God’s Will

Hearing the Voice of the Lord and Acting in Faith

~ Joe ~ 2 Comments

Today I want to examine a very intelligent creature. A creature that is so intelligent that Jesus used them in parables to refer to us. They are, of course, sheep.

Okay, so sheep are not the most intelligent creatures on planet Earth but they do know how to do something very well…they know how to listen to their shepherd’s voice and follow him, and that’s what I want to look at today.

John 10:1-5
1 “I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. 3 The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”

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Prayer – the Key to Our Spiritual Nourishment

~ Joe ~ Leave a comment

John 4:27-34 says…

27Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

28Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” 30They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

31Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”

32But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

33Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”

34“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

I love how Jesus used many natural situations as illustrations for teaching spiritual truth, especially to his disciples.

This passage picks up right during the middle of Jesus’ witnessing to the Samaritan woman at the well. The woman just left Jesus to go tell people in her town about him when the disciples walked up to him to make sure he had something to eat. Jesus was keeping a busy schedule preaching the Kingdom of God to the surrounding towns, so the disciples were just looking out for his physical well being. I, personally, think it was a nice gesture. However, look again at Jesus’ reply in verse 32. “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” Fortunately this is not one of his parables where he leaves us guessing what he meant. Instead, Jesus tells us what this “secret food” is in verse 34, when he says, “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”
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Being a Nearsighted Christian

~ Joe ~ Leave a comment

Have you ever had a project to complete around the house or at work and at some point during the project you lost your focus on it? What caused you to loose your focus? Distractions? Something more urgent? A lack of desire to complete the project?

Just as it’s easy to loose our focus on day-to-day projects, I think it’s also easy to loose our focus in spiritual matters. My hope is that this article will be the first of many that will show us how we can remain “focused” in living our Christian lives according to God’s will.

Wouldn’t it be great if at the same time we committed our lives to Christ He also gave us the map of his will for our lives?! Unfortunately He doesn’t do that…

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Other Ways the Holy Spirit Leads Us

~ Joe ~ Leave a comment

John 16:13 says…
But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

“Other Ways the Holy Spirit Leads Us” is the fourth of four thoughts on how we can better prepare our hearts to hear from our Lord.

So far we’ve learned about three of the main ways the Holy Spirit communicates to us: through the inner witness, the inner voice, and the authoritative voice of the Lord. But there are several other ways also.

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Learn to be Led by the Holy Spirit

~ Joe ~ 9 Comments

Romans 8:14 says, “those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”

Every believer in Jesus can learn how to be led by the Holy Spirit instead of by their physical senses and circumstances.

“Learn to be Led by the Holy Spirit” is the third of four thoughts on how we can better prepare our hearts to hear from our Lord. Portions of the following were adapted from Kenneth E. Hagin’s book Following God’s Plan for Your Life.

Notice that I said learn how to be led by the Spirit. Knowing how to be led by the Holy Spirit does not come naturally right after a person accepts Jesus as Lord and Savior. Just as sheep have to learn to recognize the voice of their shepherd, so we have to learn to recognize the voice of our Lord.

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Stay Filled with the Holy Spirit

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If you’ve ever gone through life wondering if we can know what the will of God is, STOP wondering and know that you can!

“Stay Filled with the Holy Spirit” is the second of four thoughts on how we can better prepare our hearts to hear from our Lord.

When God seems to be less-than-descriptive with His plans for your life, know that you can always be a doer of His Word, and in so acting, you will be living in His perfect will for your life. In fact, sometimes when you just don’t know what to do, doing only what the Bible says is the best thing you can do.

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Consecrating Ourselves to God's Will

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One of the most common questions Christians, and even non-Christians, have is how they can know God’s will for their lives. I believe that we can know God’s will, direction, and purpose for our lives. I also believe that He is constantly trying to communicate with us but we’re just not listening or maybe don’t know what His voice sounds like.

“Consecrating Ourselves to God’s Will” is the first of four thoughts on how we can better prepare our hearts to hear from our Lord. Portions of the following were adapted from Kenneth E. Hagin’s book Following God’s Plan for Your Life.

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