His Will or Your Own?

The devil convinced Eve that God was not on her side, that His one rule to not touch the tree was keeping her from something good.

In our day he is convincing "Christians" that we don't have to follow the principles of the Bible. They think they can choose what they obey in the Word and that if they wish they can even twist it to make it say what they desire to believe.

The Christian churches are full of those who enjoy fantasy thinking. If they like something they find scripture to manipulate and claim their favored idea is Biblical.

John 14:14-15 "14 If you ask Me for anything in My name, I will do it. 15 If you love Me, you will keep My commandments."

Many Pentecostals use the 14th verse in John 14 to justify saying they are promised whatever they want. As long as they want it and ask for it they will get it, it does not even have to be God's will. It can even be disobedience to God and still be blessed by Him.

But notice the next verse, the 15th which clearly states the condition for receiving what we ask for, that is, "if you love me you WILL keep my commandments."

John 14:21

"Whoever has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him."

God does not reveal Himself to those who are rebellious and disobedient. He gives the desires of the believer to them when their desires line up with His will.

John 14:23

"Jesus replied, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him."

There is no question here, if we do not love God more than we love ourselves He will not answer our prayers. The only prayer He will answer to the disobedient person is the prayer of sorrow over sin to be cleansed by Him. For the unbeliever, the only prayer God will answer is the prayer of repentance to be changed into a new creation by Him.

You see, it's all about Him, our only response is to obey Him. We must empty ourselves of self-will but it only can be done if Christ intervenes because we want Him to change us.

2 John 1:6

"And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the very commandment you have heard from the beginning, that you must walk in love."

So then, how do we love God? By keeping His commandments is the answer. How do we love others? The same answer applies here too, that we keep His commandments.

1 John 2:6

"Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked."

1 Corinthians 11:1

"Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ."

Ephesians 2:10

"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

Romans 12:1–2

"12 I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind…"

Does it say in any of these verses to demand from Him what you want and He has to give it to you? NO, they do say that we are to conform to Him and then our desires will be His will.

John 3:30

"30 He must increase, but I must decrease.”

The goal for the born-again believer ought to be to become more like Christ, learning the lessons He has for us so that we can more fully serve Him.

What a joy and pleasure life is when we are in the center of God's will for us.

How silly it is to think we know better about our lives than Christ Who created us. Just like children who think they should be allowed to eat candy all day long and not be sick, we often have expectations of God that is not His will.

Submit to God, seek His heart and His will, and then we will become close to Him, more useful for His kingdom.