Do You Really Want To Know God`s Will?

Hebrews 10:36 (NIV):

³⁶ You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised.

When I read this verse yesterday, I was overwhelmed by the consolation of the Lord.  All these promises of the Lord that we have that we can hold on to. God reminded me yet again of His presence in my life and of His enduring patience with me. In my Bible the word “persevere” literally is stated as “patience”. I don`t know anyone who would like this word- “Patience”. Who likes to wait? Who likes to endure? Nobody does and I am no exception to that. Yet this is something that became such a big routine of my life, an exercised practice exhibited in my daily walk with the Lord.

As with all of God`s promises, there is a condition. If we would do the will of the Lord, then we will receive what He has promised. Now God spoke this particular verse to me specifically into my heart and into my circumstances. There were particular things that He wanted me to admit that I didn`t feel I had to do in light of my husband`s ongoing behavior, so I kept putting them away until the other party would act better. See, that`s not how God operates. He holds each one of us accountable, so by delaying, I was limiting the work of the Lord in my circumstances. I had to get them out in the open, and regardless of how tough it may have sounded I had to say them out, so I did that yesterday.

Perhaps today you struggle with certain things that you feel like you don`t want to admit to others due to their ungodly or sinful behavior, so this verse is for you as well. Do your part, and fulfill the will of the Lord, so He could bless you in return and provide you with the promise He gave you. God gave me few promises, and I know that He is faithful so long as I will be obedient to Him.

Let`s look at the 3 specific things outlined in this verse above for conditions and the potential outcome:

1. We need to persevere. That means whatever we are doing that he commanded us to do we need to keep doing that. There is a list of things that I am supposed to do, and daily I come to the Lord in need for patience and strength to endure, so to finish this race and receive His promises into my life.

¹³ For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, ¹⁴ saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.”^{[d] 15} And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise (Hebrews 6:13-15 NKJV).

Abraham serves us as a perfect example of exersied patience that he performed obediently walking with the Lord and enduring to the end for 25 years while waiting for his promised son. As we all know God was faithful to fulfill this promise after He challenged Abraham and grew his faith making him into the Father of Faith. That title doesn`t come at a free cost, that`s for sure.

2. The second part of the verse, tells us that we have to do the Will of God in order to receive His promises. The will of God was manifested to us through His Son Jesus specifically, and we definitely need to comply with that. There is also a personal revelation, a specific word of the Lord into one`s heart that He gives as a direction in order to complete His work. This revelation we receive when we commune with Him in our daily time.

If you don`t have a direct word from the Lord into your circumstances and into your life, this is something you can freely ask Him about and seek in your relationships with the Lord. He would be more than faithful to point you to the places or people or specific goals to accomplish.

Of course there is a flip coin to that, sometimes we don`t like to know or hear what the Lord tells us to do because it contradicts our comfortable lifestyle or habits, or finances, etc. The point is, God is faithful to respond when we seek Him, and when we seek Him with our whole heart, so it`s really up to us whether we really want to know His will, so we could fulfill it and receive His promises.

¹² Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart (Jeremiah 29:12-13 NKJV).

This is one of my favorite assurances from the Lord that He will listen when I call for Him; that He will respond to me when I seek Him with my whole heart. I can truly testify that He never failed to respond to me when I sought Him earnestly and genuinely.

3.The third section of the verse is the assurance that we have from the Lord of His faithfulness when we stick with our side of the bargain, a.k.a. fulfilling His will: that we will receive His promises.

It all comes down to this: Do we really want to know what His will is?

Afterall, that would mean responsibility to obey it and complete it. There is always this kind of hesitation in our hearts because of the potential burden it may impose on the convenience of our lifestyles. What if the Lord would ask me to give up my house, or my boat, or my job? What if……….

³⁸ For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. ³⁹ This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. ⁴⁰ And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:38-40 NKJV).

Jesus, speaking of Himself, made it clear that He came down to this earth to fulfill the will of the Father, which is the ultimate will for everyone to be in sync with the Father and to be obedient to His will. So the primary will of the Father is for everyone to know Jesus and believe in Him in order to have an everlasting life. This is what`s called: getting saved. We accept Jesus into our hearts as our Lord and Savior, and He becomes our God transforming our lives into the image of the Father. Salvation followed by sanctification process- transformation which is a lifelong process. We don`t stop conforming until the day we die.

This is what Paul wrote to Romans:

² And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Romans 12:2 NKJV).

We get transformed by the renewing of our minds through the word of the Lord, and this is why dwelling in the scriptures is so crucial to each believer. This transformation is the tangible factor testifying in one`s life of what this perfect and acceptable will of God is. In other words, when people look at the way I change in my thinking, in my attitude, and in my behavior, it testifies to them of what God did to me and of what His will is. People start to inquire what prompted this kind of transformation, and to us, believers, in return it gives an opportunity to testify of Jesus (of Who He is and what He`s done in our lives).

So this is what we define as a Primary will of the Father, that when we fulfill this part of the condition, He is faithful to bless us to bestow His promise of salvation into each of our lives (get saved and commit our lives to the Lord for complete makeover- transformation).

The secondary will of the Lord, which is something God spoke to me through this verse yesterday, is something He showed me through the list of specific things that He requires me to do as part of the evidence of my transformed lifestyle.

I`ll share with you one of them, just so you have an idea what to look for and what to ask the Lord about when seeking for His will. One of the things He showed me was 1 Peter 2 (the whole chapter), and He told me to do some specific things.

¹⁵ For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men— ¹⁶ as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God (1 Peter 2:15-16 NKJV).

In this whole chapter Peter outlines a manual for the believers as to what an attitude and behavior should be of a Christian. I prayed to the Lord for specific things that I should do, and He was faithful to point me to one of these scriptures. I am to do good to those who hurt me or to those who defile me. It`s a tough call, but God`s stakes are always high because it has to do with the lives of the unsaved people: eternity in Heaven or eternity in hell is at stake.

So the verse in Hebrews 10:36 would translate for this particular will of the Father that if I will comply with this requirement(s), He would be faithful to fulfill His promise. He also gave me some definite promises, and I trust the Lord to be faithful to complete them because His word doesn`t return void but finishes what it started.

If you look at these scriptures and you don`t have the secondary will from the Father as to what to do in your life, then you can look at the Primary will and see if it aligns with your lifestyle. God commanded us to be like Jesus, so whatever Jesus did, as we read, we are to called to do too:

³⁹ This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day (John 6:39 NKJV).

We should not return anything in void from what the Lord entrusted us to care for. For those of us who don`t know where to go from the initial stage of salvation (fulfilling the primary will of the Lord), we can start right here: treating with care and wisdom entrusted talents and abilities the Lord assigned us to worship Him with. At the same time we can pray for the Lord to direct us to His specific will for each one of our lives: to open the door for ministry, to help someone, to change something. God is creative enough to challenge us to grow, and I am forever grateful to Him for that.

Let`s not forget that patience is a major virtue that comes at a steep price and requires discipline by walking with the Lord. Let`s endure, let`s persevere to receive all the promises of the Lord that He would love to shower us with!