Know God's Heart To Know God's Will

Luke 15

Typically the dreams I have in some way reflect some of my personal struggles. As a result I don't see my dreams prophetic like Joseph's were in Genesis 37. Nevertheless I try to open up to God what my dreams may have revealed good or bad. But earlier this morning my dream was quite different.

In this dream I found myself standing with a crowd of people outside a building that had a chain linked fence around it. It may have been a school building with the typical fence around it's property. But there was a commotion going on inside. From what I gathered there were some people who where taken inside by those who had taken control of the building. To see what was going on I boldly walked from the far exge of the crowd to the front of the building where the crowd was back on both sides away from the opening in the fence. I was able to see right straight inside. Then I chose for myself to demonstrate a lack of fear (but apparently more so a great amount of indifference) I turned completely around and walked directly away from the crowd, the gate opening, the doors wide open, and those inside. When I reached the edge of the tall grass on the other side of the lawn outside I got down and crawled down a small animal path. Laying there I turned around to watch. About that time the leader of those who had taken control walked up to the opening in the grass, looked directly down at me, lay down a small stack of news magazines in front of me, turned, and went back to the building. These magazines had headlines of different problems and abuses in Christian religious organizations and bad press for believers in general. I knew they were given to me to read, analyze, and respond, no, rather, react. There is a huge difference between simply responding and actually reacting. Either one can be done in an appropriate and right way or not. But sometimes it just needs to be placed right in front of us.

Then my meditative mind went to a familiar set of parables that Jesus told. How important it is that when we read of Jesus speaking that we know to whom He is speaking. And that changes the whole view of what Jesus tells. Many years ago I remember a speaker bringing these thoughts out to those listening.

[1] Then resorted unto him all the Publicans and sinners, to hear him. [2] Therefore the Pharisees and Scribes murmured, saying, He receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.

Luke 15:1-2 GNV

Strange, it seems the Pharisees weren't interested in what Jesus did or taught, but were only there to see whether whatever He did or said didn't line up with their estimation of what they thought their Scriptures taught them. As Jesus once told them that they, the Scriptures, are they that testify of Me. Therefore, with the Pharisees and Scribes looking on Jesus speaks.

The first parable He tells is that of a lost sheep, one of a hundred. The shepherd goes out looking for that one sheep while the other ninety nine remain securely in the sheepfold. When the shepherd finds that lone sheep he brings it back and calls upon his neighbors to rejoice with him. This resonates well with publicans and sinners and was probably considered "not bad" by the Pharisees and Scribes. Then Jesus adds:

[7] I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven for one sinner that converteth, more then for ninety and nine just men, which need none amendment of life.

Luke 15:7 GNV

Well, the Pharisees and Scribes may have started to chafe a little when He added that.

Then Jesus tells of a woman (yes Pharisees and Scribes, a woman) who has lost a silver coin, one of ten. She sweeps and searches diligently throughout her house until it is found. Like the shepherd returning with his lost sheep she calls her friends to rejoice with her because that silver coin has been found. These thoughts and feelings the Publicans and sinners hear with great appreciation. The Pharisees and Scribes with less interest possibly than the first. But Jesus also says:

[10] Likewise I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the Angels of God, for one sinner that converteth.

Luke 15:10 GNV

But then moving on from shepherd and sheep, woman and coin, to father and son, even more real to life than the previous examples, person to person, therefore much closer to the heart. With the eagerness of the Publicans and sinners to hear, and all sense of well developed Jewish traditions and grammatical expertise just waiting, just waiting in the fully capable Pharisees and Scribes. Just ask them they'll tell you.

Here in this final parable Jesus goes into details of the heart and realities of life, both of the father and that of the son. Certainly the Pharisees and Scribes are repulsed by the calloused son's request for his inheritance, then just turning back on house and home, and then, well, he got what he deserved for wasting all that inheritance on the lowest of the low activities. Yes, again he got what he deserved, and obviously needed what he had lost even more because of the famine that came. But then to sell himself to caring for those unclean pigs? How disgusting and low can a Jewish son go? And then, how low, this son thinks he can go back after totally wasting not only his inheritance, but every area of integrity of his life. The Pharisees and Scribes aren't missing one bit of this human interaction after the stories of sheep and coins. But for the son to say, I will go back and hope that at least I can be one of my father's servants... To t6ge Pharisees and Scribes this is unthinkable! Even more reprehensible if the father falls for it.

As he returns the father sees him "yet a great way off". The father is anxiously awaiting his son's return, has been eagerly desiring it since that day he last saw his back ss he left. The Pharisees and Scribes must be beyond themselves by now. Does this father not know the filth, the waste, the slime this son is? He isn't worth looking at ever. But the father runs to the son and embraces him. Then turns around, dresses his son in the best, and calls him his son to all friends and family and throws the best feast he can for this welcomed returned son. And the Pharisees and Scribes are extremely appalled by what they have just heard. And when the older brother comes in they may have been thinking, he’s the only one whose got this right.

Sheep and coin are one thing, after all they are insignificant. But n actual person doing ungodly things, then being welcomed when he returns? Unheard of!!! (Literally!) These Pharisees and Scribes have no sense of the reality of how the prophets often called the Jewish nation adultresses and audilterers, but like Hosea’s wife Gomer was taken back with love, so was their nation, especially after the ecile in Babylon.

Fast forward to Saul, a Pharisee of the Pharisees hell bent (literally) on persecuting, imprisoning, and killing those who follow Jesus Christ, he is stopped in his tracks by Jesus. This Jew of the Jews is then told he is being sent to the Gentiles. (Think welcoming a hog farming Jewish son was bad?!) Then he who persecuted the followers of Jesus was now in the Jewish synogoges showing from the Scriptures that Jesus is indeed that Christ, the Annointed One, the Messiah. This did not bode well in Damascus, nor among the Jews and believers alike in Jerusalem. Just leave! And so Saul goes home and is never heard from again... for ten years. Even the apostles leading the church in Jerusalem had to learn from Peter's encounter with the Lord and with the Gentiles at Cornelius' house that the Gentiles are also accepted by God (Acts 10, 11). From the parable of the lost son we learn God's heart. His reaching out to love the unlovely, the wretched, the lost. It is not for the things done in the past, but rather the returning heart. Learning God's heart we know that our thoughts of what isn't acceptable stands… until we learn it is. It isn't what has been done, but the return, the amendment of the heart. Even Saul wasn't accepted until he was. There may be many things we may think are unacceptable until we learn God's heart.

It was the Pharisees and Scribes who thought they were the ones who knew when the Messiah would come and what He would be like. They never recognized Him even when He was standing right in front of them teaching them His Father's heart. For them they thought they knew who He would be... until they didn't.

Knowing God's will isn't hard if you draw near to the heart of God.

There are a couple of follow-up thoughts that connect right into knowing God's heart to know God's will.

[7] If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask what ye will, and it shall be done to you.

John 15:7 GNV

Jesus emphasized to His disciples as part of His last teachings before He was taken away to be crucified the importance of abiding in Him, His words being part of Him even as the branch gets all of its life sustanence from the vine, asking what you will comes from the truth of God's Word, God's heart abiding in you.

Then yet another thought from of His Word remaining in a believer’s life theoughout each day.

[23] For if any hear the word, and do it not, he is like unto a man that beholdeth his natural face in a glass. [24] For when he hath considered himself, he goeth his way, and forgetteth immediately what manner of one he was. [25] But who so looketh in the perfect Law of liberty, and continueth therein, he not being a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, shall be blessed in his deed.

James 1:23-25 GNV

How important it is not just to have His Word, study His Word, and memorizing His Word, but to live in His Word, rather having His abiding Word living within.

Looking back on my dream it is much easier to recognize that I felt helpless to be a part of the solution, there was plenty of room to go in and do something about it, but instead in my mind in the dream I wasn't afraid of all those inside were doing I could easily walk away (oh you forgetful hearer you), and then hide to see what was going to happen. It was only right for the leader to give to me what I didn't eant to be a part of in front of me.

Yes, I felt helpless, exactly what Jesus told His disciples that night, “Without Me you can do nothing.” I could not do a thing in my own strength, But abiding in Him, and His Words abiding in me I have the heart of God, know the will of God, in Him I can ask what I will and He will do it.