20-May-2024 – Doing according to the will of God only, leads you to the kingdom of God
Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. – Matthew 7:21
Last time, God gave a message from the same verse but with a different perspective. Today, He has inspired us to meditate on the same verse again, but this time, He wants us to focus on the difference between calling Jesus the Lord and doing the will of the heavenly Father.
Jesus continues in the 22nd verse to provide more context to His message:
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? – Matthew 7:22
This means that by calling Jesus the Lord, a person can prophesy, cast out devils, and perform many wonderful works, but still not do according to the will of the Father.
When I was struggling to understand this message, God reminded me of two people: King Saul from the Old Testament and Judas Iscariot from the New Testament.
King Saul was appointed as the first king of Israel. Saul received authority and commanded the army, leading the people. This can be compared with Matthew 7:22, because the role of a man of God, enabled by the Lord, is to teach, prophesy, heal, cast out demons, and perform various miracles as pleased by the Lord.
However, Saul acted against the will of the heavenly Father during the war with the Amalekites. Because of this, he was declared to be replaced, and God left him. Even after that, he continued to be king and fought many wars. But he continued his deeds against the will of the heavenly Father.
In the case of Judas Iscariot, he was one among the twelve to receive authority over every evil spirit to cast them out in the name of Jesus. He was given authority to preach the message of the kingdom of God. Still, his heart was away from the will of God. Even though we read that Judas betrayed Jesus as it was written, it was not the will of God for anyone to betray Him. It was just prophesied before, but not directed by God. The Bible clearly specifies that Satan entered Judas.
We know Judas was removed from the twelve apostles after his death and his place was replaced by Matthias.
So today, God is reminding us that He has given authority in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ. We may be able to accomplish many things from a ministry perspective to represent the kingdom. But unless we have the desire to do the will of God in our lives, we cannot enter the kingdom. The desire to do the will of God is more important than being a great man of God in the world.
Prayer
Dear loving heavenly Father, thank You for Your love and grace. Thank You for teaching us today that doing according to the will of God is more important than preaching, teaching, and performing many visible tasks that seem godly. You are the God who knows the secret thoughts of our hearts. Help us to love and prepare ourselves to do everything according to Your will alone. I pray in the name of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen!
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