In today’s video I want to talk about the will of God. On Wednesday night I was preaching from Romans chapter 8, which talks about the will of God, and our Wednesday night handout that night was simply on the Word of God. I was reflecting on thoughts from the book Why Believe the Bible? by John MacArthur, a strong proponent of the Scriptures, and I appreciated one chapter in particular about the Word of God bringing us to the will of God. So I wrote out some thoughts in the announcement sheet. If you are new here, my name is Ryan Rench, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Temecula, California. As we have been going through the Romans series, the announcement sheet that night said “S words”; not swords, but S words. I will get to the S words in a little bit; they are on the next page, below.
Filters for Finding God’s Will
First, a format I have used in trying to help people find the will of God, back when I was a youth pastor helping young people find the will of God (though that terminology is not exactly found in Scripture). When we talk about the will of God, one of the filters I used and tried to teach people to use was, first of all: is whatever you want to do breaking the Word of God? That is the first filter. Is the Bible against it? Then obviously God is against it. God will never go against His Word. I think 1 Corinthians 12 talks about that in its opening passage, where some would say Jesus is accursed, and the Apostle Paul says, no, Jesus is Lord: “Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” Just because you say the Holy Spirit told you something does not make it so. People will say, “Well, God told me this.” No; if it goes against the Bible, it is not the will of God. You can automatically rule it out: if it is not in keeping with the Word of God, it is certainly not the will of God. Psalm 119:105 speaks to that: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” And Isaiah 8:20: “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” So that is the first filter: what about the Word of God?
A second filter in seeking the will of God would be prayer. Have you sought the Lord in prayer? “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” In Proverbs 3:5-6, we are not leaning on our own understanding; we are trusting in His understanding: “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” So bathe everything in prayer. Seek the Lord’s will and the Lord’s guidance by praying about it and seeing what God would do. Another filter you can use in determining the will of God is counsel. Have you sought godly counsel about this decision? There are many others in your life who are godly and can give pastoral advice or life experience. Proverbs 11:14 and Proverbs 15:22 talk about counselors: “Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.” “Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established.” But the Scriptures themselves are the greatest counselor, so again, it often comes back to the Word of God to find the will of God.
Another principle I have often used is wisdom, another filter for asking, “Is this the will of God for my life?” There is a whole book about wisdom, and it simply asks, “Is this the wise thing to do?” Replace yourself with the wisest person you know, put them in your situation, and ask, “Is this what a wise person would do?” If this person were in my shoes, if the wisest mom I know were parenting her kids, what decision would she make? What about the wisest dad I know; what decision would he make with his son? The wisest pastor I know, the wisest saint in our church, what would they do in this situation? So there is a wisdom-based decision-making process, and some have written entire books about it, and I think it is a pretty good system. I am not sure Adam had a specific will of God for every decision he made. He was given a set of parameters. He was given boundaries around the Garden of Eden. He was told not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; that was his limitation. But once he knew the boundaries and limitations, anywhere within that box was the will of God for him, to dress and to keep the garden. So all his decisions throughout the day would have been within the will of God. I do not believe he would have been breaking the will of God by trimming a tree rather than a bush, that kind of thing. I do not think we should be paralyzed by indecision, wondering whether we are following or doing the will of God. No, I think wisdom-based decisions play a great part in that.
Another filter would be to ask yourself, “Have I been delighting in God?” Psalm 37:4-5 talks about delighting in God: “Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.” He will put the right kinds of desires in your heart. If you have been living in sin, your appetites are shaped by sin. Your desires are shaped by sin and the flesh, and that is informing your heart and your volition, your will. If you are surrounded by the world, the flesh, and the devil, then of course your desires and cravings are going to be toward the world, the flesh, and the devil, and that is not the best time to make godly decisions. So if you are asking, “Is this the will of God?” well, likely not, if you have been living in the world for so long and have not been delighting in God. Once you delight in God, He will put the right kinds of desires in you.
Another filter to run your life through is open doors, what the Apostle Paul calls “a great door and effectual” opened unto him in 1 Corinthians: “For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries.” So many people base all their decisions on circumstances, putting out a fleece and testing God and all that, and I do not think that is a healthy Christian way of seeking the Lord’s will. But I do believe God uses circumstances in our lives, and there may be an open door, an opportunity, where your heart and desires align with what God seems to be opening to you. I was just talking with a college student about this recently. There were two internship opportunities, both good places with godly men, both good opportunities for him to learn and grow. But he leaned more toward one of them and kind of wanted to go there, and it was almost like, “Am I bad for going the direction I want to go? It is probably selfish of me, right? Does God want me to be miserable? Am I not allowed to be happy in life?” Well, no. Do circumstances seem to be presenting themselves to you? Does God seem to be opening some doors? Or in some areas, did you try to go down a certain route, only to have those doors close? So open doors would be one way to filter through that. But again, I am always going to start and finish with the Word of God. Go back to the Bible and make sure you are in line with Scripture’s commands and principles, the statutes and judgments of God. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 talks about that: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” And Psalm 119:24: “Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counsellors.” So that is the filter I have used in trying to help people discern the will of God for their lives.
Six S Words
What I appreciated about this book, Why Believe the Bible?, is that John MacArthur took every instance of the phrase “the will of God” and went to the Scriptures: what do the Scriptures themselves say about the will of God? He came up with six S words related to the Scriptures that talk about the will of God, and we cover those six points on the inside here. The first is saved. God’s will is that you be saved. “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” So if you are wondering what the will of God is for your life, well, if you are not saved, you need to trust Christ and seek His forgiveness for your sin, and you can be saved today. You can receive eternal life, everlasting life, through faith in Jesus Christ today, and that is the Lord’s will for your life.
The next S word is Spirit-filled. God’s will is that you walk under the control of the Holy Spirit. “Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.” The verse right before verse 18 talks about understanding what the will of the Lord is, so the will of the Lord is for us to be filled with the Spirit. He goes into much more detail on what it means to be filled with the Spirit and to follow after the Spirit, but that is the will of God. If you are seeking the will of God, be saved and be filled with the Spirit. Be totally yielded to the Holy Spirit. As yielded as a drunk is to alcohol, we ought to be totally yielded to the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Number three, the next S word, is sanctified. God’s will is your holiness and purity. I was going over this passage with somebody just this week; we went right through 1 Thessalonians 4, and the Bible says in verse 3, “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication.” It goes on to talk about sexual purity: we are not to be given over to our appetites and defraud one another, and we are to abstain from fornication. That is the will of God. So if you are wondering, “What is the will of God for my life?” it is certainly not to be sleeping with your girlfriend or boyfriend, and it is certainly not to be promiscuous. No, God is against all of that.
Number four: the will of God is that we be submissive. God’s will is that believers live in humble submission to rightful authority. 1 Peter 2:13-15 says, “Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.” That submissive spirit is the will of God. So: saved, Spirit-filled, sanctified, submissive. And perhaps the will of God for you includes suffering. Some of you might be suffering in the name of Jesus Christ, and God’s will may include that for you. 1 Peter 3:17: “For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.” It may be that the will of God for you is to suffer, maybe a personal ailment drawing you closer to Jesus Christ, maybe suffering for the name of Jesus in the evangelism you are doing. But suffering is part of the will of God. And the last thing he says here is saying thanks. God’s will is thankful living. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” That is the will of God. Other verses in Scripture talk about the will of God: when you pray in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will help you pray according to God’s will, and that is what we were talking about from Romans 8 on Wednesday night.
God is not trying to hide His will. He is not trying to make it a secret. He has revealed it. This is the revelation of God, His thoughts to you. It is not some treasure you have to hunt and search for, which maybe one day you will find at the bottom of the ocean. No, His will is found in obedience to His Word. I have often put it like this: you are in God’s will when you obey God’s Word. I think that is a good phrase to live by. You are in God’s will when you obey God’s Word. So seek to obey the Word of God, and I believe He will guide you in the right paths. God bless you. That is just a simple thought for us in this week’s video. We will see you in the next video.
