"Knowing God's Will", by John MacArthur

 God's Will Is...

FIRST:  for us to be Saved

SECOND: Spirit-filled (which means that you be controlled by, totally influenced by the Spirit, which happens when the Word of Christ dwells in you so that you live in the consciousness of His presence.) 

THIRD:  Sanctified (set apart from sin)

"I could give you some more points but I’ll cut it at this point. It is God’s will in 1 Peter 2 that you be submissive. It is God’s will in 1 Peter 4 that you be suffering because you’re an effective evangelist. But let’s just take these three things, okay? Saved, Spirit-filled, sanctified, all right? That’s God’s will for your life. Now let me give you something that’s going to wrap this all up.

You say, “Wait a minute, you didn’t tell me anything about what I want to know. I want to know who to marry, what to do, I want to know about next semester, I want to know this, I want to know that. How can I know these details that aren’t in the Bible?”

Are you ready for this? Listen to this, this is a verse that you should really learn to love. I’m going to read it to you. Psalm 37 verse 4, listen to what it says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will do it.”

Now listen to this. Delight in the Lord and He’ll give you the desires of your heart. Now let me ask you a question. If I’m saved, if I’m Spirit-controlled, and if I’m sanctified, am I delighting in the Lord? Sure...sure. And if I’m delighting in the Lord, He will give me the desires of my heart. You know what that means? That doesn’t mean He’ll give me what I want simply, it means He’ll make me want what He wants for me. Did you get that? He will give me the desires of my heart. He will give me His desires.

You say, “Where are you going with this?” Just this, if I’m saved, Spirit-filled, sanctified, do you know what God’s will is? You know what it is? Whatever you want. You say, “Wait a minute, whatever I want? Whatever I want is God’s will?” Right, because who is controlling your wants?

...if you’re not a Christian, you’re just playing a game at it, or if you’re not allowing the Spirit of God to control your life and being saturated by the Word, and you’re not living a pure and sanctified set-apart life, you don’t really have much chance to find the unknown part of God’s will.

But if your life is right, you can follow the desires of your heart cause having delighted in Him, He will give you the desires of your heart."

- message to young people by John MacArthur
Listen - 43 minutes

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