Knowing God's Will

I would quickly say that, using Friesen's arguments against "Experiencing God," one of the problems with the "personal plan for your life" or "God's intuitive special call" theology is that it takes extraordinary events from Scriptures involving a select few and declares that every believer should expect that to be the norm for his/her life.

 

I am leaving for a mission trip to Scotland and will not be back until July 16, 2006. I would love to discuss this issue further when I get back. Please be in prayer for the lost folks we will encounter while on the mission field.raying:

 

And that is where I will forever disagree with Friesen. I don't believe that there are only a few special individuals for who God plans a special life. I believe that God, who is our loving Father, cares enough about each and every believer to guide us with His Holy Spirit into the job that would be best for us, the mate who could best serve the Lord with us, and other matters. This belief, based on Scripture, led me to seek God's leading for my life and my wife.

I prayed for 9 years that God would guide me to the wife He had for me because I believed the direct statement of the Bible, "A prudent wife is from the Lord" (Prov. 19:14). It would take much too long to tell the story here, but suffice it to say that God led us together in a way that glorifies Him, and even chose our wedding date, leading us to know that date separately.

Our story is not that unusual. I have two little books compiled by missionary statesman Don Hillis, For More Than a Diamond and Love Is.... These books tell the stories of how God led many different couples together in clear, wonderful ways. Quite a few of them were missionaries, but I don't believe all were. God is even willing to lead the average believer in His will for them!!

After coming to Japan, I learned that I truly enjoy languages, something I never realized in the States. This is an area God has gifted me in, but following Friesen's advice I don't believe I woulld have discovered it. I had to step out on faith, obey His will and come to Japan.

The Holy Spirit is called a "paraclete," or "one called alongside to help." He is willing to help anyone who doesn't know what to do with their life or who to marry or where to live. :thumbs:

 

Have a great trip! raying: And be sure to ask those missionaries what they think about the subject. :smilewinkgrin:

 

You said peace of GOD about something as in future tense. In all your responces, including Jesus (remember, that was his third prayer, read the first two again) you showed peace acquired in the storm. This is as I said, "When you find peace IN the the storm, you found GOD."

All I am saying is having peace regarding a direction is not always indicating GOD's will. Sometimes GOD will is that we have problems, if not, HE can never show you HE's a problem solver.

I apologize, but I am not one who teaches pray and turn it over to Jesus and everyday will be sunny. I more agree with David, HE's a very present help IN times of trouble.

 

Actually, what I believe is that a sign of being in the center of the Lord's will is having peace about it. The fact is, you don't get God's peace until your mind is off yourself and stayed on Him. And you don't look for peace. It comes WHILE you do God's will. And if God's will is that we have problems, then we can have peace in the middle of the problems.

Absolutely. I know all about the storms. There have been many stormy times during our 25 years in Japan: going two hours one way for language school down in Tokyo for almost two years, our son being bullied, our son hospitalized, surgery for me, a huge tumor (benign) for my wife and then blood clots in the lungs after surgery that almost killed her, the dollar going down to 70 yen per dollar (imagine losing 30% of your salary within a few months), three leaving our church including one I had led to the Lord, the Bible institute I taught in refusing to allow the students to candidate in my church--I could go on and on.

In the midst of it all, God's peace was with us. But if we had not been in the center of God's will, our minds would not have been on Him, and we thus would not have had peace, according to Is. 26:3.

 

Sorry to assume but it was as I first posted, "Or maybe I mis-understand what you mean by peace of GOD." After seeing your storms, there is no hope for you if your soul is not ankered in the LORD. Nobody but Jesus could you bring you through all that.

I guess I get sensitive to this new "path of least resistence" teaching going on in some Churches today. Jesus guaren-told us, "for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."

 

I certainly don't recommend the "path of least resistence," though being over here I don't really know what teaching you are talking about.

I believe that to do God's individual will for them, a believer must offer his body as a living sacrifice to God (Rom. 12:1-2), and take up his or her cross and follow Jesus. Some people are called by God to do something and reject His will. Why? They are not committed to Him. They are not willing to say with Paul, "I die daily."

 

This is a thoughtful post by Rhetorician, and I wanted to comment on this specific aspect of it.

There is a real sense in which we can never know God's will for tomorrow. In fact, we are told exactly that in James 4:13-16, "Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil."

Do you believe in the imminent coming of the Lord? That He may come this very day? Then you have no right to be sure of anything tomorrow. Do you believe that you have an appointment with death that you cannot change (Heb. 9:27)? That appointment may come tonight, and you may never see tomorrow.

Though I believe very strongly in God's individual leading for each believer as to a vocation, location, mate and many other matters, that leadership is really a direction in light of the uncertainty of life. It can never be a certainty about tomorrow, but only a direction for today. So what should we do? Commit all we have to the Lord Jesus, pray daily for His direction, do His will for today, and walk with Him throughout the day and night. If you are doing these things, then you will know each step to take in your life at the right time--and not sooner.

It is late in Japan. I'll be heading for sleep soon. May God keep me until the morning, so I can prepare tomorrow for Sunday. But if Jesus comes before Sunday, I'll see you in the air!:sleeping_2:

 

I agree that God deals with each of us individually concerning His will, though I still think that my post concerning George Mueller's method was very important. You cannot do God's will unless you are completely committed to God, and have no desire whatsoever for your own will: "I die daily." Friesen does not seem to believe in this concept of "death to self," but strangely he portrays the "traditional view" as specifically opposing Mueller's statement on p. 74!

Notice these kinds of call that I've culled from the Bible. (There may be others.) Each one of them is different and individual:

1. Through the will of man, volunteering (Is. 6:8, 1 Tim. 3:1)
2. By force through the power of the Holy Spirit (Ez. ch. 2)
3. Through preparation from the womb (Jer. 1:4-10, Luke 1:15, Gal. 1:15)
4. Through a vision (Amos 1:1, Nahum 1:1, Acts 16:9-10, 26:19).
5. Through the Word of God (Jonah 1:1-2)
6. By a miracle (Ex. 3:1-10)
7. By the laying on of hands (Deut. 34:9)
8. Through the words of a man (1 Kings 19:15-21, Matt. 4:18-21, 9:9)

Now, Friesen does not believe that God calls anymore in this way. In Chapter 19 of my edition, he teaches that God does not call in the Bible way anymore, and that all of the calls of the Bible were "supernatural revelation" (p. 313). However, notice in my list above that Isaiah volunteered, Moses laid his hands on Joshua and Elijah threw his cloak on Elisha. None of these were supernatural revelation, but each of them was clearly God's will. In the New Testament, while Jesus called Saul/Paul supernaturally, He usually called His disciples by simply asking them to follow Him--not by miracles! "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men!" (Matt. 4:19).

 

God took the love away!

I want to comment some more on marriage according to God's will. Friesen disagrees with the idea that God will lead you to that "special one" for your life in Chapter 17 of his book. I have a few comments concerning this.

(1) If Friesen is right, then why did God say, "A prudent wife is from the Lord" (Prov. 19:14)?

(2) If he is right, then why do we have the beautiful story in Genesis 24 of how Abraham's servant prayed for a wife for Isaac and saw that prayer specifically answered? If we are not to imitate this, then why does the NT teach that the OT saints were our example (James 5:10, etc.)? The NT says to pray at all times (Eph. 6:18, etc.).

(3) If we should simply decide for ourselves with wisdom on such matters, why are we commanded to “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17), and to be “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints” (Eph. 6:18) and to “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (Phil. 4:6)? Jesus prayed all night before choosing His disciples (Luke 6:12-13), so surely a Christian ought to pray long and carefully before choosing a mate.

I said before on this thread that I prayed for nine years for a wife. During my college years I fell hard for a certain young lady who we will call Mabel. I was madly in love with her for about two years. It was during this time I prayed two things. First of all, I told the Lord that I wanted God’s perfect will for a mate, and if that was not Mabel, I did not want her. Secondly, I prayed that if God wanted me married, He would lead me to her in such a way that He would be glorified, that all who saw our romance would say, “Look what God is doing.” That prayer was certainly answered, as I wrote before in this thread. Every time we tell our story, people are amazed at what God has done!

At times Mabel would lead me on to where I thought I had a chance with her, but at other times she wanted to be "just friends." Ever heard or said that line? :laugh: Anyway, after a couple of years of on again and off again, I began studying friendship in the Bible and learned some interesting things. One day I walked Mabel home from classes and talked friendship over with her. According to every thing I had learned from the Bible about friendship, she was not my friend.

We sat down on a little wall next to her driveway and fell quiet. I then said softly, "Goodbye." Mabel said, "What do you mean by that?" but I didn't answer. I merely stood and walked away. At that moment, God took every bit of romantic feeling towards her away. One minute I fancied myself madly in love, and the next minute there was nothing there. From then on, any romantic feelings for Agnes were completely gone. Whatever you may think, to me it was a true miracle after I had struggled for years with my feelings. I only talked to her one more time after that, and that was at the beginning of the next school year, when she apologized to me for how she had treated me. (She had been to a Bill Gothard clinic!)

I have two close relatives who did not follow my philosophy. One thought that any Christian was okay to marry. She ended up with a jerk who continually abuses her verbally, and has gambling and porno habits, though a professing Christian. She is a wonderful, wonderful servant of Christ, but suffers. The other is also a wonderful Christian, but felt you could simply choose wisely who you wanted to marry, and it would be okay. She married a good Bible college grad, who seemed to love the Lord, but got involved in one of those pyramid schemes, and was always trying to “get rich quick.” They are now separated after he became physically abusive after 10 years of verbal abuse, and she has had to go to court several times because of his breaking and entering, threats, etc.

If you are a single young person considering marriage, I urge you with all of my heart: pray for God’s will! He will hear you if you are absolutely committed to whatever He has for you, and He will answer! raying:

 

Praise the Lord, brother!

 

Good to hear, the Lord does move in mysterious ways...