I would like to start with the clear area of God's will for us. Many of us don't notice but God has told us general areas of His will for us in the Word. So I will just post these concerning the will of God...
1 Thessalonians 5:14-22 ESV (14) And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. (15) See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. (16) Rejoice always, (17) pray without ceasing, (18) give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (19) Do not quench the Spirit. (20) Do not despise prophecies, (21) but test everything; hold fast what is good. (22) Abstain from every form of evil.I believe that verse 18 can refer to this whole section.
1 Thessalonians 4:1-6 ESV (1) Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. (2) For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. (3) For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; (4) that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, (5) not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; (6) that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you.
1 Peter 2:12-17 ESV Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. (13) Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, (14) or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. (15) For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. (16) Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. (17) Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
2 Peter 3:9 ESV The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.These are a few verses that tell us a general area of God's will. We can see the picture that God generally wants us to be holy. There are other verses that tell us about the will of God, and I challenge you to look them up and find them yourselves :P I don't need to do all the work.
So we know about these areas. God wants us to be holy, but how do we determine the more precise areas? Does God want me in this job? Or does He want me on the mission field? Does God want me to give money to missions? Or does He want me to save? Should I marry this person? Or does God have someone else? Does God want me in the ministry? Or does He want me to support the ministers? We all have questions like this. And we all have probably come to the point where we say, "Well if God wants me to do this, it will just happen." Now I believe this 100%, God's will will be done in our lives. But I don't believe that this is the way God wants us to do things. So I want to share a few principles that I see in the word of God, to knowing God's will.
I want to start with this,
Romans 12:2 GNB Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God---what is good and is pleasing to him and is perfect.Do not conform yourself. I like this version as it really paints a good picture. Do not conform to the world's standards. Do not conform your thinking to the natural standards of what is good, or what is bad. But instead let God inwardly change you. God makes us spiritually minded people. Galatians 5:25 GW If we live by our spiritual nature, then our lives need to conform to our spiritual nature. Or in another version Galatians 5:25 ESV If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. We are spiritually minded people, we need to conform to this spiritual side. How does the world make decisions? They base decisions on a few things, money, circumstances, and feelings. These are natural things, they are not spiritual things. I would like to use Job as an example.
By the world's standards, Job was doing everything right. All his circumstances were good. He had a good, loving family, he had growing wealth, and he had good health. Everything was going good for Job. He had all the money he needed. He also was at constant peace, happiness, and comfort. Job according to the world had made all the right decisions. But what happened to Job? As we all know God allowed Satan to take all this away. Bad circumstances came, he lost his money, and any comfort he had was gone. But Job was spiritually minded. He realized that God could give and take away. But Job's circumstances only got worse and worse. His wife told him to curse God and his friends called him a wretched sinner. But Job knew that God was in control. Job had these things right. Job knew that all good things came from God, and that God gives and takes away. He knew that God would not allow circumstances, whether good or bad, that were apart from His will to happen. Then the second thing, is that Job stuck to the truth he knew. Job did not curse God and die because he knew that God was in control of his life. He knew that God did not do anything wrong. Job 8:3 " Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right?"
So for us; when determining the will of God, we need to not focus on circumstances. When we have a good job, and we are praying about quitting to perhaps leave the ministry. We cannot take the first bad day of work as a sign from God to quit. We must also though not take a pay raise as a reason to stay. God wants us to be wise about what we are doing, but sometimes He calls us to do some peculiar things. But don't immediately think that if circumstances don't line up it is not the will of God, and vice versa. Don't assume because all the circumstances line up that it is the will of God. Circumstances are still a natural thing, and we are spiritual people. If God wants us to give us circumstances to watch for He will tell us. John 15:15 ESV "No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you." Do not take circumstances as an answer from God unless God Himself has told you through the word, or through His Spirit.
The second thing is money. Never take the lack of money, or the abundance of it as an object for the will of God. This may not concern money, but the principle behind it is the same. But Gideon had an army of 32,000 men. Gideon was confident in this army, and was ready for battle. But God told him no, and gave Gideon instructions that anyone who was fearful to go home, so 22,000 men left. So Gideon now only has 10,000 men. This was over half of army now gone. But God said this was still too many people. So he told Gideon to bring the people to the water, and whoever drank like dog was set aside, and whoever drank by kneeling were set aside. Now those who drank like a dog were numbered 300 men. This is a mere fraction compared to his original number. But this was the number that God told him to go out against the entire army of the nation of Midian. But God used 300 men to defeat well over 10,000 men. Now if Gideon had decided, "32,000 men is plenty." and went out to battle. He would have been out of the will of God. But God provided 32,000 men? In a nation that was hardly able to pull itself together? Wasn't this clearly the will of God? He gave Gideon these men, all the funds were provided. This wasn't the will of God for Gideon to have this many men. God wanted the glory in the situation and Israel would not glorify God in this situation. So God lowered the number. Sometimes we think that God provided all the money for us, and that we are in the will of God. We still need to pray about what to do, and seek God in the matter. Of course His provision can be seen as a sign, but don't assume that it is an immediate sign until you've prayed on the matter, and searched His word. Also do not assume that lack of funds are a sign against the will of God. Gideon had 300 men. This is not enough men to make one legion of men. Gideon did not have the proper amount of men to go into battle. And he is not making a small choice here, these are these men's lives. But he knew that God would provide victory. Do not assume that a lack of funds means that God does not want you to do something. Have faith in Him that He will provide. Unless of course He leads you against that through prayer, His Spirit's guiding, and His Word.
Then the last thing, feelings. Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that our hearts are deceitfully wicked and that we cannot know it. We cannot trust our feelings. We are very fickle, and our feelings change all the time. We all know that this is true. A movie, good story teller, or a book can do this to us easily. Imagine this with me.
Glass breaks. An alarm goes off. The lights in a nearby jewelry store go on. One problem, this is your store. Two burglars are seen standing in the building dumbfounded by the sudden alarm. They begin to scoop up handfuls of any jewelry they can grab. They frantically scramble dropping precious stones all over the floor. As you run to the store you see a third man jump into the building. He ignores all the scattered jewels, and punches one of the burglars. The first burglar is done for the count. He quickly spins around and puts a kick into the other burglars head and his lights were put out. The man just saved your shop from these two burglars. But you notice something suddenly, he grabs the bags that they had and runs off with them, and most of your jewelry.Now its really not a great example, as there are many other better story tellers than I. But at first I bet you would have been glad for this unknown hero. But in the end I am sure that your mind changed about him. But we can really see how our feelings change. In countless movies a hero turns and we suddenly hate them, or a villain will become the hero, and we are instantly changed with all our thoughts. We cannot trust our feelings. They change too much. But what we can trust is God who never changes.
So how then do we know the will of God. All I really told you was what to watch out for. Don't base your choices on circumstances, good or bad. Don't base them on money, the provision of it, or the lack of it. Don't base it on your feelings or you feel good or feel bad about something. Instead we know the will of God in this way.
One, by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2) When our minds are not based on natural things, but on spiritual things we can know the will of God. How do we renew our minds though? We can't... Sorry... But God can.
Ezekiel 36:26-27 ESV And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. (27) And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.God will take care of these things for us. He will cause us to walk in His statutes, and He will make us careful to obey His rules. I want to make this clear. God's will is not determined by a formula. It is not found by praying for 10 hours on the subject, fasting for 3 days, and reading at least two books of the Bible. It is not found by talking to your pastor and asking your friends what they think. Finding the will of God is based on one thing and one thing alone.
John 15:15 ESV No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.Knowing the will of God is having a friendship with Jesus Christ. Literally it is being best friends with Jesus. Be best friends with Christ. Think to your best friend and how you treat them, how you spend time with them, how you enjoy hanging out with them, and all those things... This is what Jesus wants, and He will make His will clear to us while we are hanging out with Him.
But please, don't base your choices on natural things, circumstances, money, and feelings. But let your friendship with Christ be what gives you the answer. Through prayer (talking to God), through worship (hanging out), through His word (God talking to you), and through just time in devotion (more hangout time). If Christ is your best friend, then He will tell you His will.
