Day 16
"9 ... praying and making requests for you, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 that you may walk worthily of the Lord, to please him in all respects..."
Colossians 1:9-10
Prayer
Heavenly Father, this is the prayer to know Your will, an Endorsed Prayer4.1, an Endorsed Prayer of Spiritual Communication.4.2c We see that Your will can be known in sufficient detail to please You "in all respects" (verse 10). So, if it is Your will that I serve in ministry A instead of ministry B, You will reveal that to me. Otherwise, I could not please You "in all respects". Your revelation to me of Your will to pursue ministry A would not be a revelation of a new doctrine or a revelation regarding a moral issue. It would be a revelation of specific guidance to me. But if You are indifferent as to whether I serve in ministry A or B, then You may not lead me to one or the other. That is because I can please You "in all respects" in either A or B. So, this scripture reveals that You will provide specific guidance to me, if that specific guidance is necessary to please You "in all respects".
If You don't care whether I eat carrots or peas, You will not guide me to one or the other, because You don't desire for me to eat one or the other. You have no will to reveal in that situation.
Your spiritual graces are granted
to us if we ask, according to conditions which You have ordained.4.11 Through the Endorsed Prayer for Knowledge of Your Will,
4.2c
we can please You "in
all respects". That is, if we pray to know Your will we can please You "in all respects". We don't
figure out Your will... You reveal Your will through prayer.
As I read Colossians 1:9 and
continue to read through verse 14, I see many benefits of praying this Endorsed Prayer.
Power, endurance, perseverance, joy, thankfulness and to "walk worthily of
the Lord" are also results of this prayer. So, being filled with knowledge
of Your will is key to the abundant life!
The Endorsed Prayer to know Your
will does not mean that You will reveal every detail of every step that I take
in the direction of Your revealed will. I may make plans and then may need to
change those plans. The apostle Paul did. Paul wrote, "I often planned to come to you, and was hindered so
far" (Romans 1:13). 1 Thessalonians 2:17-18 is another example from Your word.
Paul knew that he was to make
disciples, but he did not always know exactly when, where and how the
opportunity would arise. He made plans and then sometimes had to change those plans.
Sometimes You do reveal detailed
information regarding Your will. In Acts 16:9, You provided detailed
information about Your will in a vision to Paul... "come over into
Macedonia".
Some say that
You will never reveal a
specific will, that
all You want is for us to make our decisions morally and scripturally.4.2c In other words, we live by rules, as if we were in the Old Covenant of Law instead of the New Covenant of the Spirit.A3 But with the indwelling Holy Spirit, we walk by the Spirit.4.7
Some say that the Holy Spirit does not reveal information of a subjective nature but only reveals the meaning of scripture. If that is true, then how did Peter know that Jesus was the Christ? 4.2c
If You don't reveal Your will to our minds regarding a
particular matter, then You have no specific will regarding the matter. We are free
to choose.
By asking You to reveal Your will, we can walk by the Spirit. We can do Your will. Praise to Your name! Amen.
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You are reading the Walk by the Spirit Daily Devotional Series, which is subchapter 3.7 of the free, online book Fellowship with God in the Sixth Path. In the Walk by the Spirit Daily Devotional, readers learn how to how to walk by the Spirit. Walking by the Spirit is one way the New Testament describes fellowship with God, the subject of this online book.
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