Understanding how people enter the imperfect will of God

Scripture: Ephesians 5: 17 (NASB)

Topic:  Understanding how people enter the imperfect will of God   

In this series of our Quiet Time, we shall examine the art of hearing from God so that we may walk in His Perfect Will for us all the days of our lives. The Perfect Will of God creates positive outcomes in our lives as believers.

 “So then do not be foolish, but UNDERSTAND what the will of God is.

Ephesians 5: 17 (NASB)

 

1.      People enter the imperfect will of God by not accurately hearing the voice of God

“Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the Word of the Lord yet revealed unto Him”.

1 Samuel 3:7

It is important to be able to hear when God speaks. If you cannot tell when God has spoken you are going to be in serious trouble. That is why the art of hearing God’s voice is crucial to your survival. It is only when you have developed the art of hearing that you can be in the perfect will of God. Many people are in the imperfect will of God because the do not and cannot hear when God speaks.

2.      People enter the imperfect will of God because God allows men to have a free will.

“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become sons of God, even to them that believe on his name”.

John 1: 12

Amazingly, God does not force anyone to love Him or serve Him. God respects your will or decision to go to heaven or to hell. If you decide to do something against His Will, He will respect your decision and allow you to destroy yourself.

The prodigal son was allowed to leave the home because the father knew better than to keep an unwilling and rebellious son at home. Jesus came to save us all. But He respects the will of the people to accept His salvation or reject Him. “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19)

People will be condemned because the light came to the world but they freely chose the darkness.

3.      People enter the imperfect will of God because they want to be like others. God allows men to have a free will.

Wanting to be like others is the most dangerous desire a man of God can have. Wanting to be like others will lead you to reject God and His will. Jesus said, “I receive not honor from men”. (John 5:41)

“Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together and came to Samuel unto Ramah, and said unto him, Behold thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us LIKE ALL THE NATIONS”

I Samuel 8: 4-5

4.      People enter the imperfect will of God because they are presumptuous  

To be presumptuous is to arrogantly assume that privileges must be given to you. Uzziah wrongly assumed that because he was the king he had the right to do the work of priests. We often assume that we know the will of God because He has used us in the past. When we become presumptuous, we assume that our ideas are God’s ideas and our will is God’s will. Arrogance and pride lead us into error and into the imperfect will of God. No matter who you are, you are still a man and your will is not necessarily God’s will. You must seek the will of God.

“But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction: for he transgressed against the Lord his God, and went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense.

And Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him fourscore priests of the Lord, that were valiant men: And they withstood Uzziah the king, and said unto him, It appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the Lord, but to the priests the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated to burn incense: go out of the sanctuary; for thou hast trespassed; neither shall it be for thine honour from the Lord God. Then Uzziah was wroth, and had a censer in his hand to burn incense: and while he was wroth with the priests, the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord, from beside the incense altar.

And Azariah the chief priest, and all the priests, looked upon him, and, behold, he was leprous in his forehead, and they thrust him out from thence; yea, himself hasted also to go out, because the Lord had smitten him”.

2 Chronicles 26: 16-20

Credits: Excerpts from

Art of Hearing

Bishop Dag Heward-Mills