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| Section: Basic Christian Living:
courses for new Christians |
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Growing in God |
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5. The Right Direction: |
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Knowing God's Will |
Psalm
40:8
'I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.'
'Whatever you say,
Lord'
When you became a Christian,
the Holy Spirit put within you a desire to please the Lord—to
do his will in everything. The question is: how can you know
what his will is? In other words, how can you receive
his guidance? First,
get to know HIM better
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A businessman was boasting
to a colleague about his secretary. 'Of course, she's been with
me a lot of years now,' he said. 'She's got to know me and the
way I like things done. So half the time I don't have to tell
her what to do; she knows, and just gets on with it—a tremendous
asset.'
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| The secretary knew his will
because she knew him. And that's how it needs to be with
you and God. Get to know him and most of the time you
won't need to ask what his will is; you'll just know.
Remember, being
a Christian isn't primarily subscribing to a body of doctrine
(important though that is). It's a relationship with the
living Lord, one that keeps on growing. The apostle Paul was
a mature Christian leader but he could still say, 'I want to
know Christ…' (Philippians 3:10).
So foster your relationship
with him. As you get to know him better you'll also know his
ways and his will for you.
Use sanctified
common sense
Many of life's minor decisions
don't need you to enter into deep prayer to discover God's will.
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If you're going
from England to France on holiday, for instance, you don't need
to pray about whether to take the ferry, the plane or the train
via the Channel tunnel. Simply look at the comparative timings
and prices, and make a sensible decision accordingly.
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Learn God's
will through his Word
You can also discover God's
will through the Bible, which is his Word. There are some
guidelines to follow in this:
a. Learn
the general before the particular Before
focusing on the details, like 'Which of these two job-offers does the Lord
want me to accept?', get a grasp of those statements of his will that are
always true, regardless of circumstances. Here are four examples:
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Reference |
Text |
Meaning |
| 1 Thessalonians 4:3-4 |
'It is
God's will 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 honourable.' |
God wants you to steer clear
of sexual immorality and exercise bodily self-control. |
| Ephesians 6:5-6 |
'Slaves, obey
your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart,
just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favour when
their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God
from your heart.' |
God wants you to be a hard
and loyal worker, whether at school/college, at work or running a home. |
| 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 |
'Be joyful
always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this
is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.' |
God wants you always to be
joyful, prayerful and thankful. |
| 1 Peter 2:15 |
'It is
God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk
of foolish men.' |
God wants you to live such a
good life that no non-Christian's accusations can stand up to scrutiny. |
b.
Learn the principles; apply them to the particulars
The Bible is a source-book
where you can discover divine principles—God's ways
of doing things. You can then apply the principles to a variety
of different situations.
As we saw in Lesson 3, this
is a matter of the mind. It means 'unlearning' the principles
of the world and learning God's principles. The more skilled
you become in this, the clearer God's will for you will become:
Romans
12:2
'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.'
For example, the Bible doesn't
mention smoking. It does, however, teach the principle that your
body is holy—a temple of the Holy Spirit, in fact. So you
rightly conclude from this that God's 'good, pleasing and perfect
will' for you is to steer clear of smoking.
c.
Treat the Bible with respect
 | Scripture isn't a lucky
dip. Letting the Bible
fall open at random and expecting a verse from that page to be
God's instant guidance for you isn't treating it with due respect.
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| You don't need a Bible
verse for every move you make.
If you're an angler and you're wondering whether to invest in
some better equipment, it would be wrong to take Isaiah 19:8
as an indication that God is saying you shouldn't. |
God can speak to you
by these means, especially when you're young in the faith and
use them because you don't know any better, but he wants you
to grow up in the way you handle his Word.
Learn his
will through the indwelling Holy Spirit
God has put his Holy Spirit
inside you to direct you in his ways. Listen to his inner voice.
In the
lesson on prayer in the Beginning with God course we noted that prayer is two-way conversation.
Are you still practising listening to the Spirit's voice? See
Romans 8:26-27.
He may speak in quite a sudden
way, so that you suddenly know deep inside yourself exactly what
he wants you to do. Or he might make his voice heard over a period
of time in the form of a growing conviction.
Remember also Colossians 3:15,
which tells you to let 'the peace of Christ' act as referee in
your heart. As you contemplate different options, go for the
one that brings a feeling of deep inner peace to your
spirit. Learn
his will through other people
| Advice from relatives or
friends. It doesn't
follow, of course, that every such piece of advice will be God's
will. But listen to each one and weigh it up in your heart, asking
the Lord to make his will plain. Don't rule anyone out; God can
speak even through non-Christians.
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| Something heard in church. Listen to the sermon and be open for
the Lord to speak directly to you through it. Listen also to
any public prophecies that may be given, to testimonies, to readings
from the Bible and to the words of the songs. Any of these may
become the vehicle by which God speaks to you.
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| Counsel from church leaders. Leaders are leaders because they have
a fair degree of spiritual maturity and have probably walked
with God a lot longer than you have. So if they give you advice,
consider it seriously. |
Areas
for caution
There are three areas where
God certainly can speak to you, but you need to handle
them with caution if you're to avoid confusion.
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a. Circumstantial
guidance
Suppose you become convinced
that God wants you to move to another town. You share the idea
with fellow-Christians and church leaders, all of whom believe
it to be right. On the strength of that conviction you put your
house on the market, but three years later you still don't have
a buyer. Do these circumstances mean that you were mistaken about
the move being God's will?
Probably not. Act on the basis
of conviction, not on the basis of circumstances.
The difficult circumstances may well be God's way of testing
your faith, to discover whether you really believe the move is
his will. b.
'God has given me a word for you'
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Personal prophecies of this
kind must be handled with care. The Bible insists that all
prophecy must be 'weighed' or assessed (1 Corinthians 14:29),
so be sure to have some mature Christian with you to help you
assess the word. c.
Putting out a fleece
Gideon was a young Jew. He lived in
Israel in difficult times, when Israel's enemies, the Midianites, had
conquered the land.
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| Judges 6 tells how God sent
an angel to him to call him to military leadership against the Midianites,
and how Gideon, being just an ordinary farmer, could hardly believe it.
To discover
God's will, Gideon put out a fleece (sheepskin) on the ground
overnight. He said to God, 'If, in the morning, the fleece is
wet and the earth around it is dry, I'll know you really do want
me to lead Israel against her enemies.' In the morning, the fleece
was wet and the earth dry. But he still doubted, probably thinking,
'It was a foregone conclusion, because the fibres of the fleece
hold the dew, whereas the earth quickly soaks it up.'
So he swapped it round: 'If,
in the morning, the fleece is dry and the earth around it is
wet, then I'll know you have called me.' And so it was. He became
Israel's deliverer.
You also may face crucial decisions, but in virtually every case
you'll be able to discover God's will without resorting to
this type of approach. Use it only in the most serious of
circumstances, and only when every other means of discovering
God's will has been tried and exhausted. In Gideon's day the
Holy Spirit didn't live in all God's people the way he does now
in you. Today, fleeces are rarely necessary.
The
soldier's orders
In military circles there are
two kinds of orders issued to the soldiers: standing orders
and daily orders.
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| Standing orders are permanently valid. They apply
at all times and in all circumstances, setting basic standards
of military behaviour and discipline, like 'Always salute an
officer'. For the Christian 'soldier', the standing orders are
the principles of the Bible.
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| Daily orders are posted on the barracks notice board
each morning and will change from day to day. They concern the
details of the day's work, saying who is on which work-party
etc. The Christian soldier receives his daily orders through
the indwelling Holy Spirit.
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Try to distinguish the two.
If you're wondering, for instance, whether you should visit Aunty
Mary, don't look for a Bible verse to tell you. Listen instead
to the voice of the Holy Spirit within you—and use your
common sense.
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