LIVING TO PLEASE GOD
(week 36/17)
DEOYE OBE, OLUBI JOHNSON AND GBOYEGA ADESIYAN

1Peter 4:1-2 AMP: SO, SINCE Christ suffered in the flesh for us, for you, arm yourselves with the same thought and purpose [patiently to suffer rather than fail to please God]. For whoever has suffered in the flesh [having the mind of Christ] is done with [intentional] sin [has stopped pleasing himself and the world, and pleases God], (2) So that he can no longer spend the rest of his natural life living by [his] human appetites and desires, but [he lives] for what God wills.

There are 3 categories of Christians:
(1)        Those that do not please God:

1Thessalonians 2:15 KJV: Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men:

(2)        Those that please God:

Hebrews 11:5 KJV: By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

(3)        Those that are well pleasing to Him:

Matthew 3:17 KJV: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’.

God’s ultimate desire is to have sons and daughters that are well pleasing to Him.
It is the sin nature in the soul (the will, mind and emotions) and body (together known as ‘the flesh’) that hinders us from pleasing God.

Romans 8:7-8 KJV: Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.(8) So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

Romans 8:8 AMP: So then those who are living the life of the flesh [catering to the appetites and impulses of their carnal nature] cannot please or satisfy God, or be acceptable to Him.

God wants to see the travail of His soul and be satisfied (Isa. 53:11).

Why should we live to please God?

  • It guarantees answers to prayers:

1John 3:22 KJV: And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.

  • It guarantees living long to fulfill our destiny:

1Corinthians 10:5 KJV: But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

  • It is those that are well pleasing to God and those that are pleasing Him that shall be caught up (Rev.12:1-2,5) like the Lord Jesus and Enoch.

Acts 1:9 KJV: And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.

Hebrews 11:5 KJV: By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

How do we please God and become well-pleasing?

By suffering self-denial to give time in prayer with fasting, reading and studying the Word in order to generate release sufficient power to rule over the carnal flesh, to obtain first the borrowed anointing as sons of God!

Romans 8:12-14 KJV: Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. (13) For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. (14) For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

As we continue to totally flush out the sin nature from the soul and body. We become well-pleasing to God like the Lord Jesus was all the time.

John 8:29 KJV: And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.

And so inherit the fullness of the Spirit, the Spirit without measure:

John 3:34 KJV: For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure [unto him].

Ephesians 3:17-19 KJV: That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, (18) May be able to comprehend with all saints what [is] the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; (19) And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.