by: David Owens
Romans 12:2, “…that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
1 Peter 4:1-2, “Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.”
There are all kinds of strange and unscriptural ways that people are convinced of God’s will or that something is of God. According to Wikipedia, in 1977 Oral Roberts claimed to have had a vision of a 900-foot-tall Jesus. He claimed that the vision told him to build the City of Faith Medical and Research Center, and that the hospital would be a success. In 1980, Roberts said he had another vision which encouraged him to continue the construction of his City of Faith Medical and Research Center in Oklahoma, which then opened in 1981. The City of Faith operated for only eight years before closing in late 1989. Clearly Mr. Roberts was confused as to how to find the will of God, but many of God’s people are also puzzled and use human perception to try to discern the spiritual.
God’s ways are actually very simple, man tends to complicate everything because we are sinners and will naturally pervert everything that is godly. We have a human tendency to try to spiritualize the carnal and humanize the spiritual. I did not say it was easy to follow God’s will, but to discern His will is plainer than we suspect. We need no external evidence to discern what God’s will is. We are to prove God’s will. Romans 12:2 says “…that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” First, you don’t really find God’s will, you prove God’s will. Secondly, do not try to separate God’s will into three categories or levels such as God’s good will or His acceptable will or His perfect will. God’s good will is acceptable and perfect. God’s acceptable will is good and perfect and God’s perfect will is good and is accepted. God’s will is all three not one or the other.
God has given to us His perfect Word which tells us of His perfect will for us. Every command is His perfect will. Every prohibition in Scripture is His perfect will. Every suggestion is His perfect will. Every example in Scripture shows us of the results of obeying His will or disobeying His will. Don’t miss this, obey what God has revealed to you in Scripture, consistently and in every circumstance and you will prove God’s will with your life.
Yet, too often God’s people use Oral Robert’s ways of finding God’s will rather than just obeying God. Even when we agree that God’s Word is His perfect will, we struggle in applying it to our lives. Suddenly we forget that God’s will is directly connected to His Word, and we look for outward assurances of His will. We look for some outward proof that God’s will applies to us, or somehow if God doesn’t twist my arm I don’t need to obey. We start to misinterpret some spooky happening in life as “God trying to tell us something.”
We cannot list here every false assumption claiming God’s will or every wrong way to discern God’s will, but we can explain a few of them. These are some of the statements I have heard people use which are ways not to know God’s will.
1. “I know in my heart.” Boy meets girl and is smitten. Suddenly, they both think they know God’s will, but the Bible says, “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool:” Proverbs 28:26. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9. Human thinking or reasoning will only get us into trouble. This is an attitude of if it “makes sense to me it must be of God.” But God says in Isaiah 55:8-9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
We are not to make decisions based on our thoughts, but we are to think God’s thoughts. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:” (Philippians 2:5) Christ’s mind is recorded in Scripture. It is important to think, but listen first, then think about obeying.
We have a human desire for the future to make sense to us, but God’s ways seldom makes sense until we obey and look back. For years, Joseph’s life made little sense, but as he continued to be obedient to the Lord through his trials, his life proved God’s will.
2. “I have faith that this is God’s will.” This is trying to justify ourselves by using the word “faith.” Be careful, God doesn’t care that you believe, what you believe or that we use the word “faith,” God only cares that you believe the truth. It is not important that you have faith, but that you have faith in the truth. “The just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38) None of these Scriptures refer to faith in yourself or circumstances, but faith in the revealed Word of God. These New Testament verses are a quote from Habakkuk 2:4 which says, “Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.” Yes, God has faith. God believes Himself! Jesus believed His Father. Living by faith is living by what God believes is right. What God says is right, is right whether I believe it or not.
3. “I prayed about it.” John R. Rice correctly taught that prayer is asking, but often our prayers include more telling than asking. So, you told God the way you want it or the way you say it is supposed to be. Just like using the word, “faith,” we sometimes claim to have prayed, and so magically, just because I prayed, I get what I want. Both prayer and Bible reading are important, but if you must choose between prayer and Bible reading choose Bible reading. It is more important that we hear God than He hear us. Yes, God wants us to pray, but never to demand from God what we want, but to ask for help to live according to His will.
What about all the promises that God will answer my prayer if prayed in faith? Even our praying ought to be according to the will of God. Remember, faith is that I believe what God believes and I pray and I act according to God’s will.
1 John 5:14 – 15, “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.”
4. “I have peace about it.” Please allow me to be blunt. Smoke a joint and you’ll have peace. Humans always feel good when they pursue what they want, and they are disappointed and unsettled when they don’t get what they want. “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick…” Proverbs 13:12. Somehow we are good at taking our hopes, wishes, dreams and desires and believe that God wants these also. We dream ourselves into believing that God wants what we want, and that makes us feel good. God will seldom give peace until after we obey or at least decide to obey. You don’t get peace from getting your own way, but peace comes when you know you are obeying God’s will. Why? There is no faith in peace. Peace comes after the fact when I obey. Do you suppose Daniel had peace when he prayed knowing he would be thrown to the lions? Did Abraham have peace when God told him to go to a place not knowing where he was going? Jesus did not have peace facing the cross, but in submitting to God’s will. Matthew 26:37-39 says that Jesus “began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death…and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.”
5. “I have an interest, aptitude or an ability.” The reasoning goes something like this, God has given me a natural ability in engineering, so God wants me to be an engineer. I have always liked war stories, so God wants me to join the military. Basically this thinking is: “Whatever I want must be God’s will.” No doubt God has given you your abilities and interests, but for a purpose. As easy as it is for God to give abilities, He can give abilities later in life if they are needed to obey Him. No doubt Gideon did not believe he had the ability to lead three hundred men to victory with pitchers, lamps and horns. Moses had quite a disagreement with God over his ability to lead His people. Too often our interests and even human abilities will get us into trouble because we won’t see the need to trust Him. We must not trust our abilities, but the clear commands of God.
6. “What is wrong with it?” That is the wrong question to ask concerning God’s will. God’s will is perfect. We are not to see how close we can get to wrong without touching the wrong, we are to get as close to right as we can. “Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.” Ephesians 5:10. The question should be, “Is it godly, does God accept it?” If the answer is, “Yes,” according to the Bible then you will get even closer to God’s will.
7. “I am following my leader.” This is no less than doing the will of man. I call this hero worship, paparazzi Christianity. This is exactly what got the followers of cult leaders like David Koresh and Jim Jones in trouble. God’s will is called the “will of God” on purpose. We are to follow God by faith, but nowhere in Scripture do we follow any man by faith. Two times Paul told the Corinthian Christians, “be ye followers of me.” Both times the context specifies that he was to be followed only “as I also am of Christ” or to follow his “ways which be in Christ.” Yes, there are those we are to follow, as a child is to follow their parents or church members should follow their pastor, but only as they follow Christ. The burden is on the followers to prove according to God’s Word that their human leaders are following Christ. This means that I must be able to prove from God’s Word, which is God’s will, that my leader is in line with my Saviour before I can follow him. Noah built the ark, but he later got drunk. Jonah was a preacher, but he got a bad attitude concerning Nineveh. The Apostle Paul took a Jewish vow. None of these leaders were to be followed when they did wrong just because they were someones leader.
8. “I promised God.” A Christian said to me one Saturday, “I won’t be in church tomorrow because I promised to be at our family reunion. Doesn’t the Bible tell us to keep our promises? ‘When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.’ ” Ecclesiastes 5:4. I answered; “It also says in verse 6, ‘Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin.’ Your mouth has caused your flesh to sin if you miss church, or, if you want to obey God and go to church you must break your promise.” He looked at me strangely, so I went on, “Let’s suppose when you were young you were angry with your brother. In anger you vowed to kill him. Should you break your promise or keep your word?” We do not determine God’s will by our promises, God determines it with His commands. Amazingly some people are more concerned with obeying their own self-made rules than God’s rules. Be careful what you promise, it may contradict God’s will.
9. “It worked out, so it must be God’s will.” I call this “the great Calvinistic cover-up.” Whatever happens must be God’s will. I needed a job, prayed, applied and was hired as a bartender. God let it happen, so therefore it must be God’s will. This thinking is similar to the, “If it feels good do it” philosophy. This thinking also looks at the obstacles in life and surmises that “it must not be God’s will, or there would be no negatives,” as if somehow God’s will always happens. There is some trouble at church, so it must be God’s will for me to leave. I won the lottery, so it must have been God’s will for me to gamble. Granny came for a visit, so it must be God’s will not to go to church. Someone did not get saved, so it must be God’s will that they don’t get saved. Good times do not mean God’s will. Easy times do not determine God’s will. Hard times do not prove God’s will. Because something worked out does not help you to know God’s will. Easy or hard, human obedience or disobedience does not determine God’s will. God’s Word determines God’s will. We all want God’s will like Joseph experienced while a ruler in Egypt, but we would doubt God when we are sold to the slave traders. God’s will is in obeying the commands of God in any circumstance.
10. “I have no fear.” Some only believe in God’s will if they have an absence of fear or the absence of doubt. Why did God have to tell Joshua “…Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest? Joshua 1:9. Because Joshua was afraid, he doubted! However, fear or no fear, Joshua was commanded to lead God’s people into the Promised Land. Let me assure you, following God’s will can often be very scary! In fact, personal security is often absent when following God’s will. Human security is not necessarily God’s will; actually, less human security is often God’s will. There is nothing unscriptural about preparation, insurance or a retirement fund, but to trust them rather than God is sin, which can very often lead us away from God’s will. “The just shall live by faith” Romans 1:17. We don’t ask God for our daily bread when the cupboard is full, only when it is empty. Remember, when following God’s will, God will pay, but when I follow my will, I pay. Jonah paid the fare to follow his own will, and God paid to get him to Nineveh.
Were you looking for directions concerning your life’s occupation? Who you are to marry? Should I quit the ministry? We worry too much about these specifics and not enough about the clear commands that make up God’s will.
So, how do you know God’s specific will? You don’t; you prove God’s will by doing it. David told King Saul that he could not use the king’s armour to fight Goliath because he had not proved them. Meaning, I have never used your armour; therefore, I have no idea if it will work. I have however, trusted and obeyed God before and He works! It wasn’t easy. I had to fight, it wasn’t popular and it was really scary, but God’s will is the way to go. David was saying to King Saul, God’s will proves itself if we will obey it. It doesn’t matter what is popular, it doesn’t matter if it makes sense and it doesn’t matter if I must suffer, God’s will for me is to accomplish God’s purpose, not mine.
God’s will is written. Your life will prove it, eternity will prove it, if you will live it. Most Christians do not accomplish God’s will or reach their God given potential for the simple fact that they do not fully obey God’s written will. Few Christians are 100% faithful to church, read their Bible faithfully, pray as they ought, separate from ungodliness or preach the Gospel to every creature. If I do not obey God’s will that is plainly written, how can I expect for God to further lead me in His specific will for my life?
Remember, in determining God’s will –
– God never leads us to do wrong in order to do right.
– God never gives what will cause us to do less for Him.
– God can take his child who obeys what is clearly written, and lead him anywhere!
Do not be guilty of living according to your own lusts and trying to justify them by claiming God’s will. “That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.” 1 Peter 4:2.
David Owens
Pastor
Westside Baptist Church
Pacifica, CA