31 Aug HAPPY NEW YEAR! (ARE YOU ADDING ANOTHER YEAR TO YOUR LIFE, OR LIFE TO ANOTHER YEAR?): PART 21

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Over the last few weeks we began our…

  “Four Fascinating Facets to Find the Will of God”:

Let’s review…

1.) Biblical Principles (Col. 3:16)

2.) Wise People

3.) Spiritual prompting (Rom. 8:14-16)

Last week we began sharing…

4.) Inner Peace (Col. 3:15)

Here the Bible tells us, “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.”  

The Greek word translated “rule” denotes an “umpire.”  Well what does a baseball umpire tell us?  As a baseball player slides into home, the umpire tells us he is either “safe” or “out”!  God-given biblical peace acts very much this way!

This week we continue in Inner Peace with…

“Two Peace Principles”:

       1.- The will of God will never lead you where the peace of God can’t keep you.

       2. – Don’t mistake losing your peace for losing your nerve.

Anytime you step out of your comfort zone and embark on doing something new with God, it will bring a bit of hesitancy to you.  If we are not cautious, we can mistake this natural hesitancy of trying something new for “losing our peace.”

I remember many decades ago when I was a youth pastor, we were taking about 30 teens to Guatemala.  As you can imagine, this was quite an undertaking as we raised about $45,000 over a nine month period (this meant a lot of car washes and spaghetti dinners!).  One young teen called me the night before we were to leave for Guatemala.  She was very fearful and shared with me she “did not have peace about going on this trip.”  

Now this sounded very spiritual, but truth be told she was simply afraid…but did not want to admit this.  So she cloaked it in the spiritual terminology of “I lost my peace” when she had really just lost her nerve!  That week on the mission field our teens led over 1500 people to Jesus and lives were radically changed.  She stayed home and truly missed out on what God had planned for her!

With all of that having been said on how to find the will of God….

please allow me to give you “Four Fascinating Facets to Follow the Will of God”:

  1. Relinquish your body (Rom. 12:1).  This verse says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”

The Greek word translated “beseech” is “parakaleo.”  This literally means to come along side of someone and urge or plead with them.  It is a military term imploring soldiers to be brave in battle.  The word translated “present” is “paristemi” which literally means to “stand alongside.”  It denotes to surrender or a “placing at another’s disposal.”  

The Greek word translated “holy” is “hagios” which means “different, separate or special.”  It denotes a consecration to God.  The Greek word translated “reasonable” is “logikos” (we get our word ‘logic’ from it).  It means obviously logical or rational (why is it logical to give your body to God in consecration to do His will?  He owns it!  See 1 Corinthians 6:20).

The Greek word translated “service” denotes “worship.”  As we now follow the will of God for our lives and relinquish our body to God, let’s remember this:

Worship is not just the song that I sing.  Worship is the life that I live!

Next month we’ll continue our series!