“This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; but you shall meditate therein day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success.” (Joshua 1:8) “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Cor 13:13)

There are three things that more than anything else I know of, seem to determine where we end up in life. They are the things we think on, the words we speak and the actions we take. This is a profound truth and will be the object of much study for me in the months to come.

Each of those three things are choices we make each day and involve a deliberate action. There are three other things that are unseen that also greatly affect the outcome of our life and they loosely parallel, what’s in our mind, what’s in our mouth and what motivates our actions. They are first of all, hope which is an anchor for our soul (Heb 6:19) and in its simplest form is a positive attitude about the present and the future. It arises from the things we think about and the beliefs we choose as a result of those thoughts.

The second unseen parallel is faith. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:13 “We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;” Faith before it runs toward the challenge, speaks. It declares the outcome. This is a big topic for subsequent blogs. Faith however, without works is dead (James 2:17) and thus action always follows. But Galatians 5:6 says that faith works by love. It is motivated and empowered by love and love voluntarily labors. (1 Thess. 1:3)

And what does that labor produce? The harvest of what you think, what you expect and what you say. I will leave that with you for now and look forward to developing these thoughts with you in the weeks ahead. In the meantime, change your thoughts, change your life. Selah.

“And Jonathan said to the young man that bore his armor, Come, and let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised: it may be that the LORD will work for us: for there is no restraint on the LORD to save by many or by few… And his armor bearer said unto him, Do all that is in your heart: turn you; behold, I am with you according to your heart.” (1 Sam 14)

Here’s a man (Jonathan) that wanted to take territory for the Lord. He seeks out the enemy’s camp and upon finding it; he reasons that God can save by many or few. It matters not. Not being certain whether it was God’s will or not to attack a garrison of enemy soldiers where they were greatly outnumbered, Jonathon took a risk. They would taunt the enemy and if the enemy invited them down for a fight instead of going up to them, they would take that as a sign from God of His deliverance and attack the garrison. Just one man and his armor bearer would attack a garrison because the enemy returned the taunt!

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If we make a mistake by doing something that we believe is God’s will but isn’t… Will time stop? Will the earth melt? Will God have a hernia? Do you allow your children to make mistakes? Do they not learn from them? Have you not learned as much or more from your mistakes than you did from things you were correct on?

I see far too much paralysis, uncertainty, hesitancy in the body of Christ out of a genuine desire to do the Father’s will. But the heathen, unaffected by any desire to do God’s will, forge ahead and take territory — territory that God wants His footprint on… territory that God wants to expand His kingdom, His influence, His presence, His control upon.

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As long as we love God, we will always desire both good and evil. But again, desire comes from two words… “de” which means “of the” and “sire” which means “to father.” Every desire has a father, a point of origin, a source. What is the source of your desires? Well, some of our desires are fathered by the flesh and others are born of the Spirit. Welcome to the Christian life on planet Earth! We have conflicting desires and will until the day we die. That’s our reality. The threshing floor is the throne of grace, the place of His presence.

Sometimes it’s hard for us to know which desire is in accordance with God’s will for our lives. I believe that when we spend time in the presence of God, something happens. The fleshly desires, even those with religious appearances, begin to lose their luster. God’s best for us begins to shine and the desire to walk in that moves us to lay aside personal preference and lay hold of that which we were apprehended for. (Phil 3:12)

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What a dangerous statement for Augustine to have made — or, for that matter, Martin Luther. When we truly love God and don’t just have the form of it, our desires will come into line with His. What about Jesus in Gethsemane? No one would argue His love for God, and yet it was put forth that Jesus desired to avoid the cross. (“Take this cup from Me“). So if Jesus desired something outside the will of God it was suggested, couldn’t we also even if we “truly love God”?

So what do you suppose held Jesus to the cross? Did God the Father force Him? No. It was His love that held Him to the cross. Of course He had conflicting desires. We all do. But in the end He went with His highest desire which was to do Father’s will, which is my point. Jesus had just spent hours with the Father, which was His custom. As a result of this, He received the strength to choose to endure the cross, despising the shame for the joy that was set before Him.

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Did you know that you can be so obsessed with knowing God’s will that you can be trapped in paralysis? Afraid to step out because you are not sure if it is God’s will. I would wager that nearly everyone reading this post has struggled or is currently struggling with this issue and it’s something we need to revisit now.

Some people are so obsessed with knowing God’s will for their life they ask God what clothes to wear or what restaurant to eat at today. Can you imagine having adult kids that checked with you daily over simple matters like that? Now thankfully most of us aren’t stuck in that rut, but still we wonder if the dream we have is of God or not. We want three signs, a prophecy and advance payment just to be sure! Where is your sense of adventure?!?!

When Solomon dedicated the temple, he quoted God who had previously said that He had “chosen no city from any tribe of Israel in which to build a house that My name might be there, but I chose David…” (1 Kings ch.8) Solomon goes on to explain that it was David who had it in his heart to build a temple for the name of the Lord God of Israel. This was not something God ordered, but it was in David’s heart and David perhaps more than any Old Testament figure delighted in God’s presence and God delighted in him - and blessed the building of the temple.

Want to know if the dream you have or the work you are doing is God’s will for your life? Do like Augustine suggested… Love God, and then do as you please. When you delight yourself in the Lord, He will give you the desires of your heart. The key is to truly love God, and then your desires will be in line. To be continued…