Episode 84 - Discovering God's Will

A question that often comes up is whether something is according to God's will.  It is certainly a good idea to seek God's will in everything.  However, sometimes we might feel that it is difficult to determine exactly what God's will is.  And sometimes a person might hesitate in making a decision for fear of going against God's will.  

In this episode I look at an aspect of God's will.  I look at whether God has a detailed and rigid plan, or is more generalized so that it accomodates our freedom to chose.

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Transcript

Hello Friends, I’m your host Dr. Dave Laton and thank you for joining me in Our Journey to Hope.

It is my desire through this podcast to bring you information about how to discover, sustain, or perhaps regain hope.  

In this episode I want to speak briefly about discovering God’s will.  I don’t have the time in this podcast to cover all that there is about God’s will, but I do want to encourage you to continue seeking His will or to begin if you have not already started.

Have you noticed that when it comes time to make a major decision, or we seek to understand why an event in life is happening to us that most of us experience a heightened interest in discovering God’s will?  Quite often seeking God’s will is when something tragic is happening to us or someone we love and care about.  But we might also be seeking God’s will to deal with the everyday activities of life.

During these times, we seek God’s will with renewed fervor.  Some look for signs, divine coincidences, open doors, or other phenomena to draw the line back to God’s guidance to make sense out of what is happening.  Some look to supernatural signs or deep within their lives for inner peace. 

Some play a form of Bible roulette, flipping through pages of scripture until they find a passage that seems to speak to the situation.  Regardless, almost all of us pray, for God to show us His will.

Certainly discovering God’s will is important for obvious reasons…only the misguided ignore God’s will.  So, here’s the question…If God’s will is so important, why is it so hard to find?  The answer is that it isn’t hard to find.  Most of God’s will is spread out in clear black and white terms.  Perhaps we’re looking for all the wrong things.

In this episode I want to look briefly at a misunderstanding about God’s will in an effort to help us better understand what His will is.

Some have a belief that God has a highly detailed blueprint for our life. They feel that everything is specifically pre-ordained.

There is a problem believing that God has a blueprint. A blueprint is a specific set of instructions that spells everything out in detail.  It is so specific that anyone who can read it will be able to build exactly what the designer had in mind.  So if our view is that God has a blueprint for us then we live in fear rather than to fully enjoy the diversity of God’s world and to experience His love in our lives.

Do we really want a blueprint?  Imagine if God’s will was structured like a blueprint.  Where is the freedom to choose in love to follow God?  What happens if someone not desiring to follow God’s blueprint takes the job, we thought we were destined to have or buys a house we thought God wanted us to have, or marries a person we think God created for us?  Would not man’s free will be just a sham?  There are times where God does have specific and highly detailed plans in mind, but these are the exception rather than the norm.  Certainly, we should seek God’s guidance, especially when faced with major decision or situation.  Perhaps rather than ask for God’s answer, ask instead for God’s wisdom in helping guide us in making the decision.

Another downside of the blueprint belief is it skews our focus.  Rather than focusing on the truly weightier things such as love, godliness, mercy, serving, we focus on things and earthly concerns.  Focusing on blueprint living causes anxiousness and we miss the joys of life.

Here’s a scripture related to this idea.

Matthew 6:31-34 - Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'  For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

 The reality is that God’s plan for us is perhaps better described as a game plan rather than a blue print.  

A game plan is very different than a blueprint.  It doesn’t spell out everything in detail like a blueprint does.  A game plan has general guidelines and principles.  It offers us freedom and flexibility for adjustments as life unfolds.  That does not mean we do as we please.  God’s plan has rules that must be followed.  Just as in a game, If a rule is broken, then a penalty or sanction ensues.  If we ignore God’s plan and seek instead to do only as we want, then we will eventually suffer the consequences. 

It is far better to live by God’s rules.  Not only to avoid God’s eventual punishment, but to also bring peace and order to our life.  Following God’s way helps remove the chaos and stress otherwise found in life.  

I like to use the illustration of a river to explain the value of following God’s game plan.  A river has banks alongside it.  They guide the flow in a general direction while allowing free flow between the banks.  Without the banks you have a swamp or marsh.  

Let’s look at Understanding God’s plan.

God’s plan, or God’s will is easily within reach – all the guidelines and principles are in scripture.  We can know what to do or not do – how to think and live.  

Now, I don’t want you to misunderstand me.  Mastering God’s game plan takes a lifetime of study and application.  But the longer we’re at it the deeper and better our understanding.  And as we seek to understand it, we find ways to follow it.  

In an earlier episode where I talked about that hope is like the dawning of a new day.  I talked about how we move from hope sparked to hope sensed, to hope seen.  As our hope grows, it’s like the dawn of a new day.  In the darkness of hopelessness, like the darkness of night, we have a difficult time making our way forward.  But, like when the sun begins to rise, as we grow in our hope our outlook brightens until finally, as in the brightness of day, we can clearly see our way forward.

We find passages in scripture that speak to this.  For example, 

Proverbs 4:18-19 - But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day. The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble. 

In seeking to master God’s plan we must think as God wants us to think.  We find that in God’s word.  It is hard to know God’s will if we don’t know God’s word.  We must learn what it says.  

Psalm 119:105 speaks to this.  It says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

The apostle Paul speaks to this throughout his letters.  Here are two examples.

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.

Ephesians 5:17-18 - Therefore do not be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is.  And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit. 

God’s game plan seems to be counter-intuitive.
      Loving enemies
      Least to the greatest
      Losing one’s life to gain it.

As we seek to understand God’s will, we must master the basics.  Just as sports have fundamentals, God’s plan has clear black and white commands.

      Obeying his commands
      Living pure lives
      Bearing fruit
      Teaching his word
      Being kind and compassionate 

We doesn’t do us any good to look for God’s will if we are not following God’s game plan. God does not have a blueprint for all of us.  But he does have a game plan with lots of freedom.  Our task is not so much to find something as it is to become someone – A reflection of His image and character no matter where we find ourselves.

There’s much more about God’s will but I hope this information will encourage you to study and find more about what God’s will is.  

I want to leave you with one basic fact about God’s will.  It is God’s will that we first become a disciple of Jesus Christ.  Now the word disciple is what we might call a “churchy word”.  It might be misunderstood.  A disciple in the context of discovering God’s will is someone that becomes follower of Jesus Christ. Jesus himself spoke to this as he was preparing to return to heaven.  He told his apostles to go into all the world and to make disciples of him.  Then they were to baptize them and continue to teach them to obey all that he had commanded.  You can read his words in Matthew 28:18-20.

From that beginning, those seeking to discover and follow God’s word spend a lifetime growing spiritually in God’s truth.  The outcome is a life of peace rather than confusion. Even in times when our hope is challenged, we understand how to move through it and sustain hope.

Friends, thank you for joining me as together we journey to hope.  I trust in some small way we have encouraged you to discover, sustain, or regain hope through this effort.   

I invite you to contact me if you have questions or comments, or if you wish to share with me something you’ve experienced in your journey to hope.  My email is info@ourjourneytohope.com.   

And please, share this podcast with someone whose hope is being challenged.

I look forward to sharing more with you soon.  Again, I'm Dr. Dave Laton, and thank you for listening.  And until our next episode, remember, we give all glory to God our Father.