Meditating on Paul Washer's Four Steps of Discerning God's Will

Paul Washer has been criticized for what some calls as "works salvation" but have they really fully listened to him in context? Teaching the idea that true salvation results to works is different from teaching salvation is by works. When the preacher says that true salvation results to doing good works - he does not mean that the works justified the person but doing of works were a result of the person's justification by the grace of God. Titus 2:11-14, Ephesians 2:10 and 1 Corinthians 6:11 shows how one shifts from a life of sin to serving the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is not just a Savior, He is the Savior from sin and not in sin.

I. The first principle is seeking the Kingdom of God.

Do you seek the Kingdom of God consistently? Matthew 6:33 says, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you." Seeking the Kingdom of God is not going on a journey by boat or by air but to seek other believers. If you are a believer, you are part of the Kingdom of God. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 shows that before you were saved you might have had every mark of every person unworthy to enter God's Kingdom but after salvation then comes the sanctification. Getting saved is just the beginning and not the end of Christian life. The need for fellowship is the need to seek other Christians in fellowship. That is why there is the need for Christians to worship as a community. Hebrews 10:23-25 says, "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near."

II. The second principle is about renewing your mind for God

Robert Charles Sproul's Monday to Saturday broadcast "Renewing Your Mind" is just a part of what it means to renew your mind. Romans 12:2 says, "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." The renewing of your mind is not a one-time event but it is a daily process as God saves the person, He works on the person. If getting a person saved is a process to soften the heart of the person, sanctification is a continuous process in itself. If you are truly saved then there is a renewing of the mind. How is that possible? You read to read the Bible daily with the Word of God. Joshua 1:7-8 says, "Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success."

III. Seeking godly counsel from mature believers

If there is a difference between immature believers and false converts, there is also a difference between immature believers and mature believers. In 1 Corinthians 3:1-2 says, "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?" Even if these people were already saved but they still had from problems - they were sarkinois not sarkikos in other words, while they were not carnal in the sense of living like the rest of the world but they were still immature. Christians may not be perpetually carnal but they can fall into carnality. That is why there is the need to seek godly counsel from mature believers especially from a godly preacher, deacon or those who have served God longer than they have.

IV. Consider the desires of your heart

When the man gets saved, they are not made instantly sinless. Instead, there is the struggle between the old nature and the new nature. Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" The desires of one's heart can hinder effective Christian ministry. Solomon started out good but he backslid in the middle of his life before he wrote Ecclesiastes. He started out as the shepherd-king of the Shullamite but later he ended up having 999 other women leading him to sin. Proverbs 4:23 says, "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." which I believe that part of the Proverbs is actually God speaking to Solomon, not Solomon just writing it himself. What was unfortunate that the man who wrote down Proverbs fell out from it for some time before he realized he had done so much wrong. Christians must continue to battle these sinful desires as 1 Corinthians 10:5 says, "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled."