Have you heard about the two wills of God for every believer?
When we come into a loving and personal relationship with Jesus Christ, we desire to know God's will for our lives.
I believe it is within each believer to desire to please and glorify God in every area of life.
We all desire to make sure we are doing the will of God when it comes to our relationships, jobs, finances, and careers.
We ask God for wisdom and direction so that we may enter His will through the right door for whatever is before us.
I believe that God has great plans for each individual and desires to see His will be done.
At the same time, I believe it’s essential to not only find the will of God for our personal lives but also to understand that some things are His general will.
There Are Two Wills of God
I am only using the phrase “general will” to establish my point in this post.
His general will is something that we can discover in His word, and it applies to every individual.
We sometimes spend our whole lives praying, fasting, and seeking counsel from others on how to take our next step in life because we don’t want to miss God's will.
Yet, how many of us are doing some of God's “general wills?”
Examples of God’s General Wills for Your Life
I want to look at some of the wills of God that are general for everyone.
This is not an exhaustive list, and I encourage you to spend some time in scripture discovering other “wills” God may desire for His people:
1. Believe in Jesus Christ
John 6:40 ESV
For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
God desires that we believe, look to Jesus Christ, and find eternal life.
We sometimes forget that God desires more than just giving us material blessings and whatever we want in our hearts.
He longs for people to come into personal relationships with Him and receive the gift of eternal life. This was the purpose that Jesus came into the world.
Every single individual is lost and in darkness without Jesus Christ.
You might think because you are rich in this natural world, everything is good, but if you don’t have Jesus Christ, you are out of the will of God.
Have you believed and have eternal life?
2. Being Thankful in All Circumstances
1 Thessalonians 5:18
Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
First, I want you to notice the scripture says to be thankful “in” all circumstances, not be thankful “for” all circumstances.
You cannot help when bad circumstances come your way, but you can choose how you will react, and that reaction is determined by how much you desire to do God’s will.
If we are honest, this is not always easy to obey when it comes to God’s will.
Circumstances and difficulties can press us down, and it can be hard to still find a reason to be thankful.
How can you be thankful when your body is ravished with pain and sickness?
Or how can you be thankful when you are dealing with a rebellious child and find yourself staying up all night concerned?
These questions and many more will cause you to stop and wonder how and if even it’s possible to be thankful.
Let me encourage you: You can still be thankful when life hits you the hardest.
The reason is that you know a God who can work all things for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose (see Romans 8).
God is not the author of your pain, but He can work during that pain to bring something good out of it.
When I was a young child, I lost both of my parents to an automobile accident. It was the most devastating news in my entire life.
The day I received the news still echoes as if it were yesterday. I thought it was a dream and wanted to wake up.
I felt like life could not get any worse. I was born with a physical disability, and now, I was without my parents. But God stepped in and rescued me and my family.
He revealed his love and compassion to us during that season of our lives.
Ever since that terrible day, God has been in my life, and it’s been a joyous journey with Him.
I’m not thankful for what happened, but I am grateful God stepped in when I needed Him the most.
The circumstance may be difficult but focus on the God who can do the impossible.
Praise Him and thank Him that the answer is on the way and He is working everything
out for your good.
Have you been thankful?
3. Honor God Sexually
1 Thessalonians 4:3–5
3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;
I know this is not popular to discuss, but I believe it’s more important than ever because we live in a day when good is called evil, and evil is called good.
It’s a do-what-you-want type of world.
While the world may see this as OK, God has a different plan for His people, and it’s His will that we honor Him with our bodies and stay away from sexual immorality.
The Bible teaches that we are spirit, soul, and body.
Many think we only worship and honor God with our spirits and forget that God has purchased us entirely: spirit, soul, and body.
Therefore, we should honor God with our physical bodies by staying away from sexual sin.
Understand that sexual desire is never the problem because God gave that to each one of us.
But it’s how we manage that desire that makes the difference. It’s possible to take something meant for good and turn it into evil.
It is the will of God that we live holy lives. The word holy or sanctification means to be set apart for a purpose.
We are not called to be ordinary people like everyone else.
Just because the world thinks it’s OK to have multiple partners and to be sexually active outside of the covenant of marriage does not mean it is God’s will.
We have the power through the Holy Spirit to control our bodies.
There are many people throughout the Old Testament who gave themselves over to sexual immorality, and it resulted in idolatry and caused them to stray away from God altogether.
Joseph was a man serving in a household when his master’s wife came and tried to seduce him.
Joseph had the wisdom to flee the situation. The scriptures tell us that Joseph did not want to sin against God and his master.
Joseph desired to do God’s will when it came to his sexual cravings.
Paul, the great apostle, makes this same argument throughout the book of Corinthians.
He teaches the church to understand their bodies belong to God and that they have been bought at a price.
We no longer belong to ourselves but have a calling to use our body as instruments of righteousness (see Romans 6).
Will you glorify God with your body?
Conclusion
As I stated before, this is not an exhaustive list, but I gave you three that I want you to consider when it comes to doing God's will.
Yes, God has a will and a plan for your individual life, but why not start with the general commands He gives us that fulfill His will?
Sometimes, the little things we don’t do cause us to miss out on the bigger things God has for us.
Let’s be people who do all the will of God in our lives!
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