What is God’s will and what is not God’s will? How can we know God’s will? Is it possible to miss God’s will? How did God reveal His will in biblical times? Is it the same way today? Can I really know I am doing God’s will? How? If I’m not doing His will how can I know that? Can others help me know God’s will?
When we stop to think deeply about the way God leads us, we must conclude that it is one of the most mysterious subjects in our spiritual lives. In so many ways God is still a mystery to us.
As Christians, and from our vantage point, we believe in a God of order and compassion. Yet we live with the mysteries of God.
They surround us through all of life. Whether healthy or sick, handicapped or not, young or old, the godly or godless, more often than not much of life is a mystery. We face it in a quandary.
Even though we love the Lord, and try to obey His Word, and to seek His will, if we are honest, there are days, months, years, sometimes even a lifetime when we simply cannot figure out what God is doing.
The Bible encourages all Christians to know and do the will of God. Ephesians 5:17, "Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is". That’s pretty straight forward isn’t it! We are to make every effort to try to grasp our Lord’s will.
But when we stop and think deeply about the way God leads us, we have to conclude that knowing God’s will is one of the most mysterious of many mysteries in our Christian lives.
A good translation for Eph. 5:17 is that we are to understand what the Lord’s purpose is. God has a purpose for His creation; and He has a purpose for our lives.
He expects us to discover, understand, and follow that purpose, because He knows than only in the Lord’s will and power can anything good and lasting be accomplished.
In The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren said that you were created for a purpose and that the purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness. (p. 17)
Perhaps the difficulty is that we selfishly think of our own personal fulfillment without considering God’s purpose. We think we know better than God what is best for our lives.
When Paul tells us to understand the Lord’s purpose, he is saying that true fulfillment in life is tied in to what God created us for. We know that God created us to be in His family, so His will is that we be saved. He wants us to serve Him and one another, and be like Christ.
And if we understand why God created us, and His purpose for us, it will be reflected in the decisions we make in life. “It is only in God that we discover our origin, our identity, our meaning, our purpose, our significance, and our destiny. Every other path leads to a dead end.” (Warren, p. 18)
When God’s priorities are our priorities God can work through us to accomplish great things. When His priorities are not ours, He can accomplish little because He has little of us.
…some small and some large. We have to decide whether we’re going to get up in the morning. For some of us that’s a major decision. Then what’s for breakfast. What do I wear for the day? Before you know it you have to decide what’s for lunch.
Following lunch are all those afternoon decisions to be made. Then evening comes. Are you going to watch television and, if so, what. When are you going to go to bed? Are you going to have cookies and milk before turning in?
Most of us handle these routine decisions with relative ease. It’s the larger decisions that confuse us. And have you noticed that it’s those big decisions that turn around and make us.
Those major decisions start when we are young: what do I want to do when I grow up? Am I going to college? If so what courses will I take? What will be my major?
Then it’s time to find a job. Is this the job God wants for me? Should I get married? If so, how do I decide who the lucky girl/guy will be? Decisions, decisions! And it’s much more complicated today than it used to be.
In the early 70s the book, Future Shock gave us a word for the decisions everyone of us face today—overchoice. We are trying to make tough decisions in the midst of amazing complexity.
There are 200 TV channels competing for our attention. There are dozens of breakfast cereals vying for our money. There are thousands of automobiles from which to choose. Have you stood in front of the toothpaste aisle recently?
There is a hunger for guidance, especially spiritual guidance. Is it any wonder that many ask, “What is God’s will for me?” We wish we had a hot line directly to God. That way we could know God’s will on everything, from what career to choose to what shoes to wear.
Only God knows the future; only God knows what is best for you; only God knows how He wants to bless you. But now I’m going to make two surprising comments.
People have always devised all kinds of ways of trying to decide a direction for their life. Ouija boards used to be a popular means. New Age “channelers” claim to represent the counsel of wise people who lived a long time ago.
Some people simply flip a coin: “Whichever comes up must be God’s will.” Some of us go with a “gut feeling.” Well you don’t really—you think with your head. But the expression “gut feeling” comes from an interesting ancient practice.
In the ancient world people used all kinds of ways to try to determine the minds of the gods. One of the ways was to study the liver—thinking that the center of thought was in the stomach, not the head.
Priests would kill an animal, cut the liver out while still warm, and study the quiver of the liver. Thank goodness we don’t practice this anymore, but the legacy of this ancient belief remains when someone says, “I just felt it in my gut.” Or, “I had a gut feeling.”
Astrology was big in the ancient world and remains so among New Ager’s today. Ancient kings would go into battle or sign treaties according to the stars. Nancy Reagan used astrology to try to influence her husband, President Reagan.
Others in ancient Rome and Greece consulted oracles—priests or priestesses who supposedly had divine abilities to know the minds of the gods and predict the future.
Along the lines of astrology and oracles are horoscopes. A recent comic strip of Luann had her reading three horoscopes on the same day, all very different in what they said and predicted. But, of course, Luann believed every one was accurate in its description and predictions.
All of these and many others are ways that people try to find divine direction for their lives. They want something or someone to make or help them make life decisions.
But we are Christians! We don’t do those kinds of things, do we? After all, the Bible has the answers we are looking for. And we have godly Christian men and women for advice.
We believe that God has a purpose for our lives. But does it surprise you that nowhere in the Old Testament, in the teachings of Jesus, or in the New Testament letters is there any description of a step-by-step process of how we can know God’s will.
In fact, you may also be surprised that the Bible never tells us to ask the question, “What is God’s will for my life?”
But we Christians come really close to acting just like the ancients in how we seek God’s will.
Are you a Bible Surfer? You start turning pages of the Bible, running your fingers over the surface of God’s Word. If a verse pops out at you while surfing, you believe that’s what God is trying to say to you.
Another form of this I call “Bible Roulette.” You simply shut your eyes, let your Bible flop open, and put your fingers on a passage.
There’s a preacher’s story that’s been around a long time about a man who did this. He put his fingers on a passage, opened his eyes and read in Matt. 27, “Then he went away and hanged himself.” That wasn’t the direction he was looking for so he closed his eyes and tried again.
This time his fingers rested on the passage in Luke 10 that says, “Go and do likewise.” He didn’t think he was finding the answers to his problems so he tried one more time. He shut his eyes, opened his Bible and read this statement from John 2:5, “Do whatever he tells you.”
You are thinking that’s really silly. But that’s what happens when you treat your Bible like a book of magic. God detests us using the Bible this way, and it has caused some people to make disastrous decisions in their lives.
Some of you try to find the mind of God through meditation. You sit down, clear your mind of every thought, and ask God for direction. Then, the first thought that comes into your head you believe must come from God.
There is nothing wrong with meditating over God’s Word. I recommend it. And you certainly should think through a decision. But when you elevate your inner impressions to the level of divine revelation then, like the ancients, you are flirting with divination.
Maybe you like to put out the fleece. If you do, what you’re really doing is fleecing yourself. One of the most famous and misused Bible stories is when Gideon literally put out the fleece. (Judges 6:36-40)
You remember the story. God commissioned Gideon to lead Israel’s rebellion against the Midianites. Gideon was overwhelmed. To be sure he understood God correctly he decided to test God. He laid a piece of lamb’s wool on the ground.
If, in the morning, only the fleece was wet with dew but the ground around it was dry, he would do what God said. Of course that’s exactly what happened. But that wasn’t good enough.
Maybe it was a simple coincidence. I mean, that happens all the time, doesn’t it! Gideon didn’t want to rush into an uncertain conclusion, so he decided a second test was in order.
This time he asked God to keep the fleece dry while covering the ground with dew. The next morning the fleece was dry while dew was all around. (You can read the rest of the story in Judges 7 of how Gideon and his 300 men routed the Midianites.)
This truly was an amazing experience. But is this how we are supposed to discover God’s will? Some of you think so, but God does not want to be tested in this way.
Yet this is exactly what many Christians do to try to determine God’s will. But “putting out the fleece” has little in common with Gideon’s fleece. The Bible does not instruct us to test God like this. There are much better and clearer ways to know God’s will.
Haddon Robinson tells the story of the first winter he was at Denver Seminary. One of the students was thinking about going skiing on spring break, but she was seeking the mind of God as to whether she should go or not.
He asked her how she would determine God’s will about it. Very matter-of-factly she said, “Well, I put out a fleece. If my daddy sends me some money, then I’ll know that skiing is something God wants me to do.”
He asked her if her father sent her money very often. “Yes, about three or four times a year. I haven’t asked him for any money lately, and I figure if he sends me some I’ll know God wants me to go skiing.”
Professor Robinson thought she was under-valuing what happened with Gideon and the fleece. So he asked her, “If you’re really going to put out a fleece, why not a good one? Why don’t you pray that the President of the U.S. will send you a letter and in that letter will be a check enough for you to go skiing.
“And if you’re really following Gideon’s example to the limit, pray that you get a second letter and check from Britain’s prime minister the next day. When you get both checks back to back, you can be assured that God wants you to go skiing.” (Haddon Robinson, Decision Making By the Book, pp. 29-30)
“How do I know God’s will for my life?” seems to be a legitimate question. And, depending on who you talk to, you can hear many pet theories about finding out God’s great plan for your life.
I pray that we will learn to trust God and rely on Him to work out His will in our lives. If asked, “Do you want to know God’s will?” all of us would say, “Yes!” But doing God’s will is another matter. Almost without exception it requires risk, adjustment, and change. Most of all, it is the only true way to spiritual fulfillment.