Summer
1998
Knowing
His Will for our Lives
John W Follette
As we daily walk with the Lord, seeking to please Him in
all things, His will for our lives will gradually unfold before
us.
"For it is God who works in you both to will
and to do of His good pleasure" Phil 2:13.
A man once said that he had totally submitted his life to
the Lord. Then he likened this to giving the Lord two bundles.
In the first bundle, he placed all that he knew. This included
all that he presently possessed or related to in any way.
He considered these and said, "In so far as I know, Lord,
I unconditionally surrender myself and all these things to
you."
In the second bundle, he placed the unknown. This included
all that the Lord might require of him, but of which he knew
nothing. Again, he considered these possibilities and then
unconditionally gave these to the Lord.
Thus, he had surrendered to the Lord the totality of His
being, both present and future. Usually, we feel satisfied
concerning the first level of commitment - that which is known.
But we may be caught unprepared when the Lord asks for something
from the second level - the unknown. We then struggle as to
how to respond, as we feel that we have already committed
all to the Lord.
We must come to understand that our submission to the Lord
is a progressive, ongoing experience. We make one grand surrender,
and then many lesser but deeper surrenders as we spiritually
develop and grow.
Once we have unconditionally surrendered the totality of
our being to the Lord, He will accept it and then wonderfully
bless us. While we are still under the inspiration of this
lovely blessing, we may say to the Lord, "I will go where
You want me to go, I will say what You want me to say, I will
be what You want me to be."
However, in a few days, when the Lord asks of us the simplest
thing, we are unable to respond to Him, according to all that
we had promised. There must yet be a deeper work of preparation
within us before we will be able to make the surrender the
Lord desires.
Some years ago, a young man who had some experience in the
ways of the Lord came to the Bible School where I taught.
He had ministered in some very successful meetings and had
prayed for those who were sick and they were healed. All this
made him feel important. He came to school with the idea that
he knew much about spiritual things. I heard him pray an extravagant
prayer, in which he so desired to please the Lord that even
martyrdom would be welcomed.
Each student was required to do a work duty. Whenever it
came his turn to wash dishes, he declared that God had not
called him to wash dishes, but to preach the Gospel. I thought,
"You will not be fit to preach the Gospel until you can
wash the dishes."
He went through an awful struggle. Once, as he loudly prayed
about being a martyr, I wanted to tell him about the dish
pan. In his spirit, something was twisted, but on the surface
there was not a nicer person.
After being a pastor for a few years, he visited the school.
He hugged me and said he had not known what ministry was really
like, but now that he had pastoral responsibilities, he understood.
The Lord had done a marvelous work within him.
Each of us should be careful of pledging, "I will be
what you want me to be, I will go where You want me to go"
just because it is easy to sing. The Lord might send us where
we do want to go, or require of us something that we may not
desire to do. He knows exactly what to ask of us, in order
to expose our need.
If we recognize that the Lord has something far better for
us, for which our present level of spiritual commitment and
experience is inadequate, and we make the necessary surrender,
He will bring the necessary corrections in order to lift our
experience to the level of our new commitment.
This is the foundational step in our becoming the overcomers
the Lord is preparing for His purposes.
"To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me
in My Throne, even as I also overcame, and am set
down with My Father in His Throne" Rev 3:21.