After introducing the topic of God’s will here and here, I would like to now do a series of posts that provide practical guiding principles in seeking and discerning the will of God.
If we are going to know and understand the will of God for our lives, where do we start? Like any journey there is a starting point. The starting point for knowing and understanding God’s will is crucial. Without it, it is impossible to do what God requires of you. So then, where do we start?
We need to recognize that without God’s saving grace in our lives were are off to a bad start. If we don’t know God, we have no business in trying to know His will for our lives. Before you even worry about who you will marry or what you will do for work, you need to be concerned with the eternal destiny of your soul. That is the first thing you need to be concerned with when it comes to seeking God’s will.
If you have been saved by God’s grace, God has granted you the Holy Spirit to dwell within you (Rom. 8:9, 11; 1 Cor. 6:19; 2 Tim. 1:14). He then becomes the One who enables you to love and obey the will of God. Without Christ, you had no genuine desire to obey God’s will, and certainly had no capacity to obey Him. But the Christian has the Holy Spirit dwelling within them. For this reason Paul wrote, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God” (1 Cor. 2:12). We know and understand what God has said because we have the Holy Spirit within us.
Without God’s gift of salvation we are unable to desire or even keep His commandments. So if we are going to know and understand His will for our lives, we first need to receive salvation, and be granted Divine enabling for godly living. If you are not a Christian, you cannot desire to know God’s will for your life, regardless of how hard you try. In addition to that, you don’t even have the capacity to obey God’s revealed will. You are His enemy, so the most important thing you need to think about is your condition before God. You need to stand before Him, and recognize that you have broken His law, and you are deserving of His just judgment for all eternity. You need to come before Him, with nothing in your hand (no self-achievement or self-worth), and embrace Jesus Christ as your Lord, knowing that only by means of His life and death may you be granted salvation. Upon genuine faith in Christ, you shall be saved and are granted by God the Father, the indwelling Holy Spirit, who will enable you to live a life to the glory of God.
When God saves you, He creates in you a new disposition, desire and direction. All of these cause us to long to know God and His will for your life. So then, salvation is the crucial starting point to knowing and understanding the will of God for your life. For by it, you for the first time will share the same desire as the Psalmist, “O how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day” (Psalm 119:97). If you are going to discern and seek His will you need to be saved.
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