Found: God's Will (John MacArthur Study)

by John F. MacArthur Jr.

Some Christians see God’s will like that: it’s nice if you get the brass ring, but if you don’t, just settle for an iron one. In other words, don’t really run to win—just be in the race.

Since God has a will for us, He must want us to know it. If so, then we could expect Him to communicate it to us in the most obvious way. And how would that be? Through the Bible, His revelation.

an apostate or false teacher denies the deity of Jesus Christ, denies “the Master who bought them” (2 Peter 2:1). The second thing that an apostate denies is the second coming of Christ (3:1–10).

This is the first thing about God’s will: He wants people to be saved.

Paul said, “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:3–4).

The apostle John said, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world.… The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever” (1 John 2:15–17).

Either you are not saved from your sin and you need to come to Christ because that is God’s will, or you are saved and need to reach others with the message of salvation.

You say you do not know what God’s will is, but I’ll tell you what it is. Above all it is that you know Christ and then that your neighbors hear about Christ. That is His will. So often we sit around twiddling our thumbs, dreaming about God’s will in some distant future when we are not even willing to stand up on our own two feet, walk down the street, and do God’s will right now.

First, if you want to know God’s will, you must be saved. Second, you must be Spirit-filled. That is the teaching of the Word of God.

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (Acts 1:8). The word for power in the Greek is dunamis, from which we got our word dynamite. It is a type of power that is massive and explosive.

In a measure, that pictures how the Spirit of God operates in a human life. He is in the Christian all the time as a compact, concentrated, powerful, and personal force of divine energy. The question is, has He ever been able to release that power, to fill your life so that you can become what He is? A Christian not yielded to the Spirit does not manifest the Christ life. The Spirit of God has to permeate a life if that life is to radiate Him.

The Spirit-filled life yields every decision to the control of the Spirit.

When Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit, he had the same power as when he was standing next to Jesus Christ! Now there’s something exciting! Do you know what the Spirit-filled life is? It is living every moment as though you are standing in the presence of Jesus Christ!

allos means another of exactly the same kind!

The Spirit-filled life is nothing more than living in the conscious presence of the indwelling Christ.

Paul said we are simply to be filled with the Spirit rather than being drunk. We are to be under the control of the Spirit rather than under the influence of wine (Eph. 5:18).

it is the result of letting “the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom” (Col. 3:16).

Do you see what the Spirit-filled life is? It is being saturated with the things of Christ—with His Word, His person.

Someone is reported to have asked a concert violinist in New York’s Carnegie Hall how she became so skilled. She said that it was by “planned neglect.” She planned to neglect everything that was not related to her goal.

Some less important things in your life could stand some planned neglect so that you might give yourself to studying the Word of God.

To be Spirit-filled is to live a Christ-conscious life, and there is no shortcut to that. You can’t go and get yourself super-dedicated to live a Christ-conscious life. The only way you can be saturated with the thoughts of Christ is to saturate yourself with the Book that is all about Him. And this is God’s will, that you not only be saved but that you also be filled with the Spirit.

Stay away from sexual sin. Paul did not say to avoid sex; he said to stay away from sexual sin.

“All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything” (1 Cor. 6:12). You can be blessed by God only so long as you are controlling what you do for His honor. When lust controls you, you have crossed the line.

The second principle concerning practical purity is expressed in 1 Thessalonians 4:4 (KJV): “Every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour.”

Subdue Your Passions The Christian is not to live “in lustful passion, like the Gentiles [heathens] who do not know God” (1 Thess. 4:5). What was Paul saying? Don’t act like the rest of the world—they are guided by their passions.

No one is to “go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter” (1 Thess. 4:6 KJV). In other words, don’t take advantage of people.

Mr. Edwards, you are God’s chosen instrument. According to your purity, so shall be your success. It is not great talent; it is not great ideas that God uses; it is great likeness to Jesus Christ. Mr. Edwards, a holy man is an awesome weapon in the hand of God” (see 2 Tim. 2:21).

Peter wrote, “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise for those who do right. For such is the will of God” (1 Peter 2:13–15).

If we are not the epitome of what a citizen should be in the world, we will certainly harm our testimonies.

Do you know what the critics of Christ look for in Christians? Faults. How are we going to prevent them from finding faults? Eliminate the faults. We need to put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.

God said, “Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king” (1 Peter 2:17).

if Christians ever learned to live the kind of life Peter described, we would turn the world upside down (Acts 17:6).

The only time believers are ever to violate the law of the land is when the law either forbids them to do what they have been told to do by direct command from God or commands them to do what God forbids.

We need to be different. We need to have the qualities of salt and light (Matt. 5:13–16).

Jesus put down the disciples for arguing about which of them would be greatest and told them that real greatness centers in being of service to others (Mark 9:33–35).

if you sign on with Jesus with greatness in mind, you better be aware that suffering comes first.

The apostle Peter wrote, “After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you” (1 Peter 5:10).

We are to suffer, not because we have failed to be the right kind of person when we were younger, not because we are antagonistic, grumpy, grouchy, or out of whack somewhere, but we should suffer for doing what is right.

“Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge” (v. 19).

One of the problems of evangelism today is that Christians are not willing to stand nose to nose with the world and tell it like it is concerning Jesus Christ.

Paul said that he gloried in infirmity, tribulation, necessity, even in persecution, because when he was persecuted, people got saved, and that is good.

God’s will is that you be saved, Spirit-filled, sanctified, submissive, and suffering.

Suddenly, like a concrete wall on a highway, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the gospel in Asia (Acts 16:6).

They were at the beach town of Troas, and “a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us’” (v. 9).

They need to start moving so God can steer them to that area of service He has planned.

“When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them” (Acts 16:10).

You may bounce off a lot of closed doors, but that is God’s way of forcing you into His open one. Get rolling! Be persistent.