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_alkaline
Member



Joined: 2006/5/15
Posts: 1


 Does God have an individual will for each of us?

hello first,

i am alkaline :)

well, i have come to this forums with a question on my mind.
As stated in the topic.
It is because i have stumbled over a book called Decision Making and the Will Of God : A Biblical Alternative to the Traditional View by Gary Friesen.

Well, many believe God has an individual will for each ones life and our responsibility is to found out what that could be.
Gary Friesen states in his book, that this idea is not to be found in the bible.
In the bibel we hear much more about the moral will of god..loving others and so on instead of an individual will (wich college should i go whom should i marry you know all these questions).
Isnt it more that we can choose freely within the principles god gives us in the bible?

What do you think?

Or is it both true, that we have freedom on many things but that god is leading us in other things?
Hm..

_alkaline

 2006/5/15 15:01Profile
Treasureak
Member



Joined: 2006/4/28
Posts: 8


 Re: I'm Glad You Asked

I have a BURDEN. Through out scripture we read how God raises up his leaders, those that are called, Annointed and Appointed, for such a time as this. Amen

I have a BURDEN. In the New Testament we read how God would send them out two by two. Amen

I have been praying about this burden for awhile now and in prayer and meditating on the Lord he has reminded me of the relationship between


 David
 Jonathon

The focus being there LOVE, for one another and this special bond between the two. Here you have two men who were not born from the same biological father but they had the same Spiritual Father. They feared God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

1. They shared a common faith the commitment to God
2. They loved each other unconditionally


Through out scripture in the book of Samuel no where have I found that they were competitors. Yet Jonathon had a reason to be. He was Saul’s Son, his first born heir to the throne, but God had anointed David to be King. Jonathon understood this. It seems to me that there Love for God had to be so strong and so real in there hearts, to not allow the enemy to come in with jealously, strife, and envy.

In chapter 20 we learn how Jonathan helps David, did you hear this, please don’t miss it!!! It says that Jonathan helps David and the story goes on to say;

1 David now fled from Naioth in Ramah and found Jonathan. “What have I done? he exclaimed. “What is my crime? How have I offended your father that he is so determined to kill me?”

2 “That’s not true!” Jonathan protested. “I’m sure he’s not planning any such thing, for he always tells me everything he’s going to do, even the little things. I know he wouldn’t hide something like this from me. It just isn’t so!”

3 Then David took an oath before Jonathan and said, “Your father knows perfectly well about our friendship, so he has said to himself, “I won’t tell Jonathan – why should I hurt Him? But I swear to you that I am only a step away from death! I swear it by the Lord and by your own soul!”

4 “Tell me what I can do!” Jonathan exclaimed.” Tell me what I can do?

5 David replied, “Tomorrow we celebrate the new moon festival. I’ve always eaten with your father on this occasion, but tomorrow I’ll hide in field and stay there until the evening of the third day.

6 If your father asks where I am, tell him I asked permission to go home to Bethlehem for an annual family sacrifice.

7 If he says, ‘Fine!’ then you will know all is well. But if he is angry an planning to kill me.

8 Show me this kindness as my sworn friend – for we made a covenant together before the Lord – or kill me yourself if I have sinned against your father. But please don’t betray me to him!

9 “NEVER!” Jonathan exclaimed. “You know that if I had the slightest notion my father was planning to kill you, I would tell you at once.”

10 Then David asked, “How will I know whether or not your father is angry?”

11 “Come out to the field with me,” Jonathan replied. And they went out there together

12 Then Jonathan told David, “I promise by the Lord, the God of Israel, that by this time tomorrow, or the next day at the latest, I will talk to my father and let you know at once how he feels about you. If he speaks favorably about you, I will let you know.

13 But if he is angry and wants you killed, may the Lord kill me if I don’t warn you so you can escape and live. May the Lord be with you as he used to be with my father.

14 And may you treat me with the faithful love of the Lord as long as I live. But if I die,


15 treat my family with this faithful love, even when the Lord destroys all your enemies.”

16 So Jonathan made a covenant with David, saying, “May the Lord destroy all your enemies!”

17 And Jonathan made David reaffirm his vow of friendship again, for Jonathan loved David as much as he loved himself

ONLY GOD COULD PLACE A LOVE LIKE THIS IN THE HEART OF THESE TWO BROTHERS, IN THE LORD.

It says in 1 Samuel 23:16 – that Jonathon went to find David and encouraged him to stay strong in his faith in God. He went to encourage Him. And the story goes on to say;

15 One day near Horesh, David received the news that Saul was on the way to Ziph to search for him and kill him.

16 Jonathan went to find David and encouraged him to stay strong in his faith in God

17 “Don’t be afraid, Jonathan reassured him”. “My father will never find you! You are going to be king of Israel, and I will be next to you, as my father is well aware.”

Would you say that Jonathan was or would be willing to lay down his life for a friend? “YES”

Indeed what LOVE these two brothers had for one another, -What- LOVE.

…And so we are accustomed to hearing the love between a man and women, or a parent, and a child or even the love between sisters, but why is it that we don’t touch on this topic more frequently as I believe it is so needed in this day and time?

Titus 2:11-15 For the grace of God has been revealed bringing salvation to all people. And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this world with self-control, right conduct, and devotion to God, while we look forward to that wonderful even when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed. He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing what is right. You must teach these things and encourage your people to do them, correcting them when necessary.
(“You have the authority to do this, so don’t let anyone ignore you or disregard what you say”)


Philippians 2:1-4 is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from this love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and sympathetic? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one heart and purpose.


Now I understand that this might not be for everyone just for the fellas.

 2006/5/15 16:46Profile
roadsign
Member



Joined: 2005/5/2
Posts: 3777


 Re: Live in God's will

Quote:
Isnt it more that we can choose freely within the principles god gives us in the bible?

Or is it both true, that we have freedom on many things but that god is leading us in other things?
Hm..



Welcome to SI, alkaline. I hope you will find many blessings here.

You have come on board with a great question.

I have that book, and was very encouraged by it many years ago when I read it. I was left with the same throughts that you share.

As you say, God has given us a lot of room for liberty within his clearly explained will. What's important to God is that we submit our lives to him, grow in Christlikeness and the fruits of the Spirit.

He who made us all unique is able to shape details in our lives in order to move us towards any certain direction he has for us. He is most able to guide and direct, and if we are walking closely with him, I believe that we will hear him.

Consider this: how effective would a gifting or calling be if one is not submitted to Christ and growing in him?

Diane


_________________
Diane

 2006/5/15 21:19Profile
letsgetbusy
Member



Joined: 2004/9/28
Posts: 957
Cleveland, Georgia

 Re:

A good example of someone just doing what seems right, and in God's will, only to be corrected, is the forbidding of preaching in Asia and Mysia:

Acts 16:6-7 Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, after they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not.

I think the best teaching on this subject is Ray Comfort's 'The Key to Finding God's Will for Your Life.' The teaching is basically to go out and do something for God, and He will guide you as needed. For example: if you decide to help out with a ministry that preaches the gospel by picking up kids on a bus, then you are within the will of God. If for some reason, God does not want you doing something in particular, He will let you know. This is seen in the above verses.

Here is the link on this site, a very funny message, too:

https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/mydownloads/singlefile.php?lid=1465&commentView=itemComments


_________________
Hal Bachman

 2006/5/15 22:00Profile
myfirstLove
Member



Joined: 2005/11/26
Posts: 496


 Re:

i think this verse goes well with what you are saying diane and letsgetbusy.

Proverbs 16:9-10

9 A man’s heart plans his way,
But the LORD directs his steps.


_________________
Lisa

 2006/5/15 22:41Profile
beenblake
Member



Joined: 2005/7/26
Posts: 524
Tennessee, USA

 Re: Does God have an individual will for each of us?

Hello _alkaline,

Did you know the definition of love is "good will"? Many people don't understand that God's Will is God's Love. If I were to ask you, does God love you, what would you say?

Quote:
Isnt it more that we can choose freely within the principles god gives us in the bible?



No, it's about love, and love is about giving yourself over to another person for their own good. More specifically for us, it is about having a loving relationship with God.

The principles of God were not meant to rule us. We were not meant to be governed by a set of laws. We were created to love God. There is a difference. The Pharisees obeyed the law because they wanted to appear good. They were trying to earn God's blessings, but truly, in their heart they didn't want God Himself. They just wanted His blessings and glory.

This is a danger everyone faces with God's principles. Do you want God or God's blessings? Why do you follow the principles of the bible? Do you follow them because you love Jesus, or do you follow them in order to earn God's love or to appear good?

There is a difference. Think of it like this. You just won a million dollars in the lottery. Everyone you know wants to be your friend. But who can you trust? How do you know if they truly want to be your friend, or if they just want your money?

The people who truly want to be your friend will hang out with you no matter what. They don't care if you don't give them any money, they just want to be near you. However, the people who want your money are constantly begging you for money, and everytime they don't get any, they become upset.

The same is true with God. Some people just want God's wealth. Other people truly want to be close to God. The people who only want God's wealth try to earn it by doing good things. And the people who want God, are willing to do anything to be with Him. These people don't care if they don't get what they want. They are thankful for anything God gives because they know it is done in love.

Truly, being with God is about having a relationship. God has a personal will for you. He loves you. He wants to share Himself with you. He died on the cross for you to prove His love. The question is, will you give your own will in return?

God has given you complete freedom to love whomever you want. As humans, we have free will. This is really the only freedom we have. We don't have the freedom to choose anything we want. We can't choose to be rich or wealthy. However, we can choose to love God or not. This is the freedom Jesus brought us. When Jesus died on the cross, He made a way for us to love God.

Our human will is corrupt. Human love fails. How many people have failed you in your life and broken your heart? We break God's heart all the time. He loves each of us, and yet we deny Him. This was a huge problem in us. We were filled with sin, and this sin corrupted our ability to love.

However, Jesus took our sins on Himself and died in order to make a way. When we share in this experience with Jesus, we can be transformed and our heart can be renewed. This process is called baptism. The actual act of falling in the water is a symbol of our spiritual transformation. We fall backwards into the water, which symbolized death. Our spirit dies. We are then raised out of the water. This symbolized a new birth. We are born again. Jesus puts a new Spirit in us. We are made into a new person.

You may already know this, but I am telling you because this is very important. When this happens, we are given a new freedom. Through this process, we have the freedom to love God. Our will is made new, and this new will can be given to God. Through Jesus, we can love God and have a relationship with Him.

The point is this.... when we do this, when we truly love God, we give everything to Him. We sacrifice our entire life to Jesus. We become a child of God, and we become the object of His Will and Love.

In love, there is an exchange. God loves you and gives Himself to you. Jesus gave His life to us on the cross. Will you give your life to Jesus in return?

When you have this exchange of love, you have an exchange of will. God's will is for you, and your will is for God. In this exchange, you submit completely and entirely unto God, seeking Him out in everything you do. Likewise, everything God does for you is completely and entire good for you.

However, God cannot love anyone who doesn't let Him love.

Here is a good illustration. There was a father who had a daughter. He loved his daugther dearly and only wanted the best for her. The time came when she would need a car. However, the father waited. He wanted his daughter to ask for his help. He knew if he went out and bought her a car without her asking, she might turn it away. She might reject His gift. Instead, he waited for her to ask. That way, she could show her love by asking him for help.

Time passed, and the daughter never came. The daughter knew her Dad was a car specialist, he knew everything about cars. However, she was afraid that if she asked her Dad for a car, he would buy her some big boat with reflectors all down the sides and all her friends would make fun. Instead, she went out and bought her own car. She got the one she wanted. The father just watched from a distance with a broken heart.

Hardly a week went by, and the car was having problems. She still wouldn't ask her Dad for help. As time passed, she found more and more problems with the car. And then one day, the car died on the road far from home. She was devastated. She called her Dad and pleaded for his help.

If the daughter would have accepted her father's love in the beginning, her father would have given her a great car. Rather that trust in Him, she did things her own way.

This often happens with the Lord. Rather than seek out the Lord, we go out and do things our own way. Why would we ever do this? Does not God love us?

We should always seek God's help in everything. Our entire lives should be devoted to Him. He should be our Lord, which means He directs our every step. He is God!! He knows everything. He will certainly give us the best. But, just like that daughter, we think, "Yeah, but I want to do things MY way." And then we realize that our way is faulty.

Quote:
Or is it both true, that we have freedom on many things but that god is leading us in other things?



God will lead and direct our every footstep and be the author of our entire life, if we invite Him. However, God will not force Himself upon us. We have to ask for His help. We must seek Him. Yes, you have complete freedom to make whatever choice you want within the limitations given. However, why would you? Isn't it better to ask for God's help? Won't He give you what is best, better than what you can give yourself?

Matthew 7:11 (NASB)
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!

Hope this helps,

In love,
Blake


_________________
Blake Kidney

 2006/5/16 9:34Profile
CJaKfOrEsT
Member



Joined: 2004/3/31
Posts: 901
Melbourne, Australia

 Re: Does God have an individual will for each of us?

Quote:

_alkaline wrote:
In the bibel we hear much more about the moral will of god..loving others and so on instead of an individual will (wich college should i go whom should i marry you know all these questions).
Isnt it more that we can choose freely within the principles god gives us in the bible?

What do you think?

Or is it both true, that we have freedom on many things but that god is leading us in other things?
Hm..



Hey Alkaline,

I would have to say that although what you have but forward sounds good, it is seriously flawed. God never intended us to "obey principles", but created principles that create a "cause and effect senario" and then call for us to obey Him, regardless of the outcome.

"Submission to Principle" was the way of the Pharisees. Christian is better described by Gal 2:20, "...not I but Christ..." All this talk about finding God's will so you can obey, is like being a Christian with a safety net, so we don't need faith. How about trusting God to lead us "right (our) right hand" (Ps 73:23-24)?

May I offer for the following morsel for your consideration, [url=https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=3980&forum=36#26732]Righteous Submission vs Zealous Obedience to Principle[/url]? Also, may I recomend anything penned by Oswald Chambers? If anyone had a handle of submission to God, it was the OC.

All the best in your pilgrimage.


_________________
Aaron Ireland

 2006/5/16 9:56Profile
jsaves
Member



Joined: 2006/5/2
Posts: 2


 Re:

Quote:

Here is a good illustration. There was a father who had a daughter. He loved his daugther dearly and only wanted the best for her. The time came when she would need a car. However, the father waited. He wanted his daughter to ask for his help. He knew if he went out and bought her a car without her asking, she might turn it away. She might reject His gift. Instead, he waited for her to ask. That way, she could show her love by asking him for help.

Time passed, and the daughter never came. The daughter knew her Dad was a car specialist, he knew everything about cars. However, she was afraid that if she asked her Dad for a car, he would buy her some big boat with reflectors all down the sides and all her friends would make fun. Instead, she went out and bought her own car. She got the one she wanted. The father just watched from a distance with a broken heart.

Hardly a week went by, and the car was having problems. She still wouldn't ask her Dad for help. As time passed, she found more and more problems with the car. And then one day, the car died on the road far from home. She was devastated. She called her Dad and pleaded for his help.

If the daughter would have accepted her father's love in the beginning, her father would have given her a great car. Rather that trust in Him, she did things her own way…and she LOST, for lack of trust, which has been the greatest factor. The Root Cause, I’m sorry (FM) loosing is nothing new, but winning is overwhelming.

 2006/5/16 14:05Profile
Graftedbranc
Member



Joined: 2005/11/8
Posts: 619


 Re: Does God have an individual will for each of us?

Quote:
Gary Friesen states in his book, that this idea is not to be found in the bible.



Did not the Spirit say to the diciples as they prayed and fasted, "Separate unto Me Barnabus and Saul for the work to which I have called them?"

Does not God call us to fulfill His will in the functions which He has equipped us with?

God has a general will for all of us which is to repent, believe, and be baptised. And as members of the body of Christ He has called us to function, to build up the body of Christ.

God's will is to conform us to the Image of His Son, to form Christ in us and to use us as ministers for His purpose which is to build up the body of Christ.

"As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God."

His will does not come to us as a roadmap handed to us which we then go out and do. Rather He gives Himself to us as our LIfe and as we learn to live by Him and he is formed in us, we are led by the Spirit into the work which He calls us to and to the function which He has gifted us with.

His will is that we daily take the cross, die to our own will, our own natural life and live by Him and the more we live by Him, the more we are conserned with His economy, his purpose, and His desire. And we do what we are led to do in fellowship with Him.

Graftedbranch

 2006/5/16 17:16Profile
ANewInHim
Member



Joined: 2005/12/16
Posts: 54


 Re: Fashion

By A W Tozar

“FASHION”

Do not fashion yourself after the old pattern!

Once we know what the Holy Spirit said, pattern your selves, according to that pattern.
Human nature is not (fixed), clay is not (fixed) it is liquid powder.

Fashion yourselves or do not fashion yourselves. We are in a state of fluid, basic degree. We are still being changed, shaped, and processed. We have not arrived, we will never be fixed until the old man/women leaves the body. There is change never the less.
YOU CAN BE CHANGED.

No body is beyond change, saved by complete dispear that he can be changed.
He does not have to continue to be what he is.

Hope to change! You are not a finished product. We tend to fix terminal, education must now take place. A process of education, a basic degree, Now he is done NO! He is still being changed, shaped and processed.

He has not arrived/We have not arrived. We will never be fixed until the old man leaves the body. There is change never the less you are not finished.
YOU CAN BE CHANGED.

You are still fluid, you still need processing CHANGED (1 Peter – fixed in Christ, is what peter meant) Do not fashion yourself.

There are powers that shape, but it is God’s power that shapes us.

The old powers the former lust, The ignorance walking according to the course of this world. The lust of the eye and mind disobedience the old powers.

Stay out devilish influence my soul belongs to God NO INFLUENCE. Better to have no friends and to be an Elijah alone.

Make my mouth cleaner then it was before. I don’t have to yield to my weak soul.

Whether you believe it or not – Fashion Yourself the literature you read the music you listen too will shape you. The pleasure we indulge in the places we go too will shape us. The word you speak the things you cherish will shape you.

Discipline your emotions, every thought you entertain will shape you, unless your thoughts are sweet.

(Psalm 1) Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and In his Law he meditates day and night.

Notes: I don't know if anyone has ever done this, but I was led to take notes as I listened to this sermon.

 2006/5/16 18:01Profile





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