How to Discern the Will of God
Notes
Transcript
Handout
People often ask, and if we are honest, we all want to be able to know the Will of God. One of the problems is that, we, our culture, think we are smart.
If you think about it. I have seen Nuclear Bombs detonated when they were tested. I remember when we first sent a person into space and then landed on the moon. I realize that there are people who don’t believe that we really landed on the moon. We have a used car lot up there with moon buggies.
I can remember celebrating when Windows was invented… when communications became worldwide instantly. We have weapons that people only dreamed about just a few years ago.
So the question is, if we are so smart, why are we in so much trouble?
So the question is, if we are so smart, why are we in so much trouble?
I’ll tell you why. We have misguided people in the age of guided missiles. We need guidance and we need the guidance from the Lord.
Your desire ought to be to know what God wants us to do.
Your desire ought to be to know what God wants us to do.
One of the problems is that we think we are as smart and God and don’t want to follow what he wants us to do.
Six Myths Concerning the Will of God
Six Myths Concerning the Will of God
There are 6 myths concerning the WOG that I want to dispel tonight. We need to get these out of our minds.
1. The Map Myth.
1. The Map Myth.
This is the idea that God will give us a road map that His will for you.
God does not give you a road map, and I am glad because it would be pretty boring if he did.
The Will of God is not a map, it’s a relationship.
The Will of God is not a map, it’s a relationship.
So don’t get the idea that God is going to tell you in 5 years or 10 years, you will be doing such and such. I am going to send you here for a year and then there of 2 years…
Do you remember how God led Israel out of Egypt? A pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. They didn’t have to know where they were going. All they had to do was make sure they could see the cloud or the fire.
That’s what we need to know as well. Do I have his presence with me?
2. The Misery Myth
2. The Misery Myth
This is the idea that if I follow God, it’s going to hurt because God is a celestial killjoy.
We say, God, I’ll follow you anywhere even if I end being a missionary to deepest Africa and eaten by cannibals.
This is why some people are afraid to surrender to God. The truth is that God is a loving God who wants what you would want for your own life if we all had sense enough to want it.
God is a loving God so don’t believe the Misery Myth.
God is a loving God so don’t believe the Misery Myth.
4. The Miracle Myth.
4. The Miracle Myth.
This one says that something dramatic must happen for you to know the Will of God. There has to be some kind of sign … a voice or a burning bush….
While God may speak to you in a miracle, most of the time He doesn’t. Look at 1 Ki 19:11-12
11 “Go out and stand before me on the mountain,” the Lord told him. And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper.
Elijah found out that God spoke to him through a whisper. People want the earthquake experience, or the windstorm experience, but that’s not how he usually communicates with us.
If you want to find the WOG in your life, there is still a whisper from God, then it grows into path as bright as the sun.
If you want to find the WOG in your life, there is still a whisper from God, then it grows into path as bright as the sun.
18 The way of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, which shines ever brighter until the full light of day.
As you follow each step, it soon becomes as plain as day.
5. The I missed it myth.
5. The I missed it myth.
This is the “I know God had a plan for me when I was younger but I didn’t follow what he wanted so I missed it.” “It’s too late for me.”
It’s never too late for you or anyone else who is still alive. God has a will for your life at every stage of your life. You may think you missed out, but look what Joel 2:25 says…
25 The Lord says, “I will give you back what you lost to the swarming locusts, the hopping locusts, the stripping locusts, and the cutting locusts. It was I who sent this great destroying army against you.
God says, Yes you wasted several years, but I will give you a fresh start. Isn’t that great? Who in here is glad for a fresh start?
We are like a guided missile. The military programs it and then fires it, but while it’s flying, it makes many course corrections maybe due to winds or to evade something trying to shoot it down, but it reprograms it’s course and finds it’s target.
If you missed out on what you thought was God’s plan, let God reprogram you where you are so that you get to where God wanted you all along.
If you missed out on what you thought was God’s plan, let God reprogram you where you are so that you get to where God wanted you all along.
6. The Mystery Myth
6. The Mystery Myth
This is the idea that God’s will is a mystery and we have to hunt for it… like a giant Easter Egg hunt.
We think things like, God tells us, I want you to do something, but I am not going to tell you what it is.
Who would tell your child, “I have some things I want you to do, and if you do them, I will reward you, but if you don’t I’ll have to punish you. Then your child goes, ok, I’ll do it. What is it you want me to do? And we say, I am not going to tell you… figure it out.
That’s crazy.
God wants you to know His will.
God wants you to know His will.
I want to clear up these myths. Let me ask you. If you met Jesus face to face, what would you ask him? I think I would ask him what he wanted me to do?
The apostle Paul asked Jesus that when he met him on the road to Damascus in Acts 9:1-2
1 Meanwhile, Saul was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord’s followers. So he went to the high priest. 2 He requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, asking for their cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the Way he found there. He wanted to bring them—both men and women—back to Jerusalem in chains.
Saul was hunting dow Christians.
3 As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. 4 Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” 5 And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” 6 So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
This is a great passage with some principles we can learn concerning knowing the WOG. Saul asked two great questions.
Who are you Lord
What do you want me to do?
Those are great questions. And Paul spent the rest of his life learning the answers to those questions.
As I said earlier, we are a misguided culture in an age of guided missiles. People may want to know the WOG for their lives but they cannot know that in and of themselves. Look at Jer 10:23
23 I know, Lord, that our lives are not our own. We are not able to plan our own course.
We just don’t have what it takes to to know God’s will on our own. So I want to give you some principles from Acts 9.
Principles to Discern God’s Will
Principles to Discern God’s Will
1. Guidance is promised.
1. Guidance is promised.
Look at Acts 9:6
6 Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
You will be told what you must do. Now incase you think this was just aimed at Saul, look at these verses.
10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
We have been saved by God’s grace but here we see that he saved us to do the good works he has planned for us to do.
23 The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives.
God will order your steps… one at a time.
8 The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.
Example of giving a warning to your child with your look. Or men, when you start to say something and your wife looks at you a certain way… Wouldn’t it be good to have that kind of communication with the Lord?
11 The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring.
6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.
What God said to Saul was not just for him. It was for all of us. We have a Father in heaven that’s in control and a Savior beside us directing us, and the Holy Spirit energizing us and impressing on us what to do.
Now let’s learn some things about God’s will.
Types of the Will of God.
Types of the Will of God.
God’s Prevailing Will.
God’s Prevailing Will.
This is His over all sovereign will. God can never be prevented from doing His ultimate will. Not a blade of grass moves without his controlling power… not a raindrop falls without Him. Look at Pro 19:21
21 You can make many plans, but the Lord’s purpose will prevail.
God’s Permissive Will.
God’s Permissive Will.
This is God’s general or permissive will. Let me give you some examples.
9 The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.
3 God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin.
8 In every place of worship, I want men to pray with holy hands lifted up to God, free from anger and controversy.
This is God’s permissive will. God in his sovereignty has granted to mankind a free will… the ability to choose to obey God or to disobey God.
However, we cannot choose the consequences of those choices.
19 “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!
God’s Personal Will
God’s Personal Will
God has an individual will for each one of us. He has a many plans as he has people. He is interested in each one of us. Look at Matt 10:30
30 And the very hairs on your head are all numbered.
He knows everything about us and has a plan for our lives.
23 The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives.
Let me sum it up like this.
God’s prevailing will is that the Kingdoms of this world will one day become the kingdoms of our Lord Jesus Christ. That will happen no matter what.
It is God’s permissive will that allows us to make choices… right choices. For example, Christians are not to marry un-believers, but they do.
I believe that was and is God’s personal will for me to be doing what I am doing tonight.
God’s Word teaches that God has a specific plan for each one of us. He orders our steps and that’s amazing.
It would be like the President of the US to be interested in a barnacle on a piece of rotten wood floating in the ocean for God to be interested in us, but he is.
Did you know that
God knows your name
God knows your name
2. God’s Guidance is Provisional.
2. God’s Guidance is Provisional.
You must be willing to do the Will of God.
You must be willing to do the Will of God.
Remember Saul in Acts 9:6 when he said,
6 So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
So, the question is, are you willing to do the will of God if he shows it to you? If not, you probably won’t know it. God doesn’t give us suggestions. He expects us to do what he says.
Sometimes people want to build a house, and they already have in mind the kind of house they want. Maybe they’ve drawn it on a piece of paper at the kitchen table, and they get an architect. What they’re asking the architect to do is not really to design a house from scratch. They’re saying, “This is the kind of house I want. This is what I want—now design it.”
That’s unfortunately what we do with God. Too often we say, “Lord here is what I want for my life, so design that life for me.” When we do this, we are asking God to conform to our will, not us to his will.
I heard about a homeless guy who spent his life walking across the country from one end to the other. Somebody asked him, “How do you decide which way you’re going to go?” He replied, “It really doesn’t make any difference to me; I just go.” And they said, “What do you do if you’re walking down the road and you come to a fork in the road. How do you determine whether you’re going to go this way or that way?” He said, “That’s simple. I just pick up a stick and throw it in the air and whichever way it lands, that’s the way I go.” Then he said, “Sometimes I have to throw it up six or seven times for it to land right.”
A lot of us are that way. We say, well I just want the will of God, but we keep throwing the stick up in the air until it lands the way we want it to.
Ask yourself, am I really willing to obey God and do what He asks me to do?
To learn the Will of God we must be teachable. (meek)
To learn the Will of God we must be teachable. (meek)
We have to yield our will to his will. It’s not enough to hear God, you have to say, Lord, I am ready to do your will.
8 Saul picked himself up off the ground, but when he opened his eyes he was blind. So his companions led him by the hand to Damascus. 9 He remained there blind for three days and did not eat or drink. 10 Now there was a believer in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord spoke to him in a vision, calling, “Ananias!” “Yes, Lord!” he replied. 11 The Lord said, “Go over to Straight Street, to the house of Judas. When you get there, ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul. He is praying to me right now.
17 So Ananias went and found Saul. He laid his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
Here was Saul, formerly a pious and self righteous Pharisee humbled. God sent him a messenger to instruct him. So now, the very educated and self righteous Pharisee is learning from one of the little know disciples. That’s yieldedness.
Think about it. If you are not willing to yield to God’s Will, why should he show it to you?
It would be like a guy with a rusted out car with 4 flat tires, a rusted out gas tank coming to a gas station and saying… fill her up! The attendant would ask, what for?
When we ask god to show us His will and we are not yielded, God goes, what for? If you are not ready to do the will of God, why should he show it to you? Are you willing to sign a contract with God and say, Ok God, you fill it in?
1 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
Listen, you may not yet know what God’s will for you is, but I can tell you that it’s good and pleasing and perfect.
3. God’s guidance is practical
3. God’s guidance is practical
Let’s look at how he does this.
God guides us through miracles.
God guides us through miracles.
That’s not the ordinary way, but he will do this from time to time through visions, dreams, miracles… He directed Saul by a miracle. Jesus actually appeared to him as a bright light, knocked him off of his horse, and spoke to him in an audible voice. me and the AC This is not the normal way he does it, but he sometimes uses miracle.
God guides us through His Word.
God guides us through His Word.
In Acts 9, in addition to speaking to Saul through a miracle, god spoke to him through His Word. Acts 9:5
5 “Who are you, lord?” Saul asked. And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting!
Saul knew the WOG. He had heard Stephen preach a great sermon and he stood by as they stoned Stephen to death. (Acts 7). Now the Lord himself was speaking to him.
Saul was a Pharisee and he was well educated in the WOG (OT). all of his previous knowledge started to come together now as the living Word of God spoke to him. Much of the will of God for your life is found right there in your Bible.
Don’t look for the will of God about something God has commanded or forbidden in his written word.
Don’t look for the will of God about something God has commanded or forbidden in his written word.
If God said something in His written word, He will not contradict it.
God guides us through His people.
God guides us through His people.
You will find out that God will use other people to help guide you. Look at Acts 9:10-11
10 Now there was a believer in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord spoke to him in a vision, calling, “Ananias!” “Yes, Lord!” he replied. 11 The Lord said, “Go over to Straight Street, to the house of Judas. When you get there, ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul. He is praying to me right now.
God used Ananias to help show Saul His will.
God will use us to help others know God’s will and others to help us to know God’s will. You will often discover God’s will for you in the context of a local Christian Church.
We need to make sure that if we are receiving guidance from someone that they are a mature Believer and walking with the Lord. God confirmed to Saul that this man, Ananias, was coming and he will do the same for you.
Be careful. Too many people will ask people over and over again about something until they find someone who will say wha they want to hear. a hundred or more may have told them what they needed, but they listen to the one who told them what they wanted to hear.
Thank God for wise counsel. Pro 24:6
6 So don’t go to war without wise guidance; victory depends on having many advisers.
God is to be our final counselor.
God guides us through His Holy Spirit.
God guides us through His Holy Spirit.
This is an inner witness. When Ananias found Saul, here is what happened. Acts 9:17
17 So Ananias went and found Saul. He laid his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
Saul was filled with the Holy Spirit and the Spirit showed him the will of God. God’s Holy Spirit will lead us. Look at Romans 8:14
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
We are led by the Spirit of God. Look at Gal 5:18
18 But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.
So the Holy Spirit leads us. He is gentle and never forces himself on us. When we are led by the Spirit, he is guiding us, usually with that “still small voice” or the whisper.
Adrian Rogers - Missed a breakfast meeting, so he asked the Lord what he should do and the Lord impressed on him to take his wife Joyce to a specific Holiday in for breakfast. While sitting there a car pulled up, the man inside saw him and came in asking if he was Adrian Rogers. He told him his story and asked he would speak to his wife. So they came by Roger’s house later, and both prayed to receive Jesus that afternoon and became members for decades.
Kathy and I leaving the jail - walking up the street when a lady who was being released made eye contact, Kathy connected her to the NO Mission and she is doing great.
God will lead us to where he wants us to do something. If we all walked in the Spirit more often, things like this would happen more frequently.
God guides us by His Wisdom.
God guides us by His Wisdom.
Take a look at Acts 9:20-22
20 And immediately he began preaching about Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is indeed the Son of God!” 21 All who heard him were amazed. “Isn’t this the same man who caused such devastation among Jesus’ followers in Jerusalem?” they asked. “And didn’t he come here to arrest them and take them in chains to the leading priests?” 22 Saul’s preaching became more and more powerful, and the Jews in Damascus couldn’t refute his proofs that Jesus was indeed the Messiah.
Remember, Saul, now Paul was just recently a hater of Jesus. Now here he is preaching. And the Jews could not refute his words. Saul was not only full of the Spirit of God, but full of the Wisdom that comes from God.
15 So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. 16 Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. 17 Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. 18 Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit,
God gives wisdom.
Wisdom is seeing life from God’s point of view.
Wisdom is seeing life from God’s point of view.
When you are saved, and your are surrendered, and you are walking in the Spirit, and filled with the Spirit, you will find that you have the Mind of Christ.
Don’t be afraid to use your mind. Why would God renew it if he didn’t want you to use it? We have the mind of Christ. The Will o fGod is not about goose bumps, but about having sanctified common sense. James said this in James 1:5
5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.
Make sure your motives and your heart are right and ask God for wisdom.
God guides us through the Providence of God.
God guides us through the Providence of God.
Don’t get the idea that the will of God is going to be easy. Paul was preaching and he faced a lot of opposition. Check this out in Acts 9:23-25
23 After a while some of the Jews plotted together to kill him. 24 They were watching for him day and night at the city gate so they could murder him, but Saul was told about their plot. 25 So during the night, some of the other believers lowered him in a large basket through an opening in the city wall.
They planned to kill Paul, the one with the equivalence of 3 Ph.D’s. But God showed Him their plans and made an escape for him. Listen, we have a God who watches over the affairs of human kind. His unseen hand that guides, does so with the providence of God.
Israel men in a mine field…
If you take all six of these principles and sum them up it’s this.
The will of God for you is Jesus.
The will of God for you is Jesus.
The church is the body, but Jesus is the head. I don’t want my hand to have a will of it’s own. My head determines what my body does. Jesus is the head and we as the Body, must do as He wills.
We need to be like Paul and say,
Lord what is it that you want me to do?
Lord what is it that you want me to do?
Listen to me here are three principle about the will of God I want you to know.
1. The will of God is for your welfare.
1. The will of God is for your welfare.
It’s not something we have to do, its’ something you get to do. We would all want the will of God in our lives if we had good sense.
2. The will of god will never take you where the power of God will not empower you.
2. The will of god will never take you where the power of God will not empower you.
3. You are free to choose.
3. You are free to choose.
You and I are free to choose to follow His will or not. Remember though, we can’t choose the consequences.
You can jump out of a 10 story building, but then that choices chooses the consequences for you.
We are the sum total of our choices. And the wisest choice we can ever make is the same one Saul made on the road to Damascus, and that’s asking
Lord who are you?
Lord what do you want me to do?
