ROM 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Before we begin to figure God’s will, first we should quickly take a look at His character, or nature for want of a better word. Why? Well to answer that, first allow me to ask you a question; why do you want to know God’s will...could it be so you can then please Him by being in it? I suspect so, and that is a very good reason to want to know His will. So how can we please Him if we don’t know what He likes? To know what God likes, we find the answer in His nature. Now we know by the word in the bible that His nature includes love, mercy, grace, righteousness, truth, justice, long suffering, patience, and wisdom. From His nature, it is now super easy to know His will by simply analysing each attribute and then emulate them. Remember we are made in Gods image, so His nature can be ours through the precious blood of Jesus. We are encouraged to be Christ like, and in doing so are of course in His will.

3Jo 1:11 Beloved, imitate not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: he that doeth evil hath not seen God. Lets start with the number one characteristic of our Father:

Love

The very best example of love I can unearth is discipline. My first wife once said to me; “I want to give our kids everything I can because as a child I had nothing”. This seemed a loving thing to do at the time and I agreed, but later I pondered my own extremely poor upbringing and soon realized it was an advantage to have been raised this way. I was a better person for it, so I decided to raise my kids the same way (to my first wife’s disenchantment). I used the discipline factor to a tee as I had a good teacher in my mother, and so the kids turned out pretty good. The rod was not spared either.

Once a family came around for dinner one night and their kids were running riot destroying everything in their wake. My kids were well behaved as usual, so the father of the family commented to my wife how well behaved our kids were and wished his were the same. Later that evening, my seven year old daughter was influenced by their children into doing something bad, so I was forced to smack her in front of them and send her to bed. Well, you should have seen the other parents get stuck into me, calling me an animal and such, for smacking that poor little innocent baby. In one instance he was praising my kid’s good behaviour, and in the next he was condemning me for using discipline. . Do you see it now? Yes, he simply did not love his children enough to care about their future. I happen to know that their daughter got pregnant very young, and the son was on drugs at thirteen.

God loves us too much to let us do what we want, so that is why He chastises us when we seek the wrong path. Many times I have seen people that have had a calamity in there life (including myself) look to the heavens with arms raised asking; “why me?” As if they didn’t deserve what they received in punishment. Do you think I enjoyed making my little girl cry in pain? Do you think God enjoys seeing us suffer? Of course He doesn’t, but in His wisdom He knows it is the only way us selfish people will learn. Well some do anyway. And He loves us enough to sincerely want us to learn His perfect will, so much so that He suffered crucifixion to give us another chance to know Him. So to love as He loves, we need to sacrifice also to be in His will. God knows only too well that sometimes we need to be cruel (as it seems) to be kind.

The fact that God would send His only Son who was perfect and without fault, to suffer the cross for ALL people, that they might be forgiven and turn to Him, is the perfect testimony of true love. John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. This is a template for all mankind...to deny self, and give over to those who are less fortunate...to walk a mile in their shoes, that we may understand the sufferings of others and be charitable.

Mercy, I believe, is next in line. We all know very well that we do not deserve the grace of God because of our self centeredness and iniquity, but our Father knows our hearts and will draw us to Him by and through His mercy. It’s a life changing experience to be given life when we know we deserved death. Picture this; you come home to find a thief who has ransacked your house, killed your family and is heading off with all your wealth. You overpower him and are so angry and hurt with grief, that you hold a gun to his head and threaten to kill him. He pleads for mercy as he knows he deserves to loose his life for his crimes, but suddenly you put the gun away and let him go. What would be the reaction of this murderer? Either he will be so grateful as to kiss the feet of his captor, or he will hop it out of there as fast as he can run. Either way it will be a life changing experience for him if he is human, as he has experienced mercy undeserved. This is the same mercy that our Father in heaven presents to us, and it would please Him if we would be the same to others. God not only forgives, but he forgets as well if we repent. It is God’s will that we forgive others as He has forgiven us.

Grace is close behind mercy, for without mercy all God’s gifts are far from us because of our sin. Grace is received from God only after repentance with a sincere heart and we remain in grace so long as we remain repentant. Heb 10:26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, Grace is best put; gifts freely given by God such as miracles, healing and such, but most of all is God’s forgiving mercy. A total act of kindness in the fullest. God’s grace has always shown favour to the down trodden and meek because He feels sad and sorry for them, so to be in His will we need to show this same grace to them that need uplifting. It’s hard sometimes to recognize those in need as we hurry through our days minding our own business, but to take a moment to step into the shoes of others, can reveal their true suffering and thus seeing their needs. An act of kindness can go a long way in winning God’s favour and keeping one in His will. If the Holy Spirit is with you, it will come naturally. Mt 10:8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.

Righteousness comes next and to me it is the corner stone of heaven. Without it, there is no hope. Only God is good as the bible tells us, but that doesn’t let us off the hook boys and girls. It is what our Father has built heaven and earth upon and is unshakeable. Righteousness needs to be taken seriously if salvation is an issue with you. Jesus is the righteous one without blame, and if we are to take up our cross and follow/imitate Him, then it should be our will as well as Gods will. If we do indeed have the Holy Spirit within, then it will be guiding us in paths of righteousness anyway, in such a way that we can not help but follow. It will be convicting us of anything that is unpleasing in the sight of God. This is a “must be” situation for ALL professing Christians and should not need explanation, but be assured that if you are not seeking righteousness, then Christ does not abide in you. Eph 6:14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; Please pray that Jesus will keep you in righteousness. It is God’s will that you remain so.

Truth is important simply because without it, we remain in chains. All truth comes from God and all lies come from Satan, so to be freed from the chains of the evil one we must ALWAYS seek truth. Only our Father in heaven is true to His word. He cannot lie. Can God tell even a little lie, a white lie? Never! It would completely go against the law that He created the universe by. Do you think God WANTED to come in the flesh and suffer crucifixion on the cross for our sins? Of course He didn’t, but He had to because He is a true God. He could of easily just changed the rules He had made in the beginning and poof!...we are all saved, but no, He is a God of truth and had to do it legally by paying for our salvation. And that He did my friends, even to the letter of the very law He created. One truth that I personally hold dear, and that is that our Father is the same God now, as He always has been and ever will be. He changes not. If we hold this truth in our hearts we will have no problem at all knowing His true will for us. John 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. We are to seek truth till we die in the flesh, that we will be assured of God’s will and not cause our brother fall. Mt 18:6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Many today are preaching false doctrines and telling their gullible followers that it is the only way. By doing this they are in serious danger of this millstone that our Lord Jesus speaks of. God will allow us to believe whatever we want to believe, but there is only ONE truth. It is God’s will that you be in it. Amen!

Justice is my favorite quality of God. There are many sayings that come to mind like; live by the sword die by the sword and reap what you sow, but in simple terms they all mean “what goes around comes around”. This is speaking of God’s justice, not mans, and what a wonderful and perfect justice it is. I just love justice so much that I pleasure in it. It fills my heart with so much joy and satisfaction that I can’t explain fully. Ga 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. It is a great way to learn the meaning of life. Justice alone can point us in the right direction if we are open minded and awake, and believe it is of God. 2Co 9:6 But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. If we can believe the justice of God is indeed just, then we can build our life around that word alone. It will lead into every other nook and cranny of our Fathers Character, and show us the truth without doubt about the will of God. God is super just, and to be close to Him we need to live our lives accordingly that we may indeed be in His mighty will. Sometimes we see bad things happen and ask God why this happens, but we can be too blind or too hasty to see it for ourselves. Let me give an example. Suppose we know of a greedy man who decides he will use his talents to rip off the elderly and sick. We see it happen all the time, right? Now this guy seems to be getting away with it while you seem to be doing it hard in the factory chain. It infuriates you because you know this guy is mean and cruel to the bone, but no justice seems to be in place here. Well the fact is that God can see this guy’s heart of greed and not interfere until he builds a fortune out of his un-couth practices, and then He will hit him where it hurts… his greedy heart. What is more hurtful to a greedy man…loosing a few grand, or loosing a few million? Yea, you got it now, right? This justice has been so severe that it has led some greedy men to suicide. Now I am not saying I get satisfaction out of such a penalty, but I do get great satisfaction from the justice in it. The root cause of the world’s problems might be greed, but justice comes in a close second. Real justice is virtually non existent in mans laws, but nobody can stop God’s justice with rip off lawyers. Praise Him in the highest.

Longsuffering is sadly a nature of God that should not be needed, but because He loves us so much, He suffers so much for our sins, not only the pain and suffering of the cross, but the continual sadness that is in God’s heart because of what man seeks to destroy through his greed and lust. Our Father has to stand by and watch while we drag humankind down to the pits of hell, and there is nothing He can do about it except offer pardon to those who will turn to Him. Nu 14:18 The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. For us longsuffering includes many things, but I would like to emphasize “overcoming” as the most important, because God’s desire is for all to become righteous through our Lord Jesus. Paul said we are made righteous through Jesus, and this is true of course, but there is no magical power that transforms us, it’s through believing on the name of Him, and repenting and overcoming the sin in our lives, which is also called longsuffering, to the glory of the Lord who can show us the way. Col 3:12 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;

Patience in God is shown in His longsuffering as well. How many times did He forgive the Israelites before sending His wrath upon them? All through the Old Testament God has shown unbelievable patience with His people in the hope they would turn back to Him. Ro 15:5 Now the God of patience and of comfort grant you to be of the same mind one with another according to Christ Jesus: So to please God and be in His will we need not to be quick to action or anger, but in patience we have a much better chance of reaching our goals of salvation, such as overcoming and being a beacon for our Lord Jesus Christ. Heb 10:36 For ye have need of patience, that, having done the will of God, ye may receive the promise. Taking up our own cross requires patience, that in turn manifests endurance that will keep us in His mighty will till the end. Heb 12:1 Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Patience will also allow us to be still and listen to what our Father has to say to us, guiding and leading us in His will, that we may be sure in our own minds of the truth and direction that is laid before us. Impatience will, according to ‘Murphy’s law’, cause us to take the wrong turn nine times out of ten.

Wisdom from God is the greatest of all gifts I believe as it opens doors to all other characteristics of Him. It is something not attained by works or age, but rather totally given of God. We already know that our creator God is all wise by merely opening our eyes to see His creation, so I won’t go into the hundreds of scriptures that show this to be, but we should rejoice the fact that He is. He is I Am, the alpha and omega who was before creation, and will be the one who finally closes the last page of the history of creation itself. 1Ki 10:8 Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, that stand continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom. To be able to receive this gift, first one must already be in His will. All the study in the world cannot give you wisdom, that will only give you knowledge, and one must be wise in order to use that knowledge to its full potential. The fact that Solomon was the wisest of all and still managed to go to hell, is testimony that we will never know all things, only God knows that, so stay humble and receive from God the guidance you need reach heaven.

God’s will is clear in the bible (His word), and on our hearts, and that is for all to overcome the sin and bad tendencies in our lives, and have reverence for Him, and to desire righteousness. REV 2:7 {He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.} and REV 3:12 {Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, [which is] new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and [I will write upon him] my new name.} Now on our own, this is impossible because there is no motive for us to be clean, and why should we anyway if it is normal and accepted to be unclean according to the ways of man. Huh? What are you talking about you say. Well it’s normal and accepted to be gay, have sex before marriage, not to discipline our children and teach them sex while they are still only babies, read pornographic magazines and movies, sun bake topless on the beach, get drunk, gamble, and so the list goes on. Now these things might be normal for society, but they are NOT normal or ACCEPTED by God. I can boldly inform you there is no place in heaven for any of these things. I mean can you imagine you are in heaven and Jesus walks by while you are sitting in your favourite chair reading your favourite porn magazine. Get the point? We are dirty and stained in sin, and that is unpleasing to God, so in order for the Father God to look upon us He gave us as a free gift, the blood of Jesus to wash it away, but we need to remain clean or sinless or at least be seen to be trying, otherwise He cannot give to us what we need to know Him. In other words, God desires us to overcome our sins and walk in paths of righteousness that is pleasing to Him, so that He can indeed make us part of the place he has prepared for the faithful. This place will be a perfect place, so there will be no room for the unclean.

The bible is full of the will of God, but below are a few versus I found that concrete the importance of knowing God’s will for us.

1JO 2:17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever

1TH 4:3 For this is the will of God, [even] your sanctification that ye should abstain from fornication:

HEB 10:36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

1THess 4:1 Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort [you] by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, [so] ye would abound more and more.

And 1thessalonians 4:2 through 8....

1TH 4:2 For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.

1THess 4:3 For this is the will of God, [even] your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:

1THess 4:4 That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;

1THess 4:5 Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles, which know not God:

1THess4:6 That no [man] go beyond and defraud his brother in [any] matter: because that the Lord [is] the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.

1THess 4:7 For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. (Righteousness)

1THess 4:8 He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.

Well now you know the core of God’s will, and that is to overcome iniquity and walk in paths of righteousness, but how is it possible to overcome all sin that is so pleasing to our flesh. Well you cant on your own; that would be like climbing Mt Everest in your birthday suit with no ropes or tackle or guide. Impossible agree? But with Jesus as your guide (holy spirit), and a pure heart (sincerity) as your clothes, and the word of God (Bible) as your ropes and tackle, it IS POSSIBLE. Jesus said it, I believe it, and we all can do it! Depending how stained you are at the time of asking Jesus into your life, will depend on how hard it will be. Hard yes, but not impossible, with the right amount of tackle and ropes, it is achievable if your heart sincerely desires the pure and clean holy presence of the Father God who will indeed reveal hidden secrets to those who succeed. The deeper the stain…the more washing it will take, but with the Father God all is possible. MAT 19:26 But Jesus beheld [them], and said unto them, {With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.} Jesus tells us to; {Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.} MAT 5:48. And He also said; {If thou wilt be perfect, go [and] sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come [and] follow me.} MAT 19:21 Gods will is for us to overcome and be perfect. We are stained in sin, true, but when Jesus came into our lives He washed it all away and gave us another chance to make good by turning away from all the evil things we used to do, and lust after the good things of God instead, that we might be in His favour and please Him. In other words, God washed away all our past sins, ‘poof’ all gone, but now that we believe in Him, we are to behave accordingly by doing what He asks of us…repent and sin no more.

To desire to be righteous means, “to love righteousness”, hunger and thirst for it. In other words, you are in total agreement that righteousness is the best way, and that’s what you want for yourself to make you a better person. To be righteous just to please God in order to get to heaven, is the wrong attitude as this would leave your natural bad tendencies inside your heart ready to raise their ugly heads whenever the opportunity presented itself, but to desire and be righteous because you actually love goodness for what it is and what it stands for, allows you to put those bad tendencies out of your heart where it will be much harder for them to show themselves. (Be sure to understand this) The reward for being righteous is three fold: Firstly it pleases God so He will bless you for it. Secondly it makes you a better person which in turn will give you a higher esteem and self-love, and thirdly people will like and respect you because of the goodness that radiates from you, and they will also want some of that for themselves. Who knows, some may come to God just because they saw good in you. A word of warning though; do it in total submission to God and humility, otherwise you will hold too high an opinion of yourself that will lead to pride and separation from God. The reward for a pure heart is the strength and guidance that is needed to overcome, and the reward for overcoming is wisdom, knowledge, understanding, and revelation from God.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to be in the will of God while born again as a Christ follower. After all, His will is perfect and if we are in it He has to be pleased with us, but only by having a pure heart can we know His perfect will. Sure, we can know some of His will like; believe in Jesus, help the poor, don’t be cruel, don’t get drunk, love thy neighbour, etc, but to know all God’s will is very very hard for us because of our nature, but a good starting point is to have a pure heart for the truth and love of God. This put simply means; BE SINCERE in your faith! Don’t just be a crowd pleaser looking for self-glory, to be lifted up by men, and respected by men, but instead be a God pleaser, to be lifted up by God and blessed by God. EPH 6:6 Not with eye service, as men pleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; To receive revelation one must be in God’s will, working hard to the Glory of Him, and bearing the fruit of ones faith in total humility and submission, otherwise any revelation you think you have, is of the devil…NOT GOD!

About now is probably the best time to introduce you to the devil, you know, the one who gets all the blame for our weaknesses and our bad decisions. First let me ask you a question: There are two people, one walking in the perfect will of God, and the other professing Jesus but not in God’s will. Now, which one is the devil going to attack first? Ok, think music is finished. The answer of course is the one in God’s will, for the devil already has the other guy for the time being, so he can wait. . He is the one to who the devil will say, “hey dude, are you trying to get to heaven by good works”, or “ don’t you know according to Paul the apostle we are dead to the law, commandments and good works, why are you trying so hard to please God ”. Some will say it’s by grace through faith, not works that you are saved and there is no need for the other entire God given will, or instructions in the word of the bible, and this is true to a point only, but it is this very same faith (if sincere) that actually will convict you of sin and cause you to hunger and thirst for righteousness, that will bring you home in the finish. They will even go as far to say that this is baby milk stuff when it is actually them who are still splashing around in the milk, and because they are having so much fun, they cant see the truth when they fall over it. The reason they say this is not because of the word of God, but in their inability to sacrifice worldly things for the sake of Godly things; things that will build treasures in heaven. So this devil will only attack at full strength, the ones trying to walk in God’s true will by doing good works, or repenting, or overcoming sin, and walk right on by, the ones who think life was meant to be easy. For the devil knows only too well they will be…”spewed out of the mouth of Jesus Christ”. That devil Satan grins when he sees these people.

Blessed is he who searches the scriptures and the spirit for truth and understanding of God’s will, for he will indeed be given it, and he will grow out of his old clothes and put on new ones that will be pleasing to God. And that my friend is the bottom line as far as heaven is concerned, for if you think you can get by outside of the will of God, then go ahead and make your own end, and let God make the end for those who want to please Him. As I said earlier, the will of God is plastered all throughout the bible, so don’t make one verse in it your home, but instead make every word that was given of Him your home. Wear the words of Jesus like a robe all your life, and obey it, and one day He will change the colour to pure white, and you will be rulers with Him over nations. Remember this, it is the truth that sets you free not just a part of it, because even the devil has that. Amen!

When Jesus said..."many will come in my name"...He didn't mean a few did He? If He meant a few he would have said a few, but no, He said MANY will come. And was He right? Well according to mainstream belief He could not be right. 99% of believers believe that grace lasts forever even without repenting...and it is preached by 99% of the preachers out there today. "Oh don't worry Johnny, grace lasts forever and you are forgiven for every sin you ever commit, so of you go now, and don't feel bad about sin...it's forgiven." This is an evil attitude, and will only cause many to fall away...to be lukewarm and that means LOST. Now at the same time, you have a select few (the elect I believe) preaching the true will of Yahweh...the 2000 year old gospel that taught to keep the 10 commandments, and to REPENT and sin no more, and to spread this very gospel. A simple gospel indeed. So could it be said that these few are correct? Of course, Jesus never said a few will come...he said MANY, and he also said to back this up; Many are called, but few chosen.

It is these few that can see the will of God. Why is it that they can see it? Well that's easy, because there pure desire is to please Yahweh, and because He can see this...He reveals His will to them. That's what it all boils down to folks, a pure heart and desire to know Him. Do you really underestimate God to the point He can't tell if your not sincere? It is God's will that is vital, not mans, or something that you may perceive, that is your will. These hypocrites that preach their own carnal thoughts, or thoughts stolen from others are not of the TRUE vine. They cannot hear the Christ's voice because they are STILL of the world...and refuse to die to their flesh. These are the kind that seek attention instead of souls...they tend to be proud instead of showing the humble spirit that is of our Jesus...they feel good when so many agree with them...they seek mammon instead of truth, and they seek their will instead of God's will.

Here are a few more verses we need to think long and hard about.

1PE 2:15 For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:

We can see that it is by doing well the will of God that can close the mouths of the ignorant. So we not only have to do God's will, but do it well...If a tradesman does his job well, then he is a good tradesman right? But what is he if he does not do it well? What then? Could he be a lukewarm tradesman...or a bad tradesman for want of a better word? How can any one find fault in a good tradesman...so do God's will well, and the ignorant will have no case against you.

1PE 3:17 For [it is] better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.

Now isn't that interesting. So it is God's will that we suffer (or endure ) for the sake of goodness, because we know that this has it's rewards, but what reward is there in evil? So to suffer for no reward is silly really. So if we are to suffer, it is better to suffer for well doing than for evil.

1PE 4:2 That he no longer should live the rest of [his] time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.

So we have focus on the true will of God for all our life in the flesh, and don't be caught up with the lusts of man. Here is a clear and conclusive warning not to follow man, but rather Yahweh.

1PE 4:19 Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls [to him] in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

So if you are suffering or under punishment according to the will of God, don't loose faith, but instead, keep doing good and trust in your maker to bring you to where He wants you. In this way you show more faith than the hypocrites who say God has blessed them with all these fine clothes and money. These are the ones who call their sin a mistake, and someone else's mistake a sin.

We tend to focus more on what we want than what we really need, and this can be the downfall of many. What we want is not always right, but what we need is what God wants for us, and what more could we ask for than the will of the our creator who has much more wisdom than any man. Now God's will cannot be known carnally, not completely that is. Many will get it half right, but only a few will get it all right folks. In closing I want to make one thing sure...and that is only by having a sincere pure heart for God's truth and God's will in your life, can you indeed know His will. And He can surely tell if you are faking or lukewarm. If you are sincere, then you will pray fervently for His understanding and His wisdom and His will in all matters pertaining to your salvation. Again I remind you that many are called, but few are chosen, so I pray God to make these things known to you, that you may become of the true vine, that is nurtured by Christ Himself, and make no mistake...his sheep hear his call. God bless you all.

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