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DOES GOD'S WILL IN YOUR LIFE EXTEND BEYOND HIS MORAL WILL?
1) [Mt 6:25-34]:
"Therefore I tell you, 'do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?
Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. [spin wool]
Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, oh you of little faith?
So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'
For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
This passage teaches that one is not to worry but rather to trust in God for every essential-to-life provision. One is commanded to totally trust that God is so intimately involved in one's life that He provides whatever food, drink, clothing, shelter and all essentials that one NEEDS on a moment to moment basis.
As a matter of fact this passage teaches that since God is so intimately involved in the believer's life that he does not need to worry about tomorrow, relative to anything whether it be essential or not. God will provide all of the essential and nonessential details in life necessary to carry on. Many of these details of life do not effect whether or not an individual is in the moral will of God.
Tim LaHay states in his book "FINDING THE WILL OF GOD IN A CRAZY MIXED UP WORLD," Zondervan publishing, 1989, p. 24:
"If God keeps watch over the dependent creatures in His world, how much MORE will He attend to the needs of His own children."
[Mt 10:28-30]:
"Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One Who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.
And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
This is part of a passage in which our Lord is explaining what a disciple of His will face and the cost of that discipleship. He advises them that every hair, every minute detail about them, (and all who follow Jesus), is accounted for in God's will. Jesus goes on to say that just as every movement of the sparrow is under the sovereign will of the Father in heaven, so much the more is every movement of one of His children under His will. The moment to moment actions of a sparrow are not limited to the moral will of God since sparrows do not have a capacity to choose to act in or out of God's moral will. So much the more, this passage says, is God involved in all of man's actions. Not just those which would be subject to obeying the moral will of God.
[Pr 3:5-6]:
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge Him,
and He will make your paths straight."
[Pr 3:6b AMPLIFIED BIBLE]
"and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths."
"Lean not on your own understanding" is saying that in the circumstances of life do not rely on what you understand. Instead, "acknowledge Him in all your ways" and then, having trusted "in Him with all your heart" (verses 5a & 6a) your paths in life that you take will be made straight, i.e. directed by God.
This passage goes beyond teaching that one need only strive to stay in God's moral will and then whatever road one took would be a path that would be most acceptable to God. The passage indicates that God will be active in directing EVERY step that a believer takes in life provided that individual is a believer, (verse 5a), and that he is walking by faith & acknowledging God in everything he does, (verses 5a, 6a). So when a believer is staying in the moral will of God, this passage teaches that God then provides a path for him which is straight - directed by Him for that believer to follow. That believer may and may not take those steps. Not taking those steps may or may not be within the moral will of God. Sometimes not to take those steps along the straightened path will violate the moral will of God. But often the believer will not violate the moral will of God by not following the path that God has directed him to follow. Those steps which God directs are the optimum steps to take toward spiritual maturity and rewards in heaven but they are not the only steps the believer could take without violating the moral will of God.
Notice that verse 5b teaches that a believer is NOT to rely on his own understanding.
Point "A": If one had only to maintain one's obedience to the moral will of God in order to be in the total will of God, and one did this by virtue of what he TRULY understood was the moral will of God by the teaching to Him by the Spirit from God's Word....................................
Then why would this passage in Proverbs 3:5-6 command one to lean not on one's own understanding? If point "A" is true then one is required to be obedient to one's understanding for that is how one would follow the moral will of God - by one's understanding.
This passage therefore is teaching that a believer is to live by more than just the moral will of God, he is also to walk by faith and not by sight taking steps which are not always of his own understanding. These steps, according to this passage are directed by God for the believer to take IN ADDITION TO THE BELIEVER BEING OBEDIENT TO THE MORAL WILL OF GOD.
The believer is to take steps of faith and not of understanding as directed by God as a result of walking in obedience to the moral will of God.
So the moral will of God is only a part of the total will of God for an individual. God has a wonderful and infinitely detailed plan for each individual to follow.
A believer acting independently from the direction of God yet walking in God's moral will is still no match for Satan and his demonic forces, even given the steps a believer takes which are in the moral will of God. A believer has a finite understanding and cannot know every step he should take so that he does not position himself where he is tempted beyond his capacity to resist:
[I Cor 10:13]:
"No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."
God will provide a way out - a path - a set of steps for His child to take in order to sidestep the temptation and not break His moral will. This path will not just be limited to the specific moral will of God as indicated in God's Word. The context in this verse teaches that the path is one which is designed for that specific individual in that particular circumstance. God therefore is intimately involved in the believer's life - step by step by step. The verse does not indicate that each step if NOT taken will necessarily be a step out of God's moral will. What the verse does say is that God will provide a way out of temptation.
For example, our Lord may provide another job which will lead one away from a current job situation which is leading to irresistible temptation down the road, or God may provide steps out of a nonmarital relationship before a fall out of fellowship with Him. The steps if not taken are not outside of the moral will of God. But if not taken the situation will lead to a fall into sin.
[Eph 2:10]:
"For we [believers] are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good work, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
This verse indicates that a believer has certain unique tasks to perform which God designed specifically for each individual believer to do before the foundation of the universe. The context teaches that these tasks are not limited to just staying in the moral will of God.
In conjunction with the above verse in Eph 2:10 which is a general statement is one of the specific tasks that each believer is to perform:
[Jn 15:16a]:
"You ["You" = disciples and by application all believers - for all believers are commanded to be disciples] did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit - fruit that will last."
God provides each individual with spiritual gift(s) and then the specific circumstances wherein he is to exercise them. This extends beyond the moral will of God.
[Phil 4:6]:
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in EVERYTHING, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."
[Pr 16:9]:
"In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps."
In the mind of a man he thinks that he plans the steps of his life but in reality it is God Who provides those steps that the man takes.