What is the will of God? Part 1

There is one question Christians find harder to answer than any other. This is even a question many stress over and find themselves losing sleep because of it. This week I am going to deal with this question in three parts, using three examples from my own life that have occurred on multiply occasions. This question is, ‘Am I living in the will of God?’

Before I get into today’s example, whether you believe in my theology or not, I do believe it is a lot harder to walk out of the will of God than it is to walk in it. I do believe God is sovereign, he is in control and nothing is a surprise to him. The basic answer to this question is keep trusting in God, put him first in everything you do and you will not walk out of his path. However, for most they are not convinced by this answer. So here are a few examples of God’s will in my life.

A guide from the guidebook

When I was 17 I knew already that God had called me into full time ministry. The obvious thing to do, and what anyone who wanted to go into ministry did was to go to Bible College, get a bible degree then go off to Seminary and come out as the next Billy Graham. That is what I thought anyhow. God had other plans. When I was praying over which Bible College to go to, God spoke to me so clearly through his word, I look back now in disbelief.

I opened my bible one night and read the story of David and Goliath. As I read it God spoke to me, ‘this is you’. Before you think I’m a giant slayer I’ll explain. You see David had already been anointed of God to be King. When he went to bring food to his brothers he saw the enemies of the Philistines making fun of Israel. David knew what he had been called to do, God was with him and he could take down this Giant. So David approached the leader of the army, King Saul and said he would fight Goliath. It is at this point God spoke to me. David put on Saul’s armor to fight. This is what you were supposed to do. It was idiotic to go to war without armor. However, David couldn’t stand because he hadn’t been trained in armor. So David took off the armor, and the rest is  history. That night God spoke to me and said, ‘I was glorified in David’s life because he trusted in me and didn’t rely on mans ways. So to, I will be gloried through you because you will not use mans ways, don’t go to bible college!’. What! Don’t go to bible college. This was the start of a long hard road for me. I went to a secular university, got used by God in some incredible ways, became a youth Pastor at 18, and experienced things I would have never experienced had I gone to Bible College.

When I graduated I thought to myself, now if I want to go into full time ministry I need to get some bible education. So I started a Masters in church ministry. I was doing great, getting A’s and would get my degree in no time. However, I hated doing it, it was a chore. I realized I did not learn one thing. During my time as a youth pastor I had felt so inadequate that I studied twice as hard. I read books and asked lots of questions to people way more wiser than I was. I found my Politics degree at my secular university hard, this masters degree was easy! This brought me to the place where I started to think, if I’ve not learning anything, why am I doing it! That is when God spoke to me again all those years later and told me, ‘I said you were not to go to Bible College, and this included seminary!’ I stopped the course, paid my tuition and decided that day never to do something because that is what you are supposed to do.

To this day, people do not understand that I don’t have a bible degree; I have even been told that was for then not for now! Men may say and believe what they may, but I know how God has spoken to me and he confirmed it in his word.

That is part one of knowing the will of God. Did God speak to you through his word. The bible is the very word of God, and you may read a passage that just pops out at you. It may be out of context, but you know God has just spoken. If this occurs, listen to what God is saying, treasure it in your heart and do what he says. Like me, you can do something that every other Christian is doing and even what the church says you should do, but it is not the will of God for your life. On the other side, you can do something that others say is not right, is not the path you should take, yet it is God’s will for your life.

Overall, if you are searching for God’s will in your life, switch of every distraction, close your ears to everyone and everything, go to God’s word ask God to speak and he will. Then open your ears back up knowing exactly what God has spoken to you through his word.

God tells us in Isaiah 55:8-9 that, “Our ways are not God’s ways, our thoughts are not God’s thoughts. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are God’s thoughts higher than our thoughts.”