Maybe you have been at a crucial juncture in your life’s journey, and there loomed before you what was certain to be a life-changing decision. What to do? Which way to go? Who to ask? “Oh, Dear Heavenly Father, please give me an answer that I will know with certainty has come from You.”
Ever been at that crossroad? Most have; surely most will have at some time or other. It would be so simple if God would just direct us with small Post-it Notes here and there, with an arrow or a word or two pointing in the right direction at the corner of Crunch Time Blvd. and Decision Time Highway. But, He doesn’t.
Yet I submit to you that the will of God is not difficult to find. Nor is it hard to know that you are either in His will or not at any given moment. Before I share with you the simple, Biblical formula for knowing the will of God, and whether you are in it at any given moment, listen to what some wise and godly believers have said on the subject through the years:
Ron White, missionary to Japan for more than 40 years: “You don’t have to know God’s will for tomorrow—you just have to do God’s will today.”
Unknown author quoted in The Bright Side (a Campus Crusade publication): “Being in God’s will is like being in the eye of the storm. There is a calmness, a peace, when we know that we’re in the center. And if we move out of that area, we are subject to a lot of turmoil.”
Miriam Booth, daughter of William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army: “It’s wonderful to do the Lord’s work, but it’s greater still to do the Lord’s will.”
Martin Luther: “If it were the will of God, I’d plant an oak tree today, even if Christ were coming tomorrow.”
Donald Grey Barnhouse: “I can say from experience that 95% of knowing the will of God consists in being prepared to do it before you know what it is.”
David Livingstone: “I am immortal until the will of God for me is accomplished.”
We too often want to make finding the will of God something that is difficult, like a mystery to solve, or a “nut to crack.” Author and pastor Arnold Fleagle spoke of this kind of frustration when he wrote: “I sailed far out to sea, Lord. You waited at the shore. I walked the teeming highways; You waited at my door. I climbed the mountain peak, Lord; You waited at the base. I tunneled to earth’s bottom; You waited at the face. The hard way, Lord, I struggled, the quest for change of heart; My treks were all in vain, Lord, You waited at the start.”
It would not do to quote wise men and women of renowned spiritual stature on the subject of the will of God without also—and first in preeminence on the list—quoting the Word of God. So here is a key verse from God’s Word on living in the will of God: “Teach me to do Thy will; for Thou art my God; Thy Spirit is good; lead me into the land of the upright.” (Ps. 143:10) It is crucial to note that the Psalmist did not ask God to show him what God’s will was; rather, he besought God to teach him to do the will of God.
So the Biblical key in being in God’s will is first to be willing to do God’s will.
And, Paul takes up the theme of God’s will in the extremely practical portion of His letter to the saints in Rome.
Paul had just finished one of the most profound portions of theological truths ever penned— Romans, chapters 1-11, in which he treats the doctrine of man’s justification by faith and grace alone, apart from works, for salvation.
Then, in Romans 12:1,2, the apostle begged his readers to resist being conformed to the world over which Satan rules as “god,” for the present. And he pleads for readers to be transformed daily—a moment by moment transformation of one’s mind through the Word (II Cor. 3:18), so that we can be certain that what we are doing this day is God’s will for us. Which is whatever is good, whatever is acceptable, and whatever is perfect. Ask yourself this question at any given moment of time: “Is what I am doing good, according to the Word of God?” Then ask, “Is what I am doing acceptable, according to the Word of God?” And third, “Is what I am doing perfect—does it lend itself to my maturing—as a believer?”
Simple as that. If you can say “Yes” to each of those questions, you will be in sync with God’s standard for being in, and doing, the will of God each day. As such, He will guide you with His skilled hands—step by step, juncture by juncture, over every mile of the way, opening doors and closing others so that, at the end of the way, you will look back and say, “God graciously led me each day, through peril and peace, to the place of His will. I being in the way, the Lord led me.” (Gen. 24:27)
There is a place of perfect rest—near to the heart of God. It is a blessed place, the will of God. Set yourself out to do His will, and you will never doubt that you are in His will. Selah
“Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do Thy will, O God.” (Hebrews 10:7)
YOU and GOD 