Finding God’s Will

In seeking to find God’s will, it is important for us to differentiate between four distinctive means of guidance.

1. Special Guidance

By an Angel, dream, vision, voice or supernatural intervention like the donkey speaking. From Scripture we observe that:

(A) Special Guidance was not the normative experience of every believer for the more ordinary decisions of life like whom to marry and what job should I take up

(B) Special Guidance occurred to people who had a special place in the out working of Gods programme. E.g.: Moses, Gideon, Joseph, Mary, Paul, etc.

(C) It came to them while they went about doing their normal routine responsibilities. Moses was shepherding when he saw the burning bush; Gideon was threshing wheat when an angel appeared to him; Joseph was asleep when he had a dream; Paul was on his way to Damascus when he heard a voice. None of them were waiting for Special Guidance. We ought to conclude from these observations that we are to go about fulfilling our God given responsibilities and if we are special in the out working of God’s programme we shall receive special guidance, but we need not wait or seek for special guidance. The ordinary believer is not exhorted nor found to be waiting for special guidance from God.

2. Sovereign Guidance

Take the case of a believer’s child who became seriously ill. Many prayed. The best treatment was given. But the child died. We tell the believer: ‘Even though this is an agonizing experience, accept it as God’s will. We may not understand why He has allowed this to happen, God is a wise and loving God and He has a purpose in everything’. Here, we are referring to God’s sovereign will. It can be defined as God’s secret predetermined plan for everything that happens in the universe (Daniel 4:35; Proverbs 21:1). It is hidden and the believer cannot know it in advance. It can be discovered only after it happens. Believers cannot miss it because it always comes to pass (Romans 9:19). God guides through His full control over all events. In all decisions believers should humbly submit in advance (James 4:14,15) to the out working of God’s sovereign will as it touches each decision.

3. The Moral Will of God

This refers to the revealed commandments in the Bible that teach how we ought to believe and live. E.g.: Romans 2:18; 1 Thess. 5:18; 4:3. If a believer asks, ‘Is it Gods will for me to marry a non-believer?’ the moral will of God is clearly revealed in 2 Cor. 6: 14. All one has to do is to obey it.

4. Wisdom

Once all applicable Biblical principles are brought to bear on the decision to narrow down the possibilities, if options yet remain, one is free to choose on the basis of expedience and preference. E.g.: 1 Cor.7:39. When the God of abundance wants us to enjoy the freedom that He has granted, the insistence upon only one correct choice generates anxiety over missing God’s will rather than the release and gratitude for more than one fine opportunity to choose. We must apply acquired wisdom and careful research to make the best possible choice from among the options available and own the responsibility for the decisions taken. Apostolic use of making such wise decisions is evident in the following passages: 1 Thess. 3: 1,2; Philippians 2:25,26; 1 Corinthians 16:3,4; Acts 6 2; Acts 15:6,25,26.

Traditional Methods

Having outlined the Biblical method of finding God’s will it is now necessary to mention some traditional methods used to ‘discover God’s will’ and their drawbacks.

1. Flip and Point Verses

A believer was in love and wanted to marry a non-believer girl whose name happened to be Nama Karunakaran. He diligently prayed for guidance and searched the Scriptures. He found ‘clear guidance’ in his Malayalam Bible in Psalms 23:6 where the words ‘Nama’ and ‘Karuna’ are found as ‘Goodness’ and ‘Mercy’.

2. Circumstances

Circumstances only define the context of the decision. Often Biblical convictions will lead us against the course of circumstances. E.g.: Acts 20:22-24.

3. Open/Closed Doors

Paul once walked away from an open door (2 Cor. 2: 12,13) and at another time tried again and again to open a closed door (Rom.1:10-13).

4. Peace of God

Colossians 3:15 is sometimes considered to be God’s stamp of approval and its absence, God’s red flag of warning. Exegetically, Colossians 3:15 refers to peace with one another and this passage has nothing to do with finding God’s will. Experientially, all major decisions in life entail responsibilities and result in consequences. Hence a lack of peace is normal when one faces a major turning point in life. Jesus Christ’s agony and prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane is an example for this.

5. Promptings of the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit did not take hundreds of years to produce the Bible only to by-pass it. The two references to being ‘led by the Spirit’ (Romans 8:14; Galatians 5:18) have nothing to do with guidance and decision-making. The context of both references (Romans 8:13; Galatians 5:17) is sanctification – the process of walking in righteousness. Most often these promptings turn out to be nothing more than following one’s own subjective wishes/feelings and desires (which so often are untrustworthy).

Conclusion

In moral and wisdom guidance, we are responsible to discover and obey God’s will; where as in special guidance and sovereign guidance, God is responsible. In order to free ourselves from the agony of prayerfully using our heads in a Biblical manner to make a responsible choice/decision, we resort to easy methods such as letting circumstances dictate decisions, using open/closed doors or flip and point verses, depending on our subjective feelings, spreading the fleece, etc. These are methods of ‘discovering God’s will’ because they all have one thing in common – we don’t have to think and we can hold God responsible for our choices. The Biblical methods require work - Bible study coupled with thinking and owning responsibility for one’s own choices.

In the final analysis, all wrong methods of discovering God’s will turn out to be nothing more than following one’s own subjective wishes/feeling/desires or a matter of being led by the will of another human being, while the believer goes about justifying his/her unwise decision on the pretext that ‘God led him/her.’

Remain in My Love

Letter from Your Heavenly Father

My dear Child,

I just wanted to remind you today of how precious you are to me

because there is a father of lies who will try to deceive you.

He will try to tell you that you are not good enough,

not attractive enough, not thin enough, not strong enough,

not smart enough, not righteous enough,

and that you are simply unimportant to Me.

He will try to tell you that you have broken too many promises,

that you have fallen too many times,

that you have lived too many lies, and
that you've been going in the wrong direction so long

that it is pointless for you to turn back now.

But guess what?

YOU DO NOT BELONG TO HIM.

HE IS NOT YOUR father.

I AM.

You see, you are My creation. My workmanship.

You have been borne of My thought,

every part of you was placed together by My hands.

You have My thumbprint upon you.
You are My child, the child of THE King!

And you, my child bear My image.
I look at you and see a precious, priceless pearl.
There is no price I would not pay to have you

and to be with you and call you my own.

And you know… I already have paid that price

I have done all that I could,

to ensure that no power in can separate you from My love,

not even YOU…
I actually am with you every moment of every day.
If only you would sense my presence more often.

Oh, how I long for you to talk to Me as we go about it all.

My love for you never grows cold.
My promises are never broken

(contrary to what the father of lies might lead you to believe).
I have loved you with an eternal love and

My character never changes.
I love you dearly, unconditionally and completely.
I understand every emotion that you have.

I've been there.

I count every tear that you cry.
I know every hair on your head.
And do you know what?

I even know your weaknesses and your failures and your fears.

I know those hidden parts of you that you wish would go away.

Those dark corners of your world that you stuff deep down,

praying that no one will ever see.

I have already seen them and they will not change My love for you.

Nothing will.

Despite all that sin has wrought in you,

You are still so beautiful and holy to me, because

I see My SON in you

I love your heart and I desire ALL of it.
You can’t even try to measure My love for you, dear…

There is nothing that you can do to prove that you are My Child

You already ARE...

Remain in My LOVE

YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER

My Identity In Christ

In Jesus Christ

I am fully accepted by my Heavenly Father.
He is my God. I am His child.
That is my identity and that is enough for me.
Basking in the acceptance I enjoy in God,
I have no need:

• to seek for acceptance from others
• to strive for status in society
• to compete with others
• to compare myself
• to please others
• to prove myself
• to be perfect
• to be strong
• to try hard
• to rush

As I free myself from these
Compulsions/drives, I become
FREE TO DO WHAT GOD WANTS ME TO DO

That is true freedom!

I have no need to wear a mask
Or put up a facade. Instead, I can be true:
(1) to myself (2) to others (3) to God

• in the words I speak
• in the emotions I express

I have no need to be in a hurry,
For He makes all things beautiful in His time.
I have no need to be restlessly BUSY
(Being Under Satan’s Yoke)

Instead I can effortlessly yield myself to be
Under the light yoke of my Lord Jesus Christ
And to learn from Him the manner in which
He went about accomplishing
His God given tasks, each in its right time
Without any hurry and leaving nothing that
God wanted Him to do, undone.
I have enough time to do GODS WILL for me,
in this pilgrimage called life.

My God has called me to be faithful
And not necessarily successful.

It is God who works in and through me
Both to will and to do His good pleasure.
He will perfect that which concerns me.
Be still, O my soul and know that
My God is in full and complete control
Nothing happens to me without first having been
filtered by my Heavenly Fathers loving hands.

Cease from striving…

REST IN HIM, O MY SOUL

I am an Unfinished Work

(With inputs from lyrics by Joel Hemphill, John Newton and Charlotte Elliot)

He’s still working on me to make me what I ought to be!

There ought to be a sign board across my heart

That says I AM AN UNFINISHED WORK

But He has promised not to give up on me

And one day I will be perfected, just according to His plan!

Until that glorious day comes, on the one hand,

I myself with my mind serve the law of God,

On the other hand, with my flesh I serve the law of sin (Romans 7:25)

Amazing GRACE that saved a wretch like me

I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.

Just as I first came to Him, I cannot but come JUST AS I AM

Without one plea, but that His blood was shed for me

And He still bidst me…COME, YE WHO ARE WEARY

And reminds me that there is now NO CONDEMNATION

For those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1)

On that glorious day, when I shall leave this body

And He my spirit receive, I want to be found in Him,

Not having my own righteousness, which is from the law

But having the righteousness of God, which is by faith through Christ Jesus.

For it is not by the will of the flesh nor by the will of man, but of God.

(Philippians 3:9, John 1:13)

What does the LORD require of me, except that I do justly,

love mercy and walk humbly with my God? (Micah 6:8)

What does the LORD expect of me, but that I should bask in His Love for me

For He well knows that I am an UNFINISHED work

Covered by the work which He declared on the cross: ‘IT IS FINISHED’

(John 19:30)

Freedom

What is true freedom?

Freedom does not mean that we have the right to do anything.
Freedom is the ability to do what God wants us to do.

How can we become free?

Jesus Christ said: The Truth shall make you free

• I am the truth: As we grow in our personal commitment to Jesus Christ we become authentically free people.

• Thy Word is Truth: As we replace false notions in our mind and fill our minds with the truth we become authentically free people.

Realms of Freedom

In our relationship with God:

1. We can come to the throne of grace with great confidence because there is nothing that you can do to make God love you more and nothing that you can do to make God love you less.

In our relationship with others:

2. Freedom form the compulsion to please others
We are called to please God – in the process we may please some people and displease others.

3. Freedom from the need to control or manipulate others: Remember there is only one person in the world you can change – none other than your own self.

4. Freedom from the need to compete with others: Our race is not with others – our race is with our former selves – to become incrementally better than what we were before.

5. Freedom to say ‘NO’ to friends when they suggest wrong things or to ensure that the most important things in life are done.

In our relationship with one self:

6. Freedom form the compulsion to be perfect

7. Freedom from child hood injunctions: E.g. freedom to express emotions

8. Freedom form false expectations about life and reality
E.g.: expectation for a perfect world in the midst of fallen world effects.

9. Freedom from bad/wrong habits

Bad habits cannot be erased but can be replaced by good habits. One must apply so much attention to the good habits that one desires to install so that the bad habits slowly goes away like an unwelcome guest. Habits normally take 21 days to install.

10. Freedom form the much trodden path

We need to move out of our comfort zone and take a few risks to discover our own gifts. Our ultimate goal is to become all that our God given potential and the providence of God permit us to become.

11. Freedom in our thoughts:

Rom 12:1,2
Our mind is like a garden. We must nurture it.
Sow a thought – reap an action; sow an action – reap a habit; sow a habit reap a character; sow a character reap a destiny

12. Freedom from our past

Nothing is wasted in Gods economy. Every thing that happens to us is for our benefit – our learning. We may have made mistakes in the past. We must learn from them.
- The wise learn from others mistakes.
- The ordinary learn form their own mistakes
- The fool never learns

13. Freedom from anxieties regarding the future

14. Freedom form the bindings of tradition – some traditions go against the Scriptures. Mark 7:8,9

15. Freedom from the tyranny of our own self centeredness: Rom 7:15 to 8:1