How to Know God’s Will

Introduction

If you are a follower of Jesus, you undoubtedly want to discover and walk in God’s will for your life. Sometimes, however, God’s will can feel elusive, especially when we’re talking about questions that are uniquely specific to us—things like job and career choices, whom to marry, and what our plans should be for the summer. We want to have moments like the characters in the Bible, where a voice speaks or an angel appears and reveals God’s will, or like Gideon, who received answers through a fleece. For many of us, that is not our experience of walking with God. However, you can still know God’s will for your life. In this article, we will discuss some simple ways you can begin to discover God’s will for your life, as well as some things we already know God wants for you.

1. Pray (Knock, Ask, Seek)

One of the first ways to ensure that you can know God’s will is to pray. God is eager to show you His direction for your life. In Matthew 7, at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says that if we seek, knock, and ask, the answer will be given to us: "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened" (Matthew 7:7-8, ESV). If you want to know God’s will for your life, begin with the regular habit of prayer. When you pray, ask God to reveal His will for your life, and then in prayer, surrender your life to His plans. You will be surprised how often God will lead you in the direction you should go.

2. Walk with the Wise

Another way to discern God’s will for your life is to build relationships with people who are walking in God’s will. The Bible says, "Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm" (Proverbs 13:20, ESV). The reality is we become like those we spend time with. If you want to be someone who walks in God’s will for your life, begin to build relationships and spend time with those who follow God’s will for their lives. You will become like them.

3. The Scriptures

Another way to discern God’s will for your life is to read the Scriptures. Often, when we think about learning God’s will for our life, we think about it in very specific, personal terms: whom to marry, where to live, how many kids to have, what career to pursue, and which city to live in. All of those things are important. However, in the Scriptures, God has already revealed much of His will for your life. The remainder of this article will look at several different instances of God’s revealed will for you. These represent God’s revealed will for your life. You don’t have to pray for God to reveal these things to you; He has already revealed them in His Word. Open the Scriptures, uncover God’s revealed will, and begin obeying that. As you do, you will discover God leading you in other areas of your life as well.

4. Love God

God’s will for your life is that you love Him. When Jesus was asked what the most important commandment was, He said, "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength" (Mark 12:30, ESV). This means we are to love God with our whole person. That is God’s will for your life no matter where you find yourself or what you’re doing. You are to do it as an act of love toward your Heavenly Father. Loving God is God’s will for your life, and He has already revealed it in the Scriptures.

5. Become Like Christ

God’s will for your life is that you become like Christ. In theological terms, this is your sanctification. This means that in everything, God is at work in you to transform your character so that you become more like Jesus. In every aspect of life—the way you live, the way you love, what you value, how you treat people—you should be thinking and living as Jesus would. God will use everything in your life, both the good and the tough, to help shape you into someone who is more and more like Jesus. That is God’s will for your life, and He has already revealed it in the Scriptures: "For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers" (Romans 8:29, ESV).

6. Love People

God’s will for your life is that you love others the way Christ has loved you. When Jesus was asked what the most important commandment was, He said there are two: love God, which we already discussed, and love your neighbor as yourself. "And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:39, ESV). When Jesus was hours away from His betrayal, arrest, and crucifixion, He gave His disciples a new commandment: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another" (John 13:34, ESV). This means that for the rest of your life, every person you encounter, you are to figure out how to love them with a selfless, sacrificial, Jesus-imitating kind of love. That is God’s will for your life, and He has already revealed it in the Scriptures.

7. Join Jesus’ Mission

God’s will for your life is that you participate in the mission of Jesus in the world. When Jesus walked the planet, if you would have asked Him why He was here, He would have said things like, "Even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28, ESV). Jesus also said, "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost" (Luke 19:10, ESV). He proclaimed, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed" (Luke 4:18, ESV). Jesus came to earth with a mission to restore humanity’s broken relationship with God. After Jesus gave His life on the cross and rose from the dead, He ascended to heaven, but before He ascended, He handed that mission to the Church: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:19-20, ESV). If you are a follower of Jesus, that includes you. It is God’s revealed will for your life that you participate in Jesus’ mission to rescue the lost world. You have a part to play in that, whether it’s sharing with your neighbor, supporting the work of your local church, helping out with Vacation Bible School, or a hundred other things. Find your part and play it. This is God’s will for your life, and He has already revealed it to you in His Word.

Closing

It is possible to know God’s will for your life. If you begin with prayer, asking God to reveal His will for you, if you do life with people who follow God’s will, and if you read the Scriptures and obey what God has already revealed about His will, you will be surprised how often God will lead you, sometimes without you even realizing it. God’s plans for you are good, and He has good things for you to do: "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10, ESV).

I'm Cheering for You!

Pastor Chris