How Can I Know God’s Will? Part-2

Thank you for joining me for Part-2 of
“How Can I Know God’s Will.” Throughout
my years of ministry, I continually struggled with knowing God’s will for my
life.  I wanted more than anything to follow His plan.
Interestingly, now that I’m “old” (currently 66 yrs. old), I still struggle
with doing His will in my life.  I have come to understand that this is
not just something that a person does early in life; it is a lifelong pursuit
in order to stay in the exact center of God’s plan.

So, then, how can we know God’s plan
for our lives?  Over the past twenty years that I have been in ministry, I
have discovered a few interesting principles I would like to share with you
about knowing God’s will. 

For starters, if you are interested in
knowing God’s plan for your life, then you must learn to walk with God.
You need to develop a relationship with Him, because Christianity is all about a
relationship rather than just religion.  So
you need to encourage your
relationship with God.  You must seek to know Him and not just seek to know about Him.

As I mentioned last week, you will encourage
that relationship best by spending time in His Word, taking time for prayer, as
well as taking every opportunity you can to be involved in church and small
group Bible studies.  When you seek these disciplines in your life, God
will begin the first steps to revealing His plan to you. 

“You shall walk in all the way that the Lord
your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with
you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess.” (Deuteronomy 5:33)  

Many times when we say we are seeking
God’s will, what we are really wanting to say to God is this:  “OK, God,
here’s what I’m planning to do.  Now I need you to rubber stamp this, all
right?”  I must say that this is not really effective in finding His true
will.  

But before God will begin to reveal His
will to you, you must be committed to doing whatever it is that He desires for
you to do.  God will likely be slow to show you His plan if He knows you
will probably not follow the plan anyway.   

“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. 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.” (Romans
12:1-2)  

Jesus was willing to die for us, so
shouldn’t we be willing to live for Him? When we surrender to Him that is when
He really begins to direct our steps.  Now, many people seem to want to know
what God’s plan is for their lives, but they overlook the fact that 98% of His
will is already defined carefully through His Word.  God is very clear
about many, many aspects of His will.  

For instance, it is clearly His
plan that, “you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that
each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and
honorable…” (1 Thessalonians 4:3-4)  If we do not obey the things that God
has shown us clearly to be His will, why would we think He would reveal any
further information regarding His plan for our lives? 

Obedience is an important first step. Next, it’s
important that we seek godly input.  One
key component to finding God’s will is to seek godly advisors in your
life.  If you do not currently have 2-3 godly mentors, then I would highly
recommend that you seek them out right away. Think of it this way:  you should
understand that you are basically a composite of the five people you spend the
most time with.  So, then, it is vital that you choose those five people
well.  

If you choose to surround yourself with godly advisors, they will
be instrumental in helping you discern God’s plan for your life.  But if
you surround yourself with people who are far from God, your hope of finding
His best for your life will be greatly diminished. “Where there is no guidance, the people fall, but in abundance of
counselors there is victory.” (Proverbs 11:14)  

The church is designed to help you with
this.  I would encourage you to be in church every single time the doors
are opened.  The more you involve yourself with a community of believers,
the greater your chances will be of finding godly men and women who can help
you discern God’s will.   

Did you know
that God has created you to fulfill a specific role in this world?
There is no one else who can achieve completely what God has created you to do.The Apostle Peter tells us, “As each
one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good
stewards of the manifold grace of God.” (1 Peter 4:10)  

God has gifted every one of us to
perform a special mission for which we alone were created.  Isn’t that amazing?
So, when you seek to discover God’s will for your life, pay attention to how He
has gifted you.  His plan for you will always be directly related to the
gifts that He has bestowed upon you.  The great news is that you will
automatically be good at whatever it is that He has called you to do!  

I experienced a major turning point in
my own prayer life when I learned simply to occasionally be quiet while I was praying.  That may sound
odd to you, and it seemed odd to me at first.  You see, I was used to doing all the talking
when I prayed to God.  But then, several years ago, I realized there was a
component of prayer I had overlooked: listening.  I now take time to
listen to what God might have to say to me.   

During my prayer time I ask specific questions,
and then I take time to meditate on them.  Often, God will start flooding
my heart with ideas regarding one or more of those questions as He speaks to my
heart.  What an awesome experience that is to sense His Spirit guiding my
thoughts and words.  “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me….” (John
10:27)  Through experiences
like this, He has shown me many times what His will is for my life.  Those
times are truly life changing.  

In addition to listening to the Spirit,
I also recommend listening to your heart.  To understand my point here,
consider the following passage:  “Delight
yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit
your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this…” (Psalms 37:4-5)  

I love this passage, because it shows
me that, when I am walking with the Lord, He will actually let me do many
really cool things that I actually love to do!  When you are close to Him,
He actually begins to shape your desires so that you desire the things that He
has already called you to do.  

As an example, I love the outdoors and
traveling.  There is no experience like
hiking the forests and deserts of this country, spending time camping, hiking
and fishing, and be able to photograph some of God’s most beautiful creation.   I never
dreamed of being able, or even having the money, to experience the great
frontier of Alaska.  But when I committed
my life to Christ, and expressed my desire to serve Him wherever He wanted me
to go, and do whatever He wanted me to do, amazingly He gave me the great privilege
of serving Him while planting a church in Alaska, and even spending time in India
as a missionary.  Wow!  

So then, His plan actually became a
super-exciting adventure.  I always have the most fun in life when I am
doing God’s will.  And that is because He shapes my “desire” to want to do
the things for which He has actually created me.  

Over the years, I have discovered that
God is pretty good at opening and closing doors.  He even did that for the
Apostle Paul in Acts 16:6-10, where Luke reports that, “Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they
were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. After they had
come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit
them. So passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. And a vision appeared to
Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, “Come
over to Macedonia and help us. Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we
sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the
gospel to them.”    

So, even Paul had to face closed doors
in his ministry.  God often uses closed doors to show us clearly what He
does NOT want us to do.  And He also uses open doors at times to show us
what He DOES want us to do.  Of course, this does not mean that every open
door is definitely God’s plan, but it does help to give you some basic
direction.  

The next time you begin to ponder God’s
plan for your life, I would encourage you to consider these principles.
Use them to help you zero in on His plan.  And when you seek His will
earnestly, you will find it! 

As you study God’s Word and spend time in prayer, your
relationship with God grows and you begin to understand God’s character.  You will then be in the right place to hear
God’s instruction for other areas of your life. In addition to Bible study and
prayer, be willing to seek godly counsel from a friend, pastor, or even your
spouse. 

If we’re serious about following God’s will, we have to
recognize that it’s not about getting what we want, but doing what God asks.  We must trust that He is faithful and good,
and that His will is what’s best for us.

Don’t miss the complete series of:

Can God change
your life?

God has made it
possible for you to know Him, and experience an amazing

change in your own
life.

Discover how you
can find peace with God.