By: Richard Gazowsky
The next Monday Morning Blog: “The Attitude You Should Have Towards Being Rich” – To Subscribe, email us at wysiwygsf@earthlink.net
For most of my fifty-seven years of life I honestly thought I knew, and was living, God’s perfect will. But during this last year God has begun to take the scales off my eyes and I’m still going through this process. If you would have approached me at any time during the last thirty years, I would’ve adamantly disagreed with the statement I just made. But over the last eighteen years, God has slowly convinced me of my ignorance of the subject of doing His perfect will. At the same time He has begun to teach me how to find His perfect will, how to know it, and to live by it.
In truth the matter is really pretty simple. It just requires that you approach the subject in a completely childlike manner. If you do this, you will easily find it. But the problem is, we are not children; we are grown, intelligent adults. Many of us are still harboring the residues of college education, numerous business seminars, and other teachings by men and women who were convinced that their ideas were truly the will of God for your life. All these things in our minds becomes a barrage of confusion that can blind us from the real truth that simple childlike belief in the will of God for us is actually easy to find.
It’s said in the Word, “Though a fool be a wayfaring man he shall not err therein.” So even a fool, (and by this I don’t think it just means a person who acts foolishly but one who is also mentally simple) can understand what God’s will is. The secret to all of this is found in the words of Jesus who said that all we have to do is, “Ask, seek, and knock.” These are simple, yet powerful, words that Jesus mentioned numerous times in the Scriptures. If you want to know what God’s plans are for you, you need to ask Him, seek (in other words, take more time because the answer won’t come as you expect it), and knock (which is doing a symbolic physical act to inquire of God what His plans are for you).
We also know that Scripture says that, “God does nothing unless He tells His prophets first.” It’s so important that you realize that God does absolutely nothing unless He reveals it to somebody who is listening to Him on this earth. The trouble is, Christians are surrounded by religious spirits that are literally blocking their ability to hear from God. People make statements such as:
“God doesn’t talk to me like that.”
“That person isn’t godly, so I won’t listen to anything they say.”
“I saw a mistake that person made, so they shouldn’t be speaking the Word of God.”
“God never talks to me.”
And so on… Rash grumbling like this can literally go on forever. It’s conjured up by religious spirits whose sole purpose is to confuse you so you won’t listen to the simple words of revelation that God is trying to give you about your future.
Oh, how often I see this kind of confusion fill peoples’ minds! Yet the simple solution to everything is becoming like a little child. Children are full of trusting belief, believe just about everything you say, and usually reject criticism. That’s why any criticism that satan is sending your way to bring confusion needs to be eliminated. Isn’t satan’s job description laid out as, “the division-causer among the brethren”? So, the solution to him is simple! Any thought that comes to your mind that divides you from any other person, (because you are commanded to love everybody) is to be ignored. Now you are like a little child and ready to believe!
Something we need to understand about God is that He is very detailed concerning His plans for your future. He wants you to get every facet finished so that you can walk into your future with no hinderances. For example, God went through great efforts to call Moses to go to Egypt to set His people free from Egyptian slavery. The Lord used a burning bush, a rod that turned into a snake, and leprosy that appeared on Moses’ hand . All of these signs and wonders were at God’s disposal to convince Moses the weightiness of his call to go to Egypt. You have to admit that God was pretty creative in his effort to convince Moses.
Then look what happened just a little while later. As Moses is traveling to Egypt, an angel from God comes down without warning and seeks to kill Moses. Moses’ wife, Zipporah, figures out the reason for the death angel’s visit, quickly circumcises Moses’ son, and saves the great leader’s life. This dramatic example shows us is that God was very concerned about Moses completing the detail of circumcision upon his own son. In fact, God was willing to let Moses die instead of allowing him to go to Egypt with this flaw in his leadership. This ought to be sufficient evidence that God is extremely concerned that you and I complete all of the details that He has asked us to do in our lives. He will not pass us on to the next grade level until we pass all the tests.
There is no fudging in God’s kingdom. Every detail must be done, no matter how long it takes. Even though God’s perfect will is wonderful and glorious, every detail that God has asked us to do to get there must still be accomplished. Wow! I’ve just said a mouthful! But it’s something that has taken me years to begin to understand. Of course, if I would’ve looked at this subject as a little child, it would’ve been obvious much earlier. A child knows that he can’t make it to second grade until he has passed all of the tests in the first grade. It’s us intelligent college-educated people that think there is some way we can circumvent the required tasks and still get there anyhow. The trouble is, it just can’t be done.
It is true that since Jesus died on the cross, mercy met judgment and mercy won out. In other words, God is more than willing to forgive and forget our mistakes. But He still wants us to travel on His preordained pathway. So even though the mistakes are forgotten, we still have to complete the journey down the right roadway. That’s the reason many times we think God is taking too long to get us to our destinations. When the truth is, we are the ones who’ve been wasting time because we weren’t doing the things He had originally asked us to do. Instead, we tried to take shortcuts leading to confusion and disaster. It’s much better for us to slow down and let God call the journey– which brings us back to the asking, seeking, and knocking. Every day I now fill my prayer life with asking God questions. I’m adamant about needing to know what His instructions are for me every single day. And yes, it’s true that not all of His instructions are pleasant. For example, this year He told me to go to the hospital; He told me that the doctor’s diagnosis was going to be very true and that I had to listen to all of the medical instructions given to me. I ended up spending a total of thirteen days in the hospital, and I’m still having to meet and listen to the medical instructions of the doctors. I have to listen and obey, eating only certain foods, and exercising a certain amount of time every day. Though not all these activities are pleasant, the results are incredibly joyful when it comes to my health.
These are instructions from the Lord that I must obey to reach the destination that He has purposed in my life. Unfortunately, a lot of this was put on me because I made the mistake of following my own pathway when it came to my personal health. So, like Moses, I faced the angel of death and it was my wife who saved my life because she heard the instructions from the Lord. But the reason I’m on this pathway is because I keep asking, seeking, and knocking… and, of course, listening is the end result– which leads to doing. Get it? It’s as simple as instructions to a little child. This is how to find God’s perfect will and to live in it. When you do, wow! A whole vista of wonderment lies before you to enjoy.
————————————————————-
To learn how you can subscribe to The Monday Morning Blog, please email us at: wysiwygsf@earthlink.net.
A Place To Meet Jesus 