Discovering God's Will

Your Will Be Done On Earth Like It Is Done In Heaven: Jesus

Complicating Discovering God's Will

Sometimes, when I think about the will of God, I feel a bit perplexed by how complicated people make determining how to know God's will. I think one reason people do so is because they confuse a particular context of a well known passage of scripture.  Many consider Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane, where he sweated blood, and where He prayed, "Not my will, but your will be done," as as an automatic belief that your, or my will, will consistently be diametrically opposed to what God wants? This is simply NOT true. In the context of Gethsemane, Jesus absolutely knew what the Father wanted, and He knew what it would take to carry out that will. He would have to go through a LOT of pain, and then He would die. His body rebelled against what He already knew to be the will of God. So, He said, "Not my will, but your will be done."  This does not, therefore, require that my wanting to do something will always be the opposite of what God wants. 

The Delighted Life

Consider thinking about it this way: God puts His "want" into our hearts, and we desire exactly what God wants. Then God gets things done, as He uses us to make things happen.  In Psalm 37: 4-5 NKJV says, "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass." If we are surrendered people to our God, and we authentically wish to follow Him,  through Jesus Christ, verse 4 clearly tells us God gives us, in our hearts, the same things He wants. He gives us the desires of our hearts.  He reveals God's will. He gives us a desire to do God's will, and to follow through with it. In verse 5 God promises that, if we commit our ways to God, God will bring His will to pass through us. In other words, a repentant person that really wishes to do God's will, and actually commits themselves to God's will, will be moved along, by God's transforming grace, towards accomplishing God's will. He doesn't give us a worldly "wanter" He gives us a heart and life God wants, and God will make it happen. Such is the life of a person with a delighted life.

The Plan

Another place where people get into trouble, discerning God's will, is they think God has a "wonderful plan for their lives." When you consider how many people's lives are train wrecks, and how this is stated NO WHERE in the Holy Scriptures, it's no wonder people get lost along the way of discovering, and carrying out,  God's will. Consider Ephesians 1:11. Here we are told God works out EVERYTHING according to THE PLAN, and He brings EVERYTHING into conformity with the purpose of His Will.  Since the fall of humanity, God put THE PLAN into action to bring about the salvation of humankind. He actually had THE PLAN ready before the "creation of the world." (Ephesians 1:4) God then calls us to our part in THE PLAN. That is to say,  God reveals to us our part in this plan, as we grow and mature; for example, Moses call, into THE plan, did not involve Moses being told everything, up front, that Moses would experience. He was simply not ready for the whole story, but it was revealed to Him as He matured, and as He grew in His walk with God.

God's Plan Being Worked Out In You And Me Chronologically

Here is how I have discovered that this works chronologically: 

1. God calls us by His own Holy Spirit.
2. We respond. 
3. God reveals a portion of our place in THE plan. 
4. We obey, and we go. 
5. We grow.
6. God reveals what we need to know, be, and do, for THE purpose of THE Kingdom, and for His glory, as well as for our own eternal good.  (Challenges will be faced along the way.) 
7. As we mature, and as we are ready for more responsibility, in service to our Lord, this chronological cycle repeats. 

This is how it worked in Moses life, Peter's life, Paul's life, and it worked this way in my life. God is NOT working out a wonderful plan for your life. It's God's plan, and God incorporated you into His plan for the good of The Kingdom and all humanity. He gives you and me our parts, as we are able to receive the information and empowered to carry out our calling.

Sacrificially Discovering Your Part In "The Plan." 

Discovering our part in THE plan has partially been discussed already in this web blog in our "The Delighted Life" section above; however, here is another set of ideas I would like to share with you. Romans 12: 1-2 gives you and me a great spiritual practice: Here we read, "Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your spiritual act of worship. And be not conformed to the world, but be transformed, by the renewing of your minds. Then you will be able to test and prove what God's will is, which is good pleasing and perfect."

Here is how these verses reveal God's plan for revealing THE plan to you: 

1. You are urged, by the Apostle Paul, to present yourself, your whole body, sacrificially, to God.
2. God will receive you as holy and acceptable to Him, as you surrender to Him.
3. This is considered by the Almighty to be your own spiritual act of worship.
4. Determine to NOT conform to the world, and turn your focus away from the worldly ways.
5. God's Holy Spirit transforms us, and He does so by transforming and renewing how we think.
6. We are empowered by God's grace by the Holy Spirit.
7. We walk the walk. We talk the talk. We discover God's will, as good, pleasing and perfect.

This is a daily part of sharing in a daily walk with God according to the will of God.

As I close this out, I am not saying this is the final word on everything about the will of God or knowing our part in the will of God; however, if you K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Saint), if you delight yourself in the Lord, if you know that it's about THE plan, and not about "God has a wonderful plan for your life," and if you daily sacrificially give up to God daily, you will be well on your way to discovering God's will, as God writes His laws on your hearts, and puts those laws in your minds. You will be empowered to keep in step with The Holy Spirit, and doing so, I think, will please God.

SoJourner.