KNOW GOD’S WILL FOR YOUR LIFE

Christians should commit to know and do the will of God.

The following discussion is a summary of John MacArthur’s sermon, Knowing and Doing God’s Will For Your Life, and John MacArthur’s booklet, Found: God’s Will. Find the Direction and Purpose God Wants For Your Life, Third Edition (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2012), and Gregory Koukl’s, Decision Making and the Will of God: Ambassador Basic Curriculum (Signal Hill, CA: Stand to Reason Ministries, 2000). God wants you to know and do his will. King David asked God to show him God’s way and teach him to do God’s will (Psalm 143:8, 10). Jesus taught the apostles to pray that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10). Jesus also taught that a believer who chooses to do the will of God will find out Jesus’ teaching comes from God (John 7:17). Doing the will of God from the heart is basic to the Christian’s life (Ephesians 6:6). The apostle Paul prayed that he would travel to destinations according to will of God. (Romans 1:10, 15:32). Paul also encouraged the Colossians that his fellow servant of Christ Jesus, Epaphras, always wrestled in prayer that they may stand firm, fully mature, and assured in the will of God (Colossians 4:12). Peter stated that the distinguishing mark of a Christian’s life is a preoccupation and centering of his life on the will of God (1 Peter 4:2). Therefore, Christians should commit to know and do the will of God.

What is the will of God and can we know it?

You can know the will of God because God wills things for you that God makes available to you. If God has a will for your life, he will reveal it to you if you are in the right state of mind and place to receive it. But the prevailing view of many Christians is that God has a plan or blueprint or road map for the Christian’s life. In other words, God has made and micro-managed all the life decisions that the Christian must discover in order for the Christian to make the decisions.  The Christian lingo in this regard is: “I feel led …” “I think God is telling me …” “God wants me to …” “I feel God is calling me to  …” “I believe it’s God will that I …”I have a peace about it …”God opened or closed a door to …” “Look and find where God is acting and join in doing …”  The problem with this approach to knowing and doing God’s will is that it creates confusion, frustration, anxiety, and fear that you are not properly interpreting God’s promptings.

God’s sign to Gideon was to make his fleece full of
water when it was on dry ground (Judges 6:1-40).
Free Bible Images.

God does not generally lead Christians through supernatural signs.

God does not teach through the Bible that Christians are always led by God through supernatural signs. The Bible phrase “led by the Spirit” and “walk by the Spirit” (Romans 8:9, 12-14; Galatians 5:16-21) has to do with the empowerment of Christian character to live holy and righteous lives and not incidental decision making. Christians also do not get guidance from inner peace. When the apostle Paul wrote, “And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts” (Colossians 3:15), he meant harmony or lack of conflict between people in the church, not an internal feeling of God’s confirmation and approval of a decision. Also, sometimes doing the right thing is unsettling. Other times you may have “peace” or feel right about doing something wrong.

God also generally does not provide guidance by opening doors. For example, Paul viewed open doors for where to travel for his missions simply as opportunities that could be acted on (1 Corinthians 16:8-9) or ignored (2 Corinthians 2:12-13).

In regard to fleeces or providential signs, Gideon’s fleece that was full of water while the ground was dry and vice versa as confirmation that God would save Israel by Gideon’s hand (Judges 6:36-36) was clearly Gideon’s inappropriate level of doubt that God put up with, because God already previously told Gideon and gave him a sign that God would save Israel through Gideon’s hand (Judges 6:11-23). Further, Gideon requested a genuinely supernatural sign, not a normal everyday non-supernatural sign today like a Christian that requests a sign from God about whether he should marry, “God I will meet my wife and marry her if she answers on the third phone ring the first time I call her.” Finally, testing God via a fleece is wrong as demonstrated when the devil tempted Jesus to jump from the highest point of the temple to test God to see if God would command his angels to guard and lift Jesus so he would not strike the stone on the ground. Jesus answered, “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” (Luke 4:9-12).

In regard to guidance from confirmation by multiple witnesses (Matthew 18:15-16; 2 Corinthian 13:1-2; 1 Timothy 5:19-20; Hebrews 10:28; Deuteronomy 17:6, 19:15), these passages are all cases of confirmations that have a judicial function under the law of Israel or in disciplinary matters of the church. No one could be convicted of a crime unless there were multiple witness testimony against them. They were not seeking divine guidance. Therefore, God does not generally lead Christians through supernatural signs and confirmations.

But didn’t God reveal his will through signs and wonders in the Old Testament and New Testament?

Yes. Sometimes God reveals his will through signs and wonders, but that was the exception and not the general rule for how God communicates to people. For example, God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times (seasons), and days and years (Genesis 1:14 NIV). “Sacred times” or “seasons” in Hebrew means the assembly of the people or gathering of the congregation. All of the Old Testament festivals, feasts, and holidays of Israel were identified by where the heavenly bodies were at a certain time such as the stars, the sun, and the moon. God appointed the moon for the “seasons” or gathering of the people (Psalm 104:19). God also revealed himself in clear ways through the Old Testament prophets’ messages and miraculous miracle signs and wonders.

In the New Testament, Jesus performed 7 great miracle signs that confirmed that Jesus is the Messiah in the gospel of John. The apostle John concludes his gospel by stating the purpose of his gospel, “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30-31 NIV). At Saul/Paul’s Christian conversion, Jesus appeared to him in a voice and confirmed he was the Lord, and through the miraculous sign of blinding Paul (Acts 9:1-9). Jesus and the Holy Spirit appeared to Peter in a vision and told him to kill and eat impure or unclean animals, reptiles, and birds because nothing is impure that God made clean and that Paul should go with three men that were looking for him (Acts 10:9-23).  However, notice that these examples of supernatural special guidance are rare, supernatural, and clear. These are not situations where people were seeking guidance from God. God took the initiative to perform the miraculous sign or appear in a vision to communicate with people. Therefore, it is possible that God may speak to you in a vison or perform a miraculous sign with clear guidance, but it is unlikely.