Whose will is this?

 

Last night our small group started again. We read Scripture, discussed it, then shared prayer concerns. One of the folks expressed the mess in a social issue and that we needed to “do something” about it, yet others suggested that we first pray. After reading MacArthur’s devotional for today, I am convinced that the enemy can suggest action that sounds good but it is contrary to the will of God.

In this situation and in all circumstances, I’m to “take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one” (Ephesians 6:16) and first recognize those darts and where they come from using the temptation of Jesus as an example:

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” (Matthew 4:1–4)

Jesus was hungry and had the power to make bread from stones. It seemed a good idea for Him to “do something” but He recognized who was making the suggestion. He also recognized that the appeal was to His hunger, a personal need.

This clarifies what happened last night. That social issue was also a personal issue for the person who wanted to “do something” to fix it. Not that we should ignore social issues, but realize that God uses trials and problems for His purposes, sometimes to bring people to their knees before Him. Any action we might take could thwart the purposes of the Lord and that is the reason to first pray and find out if the motivations I’m experiencing are from God — or an appeal from Satan to get me side-tracked.

These “flaming missiles” refer to arrows with pitch-soaked tips set on fire. When they hit a target, flaming pitch spread to other flammable surfaces and destroyed all it touched. In spiritual warfare, Satan’s arrows are like that. They come in many forms. MacArthur lists: solicitations to impurity, selfishness, doubt, fear, disappointment, greed, vanity, covetousness, and so on. They can also be “do something” to fix problems without first asking God if that is what He wants. James 2-4 make it clear that He uses problems and our efforts to fix or escape them may not be the response He wants.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2–4)

I cannot know what God may be saying to others, but this principle has become important for me. When trials come, what is God doing? I want it to go away, but He has a plan that I will not experience if I try to escape instead of trusting Him to use them for my good. Faith is my protection because faith elevates God’s will above Satan’s plans. Like Jesus, God wants me to think: “I will not violate my Father’s will by yielding to this enemy’s schemes. In His time He will feed Me and give me what I need for victory. I will not give in, no matter how appealing his suggestions seem to be.”

Yielding to God can mean personal discomfort. For Jesus, it eventually led Him to the cross. However, during that time of testing when Jesus yielded to the will of God and Satan realized his tactics were not going to work, “Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.” (Matthew 4:11)

These thoughts also remind me of another incident in the gospels when Jesus warned that doing “good” does not necessarily mean I am doing the ‘good’ that God wants:

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (Matthew 7:21–23)

This does not mean that the people of God should avoid prophesy in His name, or doing any other mighty works, but unless my actions are from the Lord’s direction, I could be interfering with the will of God rather than doing it.

PRAY: Jesus, Your Word says I am to “Resist Satan, firm in my faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by my brotherhood throughout the world.” (1 Peter 5:9) This indicates that personal suffering can be God’s will, not the onslaught of evil that we often think it is. Keep me alert, always seeking Your will. And enable all Your people to realize the tactics of Satan.

PONDER: again the principles of battle Jesus experienced, and reread James 4:7.