Key verse:
If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. – John 15:7-8 NKJV
Introduction
How do I know that am doing what the Lord wants me to do, and how do I know that I am being blessed? These are probably the questions that I am most asked, as a preacher, by other believers. What I want to do today is take a look at both of these questions – we need answers. We must understand what we are asking so that we can then better understand how to find our answer.
Understanding the question
When we ask the question, “how I know that I am doing what the Lord wants me to do?” we’re typically looking for a couple of things. We want assurance that the path we’re walking on, on this spiritual journey, is a path that is a blessed path. We firstly want to make sure that we are going to succeed in what we have chosen to do in this life. Secondly, for believers, it is of the utmost importance that we feel we’re on the right path.
When we feel like things are not right (things are going wrong) we begin to do quite a few things. The first thing that most believers do is pray, and we pray to the Lord extremely hard – we feel the harder we pray, the more the Lord will hear our prayer. After we are done praying, the next thing we do is (maybe we do this immediately) is begin to wonder whether or not God has heard our prayer. If we feel that the Lord has not heard or answered our prayer, we wonder, “Is it me?”
We start to worry, and we get so filled with questions, and with panic. Is it me? Am I doing something wrong? Am I not on the “right path”? The next question is one of the more dangerous questions that I can believer can ask themselves, “Why am I not being blessed?” We really want to know if we’re doing what God wants us to do because we want to make sure we’re going to be blessed. So, ultimately, we need to understand what a blessing is, and who the Lord will bless.
What is a blessing?
Let us first understand what a blessing is. Let’s first understand a few things about what we think is a blessing. What we define a blessing to be has often been defined by the society in which we live. We let society dictate to us, and take authority over this answer – some of which local churches influenced in the past. Remember, this is the same society that said black people were not equal to white people. Let’s also remember that this is the same society that tells women they are not equal to men. A lot of that same society gathered together on Sundays, in their churches, while establishing those “rules”. This is a truth that we cannot ignore, even though most people try do that.
We have let that very same society define and determine what a blessing is for us. Society says that you can define how blessed you are by how much wealth you have accumulated. You are blessed if you are married and have children. God has blessed if you if you’re working a good job or have a successful career. We do not look to see what God has said about blessings; we look to what man has said and all that has done is create a great confusion among believers. Paul said (1 Corinthians 14:33), God is not the author of confusion.
Let’s take a look at who is blessed, according to the Lord. God says:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
For they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
For they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
For they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
For they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
There are not my words, but the words of Jesus Christ (God in the flesh). Notice that Jesus does not mention anything about a bank account. Jesus does not mention anything about the white picket fence, having a wife, and a child while grilling the fattest steaks. You will notice that there is no mention of what society deems to be a blessing. In fact, a very interesting to note is that the first time we come across God blessing anything is when the Lord blesses the animal life of both the sea and the air (Genesis 1:22). Trust me, the animal life of the sea and the air is not worried about money and all the things that we worry about, yet even they were blessed!
Understanding God’s answer
To answer our questions, we must realize that a worldly view does not work. As Jesus said (John 14:27), my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you – I believe the Lord’s blessings work the same way. We must remove worldly thoughts, and societies’ answers for us to gain greater understanding.
Let us understand what we know about God. We know that God is the Creator and Maker of all things – this includes us. As discussed in recent Sunday school lessons, God’s love is like that of a parents love – He truly is a supporting Father. We must really understand that God is there to help us, even though we pray and ask, we must still put forth the effort. God supplied man with a world, and free will in that world, to do whatever it is that we want to do in the world.
The work of God is to believe in Him (Jesus) whom God sent, Jesus says in John 6:29. When we ask the question, “Am I doing what God wants me to do?” we should ask whether or not we’re keeping our faith in Jesus Christ! This is not to say, “Am I going out and telling people about Jesus?” This is not to say, “Am I saying I believe in Him enough?” We must look to our heart because faith lies there, in your heart.
Jesus (God in the flesh) tells us (John 15:7), “you will ask what you desire and it will be done for you.” We need to really understand what it is that Jesus has stated here in this scripture because the answer to all of our questions is in this scripture. Desire is in the heart! A great example of this occurs with King David, he desired in his heart to build the Lord a house. The Lord told David, I will let your son, a man of peace, build me a house but you have done well to desire this in your heart.
David may have had his faults but the desire in his heart was geared to God. We like to point others faults and we expect that God must look at us in like manner. Once again, the Lord’s thoughts are not like our thoughts and His ways are not like that of our ways (Isaiah 55:8). God looks at the heart, not the physical heart, but your mind and your soul. God looks to see what you really desire in your soul! God doesn’t see the crude matter that we are but He sees our heart and this is very important for us to understand.
Ultimately, the answer to our questions comes down to what our heart says. So, what does your heart say? What does you heart desire? Are your heart’s desire clear? You can’t be double minded (going back and forth in your heart). A lot of us end up being confused, in our heart, and unsure of what we truly desire – God wants to know what you truly desire. We cannot be full of want, asking out of lust and asking out of envy. Do you really think God is going to give to those prayers? Some may say that they have received of their wants, lusts, and envying but I can assure that did not come from God.
There must be faith in your heart, not heart that doubts. Remember, Jesus tells us that we only need faith as a mustard seed (Matthew 17:20). So, we need just a little faith in Him but that faith cannot be a doubting faith or a confused faith! Look at your heart! What shape is your heart in?
We can choose to do whatever it we want to do in this world – we can be whatever we want to be. I want to one day talk about “callings” because there is also a great confusion when it comes to “callings”. The Lord our God is going to support you and what it is you desire to do in this world. You are blessed because you have already believed in the Lord and His only begotten Son. He allows us to live freely in this world, and one day we will live with His eternally.
Bible cross references:
God’s blesses animal life – Genesis 1:22
The Beatitudes – Matthew 5:3-12
Faith as a mustard seed – Matthew 17:20
God is not the author of confusion – 1 Corinthians 14:33