Luke 8:32 Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission.

Sometimes the truth is revealed in ways we do not expect.

These demons recognized that Jesus had authority to grant permission.

I ended yesterday’s post with a bold statement of faith.

I prayed, “Use me to do your will!”

God answered me. “An empty vessel has no desires.”

What I saw in that moment was that God does not need our permission to do His will in us or through us. Nor does He have to tell us when He does. We are His to do with as He pleases.

What God tells us in answer to our prayers is for us to understand how God works in our lives.

My prayer was selfish. I wanted to feel useful. That is not an unreasonable thing but God was dealing with my insecurity. I wanted to be seen. Glorifying self is stealing God’s glory. That God will not allow.

John 8:54 Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’

Look at this example.

Luke 8:44-46 English Standard Version

44 She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. 45 And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!” 46 But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.”

If God the Father doesn’t even make His own begotten Son aware that He will be used, what makes us think we have the right to give God permission to do His will?

An empty cup has no desire to be used. It moves because of the master’s hand.

John 5:19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.

Let me make this perfectly clear, Jesus is God, we are not. We are now the children of God by adoption and as children we have a relationship with the Father by which we now have the right to call Him “Abba Father”. The intent is for a close personal relationship with our spiritual Father.

It is in this closest of relationships in which we can see God’s hand at work.

1 Corinthians 6:17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

This means one mind, total agreement, and one will to be done.

Matthew 12:50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.

How can we do the will of the Father without knowing Him in a close personal relationship?

We must first understand who is doing the work.

Philippians 2:13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

When we surrender our will to His will. He will enact His will through the power of the Holy Spirit who is the abiding presence of God in our lives. He does the work, not us.

John 5:30 I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

This is the key to doing the will of the Father, to have no will of our own interfering with the work to be done. To hear is key, but to judge rightly that we are hearing the Father is only discovered in our deep personal relationship.

I prayed, “Use me to do your will!”

God answered me. “An empty vessel has no desires.”