So, then, how can we know God’s plan for our lives? Over
the past twenty-five years that I have been in ministry, I have discovered
eight vital keys to knowing God’s will. Here they are:
1) Walk with God.
For starters, if you are interested in knowing God’s plan
for your life, then you must learn to walk with God. You need to develop a
relationship with Him. Christianity is all about relationship rather than just
religion.
And so you must cultivate your relationship
with God. You must seek to know Him and not just seek to know about
Him.
You will cultivate that relationship best by spending
time in His Word, taking time for prayer, and taking every opportunity you can
to be involved in church and small group Bible
studyopportunities. When you seek these disciplines in your life,
God will begin the first steps to revealing His plan to you.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on
your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct
your paths.
2) Surrender your will to God’s.
Many times when we say we are seeking God’s will, what we
are really wanting to say to God is this: “OK, God, here’s what I’m planning to
do. Now I need you to rubber stamp this, all right?” I must tell you that this
is not really effective in finding His true will.
Before God will begin to reveal His will to you, you must
be committed to doing whatever it is that He desires for you to do. God will
likely be slow to show you His plan if He knows you will likely not do that
plan anyway.
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of
God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God,
which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but
be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that
good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Jesus was willing to die for us, so shouldn’t we be
willing to live for Him? When we surrender to Him, that is when He really
begins to direct our steps.
3) Obey what you already know to be God’s Will.
Many people seem to want to know what God’s plan is for
their lives, but they overlook the fact that 98% of His will is already
delineated carefully through His Word. God is very clear about many, many
aspects of His will. For instance, it is clearly His plan that we abstain from
sexual immorality (1
Thessalonians 4:3).
If we do not obey the things that God has shown us
clearly to be His will, why would we think He would reveal any further
information regarding His plan for our lives? Obedience is an important first
step.
4) Seek godly input.
One key component to finding God’s will is to seek the
input of godly advisors in your life. If you don’t currently have 3-4 godly
mentors, then I would highly recommend that you seek them out right away.
Think of it this way: you should understand that you are
basically a composite of the five people you spend the most time with. So,
then, it is vital that you choose those five people well. If you choose to
surround yourself with godly advisors, they will be instrumental in helping you
discern God’s plan for your life. But if you surround yourself with people who
are far from God, your hope of finding His best for your life will be greatly
diminished.
Where there is no counsel, the people fall; but in the
multitude of counselors there is safety.
The church is designed to help you greatly with this. I
would encourage you to be in church every single time the doors are opened. The
more you involve yourself with a community of believers, the greater your
chances will be of finding godly men and women who can help you discern God’s
will.
5) Pay attention to how God has wired you.
God has created you to fulfill a specific role in this
world. There is no one else who can achieve completely what God has purposely
created you to do.
The Apostle Peter gives us this admonition:
As each one has received a gift, minister it to one
another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
God has gifted every one of us to perform a special
mission for which we alone were created. How amazing is that? Wow!
So, when you seek to discover God’s will for your life,
pay attention to how He has gifted you. His plan for you will always be
directly related to the gifts that He has bestowed upon you. The great news is
that you will automatically be good at whatever it is that He has called you to
do!
6) Listen to God’s Spirit.
I experienced a major turning point in my own prayer life
when I learned simply to shut up while I was praying. That may sound
odd to you, and it seemed odd to me at first.
You see, I used to do all the talking when I prayed to
God. But then, several years ago, I read Bill Hybel’s book, Too
Busy Not to Pray. That book completely changed the way I approached
God through prayer. Since reading that book, I have added a significant
component to my prayer life: listening. I take time to listen to what God might
have to say to me.
Practically, the way I go about this is to bring a
notepad with me when I sit down to pray. Then I write at the top of several
pages things like the following:
- “What is the
next step in my career?”
- “What is the
next step in my ministry?”
- “What is the
next step for my family?”
- “What is the
next step for my marriage?”
- “What is the
next step in my education?”
- “What is the
next step in my finances?”
During my prayer time, I meditate on questions such as
the above. Often, God will start flooding my heart with ideas and information
regarding one or more of those questions. I write as fast as I can as He speaks
to my heart. What a glorious experience that is to sense His Spirit on me,
guiding my thoughts and words.
Through experiences like this, He has shown me many times
with great clarity what His will is for my life. I long for those experiences
when He speaks to me like that. Those times are truly life changing.
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow
Me.
7) Listen to your heart.
In addition to listening to the Spirit, I also recommend
listening to your heart. To understand my point here, consider the following
passage:
4 Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give
you the desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in
Him, and He shall bring it to pass. (NKJV)
I love this passage, because it shows me that, when I am
walking with the Lord, He will actually let me do many really cool things that
I actually love to do! When you are close to Him, He actually begins to shape
your desires so that you desire the things that He has already called you to
do.
So then, His plan actually becomes a super-exciting
adventure. I always have the most fun in life when I am doing God’s will. And
that is because He shapes my “wanter” to want to do the things for which He has
actually created me.
8) Take a look at your circumstances.
God often clearly demonstrates His plan for our lives by
lining up circumstances in obvious ways. And He also shows us what His will is
NOT for us to do in that same way. It is not His will for you to take the job
that is not offered to you. If you are 5’ 6” tall and weigh 125 lbs., it is not
likely that God has created you to play professional football.
Over the years, I have discovered that God is pretty good
at opening and closing doors. He even did that for the Apostle Paul and his
enterouge in Acts. Take a look at this passage:
6 Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region
of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia.
7 After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into
Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them.
8 So passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas.
9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of
Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help
us.”
10 Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we
sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the
gospel to them.
Source: By Chris Russell
Source: By Chris Russell
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