In my teenage years I began to realize that God had plans for my life. I came to that conclusion slowly and intuitively as I began to realize how infinite God was in His rule and reign over His creation. I thought, there is no way that God is a victim of His own creation, that some part of what He has made can function without His permission. As I began to sense that God was calling me into ministry instead of being a dairy farmer, I wanted to know for sure, but I wasn’t sure how, so began my quest on discovering the guiding principles into knowing the will of God for my life. That quest was primarily a study of literally hundreds of verses in the Bible on the topic of God’s guidance in our lives, here are a few.

Psalms 16:11a You will make known to me the path of life;

Psalms 139:24 lead me in the everlasting way.

Psalms 5:8 O Lord, lead me in Your righteousness because of my foes; Make Your way straight before me.

Psalms 31:3 For Your name’s sake You will lead me and guide me.

Psalms 23:3 He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.

Psalms 143:10 Teach me to do Your will, For You are my God; Let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.

Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

From my study I came up with what I called “A Dozen Simple Principles to Successfully Navigate Through the Distractions of Life into the Perfect Plan of God for my Life”

Principle #1 – God has a perfect will and plan for my life.

Principle #2 – Inside the realm of God’s sovereignty I can choose to live outside God’s perfect plan either because of pride, self-sufficiency, rebellion, or ignorance.

Principle #3 – I will be successful and bear much fruit inside the will of God for my life, and I will fail and be miserable outside the realm of God’s perfect will and plan for my life. It doesn’t take a highly intelligent person to understand that principle.

Principle #4 – God wants me to know His will and plan for my life more than I want to know it, and it usually takes failing before I am motivated to seek His will.

Principle #5 – God expects that I am going to seek His will diligently, I won’t find it if I don’t. My ignorance of exactly what His will and plan is for my life is generally a result of apathy and laziness in seeking it.

To be continued