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God's will
GOD'S WILL
Each and every day we face some sort of a trial. Whether it be big or small, it's a trial to see how we will react or to bring about growth in us, or maybe even in someone else. We might not ever know the purpose for the trial, but we can be assured that God does! We are to put our faith and trust fully in Him, without having any doubt, knowing that His will is being executed in us as He sees fit.
Our Lord, Jesus Christ experienced trials during His life time as well. The final trial was when they prepared Him for death. He asked God His Father to take this cup from Him,“Saying, Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from Me: nevertheless not My will, but Thine, be done” (Luke 22:42).
By doing this, our Lord showed commitment to God the father, and the willingness to allow God to do His will in Him as He saw needful. This is an example for us to do the same. God looks at the way we react to the trial that we are facing, letting us choose the way to handle it. But we can be assured that God will not put too much on us, so that we cannot overcome. “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Cor 10:13).
We all know we cannot all be tested in the same way. Why? Because each of us is gifted with differing talents. But we are all called for the same purpose. All cannot be the eye or the mouth or the ear. But we are all called to be of the same body. “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him” (1 Cor 12:12-18).
The human body is an illustration of unity and diversity. The body is one, yet has many members. Although all the believers are different and perform different functions, they all combine to make one functioning unit - the body! This is why God allows each one of us to be tested in different ways. We are all different, yet all the same, in the sense that we are working toward the mark God has called each of us for. No matter what trial we face, we can be assured God is working His will in us as He deems necessary - whether we be an eye, ear or mouth! We are gathered with other people of like minds making us into one body with Christ! “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” (1 Cor 1:10).
Notice an example given to us by God, the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. The story goes that they would not bow down to the golden image Nebuchadnezzar had set up. They were thrown into the furnace that was heated seven times the normal. God did His will and allowed them to come out of the furnace without even one hair of their hair singed, nor even the smell of smoke on them. They were willing to let God do His will and they did not bow down to Nebuchadnezzar's image! They stuck together and made it through the fiery trial! “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal”(1 Cor 12:7).
Around 1960, a Dartmouth University biology professor named Herb Bormann studied the roots of trees in a white pine forest. He injected roots with dyes, herbicides, and radioactive tracers and discovered that the trees passed these substances among themselves via a vast network of underground root grafts and unions. "Many trees are linked into organic unions and are subject to the influence of their grafted companions," he wrote.
That's not a bad illustration of spiritual gifts in the body of Christ. Individual Christians are given gifts, the benefits and blessings of which they share with other members of the body. Every member, then, benefits from the gifts of every other member. Paul's metaphor of the human body reveals the same effect: Just as organs are bound together organically in the body, so believers are “joined and knit together by what every joint
supplies” (Ephesians 4:16). When every member contributes, the whole church is made stronger. And it is made weaker with each member whose gift remains unused.
If our spiritual gift is lying dormant, reach out and touch others. It's the only way to pass to others what God has given you. Nothing is really ours until we share it.
So in our calling today, we need to work together as one! We must be willing to let God work His will in each one of us. We should not depend on one person to do it all, but help out where ever we can. God has given us everything we need to fulfill His will. He provides us with His Holy Spirit to give us the guidance we need. He has given His wisdom and understanding, His counsel, might and knowledge so we can learn to fear Him. God has provided all of us with everything we need to fulfill His will in our life. No matter what trial we face, whether its big or small, we can be assured God's will is being done through it. No matter what the out come of the trial is, we can stand firm, knowing it is God's will for us.
“He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things. And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love”(Eph 4:10-16).
Let's march on toward the mark of our high calling, letting God's will be done in us as He sees fit to use us.
John Post
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