Study # 463: The Great Diversity of God’s Will

Mat 7:21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.

Mark 3:35 “For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.”

Heb 10:36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.

1John 2:17 And the world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever. It seems obvious that doing the will of God is some sort of requirement to participate with God in His eternal purpose. It is certainly one of the absolutes connected with entering the Kingdom of God. I would like to quantify the term the “kingdom of God” to call it the “Central Government of God” in order to relate it to the world yet to come. Since the “Kingdom of God” has become a popular cliche today that is added to preaching like it meant something relevant, it has still remained as an abstract idea. Few seldom try to define what that term means. However, when we add that everyone in the kingdom of God must do the will of God it begins to define an absolute requirement connected to the sovereignty of God. This requirement adjusts our focus from going to “heaven someday” to participating in the Central and Eternal Government of God someday.

Mark 3:35 is quite a shock when we discover that only those who do the will of God are part of the family of Jesus Christ. It is another shock to learn that we must do the Will of God in order to receive the promises of God. The Abiding Life is for those who do the Will of God. This is surely quite different than what is being preached about our “just believe salvation.”

Why is this important? Because it is very popular today to insist that heaven is all about extreme happiness. With that “interpretation” certain family members must be included in God’s plan or we couldn’t be in this highest degree of extreme happiness. Therefore, God’s mercy will include many who do not deserve heaven but will be included just to fulfill our happiness. If having our pets in heaven is what would make us happy they will surely be there.

The opposite and correct viewpoint is that everyone in the Kingdom is there to make God happy and fulfill His Eternal Purpose and has very little to do with us being happy. The Kingdom focuses more upon our obedience, character and integrity than upon our happiness. Therefore, doing the whole will of God is NOT an option when we identify with the Kingdom Government of God. God is absolutely sovereign over His Kingdom Government; He is the King and we are His servants. Whether we are happy or not is irrelevant.

One of the great mysteries concerning the visible church is finding people on every continent that are asking that we pray for them to find God’s will for their life. Others are certain about God’s Will for their life but when they define that will we discover it is totally different from I think the will of God is for my life. I believe it is a big mistake to tell seekers what you think the “final will of God” is for them. Why? Because many will accept that as a word from God and stop seeking God themselves. As a ministry we can certainly point out the primary Will of God concerning the foundations. Since these are very clear in scripture there is very little mystery surrounding the foundations since these apply to each and all believers. We could call this the “universal Will of God” that applies to all believers in every age!

Why is this important? It is by fulfilling the “universal Will of God” by each of us completing all the foundational requirements that we receive the ability to discover and do the “Daily Will of God.” It is in this faithfulness of doing “His daily will” that we discover what “doing the will of God” personally means experientially. There is very little doubt that the Authentic New Covenant Ministry is actually doing the will of God. The problem appears when the great majority of “ministers” are not real New Covenant ministries. Why? Because New Covenant Ministry is not of the letter but of the Spirit.

2Cor 3:5 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, 6 who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Entering the Kingdom is the result of doing the WHOLE will of God BUT not by human effort but by using the provision that God has provided within the New Covenant. We really cannot qualify as a New Covenant Minister if we are not ministering Spirit and Life. Ministering “Letter” but assuming we are New Covenant ministers because we are reading or preaching from the New Testament is another fantasy.

Another thing we find is that the Will of God is progressive. “Doing the Progressive Will of God” is necessary for our personal growth and ministry qualification. For example; If we have only submitted to the first or second experience of the seven primary foundations it will generally be the will of God for you to complete each of the additional foundational experiences. If you have a genuine experience in the primary experience of forgiveness of sins, it is God’s “Revealed Will” for you to lay aside the old manner of life and be baptized in water. If you have that genuine experience it is essential that you put on the Garments of God and receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.

This is, of course, so basic that it would be difficult to make a mistake in directing a new believer into completing every foundational experience. So many have neglected the foundations because of the “Gospel of Just Believe.” Many have been directed to the wrong or incomplete path simply because the minister has personally ignored the “revealed will of God” in his own preparation within the foundations.

It is a very big mistake to lay hands on a new believer and decide what the will of God is for them and to bring them into “the ministry” before they have the life and resources to support the ministry. Teaching them Christian doctrines is quite different from laying foundations in their lives. If the foundations are not living experiences and effective to complete a transformation within nothing very much “in ministry” can progress. If the foundations are not completed quickly, but the person becomes a minister anyway, that “minister” will be reluctant then to ever personally complete the basic foundations. Because of this there is no proper transformation and no inner life developed. This is a common problem in many denominational settings. For example; after a person has preached for a few years he would be embarrassed to then be baptized in water or in the Holy Spirit. The result is a ministry of letter and death. This was a big problem in the Charismatic Movement when denominational “ministers” were baptized in the Holy Spirit. Derek Prince used to baptize many “ministers” and Catholics late at night so they could keep it secret. Sonia and her husband Lazaro in Candelaria, Cuba are now baptizing whole congregations including the pastors and their wives.

Even after a person has all the foundations and a certain level of life is experienced he will still find the will of God unfolding in several different directions until a final “ministry will” is established. Because of inner conflicts like anger and jealousy and character defects there may be much work for God to complete in you just to prepare you to begin in ministry. There may be several twists and turns before we arrive at our highest anointing and feel we have finally entered into God’s Will for our life. We may genuinely feel that many, many years were “wasted” just getting to this point in our ministry.

We may wonder why we could not just begin from this dimension of understanding from the very beginning. It seems to be true that “ministers” are BUILT rather than just appointed. Why? Because they must eventually fit into a specific place in the final temple of God. Ministry is just one of the tools used to get us from here to there. God is building a City and He is building “buildings” for that City. The Christian is being prepared for their particular place in eternity and Not just to be saved.

2Cor 5:1 For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven; 3 inasmuch as we, having put it on, shall not be found naked. 4 For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed, but to be clothed, in order that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

If this is read carefully it is clear that our “dwelling from heaven” is LIFE. LIFE is our building from God and becomes our house. It is for that reason each of us must be constantly seeking God for both His will and His purpose to be fulfilled in our life. So-called “ministers” giving wrong directions or defining God’s will for a person is VERY dangerous for that person. Why? Because “God’s Foundational Will” is where we begin. Then finding “His Daily Will” is possible if the foundations have personally built a new inner man / Life. However, most Christians only are concerned about his directional will or our outward activity. It now appears that this “directional will” is secondary to His daily will and our inner life transformation. I am guessing that “His Outward, Directional Will” is much easier to ascertain if we are living in “His Daily Will.” His “Daily Will” is dependent upon “His Foundational Will.”

In addition to the “universal Will of God” related to the foundations for the Christian Life there is a “universal Will of God” related to eternity and God’s Eternal Purpose. Why? Because, eternity encompasses everyone including the saved and the unsaved. It is God’s revealed will for each of us to grow up in all things into Christ and to be conformed to His image. That means to grow to the measure of the stature that belongs to the fullness of Christ. Why? So we can qualify to participate in ruling over the world yet to come which requires that we are able to rule in the full character of Jesus Christ.

1Thes 4:3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God.

His daily will involves our inner life, attitudes, disposition, character, integrity, humility, discipline and personal obedience. Since no one begins with these qualities as an inner life reality these must be experienced through constant rectification and change. Some of these qualities only come to us in pain and rejection, through trails and testings. This “transformation” is also part of our foundations for the Kingdom. Ministers who have ignored these preparations can still be popular and outwardly successful in the visible church but will surely suffer eternal loss in the Kingdom of God. Assuming that the foundations are optional is popular in the visible church but this ignorance is contributing to the apathy, lukewarmness and this general pitiful condition of the visible church.

The popular “gospel of the half-priced sale” insists that under New Testament grace God requires nothing from us except to believe something about Jesus. They argue that if God requires anything at all, how much would we need to do before it was enough? If we put that “concept” into our theme we would ask “ If God required us to do His Will, how much of His Will would we need to do to be acceptable in the Kingdom of God? How would we know when we had done enough of His will?” These foolish questions are the result of ignoring the Kingdom of God and refusing its demands. In the Kingdom doing “The Whole Will of God” is required. Some then ask “If that was true, how could we possibly know what the will of God is for us personally? We surely must know His will before we could do it and knowing His will is too abstract for us to know.”

Receiving the “Ability” to Know the Will of God and Do it Is the Theme of this Paper.

My thesis is that unless we have experienced ALL the required foundations and an inner transformation we will NOT be able to know what His Will is for us personally. Knowing the will of God is a subjective experience that originates in the new inner man. This “knowledge” is inherent within the Living Word of God and by the Holy Spirit. The multiple provisions inherent within the Promise of the Father, The New Covenant and the Kingdom of God are abundantly able to communicate the Will of God to us. With these multiple provisions as inner life reality we can be DAILY led by the Holy Spirit and to both know and do “His Perfect Will.”

Philip 2:12 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

Well, brother, have you finally come to this place where you can speak from your personal experience? Not at all, but I am convinced that I no longer have an excuse for not knowing and doing His Will. I can no longer say that I had no way of knowing His Will because knowing the “Mystery of His Will” has been revealed within the provision of the New Covenant. Since His Will is inherently linked to His full provision within the Promise of the Father, the New Covenant and the Kingdom of God, what possible excuse can we offer when we stand before the judgement seat of Christ? These three dimensions of His Kingdom Grace are not hidden is some dark sayings or unknowable mysteries! These are fully revealed in scriptures. Therefore, it is logical that His New Covenant ministers would focus upon these things as first priority. However, I confess, that the fulness of these particular promises and provisions has escaped my notice up until recently!

Could there be a specific reason this topic of doing His will has been neglected in the visible church? I think the reason is apparent. The natural man (of the old species) can neither know or do the will of God simply because he has no organs that function in this dimension of knowing the mind of God. This ability is limited solely to the new species of man that is birthed into this higher realm of existence. What is normal experience to the new species man is totally foreign to the old species of natural man. Therefore, if the transition to the new species has not be our experience, we will certainly agree with the other natural men in the pulpit that these things are impossible to know and therefore they cannot be a requirement of God. Once the natural man comes to that conclusion he will have to begin to ignore or modify the scriptures that clearly reveal these demands. He must conclude that “doing the Will of God” is optional.

The Romans 7 person is hopeless and helpless to either know or do the will of God. His highest achievement is recognizing his bankruptcy and his confession of “Oh, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this helplessness?” The Romans 7 person knows he is bankrupt but many refuse to accept God’s solution in Romans 8 to “walk in the Spirit.”

The easiest method to deal with this problem is to declare that the “grace of God” has eliminated all requirements except accepting Jesus as personal Savior. Any other requirements are just “works” that offend God and can not be of faith. Faith eliminates any need for works and justifies any apathy or lukewarmness encountered. In fact, in that modified gospel, “apathy” doesn’t exist because God only sees Jesus, His righteousness and His faithfulness and not our personal lawlessness or fallen condition.

Rom 8:14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

In the “Gospel of the Bargains” being led by the Spirit of God simply means being led to accept Jesus as personal Savior and by that into a full salvation experience through the forgiveness of sins. On the New Earth the “Gospel of the Bargains” will be remembered as the true Gospel of Salvation. However, in the New Jerusalem the Gospel of the Kingdom will be recognized as the Eternal Gospel of the Full-Cost Requirement.

Luke 14:28 “For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it? 29 “Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ ”

It seems obvious that the ministers of the “NO COST Gospel” have a big problem completing the work of building anything for eternity. It is also obvious that this is the source of much of the ridicule, lack of respect and mocking that is suffered by the visible church. To imply that these scriptures do not apply to us because they were spoken before the New Covenant was given following Calvary is to deny Jesus’ own words about being His disciple.

In addition to the weakness of the natural man, most Christians have a problem with personally receiving the power of God when they receive the Baptism with the Holy Spirit. All Pentecostal people talk about the “power” but very few manifest any power. Therefore, there must be an explanation for this universal problem. There are at least two witnesses in Scripture to what Jesus Said;

Luke 24:49 “And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

Act 1:5 for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 6 And so when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; 8 but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

Obviously the “power” is part of the Promise of the Father and the Promise of the Father IS the Baptism with the Holy Spirit. In other words EVERYBODY who has been baptized in the Holy Spirit should be manifesting “power.” Since we know that POWER is NOT a manifested experience in the visible church we should discover why this lack of “power” is so universal in our experience. Since Jesus said that is the normal evidence of having received the Holy Spirit, we must have received the “power” when the Holy Spirit came upon us. We may reject the evidence of tongues when the Holy Spirit comes upon us but we can hardly deny this evidence “of Power” because there is nothing ambiguous about what Jesus said. He included no IF or unless but indicated that this “power” would be the evidence. Therefore, there must be a logical explanation for our lack of manifested “power.”

Greek #1411 “Dunamis” Thayer Definition: Power: 1) strength power, ability; 1a) inherent power, power residing in a thing by virtue of its nature, or which a person or thing exerts and puts forth; 1b) power for performing miracles 1c) moral power and excellence of soul

I will deviate from the common interpretation of the Greek word DUNAMIS from which we get the word Dynamite and use the less popular “ability”: “the Power residing in the Holy Spirit” and the “Moral Power and excellence of soul.”

“Clothed with Power” is the evidence of being “Clothed with the Holy Spirit” because all the Power is in Him. When we are baptized in the Holy Spirit we put on “Power” as a garment! That “garment” is the Holy Spirit!

But you shall “receive power” when the Holy Spirit has “come upon you”; Confirms that the Power is inherent within the Holy Spirit and not our personal power. We could say: “When the Holy Spirit comes upon us,” He begins a complete work both in us and then through us. If we neglect His Eternal Work of His Power in us we will certainly be lacking in His Power through us. Being “ministers of the New Covenant” is God working through us. Delivering the “ministry of the letter” is just the natural man doing the best he can. This is NOT ministering the New Covenant but just continuing the “ministry of scriptures “ by Old Covenant methods. This is NOT God working through us.

I am guessing that this is the very reason so many of us are without the manifested Power that we assume is the Power Jesus was speaking of. This “Power” is NOT primarily the power to knock people down and do miracles but the Power of an inner transformation. When the inner transformation comes FIRST before the manifested Power there is a character and attitude adjustment that can manifest the power without an injection of pride and ego!

Of course the manifested or outward demonstration of Power is certainly valid and of the supernatural dimension. However, it is evident that the disciples were healing the sick, doing miracles and casting out demons BEFORE Pentecost but Jesus was speaking about a different kind of Power that would come AFTER they were baptized in the Holy Spirit. This is the Power we are referring to in this paper.

Since the Lampstand Church that He is building is equipped with the Seven Spirits of God and is made from one piece of pure Gold there has obviously been a tremendous work done in her. This is the reason Jesus can demand and expect dramatic things from the Seven Lampstand Churches and to specify certain changes or they will be removed from His body. This is also the reason Jesus could promise such great Eternal things to those who overcome at the Lampstand dimension. Therefore, we can conclude that Overcoming at the Lampstand dimension will first require a transformation into what God identifies as Gold. This inner Life transformation is what we are identifying as the personal Power of God creating Christ in Us, our hope of Glory!

For that reason we are identifying the Power to be a supernatural “ENABLING” so we can both know and do the Will of God. This is what brings joy to His heart and prepares us to function in the World yet to Come! That means specifically in the Eternal Kingdom Government of God. The Perfection of the New Jerusalem is the standard set for the Kingdom because that is the location of the Throne of God, the Heavenly Mount Zion. This inner work of the Holy Spirit is also the impartation of the provision of the New Covenant which is the preparation for the Corporate Kingdom Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek.

To seek outward success rather than the plan and purpose of God, attained through only His provision, appears to be the height of ignorance! The “outward success” is visible but Paul said that at very best it is just temporal. Therefore, press into the invisible realms which are Eternal. Our time in the earth dimension is limited so we shouldn’t waste it on irrelevant things.

THERE IS NO OUTWARD SUCCESS
THAT CAN HEAL THE INNER PROBLEMS
INHERITED FROM FIRST ADAM!

These “problems” inherited from first Adam are so diverse and numerous that there is no way we could list them all. This is why outward success is so overrated as the standard to evaluate ministry or church status. Even unsaved natural men can have a “successful ministry” if it is judged by outward appearances. That means by how many people attend on Sunday or how much tithe are you bringing in each week. Some measure by how many new souls have you received into fellowship this year.

A president of a corporation or the CEO of a corporation can be evaluated by outward success and he doesn’t even need a new inner man. He can be of the old species after first Adam and still be tremendously successful. Some “earn” 150 million dollars a year and that is evaluated as very successful. The sad thing is that the same kind of old species person can be evaluated as an example of visible success if he can perform effectively in the visible church. Most church work in the visible realm can be done by unsaved, old creation, old species persons that have a natural ability to make decisions and lead. If they are charismatic, attractive and likable with a certain charm they can build a big church following and appoint officers that will help him build and lead. If he is successful no one would question if he has had a genuine experience with God or a new inner man. Of course the new kind of person, the new species, is not guaranteed this kind of outward “success” in the visible church and many are NOT successful. Still, the visible church is overrun with unsaved people that are functioning in some work or office which is called “ministry.” If they are faithful and active they are quickly received into fellowship. If they tithe they can quickly be received into leadership.

Of course, in the Church He is Building, NONE of this is possible simply because He controls who He will receive into His body. If they are just lukewarm He will vomit them out of His body. If He didn’t vomit them out of His body His church would soon become powerless and pitiful with little vision and be judged as irrelevant. The world would mock the church and it would be NO witness that Jesus was alive and real so the world would have no reason to believe. When we read Revelation 2 and 3 it is clear that Jesus will not permit His Lampstand Church to get into that condition. His message is repent and change or be eliminated from His Body.

Doing the whole Will of God Is NOT optional for a New Covenant Believer!