Though this series is concerning
the will of God, it is really about those times when personal desires of the
heart are stirring, and Scripture is silent. If we were Gideon ready to go into
battle with three hundred men and told by God to go up against literally tens
of thousands of combatants (Jdgs 7:12; cf. Jdg 8:10), this would be flying in
the face of logic, but there would at least be a Divine command behind it, and
there was this matter with the wet and dry fleece to settle the question, “God,
are we really doing this” (Jdg 6:36-40)? The issue with Gideon was not whether
to obey God, but the point was that he wanted to clarify that there was no
misunderstanding on his part concerning God’s will. He was not rebuked for
requesting clarification by God.
Deliberating whether to obey or
ignore the commands of Yahweh would be unwise (Prov 9:10) and unloving (Jn
14:15), but in our series, there is no command, no fleece, only silence, and yet
deep within our heart there is a yearning to pursue this desire because
hindrances are being removed, and the timing seemed to be right, but it sure would
be nice to hear from God on this matter, or that the Holy Spirit would draw our
attention to a verse of Scripture we may have missed in the ongoing discovery
phase.
Yes, there is the delight and
desire promise (Psa 37:4), but doing God’s will is not the issue here;
believing in the promise is not the issue. The nagging question remains; is God
going to bless the pursuit of a personal desire because in the absence of any text
saying otherwise, no angels, no voice, no dreams, or zilch, only silence and
things strangely falling in place! These times are reminiscent of the book of
Esther where there is no mention of God, but you can see providence all over
the place. Sometimes personal desire might fall into the BOE (Book of Esther) category.
Did we ever arrogantly think
that God could not choose to work this way in certain situations even with the
canon of Scripture at our disposal! God is not playing a game with us. He is
not trifling with our heartstrings. He loves us with everlasting love and
all things will work together for good in all of this (Jer 31:3; Rom 8:28).
Can you blame Gideon to clarify
any misunderstanding on his part? He is, after all, taking a small band of men
against a superior force! It’s easy to counsel or criticize someone else when you
are not taking any risks or have any skin in the game. With great risk comes
great gain, right? Gideon was asked to risk it all for God, but would we launch
out with nothing but a personal desire with no fleece, no Word, no command, no
angel, no sign from heaven, no anything but a movement of circumstances that
could easily be misinterpreted as a go because we are reading more into the
markers than we should? Trusting our heart or gut call has proven unreliable in
the past (Jer 17:9)!
Would you not want clarification
when Scripture is silent? And we ask, “Jesus, are you in this thing?” We know
that whatever God does is forever (Eccl
3:14); so because of who Jesus is, we know that He is not playing some cat and mouse game
for the spiritual warfare we are engaged in has no respite this side of eternity. But God will always do right by us
regardless of what the enemy or old man says to the contrary. God is eternally
immutable (Mal 3:6; Heb 13:8). And by the way, I am not promoting circumstantial
evidence or experience over Scripture even when it is silent. Some would
advocate that we should not proceed if Scripture or God is silent, period. “Did you hear
that Esther!?”
To obey clear directives in
difficult situations like Gideon's is not a piece of cake; I do not fault him for
asking for a sign. Though we may not be going into harm’s way like Gideon with
our personal desires, figuring out if our personal desires of the heart are in
league with God’s will can still be quite a challenge in its own right. Wisdom
from above is needed (Jas 1:5, 6), a faith that is fluid.
This sounds like we are munching
on piety pie; doesn’t it? Let’s turn this thing up on its end for a different
perspective that may betray our attitude in the whole matter of personal
desires and reveal whether we are committed to God’s will or not. Consider
this. What if God plainly denied our desire; would we let go of it, accept
God’s decision, and move on in faith…? Our response may reveal we are not doing
those godly things preceding any desire, and honoring Him with our lips but our
hearts are far removed from Him. It is amazing how an all-wise God can take a
situation and reveal to us if our heart is calibrated to His will or not.
Silence is not necessarily a
negative thing since timing may be an issue, not the desire. What if God said
this, “I hear you loud and clear, but I have delayed your request for four
years or denied your petition?” Would we respond positively to that answer?
Could we refrain from petulantly asking, “Why?” Could we settle with an answer
that only comes back in the form, “This is my will for you?” I can think right
now of a stretch of silence lasting 10 years in a personal matter, and now it
looks as if it will become a reality; 10 long years mind you! We should remain
faithful and move forward even in waiting, walking, or walking away. In
my situation, it was technically speaking a waiting/walking, but you should know
waiting is fluid. If we are consumed with God’s will, any of those three
avenues should not pose a problem for us; we delight in Him, right…?
God’s will is connected to His
Word containing commands, promises, admonitions, instructions, examples, general
principles, and et cetera. The desires of our heart are to be connected to His
Word as well – His will is my will. Isn’t that the position of a servant slave?
I think we all get that though we are all challenged to live in sync with the
Word at all times – “Thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven” – immediately and completely.
So, even though our lives are to
be linked to the Word, I wanted to at least attempt to make a distinction that
is not always an apparent and critical factor that is often neglected in our
lives. We want our heart’s desire so badly that we fail to do those needful things
that the promise or desire is based upon. There is a need for the wisdom of the
heart preceding personal desires, doing those things that should come before a
personal desire or the fulfilling of the promise: “For
then
you will make your way prosperous, and
then you will have good success,” (Josh 1:8b); “and He shall give you
the desires of your heart” (Psa 37:4b); “He
will direct your paths” (Prov 3:6b); “that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of
God” (Rom 12:2b). Before these things can happen, they are preceded by ways of
wisdom on our part. Read the context of those passages above when you get an opportunity.
Now would be a good time!
If we truly seek to be like Christ in our thoughts, talk and
walk, delight is really not even an issue; is it? And any desires springing
forth from a heart devoted to God are more likely to be in tune with the
teaching of Scripture or God’s will. A heart
inclined to delight in the LORD fears the thought of being out of fellowship
with Him even for a single moment! There is sensitivity to revering the High
and Holy One and to avoid trampling upon His lovingkindness toward us. It is
not a behavior of political correctness for God’s all-knowingness makes
that superficiality meaningless, but it is an act of agape love.
God so wants to be a blessing to
our lives, but He cannot and will not ignore sin, and He will address any
ungodliness on our part (cf. 1 Jn 1:9). Boy, do we know that one or what! So there are conditions to satisfy before the granting of any
desire. There is a greater pleasure to be found in His will than the
foolhardiness of the dissipation of the flesh (cf. Heb 11:25). Sin is
pleasurable to the flesh, but it is terribly pricey for something passing (1 Jn
2:16-17a; 2 Cor 4:18).
It is wise not to treat
the preface to any promise or the promise itself with a lighthearted spirit, because you get a real
sense that God is serious about a wholehearted investment into His will, and in
the doing of His will there is great reward, even during the silence…. This is
where we go astray and our personal desires fell to materialize. We want to
claim (the easy part) but have no wholehearted aim in what really matters,
God’s will in the desire. Those conditional promises, related to Joshua, David, Solomon, or Paul, are predicated on us doing our
part, and God does His. If a promise is unconditional or one-sided (unilateral),
it is all on God for fulfillment; we have no part to play. If we take the
nature of the promise out of its context, it always leads to a gross
misunderstanding of the promise and quickly reveals how shallow and selfish we
are in a thing desired.
Never in Scripture will we ever
come across a wholesale promise of ask or do whatever and get whatever when we
ask amiss. God is holy and cannot sin. Therefore, any illicit desire contrary
to His holiness will never be granted. This does not make the promises of God
hollow. It reveals a faulty theology of the interpreter, a prosperity theology
mindset that promotes that the problem with a failure to receive what God has
for you is due to a lack of faith and perseverance. Tell that to David when he
desired to build a temple for God and was denied (2 Sam 7:5, 12-13; 1 Kgs
8:16-17; 1 Chron 22:7-10).
Oh, if we could only have the
jaw-dropping wisdom and insight of Solomon (cf. 1 Kgs 4:29, 34; 10:1-13) during
the times of silence! But even in Solomon’s situation, such a thing was only
possible as long as Solomon followed the LORD wholeheartedly; his failures would be reflected in his half-hearted
approach to following God. Can you sense the powerful and profound secret in
all of this talk in understanding and knowing when our personal desires are in
line with God’s will and when they are not? It is in following the LORD
wholeheartedly before, during, and after whatever decision is made from on High.
The vast majority of the time, we, not God, are the cause of the puzzling
complexities surrounding a desire to be granted or not. We – are the cause of
the confusion from a failure to go wholeheartedly, a word foreign to those who
avoid commitment to anyone, including God, or anything, including His will.
How can we meditate day and
night on the Scripture when we read the Scriptures so sporadically or take a cafeteria approach to God’s Word on what to obey and ignore? How do we observe to do what we
don’t know? How can we know the path if we are holding back on God? How can we
discern God’s will when we are fighting transformation because of the pull to
be conformed to this world? What are we doing with that partially eaten trust sandwich stuck in the back of the refrigerator? And we are mad at God for
failing to give us our desires or make good on His promises when we think He
should!?
Did we forget the seven
imperatives making up the trust sandwich placed in a plastic bag and stashed in
the back of the fridge? Did we not realize that kneaded into the dough of that
bread in that trust sandwich is a deep, abiding reliance upon God?
1. Trust in Yahweh
2. Do good
3. Dwell in the land (grow where you are planted)
4. Cultivate faithfulness
5. Delight yourself in Yahweh
6. Commit your way to Yahweh
7. Trust in Yahweh
Any personal desires we may have
must be bundled up in the will of God. If it isn’t, we need to ditch a
deviating desire rather than trying to force a square peg down a round hole.
There is no “half-will” of God to settle on and follow as an alternative. We
are either in it or out of God’s will! In order for us to do better at spending
more time in the will of God than out of His will, it demands a greater input
and output from us in His Word, desiring nothing less than being a man or woman
after God’s own heart chasing after the Person and works of Jesus Christ in a wholehearted
manner. Realistically speaking, what’s
the point of determining to wait, walk, or walk away if we do not preface any
of our desires with satisfying the prerequisites of a promise from the Lord?
People want a desire free from all effort, an entitlement mentality! It ain’t
happenin’, folks, for any of us.
Only a believer who worships and
serves God and fellowships with God with the whole heart is in maximum
overdrive on being Word-driven; they all go together and are inseparable. Such
a believer fully understands what is at stake and recognizes and acknowledges
that the Word of God is the supreme authority in all matters of faith and
practice. These words are not some fancy theology; rather, they are a practical
outworking of a way of life, God’s life, expected by God to be fully embraced
by us as the only way of life (Jn 14:6), a life according to His Word (Psa 37:31; 40:8; 119:11, 105; Jer 15:16; Col 3:16), and a life
involving the whole heart (Mk 12:30). God can work His promises only through someone so
inclined in the BOE or out of the BOE situations. <><
%20MG%20t-bkgrd%2060x44%20png.png)
%20sunflower%2045x63%20png.png)
%20MG%20t-bkgrd%2060x44%20png.png){kind=small}
%20sunflower%2045x63%20png.png){kind=small}
 |
| To Part 4 |
