Does God know what He’s doing? Most Bible believers would say "yes." That is, until you pursue the matter...press them...move from the general to the particular. Try asking the question another way: Have you completely abandoned your own will in favor of the will of God as revealed in Scripture? Do you not prefer your will to His on many occasions? Do you always choose to do what He tells you to do in the Bible? Do you consistently bless those who curse you? Have you forgiven everyone for everything? Does not your ego rear its head on a regular basis? Do you always overcome evil with good?

We like to talk about worship, but worship - for the Body of Christ - is the moment by moment sacrifice of the believer on the altar of God’s plan.

We like to talk about doing the will of God, but the will of God is for us to love our neighbor as we already love ourself...even when our neighbor is our enemy.

We have lost sight of a vital truth, and sacrificed the power needed to drive our Christian life and ministry in the process. The truth is that God’s will is contained in the Scriptures. We have designed a plan of our own and forged God’s name to it. We make "God’s will" refer to things that are well within our comfort zone and then we "do the will of God." Should I marry the blonde or the brunette? Should I buy the little ranch house or the big colonial? Should I become a surgeon or continue to run the family farm? We define the will of God in terms of these parameters. But these things lie on the periphery of God’s will if, indeed, they lie within its compass at all! The will of God, in His instructions to the "church" which is His Body, concerns our attitude toward Him and toward our fellow man, and the actions that arise from that attitude!

That God has left many of life’s decisions to our own discretion should be evident to the student of Scripture. In 1 Corinthians chapter 7, celibacy, marriage, and sometimes even divorce, and remarriage are left to the believer to decide. In verse 39, the widow can choose not only singlehood or marriage, but whom to marry. She is counseled to marry a believer, and that she should make her choice using Scriptural principles is evident from the rest of the chapter.

There is a strange paradox in Scripture which, when grasped, unlocks the secret of living successfully. It is found in Galatians 5:22-23, "But the fruit of the Spirit is...self-control." How can this be? If the believer is controlling his own life, is he not operating outside the will of God? And if God is controlling the believer, can the believer be said to be in control?

The problem is complicated, but the answer is really quite simple. Man’s true freedom lies within the will of God. Outside the will of God is only slavery! When man is "free" to do what his flesh dictates, he is in abject slavery to his sin nature. Within the will of God is real freedom. Within God’s will, some of the believer’s choices are made for him. "Flee immorality." That is an absolute! There is no latitude here. It is always the will of God to flee immorality. It is never His will that we should sin! Some might say, But that is not freedom. Wrong! Freedom is never the license to sin; it is always the liberty to serve. It is not the license to do what the flesh wants, but the liberty to do what the spirit wants. To flee immorality is to flee enslavement; it is to flee into freedom...into a haven of safety.

The will of God is not always explicit. Sometimes we obey God’s plan by living according to principle rather than following a direct command. Let me illustrate. There were two farmers who argued over a boundary. George insisted that John’s fence was one foot inside George’s property. One day George saw John moving the fence not one foot, but two. When he asked why, John explained that their friendship was worth more to him than a foot or two of soil. George was so touched by John’s attitude that he insisted that the fence remain where it was. John was able to win George to Christ as a result of his willingness to sacrifice some land. Now, there is a command to flee immorality, but no command to move a fence. John simply made a sacrifice on principle...the principle that his neighbor’s friendship and, more importantly, his neighbor’s soul was worth more than a strip of farmland. John didn’t have to make that decision. There might have been another way to solve the problem and still be in the will of God as far as attitude and action are concerned. There may have been several paths for John to follow without sacrificing principle. Where there is no specific command of God to follow, sometimes there is latitude. Sometimes there is more than one right choice. John chose what he believed to be the best of several right choices and not only made his enemy his friend, but won his neighbor to the Lord.

Historically men have thought the will of God to be elusive. It is frequently taught and believed that God’s plan for the believer must be wrested from Him by prayer, fasting, crying, sacrificing, agonizing. Nothing could be farther from the truth. God’s will is revealed in the Bible generally, and in the Pauline Epistles specifically. Why the distinction? Because there are statements of God’s will that are timeless. There are some absolutes and principles in the Old Testament that survive all dispensational changes. Others do not. While all of the Bible is for us, the Pauline Epistles are to us and about us. Paul’s thirteen Gentile Epistles especially declare the plan of God for your life and mine on every page.

So, how can God be in control of my life and I be in control at the same time? Easily! Having recognized that the infinite genius of God produced His instructions to me, and trusting in the measureless nature of His love, I abandon my own will for His! Now, for the first time, I am in control of myself, but that self-control keeps me within His plan as revealed in the Scripture. My decisions are made on the basis of His absolutes when there are absolutes, and His principles when there are not. What He wants for me has become what I want for myself.

If God is all-wise and all-loving, then His way is best. Always best! The new nature of the grace believer will always choose God’s way; the old nature will always rebel against it. The old nature may rationalize its attitudes and actions, and even dignify them by wrapping them in a cloak of religion, even Christianity, but they are the attitudes and actions of the fleshly self.

The flesh is never motivated by a desire to glorify God. All men have conscience, and conscience may move man to do "good," it frequently does. Here is the great difference between old nature "good," and new nature good. Old nature "good" is never done for the glory of God...it can’t be. New nature good is always done primarily that God may be glorified. There is a great difference between what a man does to be helpful or to be noble, and what a believer does that the truth about God (His glory) may be manifested.

God does know what He is doing! I can trust His instructions to me for my life and ministry. They will always be for His glory and man’s good. His choices for me will always be best. He will never do what is wrong or unkind. He will never be unfair. Eternity will demonstrate in fullest measure the infinite genius of the guidance of His Word. I need never fear His directions. I need never shrink from His will. I can be confident that His way is as superior to my way as the heavens are high above the earth. When I am in the will of God as revealed in the Bible, I am in control of my life and ministry. And then I am free!