If it is God's Will

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

IF IT GOD’S WILL

Acts 18:18-23

18 Paul stayed on in Corinth for some time. Then he left the brothers and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. Before he sailed, he had his hair cut off at Cenchrea because of a vow he had taken. 19 They arrived at Ephesus, where Paul left Priscilla and Aquila. He himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. 20 When they asked him to spend more time with them, he declined. 21 But as he left, he promised, "I will come back if it is God's will." Then he set sail from Ephesus. 22 When he landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church and then went down to Antioch. 23 After spending some time in Antioch, Paul set out from there and traveled from place to place throughout the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.

NIV

We have already looked at this passage from the standpoint of a vow with either Paul or Aquila fulfilling their Nazirite vow, with the cutting off of his hair. We looked at making vows. But there is something else here that catches our thoughts and that is the statement of Paul, “I will come back if it is God’s will”. Living in accordance with God’s will should be the goal, or perhaps we should say the purpose of every believer, yet we cannot force this lifestyle upon others, but merely make it our personal ambition to always be in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing, in accordance with the will of God. This would make it rather difficult then to have any personal ambitions, that are driven by self-interests. We need to always be aware of the will of God for our lives. This can only be accomplished through three methods that we can currently think of. First, is to spend time in prayer with our mouths shut up tight, thus it would mean that we are strictly in the listening mode, so that we can hear the still small voice of the Lord. We believe it is rather impossible to hear from God if we are always chattering about our needs and then get up and leave to go about the day according to our plans. Second, we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us and once again, we think we cannot hear his voice which would be giving us direction, and guidance, as well as leading us into all truth, which brings us to the third possibility of knowing the will of God. We can find much of His will within His word. This may be in the form for all believers, such as when Jesus said that we should love the Lord God with all our being and that we should love our neighbor as ourselves. This is the will of God for all of us who profess that we are following Jesus. However, at the same time, there are moments when we are within the word of God that his word speak directly into our spirit, our soul, and our mind and we have a clear understanding of this personal will of God. For Paul, it meant staying in one place for a time, or going on to another place, but always he knew that his purpose according to the will of God was to spread the good news about Jesus. That was his singular calling or purpose in his life. Yes, Paul had an incredible encounter with Jesus that transformed his entire life. However, if we accepted the Lord Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior having both followed him in the water of baptism, publicly confessing our faith in Jesus, and having been baptized in or by the Spirit, we have had an incredible encounter with Jesus as well. This should cause a transformation within us, changing the whole course of our lives. This transformation is not about the do’s and don’ts, or the rules and regulations of denominational living. This change, this transition is about from doing our will to doing his will, at the very least, being concerned about how we can do his will. What is it that God wants to do in and through us? Where does he want us to stay or does, he wants us to go somewhere, to move on from on city to another, from a neighborhood, or even from a church? Are we living exactly where God’s will is for us? Are we working right where His will is for us? Are we in the church that is his perfect will for us, and are we doing ministry according to his will. We have to be very careful to know the difference between our and his will in every aspect of our lives. If we have any motto to live by it should be, “If it is God’s will”.