Perhaps we have all asked ourselves this question.
How to do God’s will?
Or maybe, how do I know if what I want to do is God’s will or not?
How do you make a choice or decision that fulfills God’s will?
Those are precisely the questions we will try to address today.
We will do it together, starting from a fragment of the precious story of Nicodemus.
Read a couple of Bible verses with me:
“How can someone be born when they are old?”
Nicodemus asked.
“Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.
Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’
The wind blows wherever it pleases.
You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.
So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
| John 3:4-8
For me, this is one of those precious truths that Jesus expresses in words that only the Spirit of God can help us understand clearly.
There is only one way to know how to do God’s will, and it is not necessarily that you ask God for a sign, and he gives it to you.
Which indisputably can happen, but it’s not like in every decision of your life you can do that.
This verse allows us to see that the Lord wants to give us something better than a sign.
This text allows us to see that in order to know how to do His will, He wants to give us His spirit to be filled with Him.
“I assure you that whoever is not born of water and the Spirit cannot enter the kingdom of God,” Jesus replied.
What is born of the body is body; what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
The Lord wants us to do his will, guided by his Holy Spirit and filled with him.
Having been born of him.
I remember reading a wonderful book called The Keys of Spiritual Growth by John MacArthur.
There I read a fragment that enlightened me about this topic and illustrates it in an exceptional way.
Let me share it with you, as I think he explains it much better than I do:
A Fizzie is a small tablet used to prepare soft drinks.
It is put in a small glass of water and its flavor is released throughout the water.
The concentrated power of this compact tablet is not useful unless it sits on the bottom of the glass.
It has to release the energy to fill the glass, and then turn the water into something new.
If it is a Fizzie of grapes, it produces a glass of grape-flavored drink.
The taste in the tablet determines the taste of the water.
In a way, this example illustrates how God’s Spirit acts in human life.
He is in the Christian all the time as a divine, compact, concentrated, and powerful source of energy.
The question is, have you ever allowed Him to release that power to fill your life so that you can become what He is?
A Christian not subject to the Spirit of God cannot manifest the life of Christ.
The spirit of God must permeate a life if that life is to radiate his light.
There is nothing we can do other than being filled with the spirit of God.
If I have a piano playing glove and I say to the glove, “Play the piano.”
What does the glove do? Nothing.
The glove cannot play the piano.
But if I put my hand inside the glove and play the piano, what happens? Music!
If I put my hand inside the glove, the glove moves, the glove doesn’t behave “piously” and says “oh hand, show me what I should do!”.
The glove says nothing, it just moves forward.
People who are filled with the Holy Spirit don’t stumble or stutter trying to find what God wants.
They just move on!
(…)
In Acts 4:31 we read that when the church had
prayed, the place where they were gathered trembled; all were filled with the Holy Spirit, and proclaimed the word of God without any fear.
They were consumed with the Spirit of God, with the joy, power, and influence of the Holy Spirit.
As a result, they were able to leave without inhibition, without the restriction of their own egos, completely abandoned themselves, and therefore communicate Christ Jesus without any fear.
The same may be true of us.
We can be so captivated by the Holy Spirit that we are completely controlled by Him.
If it influences, it will overbid our everyday fears and other emotions.
The result is the absence of fear, full of vigor, unites happiness beyond any other — joy upon joy — because he controls and captivates every part of us.
To do God’s will, we need to be filled with God’s Spirit.
Often, when we face times when we need to make decisions, we can become afraid of getting it wrong.
When we experience that, it’s normal to want to do God’s will instead of our own, as it always should be.
But instead of making decisions ourselves, we would like God to make them for us without our participation.
This way of reacting to decisions may not be entirely positive.
The reason for this is fear.
However, it doesn’t have to be like that, in that case, you have a choice.
You can live your life in fear of making decisions, or you can be filled with the Holy Spirit so that he will take control of you and decide for you.
Scripture says in First John 4:18 that:
(…) love casts out fear (…)
If you want to do God’s will, ask him to fill you with his Holy Spirit, to cleanse your life of all evil influence and sin, all that may be saddening the Holy Spirit.
That’s why I think Jesus says to Nicodemus this enigmatic phrase:
The wind blows where it wants, and you hear it whistling, even though you don’t know where it comes from and where it’s going.
The same goes for everyone who is born of the Spirit.
To do God’s will, be filled with the spirit of God, this will cause the Holy Spirit to take control of your life, your priorities will no longer be yours, but will be the Lord’s priorities.
The result will be that you will know how to do God’s will because you will be subject to Him.
Perhaps the text says that you don’t know where you’re coming from or where you’re going because it’s God’s Spirit that’s in control of your life and not you, or someone else.
Ask God to fill you with his Holy Spirit so that you can do his will as revealed in his holy word.
This way, you will learn how to live and relate in the various areas of your life.
Of course, it is necessary and valid to pray for wisdom to make the best decisions, in addition to this, pray for the Holy Spirit to take control of your life.
And move forward without fear toward the fulfillment of the Lord’s priorities, controlled by his Holy Spirit.
When you look back, you will see with total certainty his hand directing you and guiding your steps to fulfill his perfect will for you.
What are your thoughts on this? Do you have any experience you want to share? Leave it in the comments.
