The majority of the rest of the steps are simply directions on how to put that surrender of will into action. First, in Step 4, we take a look at life and see where our will got us, which is reinforcement to remind us not to take our will back from God as we journey down the road, and we also look to see what has been and is blocking a deeper relationship with Him and our freedom. Then comes confession in Five, an act of obedience we may not at the time understand but that helps because it is the first real test of not doing what we want, keeping our secret sins secret, and instead doing His will. Then as we submit to His will, we see those things that are in the way of relationship and allow Him to change us, remove them, control our actions and reactions so that those things are hindered and replaced by the actions He wants. In eight and nine we make things right, we become the peacemakers we are called to be, reconciling with those who have something against us before giving our offering. Step 10 is simply a continuation of the above, and 12 is putting this into practice in every area of life, rather than just the area of captivity, and sharing the solution to help set other captives free.
I skipped Step 11, because it is the step where the idea of the will of God becomes the blatantly central theme once again for the first time since Step 3. We seek to improve our conscious contact with God through prayer and mediation, asking only for His will for us and the power to carry that out. The concept of the will of God comes up quite often in the rooms of recovery and in messages from pulpits. But what is it? How do we know if we're in it? Does asking only for His will mean that I can't ask Him for the job that I want or the healing I desire?
I have often heard that nothing happens outside the will of God. In one sense this is very true, within a certain framework, and in two other ways this is only sometimes true. The will of God is not one thing, but three, or rather there are three types of things that are all called God's will.
The first and most far reaching is the sovereign will of God. He is Lord or lords, King off Kings, Creator and ruler of all. He has a plan to destroy evil forever and put an end to the conflict between Holy and unholy, to restore His creation and establish relationship with as many as will come and say yes in response to His call. Nothing happens outside the sovereign will of God in the sense that no matter what happens, God can and will incorporate it into the flow of the big picture to ultimately bring about the triumph of good over evil, of love over hate, and righteousness over unrighteousness. Nothing can stop that from happening. It means that He will use the tragedy of the earthquake in Italy to draw people to Him and somehow this shaking destruction is one step closer to a day when there will be no more quakes, no more disasters, suffering or sorrow. It does not mean that God decided this morning would be a good day to split the earth and ruin some lives. Some events are the result of people refusing to surrender their will, some a result of the simple truth that sin brought death, not just to people but to the very earth, and as long as the curse still rules on this floating rock we will have thorns and disasters.
But I can not use the sovereign will of God as an excuse for the natural, logical, effect of the choices and causes I have responsibility for. If I relapse and damage my family and ministry and then crawl back into recovery like the Prodigal stinking of pig slop, I can say that God will use that rebellion and failing for His glory and for my good and that, at some point, it will somehow eventually be a part of His great victory and sovereign will. But that doesn't mean in the least that it was His will that I relapse or that I was in His will when I was back on the streets running and gunning. I can't absolve myself by blaming God's will for my relapse, because in that case, plenty happens outside His will.
The second type of God's will is where we begin to see a breakdown, a discrepancy, between what God wills and what happens. This is God's moral will, or God's will for our morality. It is God's will that we are motivated by, guided by and live in the action of love, love for Him and love for each other. That we will do nothing outside of love. In fact, He said that if we just do that, we don't have to worry about rules because it would be impossible to sin while living completely like in perfect love. The problem is that we can't and don't do that. That's why we need the power of grace. We don't always choose love. We are indeed selfish and self centered, which causes us to make choices that lead to consequences that damage us and others. We bring pain and sorrow and death with every single selfish choice we make. Sometimes we may not know what God's will for us personally is, but we know that whatever it is, it includes the call to walk and live in love. We can at least know that we are to sacrifice self in favor of love and not do anything that would hurt our relationship with Him or hurt or prevent any one else's relationship with Him. If we know nothing more than that, we can, by grace, make a good start of living within His will by pursuing the practice of love at all times and in all things.
This brings us to the third type of the will of God, His personal will for us. This is pretty much a never occurring practice outside of God's grace. Things happen in each and every one of our lives each and every day that are outside of this and conflict with this aspect of God's will. This is the aspect of God's will that we are seeking in Step 11. We are to improve our conscious contact with God by seeking the knowledge and understanding of His personal plan for His life, submitting to that plan and asking for the grace (power) to carry it out. Remember that if we don't know that personal plan right away we can lean on His grace to be as faithful in Will Aspect #2, walking in love, until and during such time as He begins to reveal it to us. Also, God wants us to show ourselves faithful in the first and little things before He gives us more and bigger. So if He has only given a tiny piece of the puzzle, don't wait, use the grace He has also given to begin fulfilling that piece as faithfully and completely as possible. Sometimes we can't even see one step ahead, but if we will obediently raise our foot when He tells us to, He will always give us direction on where to set it down. If we wait for Him to tell us where we'll be down the road before we lift our foot to walk in obedience, we may never know. It is a rare, rather than common, thing for God to lay out His whole plan for us in front of our eyes. That may seem like it makes obedience more difficult, but I don't think so. I think we should be grateful, because I believe it's much easier to step out in faith rather than being overwhelmed by the big picture of His plans. What would be impossible in my mind today may very well be easily within my acceptance and grace level a year from now. Sometimes it's better not to know in advance.
Don't be discouraged if you don't have the next step or if it doesn't feel like God has even said to lift the foot yet. Remember that Noah was about 500 years old when God called Him to build the ark, but that revelation of God's personal will for Noah never would have come if Noah hadn't been faithful and obedient in either Will Aspect #2 or what little parts of Will Aspect #3 he had. God wants us to know His plans for us, and He will tell them to us, but not necessarily as quickly or as completely as we would want Him to.
When it comes to direction, there is nothing we need to know other than God's will for us, but that doesn't mean we can't ask for our dreams. We must be OK with a no or maybe later answer, but He wants us to ask. And as for asking for our needs to be met, we are instructed to do that. It is His will for us to obey, so when we ask for the daily needs, the healing and restoration, and the rest that go with that, we are within His will when we ask, so tell Daddy what you need. He loves and cares for you.
Trust in the God that cares for you, because He is trustworthy and loves you. Rely on the truth of His word in your very core so that His truth is the foundation upon which every action and reaction is made, rather than on the basis of your own instincts and understanding. In everything you do, put His way, will and glory first, and He will show you where each step must go in order to take you to and complete His personal plan for your life and bring you to perfection in person and relationship with Him while bringing Himself glory and drawing others to Himself. - My paraphrase of Proverbs 3:5-6
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