Discerning God's Will

42 And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? 43 Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. 44 Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. 45 But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, 46 the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. 47 And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. 48 But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.

Presuppositions for Determining the Will of God

The Decretive and Preceptive Will of God

The Bible has two particular ways of referring to God’s will. There is the decretive will of God and the preceptive will of God, or secret and revealed. In his decretive will God has ordained everything that occurs in history, every single detail. In his preceptive will, he reveals the standard by which he wants us to live. the revealed, preceptive will of God is our standard for living by the will of God. We can see the unfolding of the secret will of God by seeing the unfolding of history and by special revelation by prophecy, etc. The preceptive will of God is what he has revealed in his Word. This must be our standard of living. We cannot use the decretive will of God as an excuse to sin or to remain unconverted. That is to say, we cannot use the decretive will of God as an excuse to disobey the revealed will of God. We must seek to submit ourselves to the revealed will of God in His Word.

The Cessation of Special Revelation

However, we believe that special revelation has ceased and is now contained in the Holy Scriptures, thus making the Bible necessary. We cannot discern the will of God for our lives outside of the Bible. We must not seek for God to reveal his will to us outside of the application of Biblical principles. When we are seeking for God’s will, we must not seek for God to reveal his secret decrees to us, this is beyond our ability.

At times can we become practical charismatics?

However, this is what most people are wanting. They are faced with a tough decision, do they take this job offer, or the other, do they move to this city or to another, do they by the red car or the black car. They want God to give them a sign or a revelation as to which one he would have them to choose. R. C. Sproul, in his teaching series on this subject, says that in attempting to discern the will of God many people resort to practices that would be considered magic by the OT. I have heard many stories of people seeking to discern God’s will so they just open the Bible and randomly point and seek some sign in that particular verse. We look for a sign in the clouds, or we lay out a fleece asking God to make a decision clear to us. Instead, he wants us to use the principles laid out in His word in order to make a decision that we enjoy, that serves his people, and that brings Him glory.

Job illustration?

The Sufficiency of Scripture

This brings us to our third point. Is the Bible sufficient to be our only infallible rule and guide for faith and practice? Of course we understand that the Bible does not give us the exact identity of the person we are to marry, nor does it tell us the particular career that I am to pursue, but it gives me ALL of the principles necessary for determining God’s will for my life. Even in the age of relativism so many fall back on a type of pagan determinism. They want to find their destiny, to find who fate has chosen them to be and they want to be that. We would be happier if the Lord had written a list of all human beings and included the name of their spouse, the place they are to live, and the vocation they are to pursue. However, as we will see, the Bible does not do this, nor does it call us to seek this. Though we believe that God has chosen and determined our vocation, our spouse, and the place of our habitation, he has even determined the age we lose our first tooth and the number of hairs on our head. However, the Bible calls us to live a spiritual and reasonable life of Christian liberty. That is to say, the Bible gives us all that is necessary to live a God-glorifying Christian life, the Holy Spirit works in us to be more and more sanctified, and the specifics God leaves up to the liberty of the spirit-filled Christian.

The Reformation Idea of Vocation

Before the Reformation the people who really were glorifying God were the monks, priests, and bishops. They was this hierarchy of Christians that made it seem that you couldn’t really serve God outside of a church office or church orders. However, the Reformation revived the idea of Vocation. We typically think of vocation as a job or career, but the biblical idea of a vocation in this sense is a special or particular calling that God has placed on each of our lives in which we can use our particular gifts and graces in order to glorify God and serve his people as providence provides us the opportunity. Each christian has a special vocation, a special calling from God, a specially designed role or job for that person to fulfill and use to glorify God and serve the church.

What Is Vocation? Finding Meaning in the Ordinary: Doing All to the Glory of God

“No task,” Calvin tells us, “will be so sordid and base, provided you obey your calling in it, that it will not shine and be reckoned very precious in God’s sight.” The standard for evaluating our work and our worth is to see our work as a calling in the service of God, for his glory.

Lumberjack Illustration

The Supremacy of God’s Glory

Another important aspect to pursuing God’s will, and intimately connected to this idea of Vocation, is the supremacy of God’s glory. With this idea, and the work of the Holy Spirit in our souls, we can glorify God in everything we do. At our jobs, changing diapers, studying to be a doctor, etc.

“There are many good callings in life, such as being a farmer, a construction worker, a business owner, or a house wife, but any labor that is not done for the glory of God is labor that will be wasted” Pursuit of Glory p. 31.

“Living for the glory of God gives peasants eternal value while living for the glory of self devalues even the lives of kings. Only living for Christ will give us true purpose. Even little tasks, such as sweeping the kitchen floor, take on an eternal value when they are done to please God ().

Even though you might not be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, your calling is noble when you carry it out in a way that brings honor and glory to God. Even eating and drinking, when done with thankfulness to God, will bring you eternal glory (). Though a housewife may feel unnoticed by the world, though she may feel unappreciated by her own family, and though she may feel she is of little value to the kingdom of God, her life has real and lasting significance when she seeks to do everything for the glory of God. Those who are first in this life, such as the famous movie star, shall be last, and those who are last, such as the obscure housewife, shall be first in the life to come ().” POG p. 36.

The Centrality of the Church

Another goal of our vocation is to serve the church. As an essential part of our vocation, God has gifted us with a special gift by which we may serve the Church. Every believer has a special role in the church of God. The church is important in two ways, in the use of our gift and the discerning of our gift.

When we are using our gift, we use it in love for the church and for the benefit of the church.

Also, it is in the context of the church, by seeing the needs in the church, receiving the encouragement of the church, and seeing how we fit in the body of Christ is the way in which we can determine what our particular gift is.

Our Vocation and God’s Will for Our Lives

Finding the Will of God common to all vocations

There is a very close connection between this idea of vocation and what we typically mean by the will of God. R. C. Sproul said that this is the underlying idea when people ask him how to find the will of God for their lives. So from here on, we are going to link these two ideas. First, there are certain biblical principles that we must use as guides no matter our vocation.

Simply as Christians there are certain things that are common to all of our vocations, the will of God for each of our lives. These are those aspects of the will of God that God has explicitly revealed as his will for our lives. As we have already seen, God’s revealed will is our standard, not his decretive will. We cannot live according to his secret will, but we must seek to live according to his decretive will.

There are 6 things explicitly revealed as God’s will for our lives:

1. Conversion - When we are in God’s will, this is what makes us the brothers and sisters of Christ. If we have not believed and repented, if we have not come to Christ, as John MacArthur points out, we have no hope of discerning the will of God. Without conversion, we will always be outside of God’s will. , , .

2. Being Filled with the Holy Spirit - and

3. Sanctificaiton -

4. Thankfulness and Contentment - .

5. Submission - ,

6. Suffering -

even seems to indicate that these basic aspects of sanctification and christian character are prerequisite to pursuing a more specialized gifting and calling.

Finding the Will of God specific to my vocation

Desire

Gifts

Graces

Providence

Steps to determining it:

Ensuring we have the right presuppositions

Ensuring we are being faithful to the clear and general principles.

Doing a humble self-assessment of our desire, gifts, and graces. .

Evaluating the opportunities that providence has opened for us.

Seeking the advice and counsel of godly men and women in the church

Cultivating the Gifts and Graces specific to our vocation.

Being Faithful to fulfill our calling for God’s glory and the good of the church.

Conclusion:

20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.