Is it God's Will?
Is it God's Will?
What college should I attend? What subject should I study? Whom should I marry? What job should I seek? What should I do with my life?
As pastors, we counsel and pray with people every week facing important milestones in their lives and desperately asking, “How can I know what is God’s will?” I want to share with you the advice of Dr. George O. Wood, the General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God, U.S.A., for those seeking the will of God. He asks eight questions that provide a Biblical framework for decision-making.
1. What does scripture say?
This is the most important question. Too often, Christians look for a supernatural revelation on a specific choice they are facing instead of searching the Scriptures to see what God has already revealed. You must begin with Scripture because it is God’s revelation. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16).
2. Are you becoming the person God wants you to be?
As you search the Scriptures, you will see that God is far more interested in the kind of person you are than in what you do or where you go. In Luke 6:45, Jesus pointed out that character determines action: “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart…” So, when faced with any choice, you must ask both whether your motivation is Christlike and whether a decision will help or hinder the development of Christlikeness within you.
3. What are your gifts and talents?
Scripture says that God gives all Christians spiritual gifts: “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:7).
When you make decisions, you should take both your spiritual gifts and your natural talents into consideration, for these may indicate what God wants you to do.
4. What do your Christian parents, mentors and friends encourage you to consider?
The Lord has placed people in your life for a purpose. They know you and understand your character, gifts and talents. Part of discerning the will of God is listening to them.
5. What circumstances are you going through that may provide direction?
Circumstances can prepare you for what God wants to do in your life. Yes God is working through the circumstances of your life! They are more than coincidences, they are God incidences!
6. Have you received supernatural revelation?
How wonderful it would be if God would speak audibly to us every time and tell us what to do! Scripture tells us that He does that on occasion. Look at Moses (Exodus 3) or Isaiah (Isaiah 6), or the apostle Paul (Acts 9). Such supernatural revelation is not the general rule, however, and none of the persons mentioned above were looking for a supernatural revelation. Be open to however God wishes to manifest Himself to you.
7. What impressions come to your heart as you worship?
The first Christians experienced the leading of the Holy Spirit through prayer (Acts 10:9), reading God’s Word (Acts 1:20), community sessions of worship (Acts 13:1-3), and visions (Acts10:3-10). When you pray earnestly—not just a casual “now I lay me down to sleep” prayer—do you sense anything that the Holy Spirit may be putting on your heart to do?
8. What do you want to do?
“Take delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4) Ask yourself, “What do I want to do with my life? What do I really get excited about?” If the Lord gives you the desires of your heart, then you must have some desires to begin with. In other words, your own choices may be God’s way of guiding you.