Empowered to succeed

So last week we were looking at this aspect of purpose and how we need to first love God, ourselves and others so purpose can begin to unfold. This week we will be looking at living in the will of God. I think sometimes people are not sure whether they are living in the will of God. God’s will for our lives is not an undiscoverable secret. His will for us is interwoven through Scripture.

One of the important aspects of living in the will of God, is living a surrendered life. You cannot seek to control your own life and still do what is pleasing to God because what is pleasing to God is that our lives become living sacrifices, Romans 12:1. So in order to walk in the will of God we must first be ready to surrender all to Him.

Galatians 2:20 says, “My old identity has been co-crucified with Messiah and no longer lives; for the nails of his cross crucified me with him. And now the essence of this new life is no longer mine, for the Anointed One lives his life through me—we live in union as one! My new life is empowered by the faith of the Son of God who loves me so much that he gave himself for me, and dispenses his life into mine”.

We cannot attempt to keep living our lives our own way. This new life we have is no longer ours. We can’t run it. We don’t know how to. It didn’t come with a manual but it came with the Creator. The verse says, “we live in union as one (with Christ)!” That means instead of us trying to control our lives, we can let God step into the driver’s seat. That way we get to throw our hands up in holy surrender as we enjoy the ride.

When we live life this way, we don’t have to struggle to be “good”. We don’t have to strive to figure out the will of God. Instead we will find that as we surrender more of ourselves to Christ, He dispenses more of His life in us until our lives come in alignment with His will.

Surrender is a first step and the second is found in Joshua 1:8 where God instructs us to, “[s]tudy this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.” The Book of Instruction is the Bible. We are to study it and meditate on it and obey all that is written in it. It may feel like a contradiction to what I said above about struggling to be good but Jesus promises to empower us to obey Him, (see Philippians 2:13, Hebrews 13:20-21, John 14:15-17 TPT).

As we study the Bible and meditate on it, we need to ensure that we also give room for God to transform our minds and our lives. We can’t just read the Bible as though we are reading a novel. There are no points for quoting scripture but there is great benefit in embracing it and living it. Romans 12:2 says, “Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes.”

If we allow God to transform our minds, we will be empowered to discern the will of God for our lives. It comes back to loving God and loving people as yourself. It is all about relationship. These things that I am addressing should flow from your relationship with God. Such that reading the Bible is not a chore but it is quality time with Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

The more time we spend with God, the more we get to know Him. The more we get to know Him the more we get to know what pleases Him and His will for our lives. When we live life in relationship with God we begin to discern what God wants us to do in any situation. We begin to know His heart towards us and towards others and that will be our compass for what we need to do in any given situation.

One last thing, you have to know that God does things in seasons. It is important to stay in close relationship with God that you may know His will for your life in each season. What was right and good last season may not necessarily be right or good for this season. So, we have to stay connected with God and stay on this journey of meditating on the word and allowing our minds to be transformed that we may keep living beautiful lives and keep discerning God’s will along the way.

Love and blessings,

Melissa Tsingano