When it comes to discerning God’s will for our lives, I think we often have a mindset that we will have some epiphany moment when the sky opens up and stone tablets descend from the heavens revealing His perfect plan for the rest of our lives. Although that would certainly be a wonderful way to know with complete certainty what He wants us to do, this is not how it works in real life.
Are there Christians out there who can look back to a specific time and place where they know without a shadow of a doubt that God called them to be a pastor or missionary? Sure, I know of many people who have experienced God’s call to ministry, but they never really knew the specifics of that calling. They heard the call and then became obedient to following Christ’s journey for them.
I recently heard a great analogy to discovering God's will. Think of it in this manner - headlights on a car. If you are driving down a dark road at night, your headlights only illuminate several feet ahead of you. At that specific point in time, all you can see is what is directly ahead of you, but as you keep moving forward, your headlights begin to reveal more information. God's will often works in a similar fashion.
God desires obedience with what you understand today. As you begin to understand, obey, and take action, you make progress along the journey and God reveals a little more. You are obedient to this new knowledge, take action, and make more progress on your journey. This process will continue on your life journey as long as you continue to be obedient with what God has revealed to you in the present. It all starts with obedience. You don't need to concern yourself with what is going to happen 5 miles down the road. You need to make sure you are on the right course 50 feet ahead of you.
Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much... (Luke 16:10a).
Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much... (Luke 16:10a).
- Discernment by nausea | God's will
- Equipped to do God's will | Spiritual gifts inventory
- Holy Spirit direction in your Big Idea | The process
- God's chosen instrument | Your big idea
- Do you feel God's pleasure?
This is a good blog but I would be remiss if I did not mention an excellent book on this very subject. I would recommend "Finding the Will of God: A Pagan Notion" by Bruce Waltke. Take care and God bless!
ReplyDeleteThanks, freelygiving - I'm going to add your book recommendation to my Amazon wishlist for future reading.
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