|
Join our e-mail list! |
|
Just type your e-mail address below and
press submit.
|
|
|
| |
 |
| |
From My
Generation to Yours: Mistaking The
Mysterious "Will of God" for the Obvious "Timing of God"
By Marvin
Curry
August 28, 2000
Have
you ever tried finding the "will of God" for your life and felt you
almost had it within your grasp, only to see it slip away like wet soap in the
shower?
Then
there are always those nagging questions that keep replaying in your mind. How
could this happen to me? I dedicated my life to God, what more does He expect?
These questions and more revolve around the real, unstated center concern¾is
there ever anything more frustrating than searching for the "will of
God?"
Frustrated,
we look in the Bible and find that old favorite: "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." (Romans 12:2) We search it out. Then we pray
over it asking God for new insight, especially the portion about "that
good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God."
It is natural to want to be in the will of God, for we think that if we
are in harmony with His will, we will be happy and everything will be perfect.
He knows the end from the beginning, and we are His children, so it stands to
reason that things will go well for us. Then, when things don't go exactly as we
thought they should and problems arise (they always do), we know God hasn't
changed, so we automatically assume that we must be out of God's perfect will.
Maybe we have unknowingly wandered from "perfect"
over into "that good or acceptable
will of God." Not what He wants, but will accept for now.
I know this is a problem,
for I have struggled with it many times in my life. I wanted to make the perfect
decision and I couldn't seem to feel a clear direction, so I agonized before God
and my wife. Finally one day when she was tired of hearing me whine and complain
because I couldn't find the answer I wanted, she said: "God wants you to be
in His will, so why would he make it so hard for you to find it?" That made
sense. Maybe I was missing something. So I started searching again. What I saw
is that I wasn't out of God's will nearly as much as I didn't understand God's
timing. Looking into scripture, we see many times when God spoke something, or
revealed His plans to someone, but they, like us, didn't understand the time
element God used to develop the individual and unfold His plan.
Abraham
was a great man of God. In fact, he was called the friend of God. The New
Testament even says that he believed God so much that it was counted unto him
for righteousness. (James 2:23) That is incredible faith. When God said that He
would make Abraham's seed as the sand of the sea and the stars in the sky,
Abraham was confident it would happen. That was proof that he would have a son.
Yet Abraham didn't understand God's method or timetable. He realized that he and
Sarah were too old to have a son naturally, so he decided to help God fulfill
His promise. He took Hagar, his servant, and had a son by her. That certainly
fulfilled God's promise. But God didn't need Abraham's help in fulfilling His
promise. He will always do it in His time and on His terms. Sure enough, Sarah
did have a son named Isaac. Today, Abraham's seed is a multitude, just as God
promised.
But
God doesn't just deal with adults, but with the youth. God gave Joseph two
dreams when he was a teenager, letting him know that someday his family would
bow down before him. These dreams were the perfect "will of God" for
Joseph, but Joseph wasn't mature enough to handle them. While it was God's will,
it was not God's time. God had to send Joseph off to Egypt to develop him so
that he could be trusted with the responsibility of ruling the country.
Naturally, Joseph didn't mature overnight. It took at least thirteen years and a
myriad of experiences before he came into a leadership position, and another
seven or eight before he confronted his brothers. Yet in all of his experiences,
Joseph was never out of God's will. He knew a little about how God would use
him, but none of the details before they developed. God's will is never a
destination, but always a journey.
Moses is another example of God's will
being implemented at a special moment
in time. Circumstances around his birth were special, and then he was
taken to Pharaoh's house for training. He was burdened for his own people,
but he was limited in what he could do. That is, until he took it upon
himself to deliver Israel one at a time and committed murder. He was forced
to flee Egypt for Midian. There, in Midian, he spent forty years on
the backside of the desert tending sheep, being trained in situations that
he would never learn in Egypt. Moses must have wondered why God let him
waste his ability on the hills of Midian when his talent was so great.
I imagine he felt like he had missed God's will and this was his punishment.
But when the time was right, God used him to deliver the Israelites.
Contrary
to the previous examples, I believe Paul understood something about God's will
and God's timing. In Acts 16:7, Paul and his companions were traveling on a
missionary journey. They were planning to go one way, but the Spirit of God
stopped them. Then Paul had a vision where a man stood and said; "Come over
into Macedonia, and help us." He felt it was of God, so they left
immediately.
When
they arrived in Macedonia, no one was there to meet them. This is the point
where most of us would sit down and wait for the man to show up. Since Paul knew
something about God's will and timing, he didn't worry. Instead he did
everything he could for the kingdom while he waited to meet the man. He went
down by the river to minister to some ladies. (No men were around.) Then he kept
going to prayer and ended up casting out the evil spirits from a damsel. It
wasn't until after he went to prison that he even met a man who was interested
in the gospel, and that was after he was beaten and survived an earthquake. This
must have been the man in the vision, for after this experience, he left town.
In
his later years, Paul was cast into prison. Imagine what he must have thought as
he looked out of those prison bars¾how
could this be God's will? Why would God send him, the world's greatest
evangelist, to waste away in prison? Actually,
he didn't waste away in prison. He knew that wherever God placed him, there was
always a work he could do. So, while he was stuck there, he wrote many letters.
Today we call them the "Epistles," and God has used those letters to
minister to literally millions of people throughout the centuries. If Paul had
continued to evangelize, there is no way he could have reached even a fraction
of those blessed, encouraged and challenged by the Epistles.
Though
we often feel like Abraham, Joseph or Moses, we must act like Paul. We must
believe that what God has impressed upon us will happen, and then do everything
we can to develop our talents and use every opportunity available to build His
kingdom today. God's will is often seen after we travel through the miserable
now. At the end of the anguish, God's timing has perfected us for even greater
opportunities than we could ever imagine.
ninetyandnine.com
©
2000, Marvin Curry
--------
Marvin
Curry has assisted and pastored in Home Missions churches, managed an Apostolic
bookstore and is currently the General Manager of the Pentecostal Publishing
House of the United Pentecostal Church International.
Have an opinion on an article? Let us know how
you feel! Click feedback & fill us
in. |
