I John 5:14 (KJV)
And this is the
confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his
will, he heareth us
Rom. 12:2 (KJV)
And be not conformed to
this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may
prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
We have always emphasized the placed and importance of faith
in getting answers to prayers, but there are many believers who can’t really
even tell whether they are in faith or not. Someone may say I am believing God
for so and so but I am not even sure if it is the will of God for me to have it
or not. This is a big error that makes a mockery of faith itself. You cannot
exercise faith where you are not sure whether what you are exercising faith
over is the will of God or not. It is really that simple – faith begins where the will of God is known. The starting point of
your faith is a certainty that what you are releasing your faith over is God’s
will. If you were not sure that what you are believing God for is His will,
then you cannot exercise genuine faith. This is the reason why every faith
action must be rooted in scriptures. The will of God is contained in the
scriptures and as a matter of fact the Bible is God’s will for you.
The Old Testament was written for your learning (Rom. 15:4)
but the epistles were written to you. So we can safely conclude that the New
Testament is God’s will for you just as Paul the apostle argued, and that will
was enforced by the death of the testator who is Jesus (Heb. 9:11-20). The
implication is that you can take scriptures from the testament which is simply
a Will and apply to yourself. For instance in
3 John 2, it says I wish above all things that you prosper and be in
health, that is God’s good will for all believers, and you can exercise your
faith based on that scripture for healing and prosperity. But if you weren’t
sure if God wanted you to prosper and be in health as that scripture says,
there is no way your faith can get to work.
Now the illustration above may appear simple and straight
forward because you at least know some basic things; that God wants you to
prosper, He wants you to be in health, He wants you to be fruitful, and so on.
We refer to all of these as God’s good will for all His children. Beyond the
general good will, which you can expressly see as you read through the
scriptures, God has a perfect will for every one of us individually and
although God’s perfect will for you may be contained in His general good will
i.e in scriptures, it is locked in there, and can only be discovered as you
wait upon Him in prayers and fellowshipping with the word. This is exactly what
our text (Rom 12:2) says. You get to find out from scriptures what God’s
general good will is for all His children, and then what God’s specific and
perfect will is for you as an individual.
It is easier to find out the general good will of God for you
because they are there right before you all over the scriptures as you read,
and you can immediately get your faith to work to make them your own
experience. But when it comes to other issues that are more specific, you may
not simply find them on the surface of scriptures. It may require deeper search
of the scriptures, deep meditation, and fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit
from where you can then get to know what God’s specific will is for you in that
instance. It is only after you have ascertained the will of God that you are
now ready for the battle of faith. If you just rush into attempting to exercise
faith over an issue without being sure if you have ascertained the will of God
concerning that issue, your faith will be porous, you will doubt your faith,
and fall flat on your face, because your faith doesn’t have the needed
foundation to hold it through the storm. The more this continues to happen, the
weaker your faith gets because your experiences will be silently breeding
mistrust between you and God (In my next article I will elaborate on the
subject of faith and trust), and it is only a matter of time before you come
into that conclusion that this faith business doesn’t work for you.
The bottom line then is that you need to get into the word of
God and fellowship with the Holy Spirit to find out God’s will regarding any
area of your, whether it is the general good will or His perfect will for you.
It is only after you have found out God’s will for yourself that you are now
ready to exercise faith, otherwise, you will only be presumptuous, and doing
more harm to your capacity for faith. One provision you can take advantage of where
you are finding it hard to discern God’s will concerning an issue is to pray in
tongues. (Rom. 8:26, 1 Cor. 14:2)
Don’t be in a hurry to exercise your faith concerning any
issue, first be sure to have found out God’s will concerning that issue. Always
remember that faith begins where the will of God is known.
Shalom!
N.B
For questions on this subject and other subjects, kindly use the Prayer request/Testimony pane. You can also send me an email or reach me by Phone on 08081249992
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