blind faith, destroyed by science, and cannot conform to reason. I can say to the contrary. Christianity is backed by more than enough science, history, and reason.

I will start with science. In this section I am going to compare and contrast, science of the ancient world, to science of the Bible. For clarity I will be stating the ancient scientific belief, and then I will compare what the Bible says.

How was the world held up?

Ancient civilizations believed that the earth was held up by giant animals, by the hand of their gods, or by some object larger than ourselves. Greek mythology said that it was the god Atlas that held the earth on his shoulders, Hindus believed it was carried by giant elephants.

What does the Bible say? Job 26:7 tells us that the earth is held on nothing. This was written during the time of Abraham, when every scientific mind said some greater being held the earth up. But 2 Peter 1:21 tells us that no prophecy, none come from the will of man, but from God. Job told us that the earth just floats in empty space, an idea that was not accepted in the realm of science at its time.


A Flat Earth or a Round One?

Which one was it? Well up until around Colombus' time I remember that you could still fall off the edge of the world. So until about the 1500's the earth was still considered by the scientific world to be flat. I think falling off the edge of the world would be an interesting sensation...

But what does the Bible tell us? Isaiah 40:22 tells us that the earth is a circle. Now you might say, but the earth is a sphere, not a circle. Proverbs 8:27 tells us that God drew a circle around the earth. Some translations call it the Horizon, but the Hebrew word is chuwg meaning a complete circle, a circuit, it holds the idea of a completely round sphere. The shape achieved from using a compass. If memory serves me well, which it never does, there is no Hebrew word for a sphere, they used circle to refer to round objects. So the Bible tells us that the earth is round, thousands of years before it was fact.


How Many Stars Are There?

So what did ancient people believe? I cannot find proof for this, but I have read this somewhere. I apologize that I cannot find this so you are completely entitled to throw this one out. But ancient astronomers believed that there were anywhere from 900-1100 stars in the night sky. How they came up with this number, I could not find I apologize. I am 100% sure though that they had a number for the stars.

But the Bible tells us something interesting though, that the stars are uncountable Hebrews 11:12. Today we have a guesstimate of the stars, but we cannot be sure how many they are. Another interesting fact in Hebrews 11:12 is that God tells us that the number of stars, and the amount of sand on the earth are innumerable. We are put in a light that these two numbers are equal. Currently the estimated number of stars are 10 to the 22nd power. That is 10 with 22 zeroes behind it. That's a lot of stars. Now what is guesstimate of grains of sand? 75 with 17 zeros following. I dunno, I think they are pretty close, considering they are both guesses. The Bible told us that both of these things are innumerable, so we will never know, but with our guessing they are pretty close, as the Bible makes us think.

So one last scientific fact (I have much more but only so much patience)


What is on the bottom of the ocean?

Up until about the 1900's did people believe that the ocean was smooth and flat on the bottom. The common belief was that the ocean had taken the wear and tear of time, and went about completely flat. But around the 1900's it was discovered that the ocean had mountains, and valleys. Surprise Surprise!

Psalms 18:15 tells us that the ocean has valleys, channels, ravines, whatever you want to call them... They were there. Jonah 2:6 tells us that Jonah fell to the roots of the mountains. Or Jonah came to the base of the mountains. But Jonah was in the middle of the ocean? There mountains in the middle of the ocean? The Bible clearly tells us that the ocean has mountains and valleys inside it.

There are plenty plenty plenty more facts... And if you would like to know more, you can ask on my formspring button on the side, cause it never gets used haha... But really, anything ask me there. Don't think the Flood could happen, I can show you science to show you it did.

But I need to move on the next section of the intellect, and that is reason.


Reason

The Bible is unreasonable you may say, God makes no sense... Yeah sometimes it can be. But that is because we are trying to think about something and someone who is much bigger than us.

So first, how do we know God exists?

Easy easy easy... Read those facts haha.... How can anyone declare these as truth with no evidence at all, when everyone was against them? How could David say that there are valleys on the bottom of the ocean when he has never been there? These are just one evidence of many though.

Lets use logic. Lets say I have an amazing yellow car in my driveway. You look at it with awe, cause it is that awesome.... And you ask me, "What company made this car?" And I reply, "Well... No one actually, it just kinda grew there... Like I was looking at my driveway one day and then a week later it was there." You would probably think I am crazy... It would probably happen more like this... "What company made this car?" and I would reply, "Chevrolet!" And you would know... There is a car there is maker. Same thing with a building... There's a building there... So duh! There was a builder haha... It didn't pop up like a shroom. Art has an artist... So creation had a creator. It is common sense.


But how do we know that He is still around? How do we know that He is the god of the Bible?

Common sense... If I guess the lottery numbers without fail for 30 years in a row... You would immediately know that either I know the boss, or I knew the numbers. You would by no means say, "Oh those were all lucky guesses." Its not possible. So how is it that the prophecies in the Bible have come true, 100% accurate? Never once has the Bible been wrong, and the prophecies are specific. We have prophecies that even tell how events will happen. Jesus told us that the temple would be destroyed and not one stone would be on top of each other. This happened, all the stones were knocked down, and even broken to pieces so that not a stone was standing. The book of Daniel tells us that Babylon would be captured by the Medes and Persians, they would be conquered by Greece, and they would be conquered by Rome. Years before this happened.

http://100prophecies.org/

Here is a site with just some of the prophecies that came true. But prophecy shows us that God is real. There is no way that man can correctly predict events years upon years like this.

Need more reason?

We have the testimony of the Bible. With having correct scientific facts, tons of prophecy that have come true and are coming true, and not contradicting itself once, we can see that it has special light to it. But we see the change of men like Moses. Moses was unwilling to do the work of God, but something obviously changed him to do the work. Paul went from killing Christians to becoming one, something happened to this man where he changed. Peter went from denying Christ to dying for Christ. All the disciples went through so much misery for the Gospel. A weak belief does not drive men to these limits. Some huge event had to change these guys. They did not change for no reason. All these men experienced God, and it changed them. Their testimony and experience shows us, that something happened, they met someone. We have many conversations that they had with God, and their change gives us clear evidence that God did speak.

In conclusion,

We have clear science and reason to back up the Bible, but this is not the biggest evidence. I believe that the biggest evidence is the testimony of others. I can see all the scientific evidence, the historical evidence, the fulfilled prophecies, the prophecies around me. But the experience of people today really show me a lot.

When someone like Brian "Head" Welch, a member of Korn changes, it has to say something. Do you think that a guy like that jumped out blindly into a religion? A man like Lee Strobel author of A Case for Christ, was a genius of a man who collected all the evidence and came to the conclusion that God is the only way. He was originally a journalist and a determined atheist. A man like that does not just change for nothing.

Here is why I believe the Bible, Christ, and God.

I can see that there are supernatural aspects of the Bible, in prophecy, science, history, and reason. So if the supernatural exists and we exist there must be a creator. If the Bible is the only religious book with supernatural aspects it must be the only one.  And the Bible tells me this. Something my conscience has fouhgt with me for a long time.

But the Bible tells me, it tells us that we are all sinners.

When we try to stand up to the Law of God we fail.

The law of God is the Ten Commandments,

We have all lied,
We have all hated someone (Murder in your heart),
We all have lusted after someone (adultery in your heart)
We all have disrespected our parents

And these are just four of the commandments.

We in God's eyes are lying, murderous, adulterers, who are rebellious.

This is a problem, but we are told that there is a way to have this debt payed.

That is to believe in Jesus. To trust in Him, and repent.

The Bible tells us all this, and if you honestly look at the things above it is clear that this book the Bible is not any other book. This is something to take serious. Please consider all of this.

Feel free to contact me also if you need prayer, or have questions.