Am I executing God's will, God's way? Part 2

Woe to my rebellious children, says the Lord; you ask advice from everyone but me and decide to do what I don't want you to do. You yoke yourselves with unbelievers, thus piling up your sins. For the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, says: Only in returning to me and waiting for me will you be saved; in quietness and confidence is your strength; but you'll have none of this. - Isaiah 30:1,15 (Living Bible)

Because of the sinful nature we are born with; our default mode is wanting our will, our way, and in our timing. If we ask God for what we want and do not get the answer we want, we tend to figure out how to get it and then convince ourselves it was God's will. We may validate our actions by manipulating the situation to make it work out, or seek "advice" from people who will validate the desire for what we want. This is exactly what the Israelites did when they aligned themselves with Egypt over God. They listened to advisors who told them to turn to the Egyptians, which God had forbidden, rather than to seek God's will as Isaiah had instructed.

If there were an 11th Commandment, it might read like this...

Thou shalt not fake thineself out.

In other words, don't fake yourself out into thinking you are doing something that you are not actually not doing to appease your conscience and look good in front of others. Remember that God is Omniscient. He created you. He knows you intimately and evaluates each action based on the intent of your heart, not on how well you may convince yourself or others that what you are doing is God's will.

Am I truly listening to the voice of God with the desire to execute His will, or am I guilty of finding a way to get what I want?

Is the desire of my heart to execute God's will, God's way, and in God's timing?

What you do speaks so loudly that what you say I cannot hear.

….The Voice of God is a friendly Voice. No one need fear to listen to it unless he has already made up his mind to resist it... Whoever will listen will hear the speaking Heaven. This is definitely not the hour when men take kindly to an exhortation to listen, for listening is not today a part of popular religion. We are at the opposite end of the pole. Religion has accepted the monstrous heresy that noise, size, activity, and bluster make a man dear to God. But we may take heart. To a people caught in the tempest of the last great conflict, God says, "Be still, and know that I am God," and still He says it as if He means to tell us that our strength and safety lie not in noise but in silence. - AW Tozier

For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans for prosperity and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will let Myself be found by you. - Jeremiah 29:11-14a

Be Encouraged to execute God's will, God's way, in God's timing.

-Jeffrey Thornton