How Do I Know God's Will for My Life

 

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Part II

Proverbs 3:5-6

5) Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;

6) in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Psalm 16:7-8

7) I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me.

8) I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

QUESTION - HOW DO I KNOW GOD'S WILL FOR MY LIFE?

Being able to know God's will is an important issue in the Christian life. The verses we just read allow us to be impressed with the fact that if we set God's ways or His will before us, our journey will be smoother and less complicated. Notice these statements, "He will make your paths straight" or "I will not be shaken."

I'm sure none of us want to have a complicated life. But how do we really determine God's will? I believe there's so much confusion among Christians today with regards to this area. This confusion is appropriately illustrated with this familiar story. There was a man who was attempting to seek guidance from the Lord and so he simply close his eyes and opened up the Bible, and put his finger on a passage from Matthew 27: 5, "Then he went away and hanged himself." Somehow, he didn't think that verse gave him any direction for his problem. He closed his eyes again and opened his Bible to another passage. He looked and read Jesus statement in Luke 10: 37 "Go and do likewise." That wasn't quite what he was looking either, so he tried one more time. He shut his eyes, opened his Bible, and read the statement in John 2:5, "Do whatever he tells you."

I believe, when we think of knowing the will of God, our concern is not so much on the moral issues because in most cases they are stated clearly in the Bible. Often the difficulty lies on some specific areas of our lives like - Where do I go to school?  Who do I marry?  What is my career path?  Do I take this job opportunity or not? These are just some of the decisions we have to make in the course of our journeys. And many of these are make of break decisions. We can't afford to be careless.

With our limited time, allow me to share some basic principles on how we can know God's will for our lives.  

I           THE MISCONCEPTION:

            First of all, I believe it would be helpful to first straighten out some wrong notions about the will of God.  There are at least three that I want to highlight:

A.     God doesn't want you to have any fun.

Many see God as some sort of a celestial killjoy.  That is, if you surrender to do His will, you will have a hard and an unhappy life. Many are afraid to find His will because they are afraid of what

they might be asked to do.

            However, I hope we won't believe this. Remember, God is a loving God, and He only wants the best for us.

Jeremiah 29:11

11) For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

B. God's will is only for a certain class of people.

            God's will is not limited to those with position. He just doesn't speak to pastors or missionaries. God has a plan for every saint at every conceivable level of commitment. If you choose to follow His will, He will lead you into his plan for your life.

C. God's will is a mystery.

There are some people who think that God is somehow reluctant to let us know His will, because He gets some kind of strange pleasure out of hiding it.  Many see God saying, "There's something I want you to do, but I'm not going to tell you what it is. You search it and see if you can find it." 

            This is ridiculous. God never hides His will, He reveals it.  He wants us to know His will. 

            Let's do our best to do away with these concepts because they are far from the truth. We will never know God's will if we continue believing these concepts.

II         THE MANDATE:

            Secondly, before moving further, we also need to establish two important requirements in knowing God's will:

A.     Salvation:

John 10:4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.

John 10:27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

            These two verses emphasize the dynamic relationship between the Great Shepherd and His sheep.  The responsibility of the sheep is to know the Shepherd, and he will be able to discern His voice.

            Have you already acknowledged God as the Shepherd of your life? King David enjoyed such a relationship with God, and so he declared, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside quiet waters" (Psalm 23:1-2).  

            As David had said, "He leads me . . ." So, God has promised to lead His people into a life of provisions. 

B.     Surrender

Not only that we need to make sure that we have a relationship with Him, we also need to be surrendered to Him.

Romans 12:1-2  Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.

2) Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.

            The apostle Paul makes it very clear that it would be tough to approve God's good, pleasing and perfect will if we have not yielded our lives to Him. If we continue to run with the world, chances are we will try to please the world in our decisions more than trying please God.

            God knows the fact that it is not enough to know His will; we must be prepared to say, "Lord, I am ready to do your will."

I believe God does not have a problem revealing His will to those who really have the desire to do His will.     

III        THE MEANS:

            Finally, God is a God who communicates to us. It would be difficult to have a relationship with someone who never spoke.  Here are four means He communicates His will to us.

A.     Through the Bible:

God has clearly laid out principles for us to follow in His Word to do His will.  God reminds us:

Psalm 119:105  Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.

           God has given us His Word to guide us. We need to be familiar with it, and pay close attention to it. We should never seek the will of God concerning something that God has clearly commanded or forbidden.  That's arrogance and dangerous. We will undoubtedly get off track if we fail to follow the clear guidance that God has already given.

B.     Through the Prompting of the Holy Spirit:

One of the functions of the Holy Spirit in our lives is to guide us into all the truth.

John 16:13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

            Clearly, this inward nudging of the Holy Spirit will be in harmony with the teaching of the Scriptures because the Spirit is called the "Spirit of truth."  Another passage is:

Romans 8:14

14) because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

            Our responsibility is to be sensitive to the still small voice who leads us in a wonderful way.

C.     Through Godly People:

God can also use other people to help us discern God's will for our lives. The book of Proverbs has a lot to say about this:

Proverbs 12:15  The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice.

Proverbs 24:6  for waging war you need guidance, and for victory many advisers.

            Our unwillingness to take advises from others can get us into great problems. Our verses remind us that wise people is characterized as one who listens to advises.  But don't just go to anyone; make sure you go to people who have exemplified maturity and wisdom in life. The apostle Paul has benefited so much from the ministry of Ananias who help him know God's will for his life. So just like Paul, let's not discount the advises of godly people around us.

D.     Through Circumstances:

Last but not the least, God also uses some special circumstances in life to guide us.

1 Corinthians 16:9  because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me.

            In this verse, Paul mentions about a door that God had opened for him.  Although, in the same verse he also mentioned about some oppositions; nevertheless, he saw God's leading. You see, problems don't necessarily mean closed doors. Many times, we are right in the midst of God's will even when we are encountering some challenges. Since circumstances are certainly open to different interpretation, we also need to weigh them with the Scriptures and godly advises.

            As we close, I trust that we are convinced about God desiring to guide us in this life. He never wants His will to be hidden from us.  Let's continually delight in Him and live according to His will.