Knowing God's Will for your Life - P1

God's will is not a game of "hot and cold"Do you remember the game you used to play as a kid called: "Hot and Cold"? It was a game where you would have to find a person or an object in a room. Depending upon your proximity to that hidden person or object, another individual would cry out the words "hot" or "cold" or the in-between phrases: "you're getting hotter" or "you're getting warmer".

Unfortunately many Christians conceive of God's will in this fashion. Many operate under the assumption that God is playing a cruel game of "hot and cold" with Christians, and that the will of God is a lost item, needing to be found. In today's blog, and over the course of the next few blogs, we will be aiming to encourage you as a Christian that it is not only possible, but certain that you can operate knowing what God's will is for your life.

Why Christians are so concerned about "God's will for their lives"Whenever we engage in discussions about the will of God, people immediately sense that there are areas of responsibility. At what points am I responsible to God for certain areas and what areas does God not hold me responsible? So many Christians approach the will of God with more fear than faith. God is the only One whom I'm to fear. Whenever we are operating with God's will, we are to fear Him, that is, we are to live our lives in such a way as to not have broken fellowship and intimacy with Him. It is in the midst of our circumstances that we are to proceed in faith (2 Corinthians 5:7).

God's Unrevealed and Revealed WillIf I were to point a believer to one passage in God's word which speaks to guiding them in the area of God's will, and their level of responsibility, I would refer them to Deuteronomy 29:29. Moses writes there: "The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law."

Two of the most fundamental aspects of God's will are described here: namely His Unrevealed and Revealed will. Clearly His revealed will entails areas that only man can know form the Bible. His unrevealed will cannot be ever discovered by human beings. The revealed will of God is that which is meant to be known, discovered and lived. Notice where the revealed will of God is discovered here in this passage: "that we may do all the words of this law."

So then whatever God has revealed to me in His word, that is what I am responsible to do. Proverbs 25:2 states: "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter." According to Ephesians 2:6, the Christian is seated positionally with Christ in the heavenly realms, thus making him or her a person that operates with delegated authority from Jesus Christ. It is within the realm of God's revealed will that I operate and proceed.

This we know - there is no conflict within God's willEven though there are aspects of God will that may be unrevealed, we do know this: that if God can be trusted in the areas He has revealed (the scriptures, illumination from the scriptures), then He can also be trusted in the areas He has not revealed (details about the future for example). The Bible tells us in passages such as Psalm 136:1- "O Give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good: for His mercy endureth forever." Because God is a Good God, I can trust Him, in both the areas I know, as well as the unknown.

Therefore this gives us an absolute foundation for the Christian's journey of operating in God's will. More lessons will follow as we begin to understand the distinctions that exist within His will that will aid us in attaining greater confidence towards knowing and doing His will.