Choosing God’s Will
Many Christians down through the ages believe they have heard a word from the Lord which has often proved to be correct. However one of the great area’s of deception among Christians happens when they are listening to thoughts in their head which they believe are from the Lord and they are not. Hopefully most Christians, when they realise the thoughts they had were not the truth, will abandon this method without too much damage being done. It is not so bad if the message we receive is for ourselves and therefore no one else is affected but when we tell others what God’s will is for them, we can cause them much suffering when it is acted upon and found to be false.
There are many books written telling us how we can know the will of God for our lives. Some people will share testimonies how God told them exactly what would happen and this has proved correct. So God will speak to people in different ways, but until proved otherwise we must remember that it is possibly that these thoughts are not the voice of God but just our own thoughts, or even the enemy deceiving us into thinking God is speaking to us. If it comes to pass then maybe it was from the Lord, if it doesn’t come to pass then hopefully we will have learnt our lesson and not act upon every whim that comes to mind.
How can we know the Lord’s will for us as Christians? Are there any guidelines?
I think often God speaks to us specifically at times when we are least expecting it and not listening for a word in our minds. The more common time is when we are filled with the Spirit and out of our innermost being a word of the Lord flows.
There are guidelines that we can adhere to as Christians and trust we are in the will of God.
The main general guideline we have of the will of God is the Word of God. The Bible tells us twice what the will of God is for us; therefore if we want the will of God for our lives then we should first put these into practice in our daily walk. One is found in 1 Thessalonians 5 v 18 which says, “In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you”. This is God’s will for us so this is what we should do. How many of us are so busy trying to find God’s will yet we would never dream of giving thanks in situations we don’t like. How can we expect to hear a word from the Lord if we don’t do that which He has already told us to do? The other is found in 1 Thessalonians 4 v 3 where we are told, “This is the will of God even your sanctification”. God’s will for us is our sanctification or holiness. “But”, some might rightly say, “We are Holy in Christ because He is made sanctification for us. We do not stand before God in what we are but in who Christ is”. That is right, however there is also a process of sanctification that is worked out in our character and the way we live, this is what is spoken about here. Only as we trust in the Lord our Sanctification can the process of sanctification be worked out in our lives. We become partakers of His holiness by faith and also by working it out in our lives. It is a result of the Love of God that is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. It is shown in the way we love God and love others therefore we will not want to do anything that will hurt them. It is the conduct to which God’s children are called and should therefore pursue. Over and over again in scripture God is calling us to be Holy as He is Holy.
Okay, but we still want something specific in our lives, how do we know what the will of God is for our own personal lives, say, next week or next month or next year?
Here I believe is where our faith choice comes in. We can choose by faith God’s will in our lives even though we don’t know what it is. First we need to desire God’s will for our lives then as we confess to Him that we choose His will for our lives we can trust Him to reveal His will to us when necessary. The Christian is called to live by faith, if we already know everything then how can we walk by faith? God will reveal to us what we need to know at the right time and not before.
In James 4 v 5 we are told not to say we are going to do this or that tomorrow but rather, if the Lord should will, and we should live, we will do this or that. In other words there is no problem in planning what we are going to do in the future but we must choose God’s will first and expect Him to stop our plans if they are not in line with His will. This seems to be the norm in the book of Acts. Paul set about his plans for spreading the gospel. He did not spend days trying to decide where to go first, but what would happen is that if his plan was not God’s will then God would forbid Him and redirect his steps somewhere else.
If we choose God’s will in what we are doing and desire above all things that God’s will be done then we can trust that God will order our steps aright. The Bible says “Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass” (Psalm 37 v 5), “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord” (Psalm 37 v 23), and “Trust in the Lord with all thy heart; and lean not to thy own understanding, in all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3 v 5-6). Do we believe this? Then choose His will, commit our way to the Lord, get up and go, trusting that God will keep His word. God’s will is found in His word yet there is so much false doctrine about how can we know what is right or not? If we choose and desire God’s will above our own then we will know the doctrine if it is of God or not. (John 7 v 17).
It should be our daily prayer that God’s will be done on the earth (Matthew 6 v 10). The problem will arise when the leadership in any work or fellowship all have different ideas how they should proceed. It is the strong ones or the ones who like to take control that usually get their way. In practice the leadership is often a one man band even if he has ‘yes men’ working under him, so, his decision is final. God has made the leadership in any church fellowship plural rather than singular to stop one mans will being done in the place. So how do they proceed if all differ on the way forward? They get together and prayerfully commit the way to the Lord and then choose His will to be done. Even though they don’t know His will they can still choose His will trusting Him to bring it to pass. I believe then God will stop us if we are proceeding in the wrong direction.
God is not a harsh task master demanding that we do the things we hate, however there will probably be a time when we have a garden of Gethsemane experience where God will prove us whether we really want His will or not. This may mean being willing to let something go in our lives or to doing something that is very difficult for us. When we finally say ‘let thy will be done’ then God may not only give us back that which He demanded but add a hundred fold to it.