Category: Adventure

John 15:12-13,16-17 – “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends…You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.¹⁷ This is my command: Love each other.”

Jesus’ central purpose and desire was to do the will of the Father, which was and still is to love us, this world, and bring everyone into his salvation.  Love is central to the will of God. Love, love one another, lay your life down for them…this is the will that Jesus chose us to experience and live out.

Love changed us and gave us life, and this is the love that will continually change us and draw us deeper into the will of God, our loving Father. When we are loving God (and this is the ultimate outcome of our worship), and when we are loving those around us, we will find that we are much more in the will of God, we are walking deep in the adventure, learning the wonder, and the power, and the beauty of living God’s will for our lives.

Love and loving is central to the will of God. Loving is clearest way of knowing that you are in God’s will. Worship and love. These bring us into the adventure of the Spirit-filled life, walking with the Spirit into the will of God. These are some of the primary means through which we can walk, live, and experience God’s will today. And as we press on to the things that lay before us, the things to come, the future direction that God has planned for us. His will unfolds right in the midst of these decisions and moments to worship and love.

Today, let’s simply pray through each of the passages from the last five days: Jeremiah 29:11-13 ; Galatians 5:16, 25; Romans 8:26-29a ; Romans 12:1-2; and John 15:12-13,16-17. And let’s ask the Spirit to fill our lives with worship and love.

– TR

Romans 12:1-2 (NIV) – “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

As we offer our lives to the Lord in worship, as we center our lives on knowing God’s heart and His ways we, “will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good, pleasing and perfect will” (Rom. 12:2). The Holy Spirit is at work in us making this our reality!

In and through a life of worship we are transformed. When we begin to live out each day as worship to the Lord – our work is worship, our classed are worship, our raising of kids is worship-filled, etc. Being in God’s presence, living in worship will change us. That is how wonderful and powerful God’s Presence is. And it is in His presence that we know His will more clearly and more deeply.

Let’s that the Lord for His mercies in our lives and the many ways He has rescued us, forgiven us, and changed us. Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to increase His activity in the area of worship in our lives, reminding us to live worshipful in all that we do. Let’s scan our days and tasks today and decide to make them all worship unto the Lord.

– TR

Romans 8:26-29a (NIV) – “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. ²⁷ And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. ²⁸ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. ²⁹ For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son…

As Christians who are filled with the Spirit, it is the Spirit that is fully engaged and working in us to live out God’s will for our lives today, now, in this time and task for our lives. He is the one leading into the adventure of the Christian life. The decisions we make today to walk in the Spirit, to submit to His leading will profoundly affect our next year, our next steps in life, and the future to come. These affects will have Divine impact on our tomorrows, and that is the only true impact that will give us life – life to the full.

Romans 8:27 says that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us in ‘accordance’ with the will of God. Another way to see this is that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us to come into the will of the God. That not only is there agreement with God’s will, but that we are living and being conformed to the image the One – Jesus Christ – who perfectly lived out God’s will. As the Spirit cries out, our heart and lives are brought into that reality. In some sense because of the Spirit’s cries and passion for us, we find our hearts agreeing and walking in step with this cry and passion.

As we learn to discern the Spirit’s voice, His desires, and His ways in our lives, we will be more and more able to follow Him into the right/best way, at the right time, for the right reason that will most glorify God, to enjoy Him, and enjoy his ways for our lives.

Let’s us spend time in prayer asking the Lord to teach us to listen to Spirit’s cries, promptings and ways in our lives. Let’s ask that we become all that the Spirit intercedes on our behalf.

– TR

Galatians 5:16, 25 (NIV) – “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh…Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”

As Christians, our understanding of God’s will is much more ‘dynamic’ than ‘static.’ Static means just pursuing an outcome or desire we believe we are to have or be or do or accomplish. Whereas dynamic implies that our lives are moving with the Spirit and the immediate plans of God in our present circumstances. In this dynamic understanding of God’s will for our lives we “seek to always being open to what God is doing…now.”

The Christian reality, this Spirit-filled life of love, is not necessarily set on a destination, it is lived out in an hour by hour relationship with the Lord and His people. It is dynamic by nature because the will of God is relational at the core. Seeking the will of God is first and foremost realized in walking, living, and keeping in step with the Spirit.

Understanding God’s will for our lives in the framework of His direction doesn’t imply that we don’t seek destination or a particular outcome. We should pray and wrestle with the future plans or decisions (or outcomes) until we find the deep Spirit-led resolution in our hearts. For in those honest and vulnerable moments before the Lord, perhaps with the encouragement and care of His people, we will be more clear and able to live fully today, making the most of every opportunity that Lord has planned for us now. May we never sacrifice the precious experiences and steps of the Spirit today for the sake of our unresolved worries and dreams of tomorrow.

Today, let’s do spend time in prayer for the decisions/outcomes we need or desire to have God’s resolution in. Seek the Lord, pray continually and be open to His answers, changes in us, and desires.

– TR

Jeremiah 29:11-13 (NIV) – “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

God has plans for us…and they are good. And one of the ways that the Spirit impacts our lives is by guiding us and teaching us God’s will. And let’s face it, God’s will doesn’t always turn out the way we wanted it to be. In fact for all of us, what we plan or think is God’s will for our life now, probably won’t be exactly what we think it is going to be, and as counterintuitive as it may sound, that is probably a really good thing if your life is in Christ and you are seeking His will.

We were never promised a ten-year plan of action; instead, God promises over and over again in the Bible that he will never leave or forsake us. God also promises in Jeremiah 29 that as we seek Him, as we pray in this way for our lives, He will answer, He will invite us into all that He is doing. And this isn’t just an intellectual understanding or knowing, this is a Biblical ‘knowing,’ which means to be relationally known, to know through experience. This is God’s heart for us to know Him and His wonderful or wonder-filled plans and will for our lives each moment.

Frances Chan wrote, “God cares more about our response to His Spirit’s leading today, in this moment, than about what we intend to do next year. In fact, the decisions we make next year will be profoundly affected by the degree to which we submit to the Spirit right now, in today’s decisions.” [Francis Chan, Forgotten God.] It’s our hope that instead of always searching for “God’s will for my life…future tense,” each of us will learn to seek passionately after “the Spirit’s leading in our life today.”

Let’s seek the Lord in prayer today asking for a renewed passion for seeking the Spirit’s leading in each moment and task in our days. Let’s ask for hearts that our open to letting go of our ‘will and agenda” and being resolved to embrace God’s purposes for our next five days. Ask for love and obedience in what God desires for our lives.

– TR