Writing about seven ways to know the will of God makes it sound like figuring out the will of God is simple, but I am perplexed. I have several decisions to make and I can’t figure out what to do, I am perplexed. I have gone over the seven principles several time and I am still perplexed. So what Am I going to do? I am going to continue praying asking God to show me His plan and will for my life, I am going to get some more counsel from some very wise people and I will be patient and wait until I know what to do. But if a decision has to be made I will make it doing the best I can with the information that I have. If the time comes and a decision needs to be made I will make it confidently without any fear of making the wrong choice, though I know that I might make a dumb decision. Fear messes with our ability to have sound judgment, and it increases the likelihood of making a wrong decision.

There are groups or classes of people when it comes to the subject of living life according to God’s will. There are those who don’t care what God’s will is, they are going to do what they want, not what God wants. Most Christians are in that camp, though not because of an independent spirit or rebellion, but because of apathy, lukewarmness, indifference, being naive, complacency, and just being far from God because of worldliness. These people only think about God’s will when their lives start falling apart and they seem helpless to do anything about it. Then they want to know what God’s will is, and they want God to fix their life for them. This passage in Proverbs describes the boat these people are in, and what it will be like when it starts to sink.

Proverbs 1:24-33
“Because I called and you refused,
I stretched out my hand and no one paid attention;
And you neglected all my counsel
And did not want my reproof;
I will also laugh at your calamity;
I will mock when your dread comes,
When your dread comes like a storm
And your calamity comes like a whirlwind,
When distress and anguish come upon you.
“Then they will call on me, but I will not answer;
They will seek me diligently but they will not find me,
Because they hated knowledge
And did not choose the fear of the Lord.
“They would not accept my counsel,
They spurned all my reproof.
“So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way
And be satiated with their own devices.
“For the waywardness of the naive will kill them,
And the complacency of fools will destroy them.
“But he who listens to me shall live securely
And will be at ease from the dread of evil.”

I know what my wife wants because I am close to her. I know what makes her happy and pleases her because I know her. I know what will upset her, irritate her, and hurt her because of the intimacy of our relationship.

The way to know what God’s will is, is to know God, be close to Him. So many simply want to know what God’s will is because they assume that means a trouble-free life of comfort. They should probably read the book of Job.

The Bible repeats over and over the command and the blessings of seeking the Lord. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. How do you seek God? Attend church services faithfully. Listen attentively to the sermons, learn and repent. Read the Bible every day. Spend time in prayer privately and corporately. Be involved in some kind of ministry in your church. Give faithfully and sacrificial of your money. Examine your life humbly and confess all known sin to God. Be baptized and participate thoughtfully in Communion, and worship God with all of your heart corporately and privately, praise the Lord always and don’t grumble about anything. That list, though long, is not hard. If we truly love God and want to know Him intimately it will be easy.

How do you decide what cereal you will eat for breakfast? How about the shirt you pick to wear for the day or church? If you are in my Leadership Class and I give you the assignment to preach a ten-minute sermon on the topic of what has changed most in your life in the last six months, how will you decide? When Patty and I go out for dinner to a restaurant she will read through the menu for at least ten minutes before she can decide what to order. Probably about 90% of the decisions each of us make in a day, we just make and the thought of what God’s will is doesn’t enter our thoughts. It is probably because the consequence of making a wrong choice is not significant so we don’t agonize over it very long trying to decide if it is the will of God. That isn’t necessarily wrong because we were probably using principle # 6 to decide in each of those instances what we ought to do.

The six way to make choices as we go through life is to just decide using wisdom. This method assumes that we are wise people because we have been wisdom seekers throughout our life.

Proverbs 2:2-5 & 9
Make your ear attentive to wisdom,
Incline your heart to understanding;
For if you cry for discernment,
Lift your voice for understanding;
If you seek her as silver
And search for her as for hidden treasures;
Then you will. . . discern righteousness and justice
And equity and every good course.

“Every good course” that is we make good decisions.

The most import thing to do do as wisdom seekers is to read the Bible faithfully, daily is best. If we are faithful Bible readers and seekers after wisdom we will navigate through life successfully in the will of God.

1. Ask Him to show you His will. He wants us to know what His will is for our life more than we do.

2. Declare Jesus Lord of your life and commit to do His will. I do this every morning first thing.

3. Pay attention to the circumstantial road signs. God opens up doors and provides clues all day long, and if we are paying attention, we will see them

4 Get wise counsel. This is the most neglected of the seven but is very effective because of the humility factor that God loves.

5. Pay attention to thoughts, ideas, desires, and dreams that you have. Listen to your thoughts. God talks to us and we hear him in our mind. The problem is that the devil talks to us as well, and our sinful flesh, and the gone crazy world also talk to us loudly and 24/7. Mature believers have worked hard and have learned to differentiate between the different voices in their head and know when God is speaking to them. One of the things I do is write down on paper something I think God is saying to me. I then put it away for one month and then pull it out and read it. If I am still thinking that it is from God I act on it, but if it seems weird, strange, selfish, or boring, I wad the paper up and throw it away.

The most neglected tool for knowing God’s will for our lives is counsel from others. I am sure that the reason so few people seek God’s will through others is because of pride. And that is precisely why God chooses to give us direction through others, because we are humbling ourselves, and God loves humility.

God can put His will for us in the mind of a person we seek counsel from, and He will do just that as we humble ourselves and follow His instructions.

When my Dad was alive he was my main source for counsel. He knew very little of the Bible, I never saw him read it, he attended church occasionally, and had a poor relationship with the lord. So, why did I seek counsel from my Dad? Because he was my Dad, he was wise, and the Bible says to. I believe the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God, the thoughts, wisdom, and the mind of Christ, so when the Bible says something is true I believe it is true and when the Bible says to do something I do it.

Proverbs 1:8 Hear, my son, your father’s instruction
And do not forsake your mother’s teaching;

Proverbs 2:1 My son, if you will receive my words
And treasure my commandments within you,

Proverbs 4:1 Hear, O sons, the instruction of a father,
And give attention that you may gain understanding,

When I was struggling trying to figure out whether I should stay on the dairy farm or leave and pastor Jefferson Baptist Church, I asked my Dad, and he said, “go pastor for one year and see what happens, sometimes you just don’t know until you try something,” so I did and I have been here 45 years. When I had been pastoring for 10 years things were going very bad for me in the church. Many people were leaving, and there was lots of unrest and disunity. I wanted to quit in the worst way, so I called my Dad and asked his advice, and he said, “never quiet when you are losing, it is what weak men do, and all of your life you will wonder if it was the right thing to do. Wait until you get things turned around and going good, then quit.”

There are older, wise people all around us who would be honored if we asked for their advice about life and the decisions we need to make. The key to success in life is to do things God’s way, not our way.

Proverbs 1:5 A wise man will hear and increase in learning,
And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel,

Proverbs 11:14 Where there is no guidance the people fall,
But in abundance of counselors there is victory.

Proverbs 12:15 The way of a fool is right in his own eyes,
But a wise man is he who listens to counsel.

Proverbs 15:22 Without consultation, plans are frustrated,
But with many counselors they succeed.

1. Ask God to show you His will for your life. I pray and ask God to guide me every morning. There are dozens more verses other than the ones I listed that are a prayer to God for Him to lead our lives.

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

Psalm 25:5 Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; For You I wait all the day.

Psalm 27:11 Teach me Your way, O Lord, And lead me in a level path Because of my foes.

2. Declare Jesus to be the Lord of your life, and make the commitment that you will obey Him no matter how hard or difficult His will may be. I make this commitment every morning along with asking for His strength to accomplish His will for my life.

Romans 12:1–2 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 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.

3. Pay close attention to the circumstances and details of the events of your life. God opens doors and gives opportunities on a regular basis. He guides us in our life by changing circumstances in our everyday life. The problem for many is that the open doors are open for a short time and many people are so indecisive because of fear of failing that they miss many divine appointments. I am personally very careful in interpreting problems in life as closed doors. Problems and difficulties in accomplishing great things for God are normal, but many bail on pursuing God’s goals for their life because of hard times.

The Perfect Will and Plan of God for my Life

Because I believe that when I am doing God’s perfect will for my life I can’t fail I work very hard to discover what it is. God wants me to know what His will is more than I want to know it, but He waits until I search diligently for it before He makes sure that I know what it is in detail.

A key ingredient on my part is a commitment to do His will no matter how hard or difficult it might be. Every morning in my prayer of commitment for the day I begin with the pledge,

“Today, Lord Jesus I declare you to be my Lord and King, You have purchased me with Your blood and I do not belong to myself, I belong to you and I now present myself to you and I commit to do whatever you ask of me no matter how difficult or how hard it might be.”

When I was on the dairy farm struggling with what God’s will for me was, I prayed every morning saying, “Dear Lord, you know me, you know that I really want to farm, I do not want to be a pastor, the thought of being a pastor scares me to death. But I commit to doing whatever your will is for my life no matter how hard or scary it is.”

If God knows that we won’t do His will even if He wrote it in the sky, He won’t reveal it to us. Our willingness to follow, to obey, no matter what, is very important if we expect God to make clear to us what His sovereign plan for our life is.

The church parking lot filled up with water and ran into the lower end of the sanctuary. A bunch of us packed sand bags and barricaded the water away from the sanctuary. Tomorrow some guys are coming with big vacuum cleaners and will vacuum up all of the water in the sanctuary and then we will set up some big heaters and dehumidifiers and hopefully everything will be as good as new.

I am sitting in my recliner writing this, and my back and arms are killing me from lifting all those 65-pound bags of sand. (50 of them) There was a day when I could pick up and throw 70-pound bales of hay all day long, our goal was 1000 bales a day from the field stacked in the barn, and I never got sore. Those days are long gone, though I am trying hard to hang onto them by lifting weights, riding my stationary bike an hour every day, and going on a 4,000-mile bicycle trip across the United States, coast to coast this summer.

A crucial part of God’s plan to develop the character of Christ in us is bringing challenges, barriers, obstacles, and problems into our life that we need to solve, overcome, and conquer. Weariness and fatigue is probably one of the most nagging and irritating problems that comes with age. An added problem for me is Parkinson’s. Those with Parkinson’s often experience a feeling of deep tiredness that does not improve with rest. About half of people with PD report fatigue is a major problem and a third say it is their most disabling symptom.

I am attempting to conquer this mountain in my life by regular strenuous exercise. Some other commitments and disciplines that I have made are never to say, “I am tired,” never complain while packing sandbags because of flooding, try hard to keep up with the young guys packing sandbags, never to allow myself to think self-pity thoughts, to rejoice always despite fatigue and soreness, to ask God for His strength every day, and to work hard at standing up straight and walking like a 20-year-old man, not like an old man.

Luke 1:31 And behold, you (Mary) will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus.

Luke 1:35 The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.

Luke 2:21b He (Jesus) was conceived in the womb.

Hebrews 2:14a Therefore, since the children (that is us) share in flesh and blood, He (Jesus) Himself likewise also partook of the same,

Hebrews 2:17 Therefore, He (Jesus) had to be made like His brethren (you and I) in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

Philippians 2:6-7 although He (Jesus) existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.

Luke 2:7 And she (Mary) gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Luke 2:11-12 for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.

1 John 4:2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;

John 1:14a the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us,

Luke 2:52 And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature,

Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.

How do I know God’s will for my life? When I was younger I would ask that question a hundred times a day or so it seemed. I now have a seven part strategy for knowing Gods will for my life. The first part is to ask God to show me His will. He wants me to know it more than I do. There are dozens of verses like the one below just in the book of Psalms. When you read through the book of psalms high light every verse like this one and read them often. I read through Psalms every month by reading 5 chapters each day in Psalms.

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