5. How Can We Obey God's Will?

Parents have their own will. Parents want their children to obey them. Parents anticipate their children to grow and become an influential and mature person enough to contribute to the society. But, children are weak and immature and cannot grow by themselves. Therefore, it is necessary for them to be taken loving discipline as well as good care by their parents until they become mature.

 

In the same way, God has His own will. God wants His children to obey Him and contribute to the kingdom of God. But, God's children, specially new Christians (beginners) cannot obey God by themselves without becoming mature spiritually. It is why God allow His children to take discipline so that they can become mature. What processes are taking Christians often until they can be mature and obey God's will?

 

Christians obey God's will while they experience spiritual growth as below.

1. It is necessary for a person to sincerely repent his sins to receive God's saving grace in Jesus Christ. He knows that he is saved from sins and spiritual death at that time he hears the message of Jesus' true love and receives Him as the savior and Lord. It means that he was born again of the Holy Spirit. It is not because of what he has done but because of God's grace alone in Jesus Christ.

 

 

2. But, spiritual immaturity remains in him because he is a beginner. It is not easy for him to be sanctified in a short period because even if his spirit indeed is willing, his flesh is so weak and Satan continues to attack him so that he may follow his flesh desire and commit sins again. That is why he does not immediately attain to all that he seeks for. But, God values his love for Him even when it is weak because spiritual immaturity is not the same as rebellion. Weak love is not false love. 


God gives us the grace of salvation because of the merits of the atonement of Jesus on the cross. First, God allows us to receive Jesus and become children of God. Second, God allows us to be baptized by the Holy Spirit and live the life of Jesus' witness.

 

The apostle Peter proclaimed in Acts 2:38: "Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." This statement declares two things. 


First, we must repent of our sins and receive Jesus as our Savior. It is the only way for us to be children of God.


Second, we must receive the Holy Spirit (Baptism of the Holy Spirit). The Holy Spirit is God's gift for God's children who pray for (Luke 11:13). 

Our acceptance of Jesus as our savior is not the result of the baptism of the Holy Spirit but the result of being born again of the Holy Spirit. Regeneration(being born again) means that our spirit is newly created by the Holy Spirit. We are born again by the Holy Spirit and receive Jesus as the savior. However, the baptism of the Holy Spirit refers to the coming(or pouring) of the Holy Spirit into the soul of a person who has been born again. The reason why we need the baptism of the Holy Spirit is because we have to live with Jesus as the Lord and the King. So, those who received Jesus as their Savior must be baptized by the Holy Spirit. When we are baptized by the Holy Spirit, our hearts will be transformed and overcome our flesh desire and fulfill God's will according to the desire of the Spirit.

 

 

These five instances are sufficient to show us a pattern of the Holy Spirit's dealing in the Early Church: people were saved and subsequently filled with the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. This is a pattern for us living under the same covenant today. God desires that every believer be filled with the Holy Spirit — the endowment of power from on High (Luke 24:49).

 

1) Acts 2:1-4

 

The 120 on the Day of Pentecost: These were men and women, including Mary, the mother of Jesus. They gathered in the Upper Room on the Day of Pentecost, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

 

2) Acts 8:5-17

 

The Samaritans: They were saved under Philip's ministry. They received the Holy Spirit when Peter and John laid hands on them. Simon saw physical evidence of the infilling of the Holy Spirit, which was probably speaking in tongues.

 

3) Acts 9:3-18

 

Saul (later called Paul): When Ananias laid hands on him, Paul received the Holy Spirit. We know Paul spoke in tongues because later he wrote to the Church at Corinth, "I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than you all.” 1 Corinthians 14:18).

 

4) Acts 10:44-46

 

Cornelius and his household: This incident occurred years after the Day of Pentecost. As Peter was preaching the gospel to these first Gentile converts, they were all saved (Acts 11:14) and filled with the Holy Spirit, and spoke with other tongues.

 

5) Acts 19:1-7

 

The Ephesians disciples: This incident occurred many years after the Day of Pentecost. These Ephesians disciples were saved and baptized in the Name of Jesus after Paul preached the gospel to them. Then when Paul laid hands on them, they were immediately filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke with other tongues.

 

 

 

If you believe the doctrine of the Triune God, you may easily understand the inter-relationship between believing in God, receiving Jesus, and being baptized by the Holy Spirit. In other words, if you believe in the Triune God, you will acknowledge why you need to be baptized by the Holy Spirit after you receive Jesus. 



The doctrine of Trinity is the basis of Christian faith. Triune God means: “God is One, but He is Three Persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit).” Persons indicate who God is. It means that Three Persons are individual and different one another. But there is only ONE God because Three Persons have the same essence. Essence indicates what God is. So, Three Persons is One in essence. So, God is One but Three Persons which is called Triune God. 



God the Father, God the Son(Jesus), and the God the Holy Spirit are always together and always working as One. God the Father made a plan of salvation for the fallen humanity and sent his Son (Jesus) to the earth (John 3:16; Ephesians 1:4-10). In obedience to the Father's will, the Son died on the cross to redeem fallen humanity and was resurrected on the third day by the Holy Spirit (John 6:38-39; Hebrew 10:10). The Holy Spirit allows us to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to be born again, to receive Him as the Savior, to be children of God, to be baptized with the Holy Spirit, to be sanctified, and to be witness of Him (John 3:5-8, 14:16, 15:26; Acts 1:8; Romans 8:13, 15:16; 1 Peter 1:2).

 

 

Triune God demands us to receive God as He is. If we believed in God the Father, we must receive the Son (Jesus), and if we received Jesus, it also means that we must receive the Holy Spirit (Baptism of the Holy Spirit). It means that if we believe in the Triune God, we must receive Jesus, and in turn, receive the Holy Spirit.

 

 

What will happen if someone received Jesus as the Savior and is not yet baptized by the Holy Spirit? Even if he was saved, he is not yet ready for sanctification and to be witness of Jesus. There is a big difference between believing in Jesus and receiving the Holy Spirit. They are separate ones. Therefore, if you received Jesus as your savior, you must receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit through prayer(Luke 11:13).

3. The Lord Jesus commands him(His disciple) to work to fulfill the Great Commission that is to make disciples. But, he may not think that he has strength enough to fully obey Him and refuse to leave his comfort zone even if he loves Him. It is due to his immaturity and fear not due to rebellion. 

 

4. God still loves him(His disciple) even if he is in that situation. However, God corrects him with God's loving discipline as a required course for him to grow spiritually. He repents his disobedience and trust in God again, so that he will be filled with the Holy Spirit and commit to follow Jesus, and he is no longer afraid of taking a risk or the testing of God and leaves his comfort zone and pray sincerely for his life's devotion to Jesus. Jesus manifests his presence in response to his obedience and furthermore invites him to take up his cross and follow Him.

 

5. However, he(Jesus' disciple) may experience his test as God withdraws His presence. It is a time of the dark night of his soul as if it happened to Job as a righteous person in the Old Testament of the Bible. But, it is not related to his disobedience. God really wants to see him to love God and obey Him. If he became mature, he will never give up his love for Jesus. Therefore, Jesus is conquered only by his true love based on his faithfulness to Him.

 

 

6. He(Jesus' disciple) tries to willingly serve people and never give up even if he sometimes receives a hostile response from others. He is vindicated by Jesus. He walks out mature bridal partnership with Jesus which is expressed in obedience. "His faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did." (James 2:22); "This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith." (1 John 5:3-4)

 

7. Jesus empowers him(His disciple) with the loving fire through the Holy Spirit into his heart so that he loves Him with all our heart(Matthew 22:37) and have intimate fellowship with Him regardless of how his circumstances are going(1 John 1:3-4). He continues to serve God and serve people sincerely and furthermore intercedes for the church and for Jesus' return as the sovereign king. It is God's will. 

** <Reference> Title. "A comparative review of the two claims about being born again and baptized with the Holy Spirit."

Please click below link for your reading(a pdf file is attached): 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UIih6gXM8roiNoRL1qrMD3oMtRt7j2A4/view?usp=sharing

<Note>:

This web page contains eight articles with the following headings.

You can open any article by directly clicking on the website under each heading.

7. The Faith and Life of the Christian:

https://eternallifeforyou.blogspot.com/2022/06/7-faith-and-life-of-christian.html

​

6. When is the End Times?:

https://eternallifeforyou.blogspot.com/2013/01/what-is-going-on-in-this-crazy-world.html

​

5. How Can We Obey God's Will?: (This is in this page)

https://eternallifeforyou.blogspot.com/2013/01/what-kinds-of-spiritual-journey-do-most.html

​

4. Why Does Evil Exist?:

https://eternallifeforyou.blogspot.com/2012/12/why-doesnt-god-protect-us-from-evil.html

​

3. Do All Religions Lead to God and Salvation?(Attached: Religions and Christianity):

https://eternallifeforyou.blogspot.com/2012/12/3-why-are-there-so-many-religions.html

​

2. How Can We Know That God Really Exist?:

https://eternallifeforyou.blogspot.com/2012/12/blog-post_2910.html

​

1. Why Should We Believe in Jesus Christ?:

https://eternallifeforyou.blogspot.com/2012/12/blog-post.html

<Another option>: 

<How to move to Other Articles: No.4 ~ No.1>: If you want to read other Articles, go to the bottom of this page and click Right Arrow(>>) or Older Posts. Then you can see No. 4 Article. Instead, if you click "View web version" on the bottom, you can see Blog Archive and the Years of writing(2016, 2013, 2012). When you click each year, you can see No.1 ~ No.4 Articles in them.>