If I had to pick the number one question that people have asked me over the years as a pastor I’d have to say that it’s this: “What’s God’s will for me?” That question used to stump me, but now I have an answer, “I don’t know!” God’s will is an incredibly slippery thing, even for those who are the Lord’s best and brightest (and I’m not one of them). Just when you think you know, you discover how off-base you really are. I ran across a great story this week that illustrates the point:
Once there was an old man who lived in a tiny village. Although poor, he was envied by all, because he owned a beautiful white horse. People offered fabulous prices for the horse, but the old man always refused. “This horse is a friend, not a possession,” he would respond.
One morning the horse was not in the stable. All the villagers said, “You old fool. We told you someone would steal that beautiful horse. You could at least have gotten the money. Now the horse is gone, and you’ve been cursed with misfortune.”
The old man responded, “Perhaps. All I know is that my horse is gone; the rest I do not know. Whether it be a curse or a blessing, I can’t say.”
After fifteen days the horse returned. He hadn’t been stolen; he had run away into the forest. Not only had he returned, he had brought a dozen wild horses back with him. Once again the village people gathered around the old man and said, “You were right – what we thought was a curse was a blessing. Please forgive us.” The old man responded, “Perhaps. Once again you’ve gone too far. How do you know if this is a blessing or a curse? Unless you can see the whole story, how can you judge?” But the people could only see the obvious. The old man now had twelve additional horses that could be broken and sold for a great deal of money.
The old man had a son, an only son. He began to break the wild horses. Unfortunately, after just a few days, he fell from a horse and broke both his legs. Once again the villagers gathered around the old man and said, “You were right. The wild horses were not a blessing; they were a curse. Your only son has broken his legs and now in your old age you have no one to help you. You are poorer than ever.” But the old man said, “Perhaps. Don’t go so far. Say only that my son broke his legs. We have only a fragment of the whole story.”
It so happened that a few weeks later the country went to war with a neighboring country. All the young men of the village were required to join the army. Only the son of the old man was excluded, because he had two broken legs. Once again the people gathered around, crying because there was little chance their sons would return. “You were right, old man. Your son’s accident was a blessing. Our sons are gone forever.”
The old man spoke again. “You people are always quick to jump to conclusions. Only God knows the final story.”
When I hear a story like that, if I’m honest with myself I know that I operate more like the villagers than the old man. I often have my finger to wind trying to gauge the circumstances and figure out what God is up to. It almost never works.
I believe it is possible, however, to know and do God’s will. It is after all, what He expects of us. Jesus said that it was the criteria by which we’d be judged. Even though we can’t always know what God is doing we can position ourselves to be used by Him to accomplish His will. This morning I want to share with you some fundamentals of finding God’s will. This is not a foil proof step-by-step method of knowing and doing God’s will. I’m going to share some touch stones that you can circle back to when you need to get your bearings.
I’m taking these fundamentals from the scripture we read on the life of Abraham. The reassuring thing I find in this story is that Abraham was often clueless about God’s will, yet we can say with certainty that this was a man who accomplished it. Sometimes he struck out. Sometimes he hit a homerun. But over the long haul he definitely found God’s will for his life.
The Fundamentals of Finding God’s Will
1. Seek clarification before making a dedication.
The story picks up when Abram was 85 and his wife Sarai 75. Remember that previously God told Abraham that He was going to give him lots of descendants and ownership of the land of Canaan. Last week, in our study of chapter 15, God told Abraham that he would never personally possess the Promised Land, but his descendants would after 400 years of captivity. The land question was settled. God’s will was perfectly clear there.
But God had also promised a descendant from Abraham himself. He told him that he was going to have a blood heir and would not leave the inheritance to an adopted son. Years passed and there was no son from the union of Abraham and Sarah. At the age of 75, Sarah decided to take matters into her own hands. She probably experienced menopause. The hot flashes told her that her child-bearing days were over. So she devised a plan: let Abraham produce an heir through the Egyptian slave girl, Hagar. There was nothing illegal or immoral about such a move. It was a custom of the day and the legal codes of the ancient world made provision for this practice. Sarah and Abraham and Hagar would soon discover that this was a huge mistake. They jumped the gun into conventional wisdom and paid a personal price for it as well as setting generations of conflict into motion.
There is a conspicuous absence in the story. When Sarah realized that she could no longer bear children and considered God’s promise of a blood heir for Abraham, what did she fail to do? When Sarah presented Abraham with her solution he passively (and probably eagerly) went right along with her. What should have been his response? Pray! Seek God! On other occasions of uncertainty he built altars and called on the name of the LORD, but not this time.
I think for Sarah prayer was irrelevant because this was the most obvious solution. It would be quick and easy, so she thought. And let’s just be honest about Abraham. This little plan must certainly have appealed to him sexually. His wife of decades offered him an upgrade to a newer model with no strings attached. He had an incentive not to seek God’s face.
We fall prey to the same tendencies. When we find a quick and easy answer to our problems there’s no need for the arduous and sometimes murky task of seeking God’s answer. It’s much easier to do what’s expected and accepted by the world around us. We’ll also neglect seeking God if a proposed solution appeals to our lusts – be it power, fame, wealth, sex, or whatever. If you want to make sure you’re walking in God’s will you’ve got to seek clarification before making a dedication.
A few weeks ago I went home frustrated and slightly depressed about the slow erosion and apathy that I’m seeing here at Antioch. When I get in this mood, I generally start looking for a way out. Monday morning in my prayer time I asked God to lead me out, to help me find another job. About half an hour later I checked my email and there in the inbox was a job offer. The school I left had an immediate need for a teacher. My former principal was offering a full-time or part-time job. Rather than jump on it I asked Laura and a three of my best male friends to pray for discernment. Within 24 hours I knew that I needed to stay right where I am. God reminded me that He called me to leave the school and not to even take a part-time position. There was an inner peace about the decision as well. I don’t know why, but that’s what He said. He obviously still has something in mind for this church that will require my full-time attention.
You’ve got to be careful of circumstances and conventional wisdom. Our desire for the quick and easy and most gratifying can lead us to make bad decisions concerning God’s will. Always seek clarification before making a dedication.
2. When God is silent consider the consequences of your actions.
Sarah’s plan was a total disaster. Look at the results: immediate strife within the family (What were they thinking trying to put two chief hens in the hen house?); loss of respect for Sarah; loss of home for Hagar; Abraham’s divided loyalty; Abraham’s heartache at the loss of a wife and rejection of a son; offspring who inherited Hagar’s defiant spirit; hostility between future generations. If traditional tracing of lineage is correct the modern conflict between Arabs (the descendants of Ishmael) and the Jews (the descendants of Abraham) started with the foolish actions of Sarah and Abraham.
God didn’t really need to intervene here to reveal His will. All they needed to do was think through the consequences. Surely they’d witnessed the conflicts caused by multiple wives in their society. Did they not have a clue that Sarah and Hagar both possessed a strong will and that they were going to clash and compete for the top spot in the household? All they needed to do was pause and consider the consequences.
God has equipped us with the amazing ability to reason things out. We have imaginations that allow us to visualize the probable outcome of our actions. God doesn’t need to constantly tell us what to do because He has given us the ability to think. If we’re seeking to be aligned to His will through prayer, fellowship, and study of God’s word much of His will can be determined simply through godly reasoning. Martin Luther once said, “Love God and do as you please.” His point was that if you truly love God you’ll want to do what pleases Him. When God is silent consider the consequences of your actions.
Let me give you an example of this. A pastor friend of mine once asked me if I thought it’d be okay if he and his wife used part of their tithe for charity. That is to say, they wanted to split the first 10% up between giving to the church and giving to people in need. I asked him to think through the consequences. “Is that the pattern that you’d want the people you lead to follow? Do you want them letting completely go of the first 10% as an act of faith or would you advocate that they control part of it. They will follow your lead.” Thinking through the consequences helped him make his decision. He continued to tithe and made charitable donations as an offering on top of the first 10%.
Here’s another way to think about it. If you’re facing a decision and you’re not clear on it, ask yourself, “Will this action produce the fruit of the Spirit in my life?” Will the consequences be love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? Will God be honored in it? Will His people be built up? Will it make my family stronger? When God is silent considering the consequences of your actions can put you in God’s will.
3. Respond quickly to what the Lord reveals clearly.
To his credit, Abraham also did some things right. After 13 years God broke into his life and told him in no uncertain terms that Ishmael was not the chosen heir of the promises. Instead, a child would be conceived in the dead womb of the 85 year old Sarah. For the first time, God gave Abraham a task to signify his allegiance to the covenant. Every male, including Abraham himself, from that point on until generations to come, would be circumcised. Abraham immediately followed through in obedience. And let me assure you, that was a painful obedience.
The lesson here is simple. When God tells you to do something, respond quickly. We have an advantage over Abraham. We have the Bible, God’s clearly revealed word. There are certain things we know that we should do. God’s will is for us to love, even our enemies. Act on it quickly. God’s will is for us to forgive those who have sinned against us. Act on it quickly. God’s will is for us to be just like Jesus. Act on the impulse to grow in your faith quickly. God’s will is for us to share our faith with lost people. Act on it quickly. God’s will for us as a church is to make disciples. We don’t need to ask, just act quickly.
I once heard a helpful piece of advice that is nearly always true. The source was Dr. Laura from her radio show. She said that when people call her show and are confused about what to do inevitably it’s because they know the right thing to do, but they just don’t want to do it. I would suggest that much of our confusion about God’s will is that we know what He wants us to do, but we just don’t want to do it. Whether it’s in the Bible or God speaks to your spirit respond quickly to what the Lord reveals clearly.
4. Follow Christ on the path of greatest challenge.
There is one verse in these three chapters which stands out as the main lesson God taught Abraham and Sarah. “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” (Genesis 18:14) Apparently, they thought so. That’s why Sarah devised her little Hagar scheme. That’s why both Abraham and Sarah laughed when God told them that the promised child would come from the union of their bodies. They wanted God’s will, but didn’t understand that His will is always accomplished through the path of greatest challenge.
Here’s what it means for us. If you ever find yourself deciding between the easy, moderate, or difficult path in doing God’s will, the difficult path is the one you should take. If it’s scary, beyond your capabilities, and potentially painful, that’s the way to go. If you will fail if God doesn’t come through, that’s the way to go.
In 1967, teenager Joni Eareckson took a dive that changed her life forever. …Her broken body at first brought denial and bitterness. When Joni began to confront her paralysis, she was encouraged by some friends to have faith that God could miraculously heal her. After all, “nothing is too hard for God.” As she explored this faith, she struggled with the difference between faith that God could heal her and faith that God would heal her. Would it take just as much faith to believe that God would heal her spirit without healing her body and use her in his service regardless of her limitations? Doesn’t God do a hard thing when he uses any of us despite our limitations?
If you had told Joni then that thirty years in the future she would be an internationally known mouth artist, author of more than twenty-five books (translated into thirty-three languages), and an inspirational speaker whose radio broadcasts are presently aired by some eight hundred stations daily, she may have considered that doing that would be a much more difficult accomplishment for God than healing her paralysis. If you had told her that in addition she would have produced a number of albums and videotapes and founded a ministry to and for the disabled that put her in the national and international spotlight as their spokesperson, she may have thought that healing was the easy way out for God. As it turns out, Joni’s faith that she could be transformed was of far more use to God than her faith that she could be healed.
John H. Walton, The NIV Application Commentary: Genesis (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2001), 471
If you’re tempted to take the easy path, don’t feel too badly about it. Jesus was tempted the same way, but He chose the path of greatest challenge. There was no other way to accomplish the will of the Father than to go to the cross. It was scary, painful, and humiliating, but God accomplished His greatest work through weakness. When you’re confronted with the choice, follow Christ on the path of greatest challenge.
“Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” Luke 22:42
