living out the will of god
“The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.”
“Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. (3) And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature. (4) So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way.” Luke 19:2-4
To evoke curiosity in the hearts and minds of people around us, our life has to be the life of the culture of the kingdom of God, which is a counter-culture to that of the world around us. The life of the kingdom is an outcome of the wellbeing of the soul, which is because of the breath to breath relationship that we are in with Jesus.
How did we have the kingdom life in the very beginning? God gave us, ‘free will’. Man was to take his free will and willingly surrender and submit it to God’s will. God had to be enthroned in his life. From the very beginning, the relationship that man had with God was of being subject to the King and being in God’s kingdom.
The life of God’s kingdom is a life surrendered to the will of God. The kingdom of God and the will of God go together.
“Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” Matthew 7:21, 6:10
To live out the kingdom life, Jesus subjected Himself to His Father’s will. “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” John 6:38
The world around us will pressurize us to its pattern, but we as His people must, with all intentionality, seek the Lord’s will, continuously. It is when we are walking in His will that we are being transformed to being His kingdom people here on earth. The Holy Spirit enables us to live out His will.
“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Romans 12:2
If we were to conform to the ways of the world then we must know that we are working with the enemy, for he, the devil, is the ruler of this world (John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11)
“Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” James 4:4
God’s word, therefore, encourages us not to love the world. “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.” (I John 2:15-17)
How do we know the will of God? The will of God and His word are the same. The Lord reveals Himself in His word. As we understand His word by the leading of His Holy Spirit and as we conform to His word, we will be in the will of God. God, of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firs fruits of His creatures.
We are a demonstration of the word and the will of God. This is the lesson the Lord was longing to make the Israelites understand but very sadly, the majority of them, 20 years and above, who came out of Egypt, perished in the wilderness, since they did not learn to live by God’s word.
Bread embodies the material needs of life. We are here to live by God’s word, which is His will and which is also life in His kingdom. When we continuously seek His kingdom, His will or His word then our material needs will be added to us.
The world is watching if we as His people are chasing the material needs of life–just as they are, as our priority or are we seeking the will of God as our precedence over all else.
If at this point, we are no different from the world around us, then the world will cast us aside as people of no real significance.