The Daily Word of Righteousness

Business as Usual, #5

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:26,27)

But don't all Christians do God's will?

If my understanding is correct, very few Christians even know God's personal will for their lives. The predominant teaching has been on grace, the "rapture," and eternal residence in Heaven. There has not been enough emphasis on seeking God's will and doing it, as far as I can see.

In order to find God's will be have to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus each day. There is no other way of finding God's will for our life.

Of course, we have the general will of God set forth in the Bible. But this is not enough. We have to find out God's will for us personally.

The disciple is required to deny himself or herself, according to the Lord Jesus.

To deny ourselves is to choose God's will over our own.

This may sound like a dreadful way in which to live, I suppose. The truth is, doing God's will is not difficult most of the time; and in every instance it leads finally to love, joy, and peace.

We make many decisions each day, most of them minor and perhaps one or two major. If we desire to live by the body and blood of the Lamb of God, thus preparing ourselves for the separation that will occur when He is revealed in the sky above us, we must offer every decision to the Lord for His wisdom and approval.

Perhaps, we will not hear the Lord speak to us about each decision. That does not matter. The Bible tells us to commit all of our ways to the Lord and He will direct our paths.

In order to commit every decision to the Lord we must be persuaded:

That God knows the details of our life.

That God's desire is to bring us to love, joy, and peace.

That God is able to bring us to love joy and peace.

These three factors are a definition of faith.

Until we are doing God's will we are not acting as part of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is the doing of God's will in the earth as it is done in Heaven.

You know, the Jews missed their Redeemer because they thought He would come as a great king in the style of Solomon.

Instead He came as a sin-offering. They looked for manifest strength, but apparent weakness appeared instead.

As I said, we know there is a revival of unprecedented power and authority that will come from Heaven in the last days. We have had no idea that the revival, at least in part, would consist of the coming of the Lord to individuals to establish His throne in their hearts.

We picture revival as bringing such joyful deliverance that people will flock to us by the thousands. Instead, we see that Christ is searching for those who are willing to be His Life expressed in the earth.

To be continued.