Knowing God's will vs quick and lazy spirituality

Here are some thoughts on God's will.
There is a phenomenon which knowing God's will becomes a cliche.
What does it actually encompass?

• Easy to know God's will, hard to obey
• Knowing God's will becomes a cliche when people lose the patience and the humility to seek God and instead seek instant results without the Holy Spirit
• Having the heart and character and desire to obey God's will is impossible by the flesh
• Quick spirituality mentality is wrong and deadly, thinking God's will only applies to what he wants us to do and trying to do it by our own plans and agendas is wrong. need to seek God and draw close to him by reading the Bible and seeking understanding, by prayer, humility and submission before God. This is what we have to do, God gives us the grace by empowering us with the Holy Spirit, this is what he does, we have to ask, we have to believe he will give us, we have to wait.
• God's will also talks about our character and being. example: John 15:1-17, Galatians 5:16-26, Ephesians 4:31-32, 1 Thess 5:16-18 without these transformations God's will regarding our actions cannot be done.
• Quick and easy spirituality mentality can lead people to search for so called God's direct speech outside of scripture, this is dangerous without first understanding what the scripture says about God's will, the irony is scripture is the most direct means of finding out God's will.
• The difficulty is scripture is not systematized, but each thought is broken up and sprinkled throughout all the books, one part of one book gives insight into another. So it is necessary to labour in order to understand God's will and grow in wisdom. Be like the man in psalm 1 who meditates on it day and night!
• Believe God loves you as much as he says in the Bible, it is the remedy to shame from failure and bondage to performance.
• Press on to know Christ, do not seek directly to do God's will, or doing God's will will become your god. Bearing fruit is a natural result of abiding in Christ.

The normal Christian life

Faith before intellects, scripture before human philosophy and wisdom in evangelism

Recently I've been spending a lot of time studying with a friend. I prayed for opportunities to share the gospel, and it's been a really humbling experience.

It started off badly when somehow we started talking about philosophical concepts on how human interpret truth, our conversation became more and more heated and we talked until 1 or 2 am when the next day he has to work and I have school. Basically it was brutal when I tried to play the intellectual game. I felt really sad and stupid that night, and I realized I did not trust in God during the conversation with my friend.

Thankfully, God listened to my prayers and more opportunities came up the following few days. I was able to tell him Christianity is not about being a good person, how we are all accountable and sinful before God, how there will be judgment after death, and how Jesus is our only hope. I've learned that it is joyful when I faithfully speak truth from the Bible instead of trying to be sneaky and all intellectual, the fight is not with the intellects of the unsaved, but heart and spirit, and Satan's lies and control over this world.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

This fight is not ours to win, but God's, he is the author of faith, and he is able to save to the uttermost.

Power to live

Your word is a lamp to my feet and light to my path. - Psalm 119:105
I am the true vine...Apart from me you can do nothing - Jesus

Understanding the Bible and knowing God's character and his will is a wonderful thing. But when it comes to living our lives, it is not enough.

In the past week there was so much struggle with fear, bitterness, and ugly thoughts in my mind all day. I know and understand sometimes what the correct way a Christian is supposed to think and act, but the power to do so isn't in me.

A good analogy I stole from Paul Washer is iron man. His suit of armour is very powerful, but he can't make it move with his body of flesh and blood. In the same way I can't live according to God's will without Christ.

This is a very hopeful truth. I long to be like saints of old such as Paul, not afraid of men, being able to boldly proclaim the gospel, and live rejoicing in Christ, counting all as loss, this seems very difficult, but not impossible. Paul is a man just like me, but he relied on Christ as the vine and source of power.

This is a great reminder to me that Christianity is not about knowledge, understanding, wisdom, although these things are good. But a person, man and God Jesus Christ.