How to Know the Will of God
How can I know the will of God? Does God speak to us today? How do you know if it’s God who is leading you to do something?
Someone asked me that a couple of years ago, and I said it’s a deep, established, quiet inner knowing; restful, and not chaotic.
What I meant was, God does not torment us or badger us the way the enemy of our soul does. My friend agreed wholeheartedly. But it soon became evident he understood it in quite a different way. He would say the same thing, but he meant something mystical, and included signs like butterflies and hummingbirds. I regretted ever saying what I did.
The worst part of it was, he was a pastor, with a lot of influence over a group of new believers.
More recently I heard a preacher talk about Jesus’ words in Matthew 4:4.
But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
“Proceeds, present tense,” he said. “Not ‘every scripture,’ though that is important, but the spoken word of God.”
He was saying the spoken word of God today has at least as much importance as the written word, the scriptures. A living encounter with God.
God speaks to us today, outside of His written word, the Bible? In other words, new revelation?
He also spoke briefly on Matthew 7:24-25.
24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
He said “the rock” is one thing God has spoken to you personally in the midst of the sand [of the confusion of voices around you], and you build your life on that.
Friends, this is extremely dangerous ground to walk on, and opens up the way for all kinds of false teaching that’s so prevalent in the Church at large today. The preacher may not have meant it in quite the way I’ve taken it, but he, too, has great influence over a flock of new believers.
I don’t know if we realize how much the world has hijacked and redefined terms that we have always accepted as being part of a faithful walk with Christ. In these days of confusion and twisted, mixed-up theology, we need clarity.
I had been taught that God uses three things to reveal His will to us – the Bible, other believers, and circumstances. That is not enough clarity these days.
Does God still speak to us today?
Yes! But how does He do it? If we get this wrong, we could easily be fooled into listening to the wrong voice, mistaking it for God’s voice.
Here are some wise words from a couple of preachers who have a solid understanding of this vitally important question…
Dr. Sinclair Ferguson
The scriptures themselves say God speaks to us through His Word.
Hebrews 12 quotes Proverbs 3, in the present tense. In that sense, when we rightly understand the scriptures, we can say God is speaking to us through the scriptures.
Application of the clear teaching of the scriptures, or clear implications from the teaching becomes instinctive as we spend more time in God’s word, and get to know Him through them.
Justin Peters
“If you want to hear God speak, read your Bible. If you want to hear Him speak to you audibly, read it out loud.”
Voddie Baucham
Romans 12:2
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
How to know God’s will
1. Read the Bible.
2. Think biblically.
3. Pray biblically.
4. Seek wise counsel from people who read their Bible, think biblically, and pray biblically.
5. When in doubt – repeat.
“We don’t even know when the church has begun to capitulate to the spirit of the age, if we ourselves don’t know the difference between the spirit of the age and the Word of God.
“So where do we start? We start with knowing the difference. We start with identifying the spirit of the age. And it’s important that we identify the spirit of the age, because we belong to Christ. We run to Christ. We’re baptized into Christ, not the spirit of the age. We do not want to be an adulterous generation. We want to cling, without wavering, to the One who has purchased us for himself. And so, we learn to see the counterfeit so we do not love and accept and embrace the counterfeit. That’s where we start.”
Hebrews 1:1-4
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.