KIOM

Is It God’s Will or Just My Own Desire?

January 3, 2025 Merlin Gonzales a Study on God's Dominion No comments

I have this issue…

Maybe you’re struggling with it too.

How do you know you’re truly on the path God has for you?

How do you know you’re truly on the path God has for you? You trust in His promises, but doubts creep in—”Am I just making this up?” or “Is this really from God?” Sometimes, it’s hard to discern if the voice you’re hearing is God’s or just your thoughts. And you wonder, will the answer come now or in the distant future?

Uncertainty clouds your mind. And in moments of challenge, these questions often become the core of our faith journey.

Let’s dive into Deuteronomy 30:9-14, where God offers clarity and reassurance about His will, promises, and our path forward.

“9 Then the Lord your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The Lord will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your ancestors, 10 if you obey the Lord your God and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

11 Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. 12 It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” 13 Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” 14 No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.” –

God gives the Israelites a clear promise of blessing, prosperity, and favor, along with a commandment to obey His word. (Prosperity is not limited to financial abundance, though that may be part of it).

The Promise:

Verse 9 emphasizes God’s desire to make His people prosperous in all areas of life. This includes:

The work of their hands (their labor and efforts will be fruitful).
The fruit of the womb (their families will thrive and multiply).
Their livestock and crops (their livelihoods will flourish and provide abundance).

God’s blessings are comprehensive—He wants to bless their work, their families, and their land. The phrase “The Lord will again delight in you” is a powerful reminder that God longs to have a deep, joyful relationship with His people, as He did with their ancestors. He delights in blessing those who obey Him.

The Condition:

Verse 10 tells us a condition. Obedience is the key. God desires not just surface-level compliance but wholehearted devotion—obeying Him with all your heart and soul. This means a deep, sincere commitment to follow His ways and live according to His will. The blessing is not automatic; it requires a turning of the heart, a commitment to live by the commandments given in the Book of the Law.

The Simplicity of Obedience:

When God gives us command, we also provides us ways to accomplish His will. In verses 11-14, God is reassuring the Israelites that His word is accessible and close to them. The commands are:

Not in heaven (so they don’t have to send someone to fetch them).
Not beyond the sea (so they don’t have to travel far to understand them).

Instead, God’s word is already with them. “The word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.” This means they already know what to do—the commandments are present within them, the ability to obey is within their grasp… and the promises are sure.

Is it God’s will or is it our own desire?

I hope this short exposition of the passages gives us more clarity and builds our faith: God desires to bless His people, but these blessings are tied to their obedience and their wholehearted devotion to Him. The commandments are not meant to be a burden or an unattainable goal. Rather, they are near, familiar, and possible to live out daily.

In essence, God is showing that obedience leads to blessing, and this obedience is not out of reach. It’s not a distant or impossible task—it is simple, close, and achievable through the heart’s willingness to follow Him.

True clarity often emerges in the darkest moments.

God’s promises are sure, and when we obey His word, we align ourselves with the flow of His blessing, favor, and delight. The fulfillment of His promises—prosperity, joy, and abundance—are always contingent upon our choice to live according to His will with all of our heart and soul.

Your 7th Day is Coming!

December 27, 2024 Merlin Gonzales a Study on God's Dominion

“Prayer changes things” is something we often hear. And while it’s true, there are moments in life when it feels far from true.

Have you ever found yourself praying day and night, pouring your heart out over something incredibly important. You wait in anticipation, your prayers brimming with hope— only to be met with what seems like silence from God. I know this uneasy feeling well, I’ve been there countless times.

Bright hopes for the New Year

Bright future is ahead

As the New Year approaches, many of us carry our prayer requests in our hearts. We long for change—better relationships, a better-paying job, improved health, vacation to an exotic place, perhaps even a new car. We make our resolutions, hoping the new year will bring the breakthrough we’ve been praying for. But, month after month, nothing seems to change.

It’s hard, and the waiting feels endless!

Keep the Faith

Yet, in the midst of all this, there’s a deeper lesson in patience, perseverance, and trust in God’s perfect timing. Sometimes, His quietness is preparing us for something greater than we imagined. Hold on… even when it feels like nothing is moving—because God is working behind the scenes in ways you can’t yet see.

Preposterous

In Joshua Chapter 6, the Israelites, under Joshua’s leadership, prepare to capture the heavily fortified city of Jericho. God gives Joshua unusual instructions for how to conquer the city: for six days, the Israelite army is to quietly march around the city once each day, led by seven priests carrying trumpets made of rams’ horns. After the first day, nothing happens—the walls remain the same, and there is no visible progress or sign of victory. This same exasperating experience happened for the next several days, things look as it was before, nothing appears to change but they continued to quietly march with their seemingly blind faith.

For nearly a week, Joshua and his people had marched silently around the walls of Jericho, doing exactly what they were told, but nothing happened. They might have felt ridiculous, walking in circles, with their enemies taunting them from the safety of the walls. With each passing day, it seemed more and more hopeless. Back at camp, the murmurs could have grown louder. People may have secretly questioning Joshua’s leadership, wondering if he really had a handle on things.

Maybe even Joshua shared those doubts, feeling the weight of disappointment pressing in. Perhaps his mind raced, questioning whether he had truly heard from God. He may have been replaying every step, every prayer, wondering if he’d gotten it wrong. Doubts, like whispers, might have filled his heart—what if he misunderstood? What if they had just wasted six days? What if the enemy was laughing at them, secure in the thought that the Israelites’ God had abandoned them?

But despite the questions and the potential for discouragement, Joshua remained faithful. He trusted God, even when the plan didn’t make sense.

The shift

Then came the seventh day, and the plan shifted. Joshua might have thought to himself, “Did God change His mind? Maybe the first six days were a mistake.”

Nothing is impossible with God

Despite it, the Israelites march around Jericho seven times, and at the end of the seventh lap, the priests blow their trumpets, and the people shout loudly. Suddenly, the unthinkable happened – the walls of Jericho collapse completely, allowing the Israelites to charge into the city and claim victory!

This miraculous event emphasizes that God’s timing and plan were perfect, even though it may have seemed like nothing was happening during the first agonizing six days. On the seventh day, with obedience and faith, the walls came down, showing that God’s power can bring sudden and total victory at the right moment.

Your seventh day is coming

Just like the Israelites who marched around Jericho, when things don’t seem to make sense and everything feels stagnant, remember—God is working behind the scenes. In those moments of waiting, He’s building something deeper in us, strengthening our faith and teaching us to trust fully in Him. He calls us to surrender our future into His hands.

Your seventh day is coming! Keep persevering in prayer and continue to walk in His steps. The hope He gives will never disappoint, and His promises are sure. He has not forgotten you!

Sometime it just take another step

I am praying for you. As the new year approaches, choose to believe in the power of prayer and obedience, even when you can’t see the results. That “suddenly” you’ve been waiting for could be closer than you think—greater than you ever imagined. Keep looking forward, keep digging, keep the faith because your seventh day is just around the corner! Pray, be strong and courageous… believe.

Happy New Year and God bless you!

Merlin

Lesson learned from trimming vines

June 21, 2022 Merlin Gonzales blog, KIOM, Latest News

No, this is not about how to trim vines growing on your brick wall.

First of all, it’s a lot of work to have vines growing on your walls. However, it is pretty. My wife always tells me that we have the most gorgeous house in our little community. So, I have a mantra that I recite when trimming the vines… “I love my wife, I love my wife, I love my wife…” This is about life’s application based on simple practical reflection. During Spring, our Boston Ivy grows like the vine at Jack and the Beanstalk. Throughout the years, I have had to trim it at least 4 times! Yesterday, I decided to trim it for the 2nd time this year. I was very meticulous. Then, after I finished the entire trimming, I noticed a small vine that I missed!!

You can be so particular in details and miss the big picture. This is similar in life, we can be so into the nitty-gritty, and in the end, our wasted exhausting emotion was not necessary.

Let’s not go too extreme on this notion. Details are very important in life.

My message is Balance. We are imperfect people living in an imperfect world. It’s ok to be imperfectly perfect. There’s always room for improvement, learning, and acknowledging our humanity. It is more exciting to know that there are always new things to learn as we go through life being imperfect than assuming we have arrived at perfection.

A Wallet from Heaven

October 9, 2019 Merlin Gonzales a Study on God's Dominion, KIOM

The day before Faith Hope and Love Community (FHL’s) annual fundraiser dinner was very busy.

As you may know, many details encompass the planning for such an event, but it was important to my team to hash out the details necessary to make the dinner a success. After accomplishing our plans for the day, my wife and I treated ourselves to a relaxing dinner. However, when it was time to pay, I discovered my wallet was missing!

A queasy feeling

Assuming I had left the wallet in one of our FHL trucks, we decided it would be best to just wait to retrieve it the next morning when we arrived for setup-the day’s events had left us very tired! The next morning, though, I was dismayed to discover that my wallet was nowhere to be found. This worried me greatly, but I was tasked with assisting with setting up the venue. Throughout the rest of the day, I searched the vehicles I had travelled in the day before inside and out, even searching through the venue several times thinking I had perhaps left it sitting somewhere. That lingering anxiousness stayed with me for the next few hours. Finally, my wife finally told me to forget about my wallet and concentrate. I decided she was right. The angel of the Lord would just have to deliver my wallet back to me.

The fundraiser proved to be an excellent distraction. It was an evening filled with powerful stories and life-changing testimonies, including stories of miracles.

When the guests were gone and everything put into its proper place, I started the drive back to my home around midnight. Suddenly, I remembered my wallet! Immediately, the feeling of anxiousness and dread came rushing back over me. The thought of my personal information being open to a stranger was interrupted by a “thump” on my windshield. For some reason I can’t explain, I thought that perhaps this could have been my wallet! After pondering this for several minutes, I decided to turn around, (thank God for round-abouts), and I drove back to where I heard the sound. My hope began to fade as my methodical search did not reveal my wallet. Besides, I couldn’t figure out how it would have suddenly shown up anyway. I got back into my car to go home, but I felt the Lord’s nudging to go back. Hesitantly, I turned around saying to myself that this would be the last time.

Choosing what to believe

I turned on my hazard lights and got out of my truck. After about 2-3 steps I saw on the side of the street what seemed like a piece of paper and not thinking anything else, picked it up. To my surprise, it was a copy of the FHL tax-exempt certificate! I had inserted it into my wallet to have ready to show to certain merchant who offered us an exemption to rent the tables we needed for the annual dinner.

A surge of energy radiated all over my body! It only took me a few minutes after that to find all my credit cards, pictures and my wallet! It was a moment when I knew that heaven invaded earth!

I called my wife immediately and as I proceeded home, I tried to remember how, when and where I lost my wallet to dispel the notion that indeed, an angel of the Lord had brought my wallet back to me.

Moments like this give me confidence that God uses such times to build our faith in Him. I believe He chose that moment to, ‘drop my wallet from Heaven,’ to give me assurance that He is intimately involved in my life.

Beyond life’s circumstances

Our God is a God of miracles that can go beyond space and time, and infinitely out of the bounds of our limited minds and experience (Ephesians 3:20). This experience reminded me that whatever happens in my life or my ministry, He is in control and I have nothing to worry or be anxious about. The same is also true for you, and your worries and cares. We can trust in the promises of God, no matter how absurd or illogical they may seem to be.

God is with us and He is good all the time.

Update: When my wife read the story, she had vision of an angel and the demon who stole my wallet fighting in the sky and the angel got my wallet back and threw it in my truck.

Doing good is part of the pact

August 20, 2016 Merlin Gonzales a Study on God's Dominion, blog, KIOM

Many times Jesus led His disciples in doing good.

Action speaks louder than voice

Acts 10:38, “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.”

Our model

The early disciples knew that Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with Him. He was a promoter of outreaches. He did not stay in synagogue or places of worship but he went around to show everyone God’s love in every realm of their lives – spiritual, physical, financial, emotional, etc.

Jesus set an example for His disciples to follow – love others both in word and in action. He would normally go ahead of the disciples to show them how to help others, how to pray and how to be supernaturally natural – the basics of expanding the Kingdom.

Jesus did not stay behind a desk or in the temple and just gave instructions to His disciples to do the job. He did not just organize things, wrote the vision and the plan, nor just did the research and came up with a timeline for his disciples to implement while He evaluate their progress. Instead, Jesus presented the Gospel in its fullness.

His generation

In order to get the message into the minds of people, Jesus told the story of a man who was going on a road less travelled from Jerusalem to Jericho – because it is a dangerous place where robbers and thugs hang out. He concluded that this man was attacked by robbers, took everything he had including his clothes and left him half dead. Then, a priest happen to pass by the same road, saw the man but passed by on the other side. Later, a Levite passed by and did the same thing. Soon, a Samaritan passed by and helped the man immediately and made sure the man was taken care of afterwards. (Luke 10:25-37)

Our generation

Consequently, it’s not hard to locate places like that road from Jerusalem to Jericho in our cities. Last year, the former Indianapolis Mayor identified 6 most dangerous Indy-area neighborhoods. Recently, IMPD created an equation called Social Disorder Index to identify which areas have the most crime and which crimes are occurring in those areas. Similarly, the priests (preachers) and the Levites (those who assist the religious people) of our time would normally drive by these neighborhoods on a regular basis. But how many times have we seen clergies giving a cup of cold water to one of these little ones (Matthew 10:42) or praying for healing at street corners?

My experience working with leaders and pastors, reveal that the majority are very active in delivering persuasive speeches to influence the thought and conduct of an audience. They use many venues such as places of worship or different forms of media and the Internet. They come up with different trainings, conferences, religious jargons and fancy phrases. They are so compelling and yet, we can hardly see most of them in the hood. They are very good in casting visions and in creating plans for others to do. Although it is partially true, our generation has accepted the norm that leaders should lead, assess the situations and train others who in turn would implement his or her plan. The leaders were supposed to rally the people and get them excited but many of them stay behind a desk or a podium. They were to train and to equip their people but your can hardly see them model what they teach out in the mission field.

His ministry

Based on the examples of Jesus and on the action of the early disciples, the Gospel spread quickly, people received healing (both physically and spiritually) and the disciples were trained more effectively. By being hands-on and by putting what they learned in action immediately, the disciples were able to come up with what the society needs and better solutions to cope with the rapid growth of the movement.

Normally, while Jesus was busy doing good, the Pharisees and Sadducees were busy criticizing Him. One occasion Jesus told them “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3) Stop criticizing and analyzing; just to do it. Jesus may say, “You will learn more as you do the ministry and revelation will come as you experience My teachings.”

“But I have sermons to prepare, I have budget to balance and I have training materials I have to finish”, some leaders may say. But Jesus is saying to “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33)

Jesus did the unusual not because He wants to be different but because He was influencing the people to accept the dimension of the Kingdom – in words and in action. His prayer was “Thy Kingdom come, they will be done on earth as it is in heaven” – doing and being. Doing is part of the pact!

Our “personal” ministry

It behooves me to encourage you to experience the blessings in serving in the field. This not to say that you are not but to continue to lift you up as you do ministry. Not only you would experience the favor that God has given you but also to witness the manifestation of your prayers. As you see miracles happen before your eyes, you would have more testimonial of the presence of the living God inside of you (not to dazzle people with you experience, but to exhort them in their faith). It would help you to evaluate your spiritual walk as you engage in “ministry” and help validate your personal ministry. You will see the true picture of your calling and you will be amazed how God collaborates with you as you do the stuff.

God bless you,

Merlin