Thursday, May 11, 2017

God's Will, Our Will, Satan's Will.

Have you ever thought about the will of Satan?

We are constantly as Christians desiring God's will to be done in our lives.  We read this--

Mat 6:10  Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 

Mar_3:35  For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother.

Act_13:36  For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption

Rom_1:10  Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you.

Rom_8:27  And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

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.

And there are still more verses like those.

The will of God is a reality.  But as the following excerpt states, not all is the will of God.

We tell ourselves in many of our situations in life that - it is God's will and we do this to believe that we must accept everything that occurs.

God doesn't will sin and yet sin exists.
God doesn't will pain and agony, yet it exists.
God doesn't will heartache and sorrow but it is everywhere.

Satan wills all things evil. God WILL utilize situations that occur to bring about our ultimate good, but He does not will that we sin or are victims of sin in any way.

Rom_8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

And God purpose in calling us is to be saved through His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

More on all of this tomorrow by the grace and yes, by the will of God.

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'God’s Ordering

We know that besides man’s will there are two other totally antagonistic wills in the world.

God calls us to obey Him and to resist Satan.

Twice in the Bible do we find these two sides mentioned together:

(1) “submit yourselves therefore to God,” exhorts James, and then he follows immediately with “resist the devil” (4.7);
(2) “humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God,” enjoins Peter, and continues by charging his readers to “resist (the devil), firm in your faith” (1 Peter 5.6,9).

This is the balance of truth. A believer certainly must learn to submit himself to God in all  matters, acknowledging that what He orders for him is the best.

Though he suffers, yet he heartily submits to the will of God. This, however, is just half the truth. The Apostles understood the danger of being lopsided; hence we find them right away warning the Christian to resist the devil once he submits to God. This is because there is another will besides His, that of Satan’s.

Frequently the devil counterfeits the will of God, especially in the things which happen to us. If we are unaware of the presence of a will other than God’s, we can easily mistake Satan’s to be God’s and so fall into the devil’s trap. For this reason God wants us to resist the devil when we submit
to Him.

Resistance is done by the will. Resistance means our volition opposes, disapproves, and withstands. God wishes us to exercise our volition, therefore He exhorts us to “resist the devil.” He will not
resist for us; we ourselves must do so.

We have a will; we should use it to take heed to God’s Word. So teaches the Bible. Thinking that
God’s will is revealed in His orderings, the Christian may accept anything which comes to him as His will. In that event he naturally will not employ his volition to choose, decide or resist. He just quietly accepts everything. This sounds good and appears right, but it contains a serious fallacy.

Now we do acknowledge the hand of God behind everything, and we do confess we must submit fully under His hand. But the point at issue here is more one of attitude than of conduct. If what happens to
us is the direct will of God, would we object to it? This is a matter of our heart intention. But after we are assured of our obedience to God we should inquire further: does this emanate from the evil spirit or is it but God’s permissive will? If it is His commanded will, we have no objection; if otherwise, we will resist it together with God.

Hence this never implies that we should submit to our environment without daily examination and testing. Our attitude remains the same at all times, but our practice comes only after we are sure of God’s will, for how could we submit to Satan’s will?

A Christian ought not act as one who is without a brain, passively driven by his environment. He actively and consciously should examine the source of every item, test its nature, understand its meaning, and decide the course to take. It is important to obey God, but not blindly. Such active investigation is not a sign of rebellion against God’s ordering, because our heart’s intent continues to be one of submission towards God. We only wish to be sure that in our submission we are verily obeying God.

A definite lack in an obedient attitude exists among believers today. Though they perceive God’s will, they nevertheless fail to yield. Contrariwise, those who have been broken by God run to the other extreme by unquestioningly accepting whatever occurs to them.

The truth lies in the center; obey in heart and accept after being assured of the source.

How sad, though, that many fully consecrated believers do not discern this difference. Such a Christian therefore passively submits to his environment, surmising that everything happens to him by the
order of God. He gives ground to the evil spirits to torment and hurt him. These spirits provide environment (their snares) by which to trap the saint into performing their will or raise up circumstances to trouble him.

Believers may misunderstand this to be what Matthew 5.39 enjoins when it says “do not resist one who is evil,” not recalling that God summons them to struggle against sin (Heb. 12.4). By overcoming environment they are overcoming the spirit of this world. The factors in such a misapprehension of God’s ordering are that (a) believers do not use their will to choose and decide; (b) God certainly does not oppress them with environment; and (c) the evil spirits utilize the environmental circumstances as a substitute for their passive will. Rather than obeying God these believers actually are obeying the evil spirits.'

Excerpt from 'The Spiritual Man' by Watchman Nee

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