subject: Do You Know God's Will For Your Life? [print this page] Most believers seem to struggle to know exactly what it is God wants them to do and as a result they often end up doing nothing. This causes disappointment and frustration and it is often at this point that people drift away from the church and subsequently God Himself.
However, it need not be like that. It is a relatively easy process to know God's will but there is a process to go through. Too often we look for the answer in the wrong place. So let's look at the steps we can take and ask ourselves at each point, 'do I understand and believe this?'
First place to start is with a couple of things Jesus had to say about the will of God. The disciples come to Him and ask, 'What must we do to do the works God requires?'
Jesus answers, 'The work of God is: to believe in the one he has sent.' John 6:28~29. A bit further on in v 40 he says, 'For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.'
This would seem to be very simple and straightforward. Both the work of God and the will of God are one and the same, namely to believe in Jesus.
So that poses the question, what is eternal life? Again Jesus supplies the answer in John 17:3, 'Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.'
Again it seems easy to understand that eternal life is knowing God the Father and Jesus the Son. But there is a big difference in knowing about someone and actually knowing them.
I may know a lot about a person through reading and hearing about them but I can't say I know that person until I actually meet them and get to know them for myself. Knowing Jesus is all about developing a relationship with Him.
How is the non-believer going to get to know Jesus and how is the believer going to develop that deeper relationship with Him? Again scripture has the answer, Rom 10:17, 'Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.'
Looking at the non-believer first, he needs to hear the truth of the gospel about the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. How he, the non-believer, owes God a debt he can never ever pay, but that God in His mercy paid it for Him through the shed blood of His Son on the cross.
For some this message only needs to be heard once, for others it may be several times. But the more accurately the message is preached, the more the Holy Spirit is able to do His work of convincing the person of the truth.
There will come a point where that non-believer says, 'I understand. I accept what Jesus has done for me and I choose to make Him my master.' That is the point at which he first meets Jesus.
A few have a Damascus road experience but the majority have to believe in the truth of the gospel knowing that their relationship with Jesus has now just begun. They now join with believers in developing that relationship.
Here we come up against a problem which often becomes a big stumbling block. The new believer in his enthusiasm to know better this God in whom he now believes, starts to ask other believers for their understanding.
In their eagerness to help, believers give them all sorts of weird and wonderful answers. Sadly very few point them to scripture where all the answers lie.
2 John 9 says, 'Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son'.
The teachings of Christ, what are they? The writer to the Hebrews in chapter 6:1~2 says, 'Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.'
This is where we have this stumbling block for new believers and indeed for many believers. We do not know the elementary teachings of Christ.
It appears that this was a problem to the early believers as well because in Hebrews 5:12 it says, 'by this time you ought to be teachers, but you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!'
Notice the blame is not put on the teachers but on the listeners, the believers, because you will see from v11 the writer says, 'you are slow to learn'!
How many believers do you know who could stand up and talk for fifteen minutes on each of these six elementary teachings? Could you? If we have not dug into the scriptures for ourselves we cannot honestly expect God to reveal His will to us can we?
What happens to us when we do study and absorb His word into us with the help of Holy Spirit? Again scripture holds the answer. Rom 12:2 says, 'be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing and perfect will.'
Here we come to find our answer to how to know what is God's will for our lives. As we study, our minds will be renewed and then we will be able to know His good, pleasing and perfect will.
Jesus makes it very clear if anyone is still in doubt. Matt 28:19~20 'Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you', and Mark 16:15 'Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation'.
Could anything be clearer? Hudson Taylor, the great British missionary to China, said words to the effect, 'if you have not heard the call to stay home and support, then go'.
There is a desperate shortage of people willing to go to the nations, who are willing and able to teach with simplicity and clarity the truth of scripture. The fields are white unto harvest but where are the labourers?
So again we ask, what is the stumbling block? Why are we so unwilling to go? The answer, like all the others, is simple. We have not understood the truth of the gospel. Even though we have supposedly accepted Jesus as Master and Lord, we don't really understand what that means or involves.
Lord means owner. Someone who is a landlord, owns land. We call Jesus Lord because He owns us. He bought us at great cost to Himself. We are no longer our own to do as we will. We are now His for Him to do with as He wills.
He gave His life for us and in return expects us to give our life to Him. We are talking about surrendering our thoughts, our works, our ambitions and everything we have. This is truly food for thought. Take up your cross daily and follow me Jesus said.
When we grasp and understand this absolute surrender of who we are to our Lord and Master, then and only then can we do His will. But oh the joy, the release, the blessing, the excitement of a life lived totally to Him will far outweigh anything we give up.
Paul puts it this way in Phil 3:2~12, 'I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him... I want to know Christ... I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.'
