God does not require us to understand His will, just obey it, even if it seems unreasonable

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NLT) – “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.”

Today we’re looking at the topic of obeying the will of God. Next week Nancy Penton will be teaching us on, “If necessary, God will move heaven and earth to show us His will.” I want to start with a humorous article from Lark News (an online comedy website satirizing contemporary American Christian culture):

Man, 91, dies waiting for will of God

TUPELO — Walter Houston, described by family members as a devoted Christian, died Monday after waiting 70 years for God to give him clear direction about what to do with his life.

“He hung around the house and prayed a lot, but just never got that confirmation,” his wife Ruby said. “Sometimes he thought he heard God’s voice, but then he wouldn’t be sure, and he’d start the process all over again.” Houston, she says, never really figured out what his life was about, but felt content to pray continuously about what he might do for the Lord. Whenever he was about to take action, he would pull back “because he didn’t want to disappoint God or go against him in any way,” Ruby says. “He was very sensitive to always remain in God’s will. That was primary to him.”

Friends say they liked Walter though he seemed not to capitalize on his talents . . .

This wouldn’t be so funny if it didn’t have an element of truth in it! Most of the time, we really do know what God wants us to do, we just don’t want to do it. As Mark Twain remarked, “It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.”

Andrew Murray says in “Your Will Be Done,” that “the Glory and the Blessedness of Heaven consists of nothing less than this; that God’s will is done there, in and by all – their whole being is surrendered in submission and adoration.” As we do God’s will, we are ushering in the rule and reign of Christ, the already / not-yet-fully-here Kingdom of God.

“God does not require us to understand His will . . .”

What is the Will of God?

Here are a few incomplete thoughts on a very large topic that we could spend the rest of our lives studying. To put it very simply, by definition, God’s will is that which He wants, that which He desires. Jesus said in Matthew 22:37-40 (NLT) – “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

God has already given us His general will, starting with His command to love. God also has specific desires and specific plans for each one of us. In Old Testament times, leaders such as Moses were given the job of letting people know about God’s will. But God has given us Himself, the Holy Spirit, who enables us to walk obediently before God.

John 14:26 (NLT) – “But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.”

1. God’s will is something that we can know

Romans 12:2 (NLT) – “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

In addition to the two greatest commandments, here are some of the things associated with God’s will in the New Testament:

• 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NLT) – “Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.”
• 1 Thessalonians 4:3 (NLT) – “God’s will is for you to be holy”
• 1 Peter 2:15 (NASB) – “For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.”
• 1 Peter 4:19 (NIV) – “So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.”
• 2 Corinthians 8:5 (NIV) – “And they [the Macedonian churches] did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God’s will.”

2. God’s will is something that we can want to do

John 7:17 (NLT) – Jesus said . . . “Anyone who wants to do the will of God will know whether my teaching is from God or is merely my own.”

3. God’s will is something that we can do

Mark 3:35 (NLT) – Jesus said . . . “Anyone who does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

Hebrews 10:36 (NASB) – “For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.”

4. God’s will is His best offer to us

Romans 15:32 (NLT) – “Then, by the will of God, I will be able to come to you with a joyful heart, and we will be an encouragement to each other.”

The Greek word commonly used in the NT for “will” is thélēma, which refers to a desire (wish), often referring to God’s “preferred-will,” i.e. His “best-offer” to people which can be accepted or rejected.

“God does not require us to understand His will, just obey it . . .”

Obedience

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia says that in its simpler Old Testament meaning the word “obedience” signifies “to hear,” “to listen.” It carries with it the ethical significance of hearing with reverence for God and obedient assent. Obedience is the supreme test of faith in God. In prophetic utterances, future blessing and prosperity were conditioned upon obedience: Isaiah 1:19-20 (NLT) – “If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.”

In the New Testament the importance of obedience is just as greatly emphasized. Jesus Christ Himself is its one great illustration of obedience. Philippians 2:5-8 (NLT) – “You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.” Paul mentions how we are able to obey God in Romans 1:5 (NIV), “Through him and for his name’s sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.”

“God does not require us to understand His will, just obey it, even if it seems unreasonable”

But what if God’s will seems unreasonable?

Scripture and history are full of examples of God’s will seeming quite unreasonable. Consider what God told Joshua to do in capturing the city of Jericho. Since when is blowing trumpets and shouting considered a reasonable military strategy? Consider Joan of Arc. I recently saw a brilliant depiction of her in the masterpiece silent French film made in 1928, The Passion of Joan of Arc. She unreasonably told the authorities that God had spoken to her. Joan said that she had visions from God that instructed her to recover her homeland from English domination late in the Hundred Years’ War. She was illiterate, uneducated, young, female, untrained in battle. And yet she believed that God’s will for her was to lead the French army into victory. When she was captured by the Burgundians and exchanged for money to the British, she wound up being put on trial and after 15 intense interrogations, was burned at the stake for heresy. At just 19 years of age, she had already learned to listen to God. She chose the path of humble obedience to God’s will and didn’t give in to the harsh and intimidating voices of her accusers, even though that likely seemed more reasonable.

Dr. Stanley says that God’s command does not always make sense, but He has another purpose in mind, which is to teach us to always keep our eyes on Him instead of our circumstances.

I’d like to share three stories from my own life in which God’s will seemed pretty unreasonable.

Scenario #1: My first professional job after graduating with a Bachelor of Scones, B.Sc. (Hons), i.e. a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science was with a small software firm that had two divisions. 38 of the 40 employees were in one division; my division consisted of Dave, an antisocial genius, and me. After a couple of years, we expanded and hired a new employee, Jeff, whose goal in life seemed to be to harass Christians (who were few and far between, around 3% of the population). As soon as Jeff discovered that I was “one of them”, he made it his daily habit to accuse, condemn, harass, criticize, blast, literally shaking his finger in my face. This was conveniently timed whenever Dave was at a client site. It quickly became unbearable emotionally and spiritually oppressive. I cried out to the Lord – “Help! Get me out of here!”

What God said: God made it clear that He wanted me to stay and learn some things – love, faithfulness, spiritual warfare. The Lord showed me that if I quit, He would give me further opportunities to learn the things He wanted me to learn.

What seemed unreasonable: It was so hard! One day I poured my heart out to my worship team during a meeting, and the leader said, “wait, is this guy about 5 foot 6, thick glasses, reddish hair, beard, . . .” Turns out Jeff went every Friday night to one of our street outreaches to harass the team! I didn’t get any encouragement there, but at that point realized the battle was serious.

The outcome: I don’t pretend to know the total outcome, but I decided that obeying God was the best option, and I’m grateful God gave me the grace to do that. I ended up staying for two more years in that job. Jeff and I became good friends; I am still looking for him online, in the hopes that in some way I might continue to influence Him towards Christ. God expanded my heart in love. God taught me a valuable lesson in faithfulness, to not make rash or presumptuous decisions based on circumstances but to ask Him what to do and trust that He knows best. I learned how to pray with authority and noticed that Jeff’s outward behavior and speech changed every time I resisted or rebuked the enemy (under my breath!). I learned to distinguish between demonic influence and a person created in the image of God in need of the Savior Jesus Christ!

Scenario #2: Around the time Paul and I were engaged, we had our first conversation about wanting to adopt children “one day.” To be honest, it was Paul’s desire first because my heart was not yet at that point very soft towards the idea of having children at all. But that’s another story. Many years later, God had already blessed us with three amazing sons and it was while I was pregnant with number four that God spoke very clearly to my heart. He had already given us Cascade Grace’s name (that’s another story!) over a year before, in miraculous circumstances. This time I had a clear sense that God was going to bless us with twin daughters and their names were to be Karis Peace and Esther Joy. I shared this with Paul immediately, and he did what any wise person would do when their pregnant wife, soon to have 4 children under the age of 6, shares such revelation – he treasured these things in his heart. Three full years later, Paul said God had put something on his heart.

What God said: Paul said he felt like God was saying it was time for us to move forward with adopting our twin daughters.

What seemed unreasonable: We were by that time 36 years old (too old to adopt from some parts of the world). We had four children already (too many to be allowed to adopt in other parts of the world). We would need to come up with a lot of finances. Many adoption agencies that we contacted told us that it was unrealistic to set our hopes on adopting twin girls, as there simply weren’t very many.

The outcome: We knew what God had spoken, we waited on His timing, and then moved confidently forward. As soon as we felt like God said, “Go!” we took a bold step of faith by emailing everyone we knew, announcing our intentions to adopt the twin girls we knew God had for us (and shared their names). We gathered a team of prayer warriors and encouragers around us, and although we listened politely to all feedback, we filtered everything according to what we believed was God’s will for us. We encountered a lot of negative and discouraging talk, advice, criticism, etc. But God opened doors in the most amazing way, leading us very clearly and specifically to our daughters. He actually opened up two parallel pathways that both lead to them. When we found out retrospectively that both of the adoption agencies on our short list ended up leading to our Esther and Karis in a most surprising way, it strengthened our faith so much. Although we didn’t realize it at the time, when Paul said he felt it was time to move forward, our girls had been born just two weeks earlier in Bucharest, Romania. God is always faithful to bring forth His purposes in our lives and lovingly and gently guides us when our hearts are set on radically obeying Him as best we know how. Those who journeyed closely with us testified that this was one of the most amazing experiences of watching God move, guide, and provide they had ever seen up close. God provided everything we needed – faith, wisdom, finances, courage, perseverance, many confirmations, and best of all, our precious girls.

Scenario #3: Cascade is going to India in a couple of weeks’ time.

What God said: As far back as I can remember, Cascade has wanted to be a missionary. She will tell you that living in Russia was life-changing for her in so many ways, including giving her an increased desire to “go” into all the earth to welcome the rule and reign of Jesus Christ. She lives a life of readiness and trust that God will open doors at the right time. When Cascade was invited to go to India, Paul, Cascade, and I prayed and all sensed God saying a resounding “yes!”

What seemed unreasonable: Cascade is 15 years old. She is female. She is beautiful. She is going literally half way around the world without Paul or me. This trip is in the middle of major dance and drama commitments. It’s expensive.

The outcome: We trust and hope that whatever happens, the Lord is greatly glorified! We agree wholeheartedly with the words attributed to William Carey – “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God!” We are willing to give up our most precious treasures, like the comfort of having our children nearby, if following Jesus requires any or all of us to go somewhere else. God has already poured out abundant provision, encouragement, prayer support, and we can’t wait to see what else He does!

Obedience to God’s will is a call to discipleship

Luke 9:23 (NIV) – “Then he said to them all: ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.’”

I want to borrow from “The Complete Book of Discipleship: on being and making followers of Christ” by Bill Hull, part of the “Navigator’s Reference Library.” The call to discipleship includes

a. The urge to follow Jesus

If we don’t feel an urge to follow and become like Jesus, something’s wrong – perhaps we have never repented and turned to Christ in the first place, or perhaps we’ve been misled and thought of discipleship as optional. When we hear Jesus say, “Follow me” in some way, and the urge to obey rises up in us, then we can be assured that God is at work.

b. The call to the life

When Jesus calls us to follow Him, my whole life is the answer to His call. He calls and I answer, not just in words, but in the action of following in obedience. George MacDonald said, “Instead of asking yourself whether you believe or not, ask yourself whether you have this day done one thing because he said, ‘Do it,’ or once abstained because he said, ‘Do not do it.’ It is simply absurd to say you believe, or even want to believe in him, if you do not do anything he tells you.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “Only those who are obedient believe and only those who believe are obedient. Faith is only real in obedience.”

Jesus calls us to live differently – to step out of where we are and step into the life he provided for us on the cross and planned for us in eternity past. The operative word is “follow” – by saying this, Jesus defined faith. Faith goes much deeper than just believing that Jesus is the Christ; the proof of faith is following Him. If Jesus calls us to follow him, he must be our leader. We should be distressed when we realize that in the big C Church, Jesus has largely disappeared as leader. Christ is all! Do we live as though believing that? We acknowledge him, but do we treat Jesus Christ as our leader? A fundamental aspect of obedience is submitting to His leadership.

c. Anyone can and should

The word “if” in Luke 9:23 leaves room for doubt. It’s a decision that God leaves for us to make. “If anyone” indicates that each of us must individually make the choice to follow Jesus. Yes, there’s a sense in which that decision is made at the point of repentance and salvation, but the word “daily” indicates that we also make this decision to follow Him every day and at crucial times in our lives. When we choose to follow Jesus, we’re choosing to give up the right to run our own life. We could choose to follow our hearts, our dreams, our gifts, our personality profiles, our ministries . . . but all these are inferior to following Jesus.

We can let Jesus define what “normal” is. Radical obedience is not for a select few super-saints, the ones we read books about, the ones who get special honors or titles or awards. Jesus calls each of us to follow him. Why would we choose anything else.

d. Self-denial is essential

We all admire self-denial in others, but we seem to detest it in ourselves. But that’s because we misunderstand what Jesus asks for and what he doesn’t ask for.

Alexander MacLaren said, “Any asceticism is a great deal more to men’s taste than abandoning self. They would rather stick hooks in their backs and do the swinging poojah than give up their sins and yield up their wills.”

There is a passage in a well-known 16 century book of spiritual exercises . . . in which it is recommended to open a window in foul weather to identify with the sufferings of Jesus. But C. S. Lewis has a great perspective on this kind of thing: “There’s no way one should throw out a good bottle of Port and the cigars! We don’t need to suffer without purpose. When Jesus said, ‘he must deny himself,’ he was asking for something very specific.”

God’s desire is that we say no to self in order to say yes to Him. When my will conflicts with His will, self-denial makes following His will possible. It’s not inherently virtuous to deny myself for my own sake. Jesus wants me to deny myself my rights – the right to be in charge of my own life, the right to a good reputation, the right to immediate vindication, the right to treat people the way we would want to treat them, the right to control my future.

Obeying God includes giving up control of the timing and method of our actions, submitting our emotions, dreams, visions, and breakthrough ideas to God’s leadership and deny ourselves the right to run our own lives.

e. Take up your mission

How many of us live with this perpetual question, “Lord, what do you want me to do; what’s my mission?” This causes so much angst in so many of us because we want the full answer before we’re willing to walk the path of obedience. Following Jesus is somewhat like a treasure hunt where we learn about Him and about our mission. When we wait at the entrance to the path of obedience for full instructions before we start walking, we can never find our mission, because that knowledge is found only along the way, as we go.

We know our mission by following Jesus. Nancy will talk more on this next week!

Let me paint for you a picture that has helped me follow Jesus with greater confidence. God has targets in mind for us to hit. As we put our faith and trust in Him, He enables us to hit the targets even if in the natural realm His will seems unreasonable. It’s the very act of our obedience through faith that enables us to hit the targets. In the Chronicles of Narnia, Father Christmas gives Susan a special gift. “‘Susan, Eve’s Daughter,’ said Father Christmas. ‘These are for you,’ and he handed her a bow and a quiver full of arrows and a little ivory horn. ‘. . . the bow . . . does not easily miss. And when you put this horn to your lips and blow it, then, wherever you are, I think help of some kind will come to you.’”

God has given us each a bow that does not easily miss. How He delights when we seek to do His will, when we ask Him to show us what to do, and then attempt great things for God and expect great things from Him! When our hearts are fully surrendered to Him, He enables us to shoot arrows that do not easily miss. Whenever we call on Him, He gives us just the help we need, whether guidance, wisdom, courage, strength, instruction, or any of His other blessings. Obedience exercises our faith, making it stronger. Our goal isn’t to understand God’s will; our goal is to step forward in obedience and faith, which means doing what God says, when He says it, how He says it should be done, until what He says is accomplished – regardless of whether we understand the reasons for it or not.

Let’s close with a song that can lead us right into a time of praying together – Lord, we surrender our wills and our rights to You and ask for Your help to live lives of simple obedience to You even if Your will seems unreasonable. We don’t want to be reasonable demagogues; we want to be radical disciples of Jesus Christ, for the glory of Your name!  Amen!

I Will Trust You

In my weakness would you come
help me stand up, help me run
to the shadow of Your wings
and the comfort that it brings

And I’ll wait and be still
and I’ll know You are God,
You are God!
I will love You and adore You!
I will trust You, God!

I will sing in times of trouble.
I will trust You, God!