Living a Life Pleasing to God
April 19, 2024
I have been examining two areas in which the will of God is lived out in our lives. The first, is one that likely most people think of when they think of “God’s will for my life”. It is the outer expression of our lives. These are things like our career or job, where we decide to live, what school we attend, who God has for us to marry and so on. The second area is our inner life or the development of our inner person. This is who we are, the decisions we make, the degree to which we know or don’t know God. Basically who we are internally. I’d like to examine both of these areas with you today. I have recognized that the outward expression of God’s will for our lives seems to be where our minds readily go first. And while those things are important, they aren’t the most important. I am discovering that how we live inwardly in obedience to God’s will is what directly affects our success with the outside stuff.
Foundationally, I want to propose that God’s will for you is always going to line up with His Word. If something you are choosing to do with your life doesn’t reflect the Word, then ‘it ain’t it!’ It’s as simple as that. But I do know that life presents specific decisions that we have to make. And to do this successfully, we must rely on the Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of Truth and who leads us into ALL truth! We see this in 1 John 2:20, 27 NKJV, “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things…But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.” As born again, Holy Spirit-baptized believers in Jesus, we have an edge that the world, (and many believers), do not have. We have the Spirit of God living in us speaking God’s truth and His will to us everyday concerning all things! That is HUGE! It is imperative that we get into the practice of listening and discerning the Spirit of God daily. When we speak too much and listen too little, we get a bit rusty on the listening part. The voice of the Holy Spirit is quiet, peaceful, yet solid. When you hear Him, you know that you know that you heard Him. So practice hearing Him so you get familiar with His voice. When you first met your spouse or BFF you probably couldn’t pick their voice out of a crowd. But after spending countless hours with them, you can now recognize it immediately. That’s how we need to be with the Holy Spirit. This will be your key in walking out the will of God for our lives. When it comes to picking this job or that job, this school or that school, this house or that house, this town or that town, the Holy Spirit already knows and He is willing to tell you. Similarly, when it comes to who we are to be inwardly, He will tell you!
While the outward parts of our lives do bring joy, fulfillment, and can impact the lives of others, I truly believe what pleases God the most is who we are inside. I was studying Ephesians over and over again in the past weeks and this section kept pricking my heart so intently. Let’s read Ephesian 5:8-17 NIV, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of the light, (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth), and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible- and everything that is illuminated becomes a light…Be very careful, then, how you live - not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.” The specific words that caught my attention in these verses were, “find out what pleases the Lord,” and, “understand what the Lord’s will is.” My heart strings were so tugged when I read that. I immediately began praying, “Father, I wanna know what pleases you!” It became so important to me to sincerely find out what pleases Him. When God is looking out over all the earth to see all the hearts and lives of people, I want Him to be stopped in His tracks when He comes to me. I want Him to smile and take a moment to gaze at me and my life because it is “pleasing” to Him. Man! That moves my heart greatly and I hope it begins to move yours too. Then the scripture goes on to later say, “understand what the Lord’s will is.” Plainly, when we do God’s will, that is pleasing to Him. And when we look into the Word to see what God’s will is, it is not the outward things that please Him so much. But instead the inward life. Are we full of His love? Are we close to Him? Are we treating others with love? Are our hearts pure? Are we walking in wisdom? Are we living lives full of the fruit of the Spirit? I sat with God and asked Him to show me how to live a life pleasing to Him and He immediately showed me that it’s all about who we are on the inside that is pleasing or displeasing to Him.
As we continue to walk the Christian path, we may need to humble ourselves before God and yield to His Holy Spirit regarding our inward heart. Sometimes we can begin to overlook the simple parts of God’s will for us because we think we’ve been doing it long enough therefore we know that stuff already. But I find we have to continually humble ourselves before the Holy Spirit and let Him shine the light of His Truth on our inner selves. Are we gossiping and tearing down others when they are not around? Are we leaving our hearts unguarded to the junk of the world? Are we letting God’s love flow in us and through us? Are we being patient and kind and gentle? Are we being faithful in all we do, serving the kingdom with excellence? These are things that a lot of times, as seasoned believers, we assume that we are good in these areas. But if we really allow the Holy Spirit to illuminate our hearts, there could be areas that are not as pleasant to God as we thought.
The more we tune into the Holy Spirit and the Word, the closer we become with Him and we become like Him. And that is pleasing to God and that is the will of God. He wants us to live and look like Jesus from the inside out. It is then that we become who He intended us to be and then others who see us are affected by ‘the Jesus’ in us and hopefully they become who God intended them to be. The outside stuff doesn’t matter as much. Because when you’re living closely connected to God you just flow with Him. Decisions just flow, opportunities just flow, directions just flow, resources just flow. When you’re close to Him you’re easily obedient to Him. Being obedient gets you connected to the vein where life is flowing in the goodness of God. He takes care of the details, and it’s easy to take each step because you’re sure of His voice and the will of God becomes easy. It starts in the inner you and flows outward. It is such a powerful prayer to pray, “God, show me what pleases you.” And get in the Bible where the light is and listen to the Holy Spirit who leads you into all truth.
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