Progress

Whilst stirring this morning under the cover of the duvet, my mind raced as it normally does and yet with clear direction. I thoroughly enjoy mornings like these as I wait in anticipation for an enlightening encounter with my God and Father. I know that today is a day that I will learn more of His character as God the Holy Spirit reveals just a little more, deepening my love for my Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.

To understand the will of God is the pressing question. Who can actually fathom the depths of God’s Brilliance? Does the clay have understanding over the potter or does it have any power to manipulate its outcome? It would be useful to understand God’s character, to make every effort to study Him in order to understand His will for our lives. Without snippets of that knowledge it will always be about our selfish wants even when we say that we seek out Gods will for our lives. We needn’t understand all the instruction we receive at the time, that is where God manifests His brilliance, this is where He often silences the gainsayer and His reasoning will become apparent oven time. Hardships will receive their desired outcome, they will teach us the will of God over time and the sooner we arrive at this conclusion the happier we will be. The joy of the Lord will be our portion on any given day. It is when we view hardships with the eyes of our old sin-filled natures that we lose sight of God’s will. Be gone old wicked man, and fill my eyes my God with a vision of the cross.

God has given us many guarantees as His children certifying His commitment; “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” (John 16:13-14)   

We have His Spirit and He guides us into all truth, so long as we look to Him for guidance and even when we don’t He exposes the sin in our lives causing us to desperately seek out God’s forgiveness. When we are dull of hearing, some may even be handed over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that others may fear. Either way they all have the same intended purpose to conform us into the image of His darling Son, our glorious and gracious Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Although we may not see Him face to face as some did, it is our faith that drives us into an intermit relationship with Him; we have the written Word as our reference; we must take every opportunity to study it as it teaches us about God’s character. We have everything we need to find the will of God for our lives for any given situation.

Understanding God in His perfection is a daunting task that we will only ever see in part. But we will certainly see enough to understand that He is the potter and we are the clay and that although He could have discarded us as useless matter because of our sin and our rebellion He rather chose to have mercy on us. When this is realized we will understand that we now belong to Him, we are no longer entitled to our selfish wants when they oppose God’s will for our lives. Our ongoing sanctification must drive us towards His glory.

Here is an example that will help us understand…

Joseph, Jacob’s son was in type an example of the Lord Jesus, he too suffered many things for God’s glory, but his suffering brought great relief to the children of promise. Although Joseph’s brothers’ hate caused them to do an unspeakable thing, by selling him into slavery and bringing a false report to their father, saying that he had been killed by a wild beast, it was all part of God’s will; their intention was obviously evil, but God is far greater than the evilest intention people muster. Never forget that truth! God is Sovereign and He will always determine the final outcome and we must learn to rest in that truth. Although Joseph suffered many wrongful accusations, he learnt to understand God’s will along the way. He was imprisoned under a false accusation but it was there that God really began to bless him. Go figure, in prison and finding the will of God, you better believe it! At the end of a great famine it was Joseph that brought rescue to those who set out to destroy him; God used him to save his family from starvation and this was his conclusion on all that he supposedly wrongfully faced; “But Joseph said to them, "Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.” (Genesis 50:19-20)

There are many other examples that teach us the same valuable lesson; Job and Satan’s interaction, Daniel and the lion’s den but to mention a couple. God is in perfect control of all things and we must learn to rest in His Sovereign will, come what may, because if God is for us who can be against us…

Signing off

Tyrone