How To Know God's Will

“How to Know God’s will”

Introduction:

A man wanted to know the will of God for his life, so took out his Bible, let the pages fall open, closed his eyes and put his finger down on a spot. Looking down at the verse under his finger he found that it said, “Judas went out and hanged himself.”

Slightly frustrated he followed the procedure again. This time the verse at the end of his fingertip instructed, “Go and do likewise.”

Now alarmed he repeated the same steps once more. Anxiously, he peered down at the text under his finger which read, “What you are going to do, do quickly.”

We all want to know what God’s will is for us in our lives. So many times I have struggled when making decisions on what God’s will is. I want to make the right decisions, but so many times it is hard to determine what it right for us to do. Perhaps you are dealing with the same questions. Every Christian at some time asks the question “what is God’s will in this situation?”

It seems that people expect God to reveal His will in a very special way. The truth is God has revealed His will to us. We can know what he wants us to do in most situations. I believe that within God’s Word is either a command or a principle that will show us His will for every situation.

So often we want to base our decisions on what we think God wants on how we feel. The world tells us if it feels good it must be right. We incorporate that idea into our decision making. Whenever we make a decision, however we should consider God’s will. We should ask ourselves several questions

1) What does the Bible tell us?

2) What would Jesus do?

3) Could we take Jesus with us?

I hope that we all are truly seeking to find God’s will in our lives and incorporate it in every decision we make. Sometimes it is hard to determine what God’s will is and sometimes it is not. It is not hard to determine what God’s will is if you are debating on whether to go to the bar and drink one night? It can be hard though to determine God’s will in other situations though where the scripture is not so clear. God’s will can be made evident to us. I think that Paul makes it clear how we can learn and determine God’s will for our lives. He seems to not give us some mystical things we can do, but most of learning God’s will is bettering our relationship with Him. The better you know him the easier it will be to determine His will.

As you get to know friends and as you grow in relationships you can determine easier how a person will react to certain situations. You what your wife’s will is after you have built a relationship with her. Therefore if we want to know God’s will we must start and build a relationship with God.

I heard a story of a man who was baptized one Sunday morning, at the close of the service after the baptism, the preacher asked him to close in prayer. The man began to pray, saying “thank you God for Jesus”, then there was a pause and silence filled the air for about 30 seconds. Then he closed “I guess when I get to know you better I will know what to say to you”. Learning God’s will depends on our stance with Him.

Text: Romans 12:1-2

I. Offer Yourself to God

Paul tells the Romans first of all that to know God’s will they first must offer themselves to God as a living sacrifice. The readers immediately would have been drawn to thinking about the animal sacrifices that took place in the temple. Surely God is not asking us to go and jump onto an altar as a sacrifice. We are to be a living sacrifice. This basically means that our whole lives should be surrendered to God. I believe that there are several ways that we can offer ourselves to God and show our devotion to Him.

a. Bible Study

Bible Study is of the most important aspects of our Christian lives. It is the way in which he communicates to us. If we want to learn His will we must study His word where His will is revealed. We must be like the apostles who devoted themselves to the Apostle’s Teaching. We must do as Psalms tells us to write his word on our heart. If you want to know God’s will for your life, you must go to his word to see what it says. There is no better place to go. Many times I will read God’s Word looking for God’s will and it happens that when I am doing that I find just what I need, I get the answer I need. The times I struggle the most in finding God’s will is when I am not in God’s Word. We must offer ourselves to God by frequently studying God’s Word. The more and more we learn His Word the clearer we will know what God wants in our lives.