Search for the Holy Grail, God's Will

Whenever we talk about finding God's will I think of my favorite scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. You remember that one, when Indiana Jones and the bad guy are in the cave needing to choose which cup is the Holy Grail and the bad guy, after making his choice and taking a drink, suddenly implodes and turns to dust. Upon seeing this the Grail Knight simply says, "He chose poorly." It seems like "the will of God" is similar to the quest for the Holy Grail in that we are constantly searching for that very thing that God wants us to be doing and if we "choose poorly" some suddenly tragic fate will befall us. The longer I have served Christ and the more time I have spent talking to people the more I realize that the will of God is not quite that mystical. There are some very simple truths to remember that will remove the mystery from the search.

As we talked about this last week in church there are three simple steps to discovering God's will. First, realize that, by the Spirit, God is speaking to His people. When we take time to "listen" God will begin to prompt us towards the choices He would have for us. That is one the beautiful aspects of the Christian life. Christ left the Holy Spirit to "lead us into all truth" providing for His church an interactive relationship with it's God. Secondly, God will begin to confirm His will, His leading, by His real life provision. People, resources and opportunity will "match" the direction of God in our lives. He will never lead us in a direction without providing what we need to continue. This was the lesson that we saw in Peter's argument before the council of Jerusalem. He said, God gave me a vision of His calling of the Gentiles and then He opened the door to me to minister to them and, more importantly, for me to see the Holy Spirit minster to them. And thirdly, and most importantly, we will discover that personal revelation, supported by personal experience will always reinforce Biblical admonition. Godly revelation will never contradict Biblical truth.

You see it really isn't quite as mystical a process as we have made it out to be but I think there is one other truth that is required to bring this into focus. We need to be less focused on what we think God wants us to do and more focus on who God wants us to be. Christ calls us to be a reflection of Him, of His Gospel, and he is more interested in us honoring that calling than He is in us doing "something" for Him. In our culture we are defined by what we do but in the the economy of God we are defined by who we are in Christ. You will discover that when we focus our energies on living the Gospel God will begin to unfold before us the life we will lead. Put your faith in God's leading, provision and word and we will find that the nature of Christ will be revealed in our lives.

In the words of Indy's associate,  Marcus, The search for the Grail is the search for the divine in all of us. But if you want facts, Indy, I've none to give you. At my age, I'm prepared to take a few things on faith. 

Whenever we talk about finding God's will I think of my favorite scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. You remember that one, when Indiana Jones and the bad guy are in the cave needing to choose which cup is the Holy Grail and the bad guy, after making his choice and taking a drink, suddenly implodes and turns to dust. Upon seeing this the Grail Knight simply says, "He chose poorly." It seems like "the will of God" is similar to the quest for the Holy Grail in that we are constantly searching for that very thing that God wants us to be doing and if we "choose poorly" some suddenly tragic fate will befall us. The longer I have served Christ and the more time I have spent talking to people the more I realize that the will of God is not quite that mystical. There are some very simple truths to remember that will remove the mystery from the search.
As we talked about this last week in church there are three simple steps to discovering God's will. First, realize that, by the Spirit, God is speaking to His people. When we take time to "listen" God will begin to prompt us towards the choices He would have for us. That is one the beautiful aspects of the Christian life. Christ left the Holy Spirit to "lead us into all truth" providing for His church an interactive relationship with it's God. Secondly, God will begin to confirm His will, His leading, by His real life provision. People, resources and opportunity will "match" the direction of God in our lives. He will never lead us in a direction without providing what we need to continue. This was the lesson that we saw in Peter's argument before the council of Jerusalem. He said, God gave me a vision of His calling of the Gentiles and then He opened the door to me to minister to them and, more importantly, for me to see the Holy Spirit minster to them. And thirdly, and most importantly, we will discover that personal revelation, supported by personal experience will always reinforce Biblical admonition. Godly revelation will never contradict Biblical truth.

You see it really isn't quite as mystical a process as we have made it out to be but I think there is one other truth that is required to bring this into focus. We need to be less focused on what we think God wants us to do and more focus on who God wants us to be. Christ calls us to be a reflection of Him, of His Gospel, and he is more interested in us honoring that calling than He is in us doing "something" for Him. In our culture we are defined by what we do but in the the economy of God we are defined by who we are in Christ. You will discover that when we focus our energies on living the Gospel God will begin to unfold before us the life we will lead. Put your faith in God's leading, provision and word and we will find that the nature of Christ will be revealed in our lives.

In the words of Indy's associate,  Marcus, The search for the Grail is the search for the divine in all of us. But if you want facts, Indy, I've none to give you. At my age, I'm prepared to take a few things on faith.