"The Spirit-filled Life - a fragment"

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"Have you ever wanted to know and do God's will? That desire is not something you conceive of on your own. When you come to Jesus as Savior and Lord, you join him in his mission to reconcile a lost world. God himself causes you to desire to be a faithful servant.

"Yet God has far more in store for your life than just doing something for him. He wants you to experience an intimate love relationship with him that is real and personal.

"As Jesus said, 'Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent' (John 17:3). The heart of eternal life is for you to know God and to know Jesus Christ.

"The 'knowing' does not come through a program, a study or a method; it comes through a relationship with a person. Only through an intimate lave relationship with God does he reveal himself, his purposes and his ways. Then he invites you to join him where he is already at work.

"When you obey, then God accomplishes through you something only he can do. And you come to know God in a more intimate way by experiencing God at work through you.

"To learn how to know and do the will of God, we can find no better model than Jesus. In his 33 years on earth, he never failed to do the will of God. He never sinned. He perfectly completed every assignment his Father gave him to do.

"How did he know what to do? 'My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working,' Jesus said. 'I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does (John 5:17,19-20).

"What Jesus described is not a step-by-step approach to knowing and doing God's will but a love relationship through which God accomplishes his purposes. When you have an intimate love relationship with God, he will show you what he is doing. Then your job is to follow the example of Jesus and do what the Father is already doing.

"We might sum up Jesus' model this way: Watch to see where God is working and join him!"

Jackson Snyder, June 20, 1995 - {the source of this message is Blackaby, Charisma, May 1995, 28ff.}