{"id":31960,"date":"2022-09-10T15:50:47","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:50:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/5-questions-to-discern-gods-will\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T15:50:47","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:50:47","slug":"5-questions-to-discern-gods-will","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/5-questions-to-discern-gods-will\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Questions to Discern God\u2019s Will"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By Juan Sanchez<\/em><\/p>\n

Many people come to their pastor asking for help finding \u201cGod\u2019s will.\u201d Some ask out of a genuine desire to please God, while others ask out of fear of missing out.<\/p>\n

The problem with talking about \u201cfinding\u201d God\u2019s will is that it assumes God is hiding it and that it\u2019s up to us to find it. And when we work out of the distorted view that it\u2019s up to us to find God\u2019s will for our lives, we try to divine it in odd, unhelpful, even ungodly ways\u2014from goosebumps to Magic 8-balls, fortune tellers to horoscopes, random Bible verses to coincidental occurrences.<\/p>\n

To understand God\u2019s will, we must first have a biblical view of God. To truly help our people, then, remind them God has an eternal plan for His glory and our joy. And because God is sovereign, He\u2019ll accomplish all His holy will (Isaiah 48:8-11).<\/p>\n

But God isn\u2019t only sovereign; God is also good. For this reason, we don\u2019t have to fear what God wills for us. And thankfully, God has revealed His plan and purposes\u2014His will\u2014by His Word (Deuteronomy 29:29). We\u2019re not in the dark about what God desires.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

So, to know and do God\u2019s will, lead your people to ask the following five questions, which I\u2019ve adapted from Bruce Waltke\u2019s book, Finding the Will of God: A Pagan Notion?<\/em><\/p>\n

1. What does the Bible say?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Because God has revealed His will in his Word, the first question we want to lead a person to ask is, \u201cIs what I\u2019m contemplating biblical?\u201d We need to encourage those who come to us for counsel to read their Bibles and meditate on God\u2019s Word.<\/p>\n

One of the reasons so many professing Christians have a hard time discerning God\u2019s will is that they\u2019re biblically illiterate. So, encourage your people to read Scripture and show them how to read\u2014not flipping through the Bible to find a matching verse, but reading it in its appropriate contexts.<\/p>\n

And as you seek to discern God\u2019s will from Scripture, pray the Scriptures. They are, after all, God\u2019s Word.<\/p>\n

2. Do you have a heart for God?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

As we draw near to God, He draws near to us, and His desires become our desires (Psalm 34:7). As our desires align with God\u2019s, our good desires will be godly desires.<\/p>\n

Why do we think God\u2019s will for us must be something undesirable? Encourage those who come to you for counsel to seek to please God, first and foremost rooting their pursuit to please God in Scripture and steeping it in prayer.<\/p>\n

3. What <\/strong>are mature, wise, godly counselors saying?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

We\u2019re not meant to live the Christian life alone. Instead, we\u2019re to bear one another\u2019s burdens and encourage one another. We\u2019re to speak the truth in love to one another.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
See also  The Power of the Ordinary Moments<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

So, encourage people to seek godly, wise, mature counselors. Many of us will try to find \u201ccounselors\u201d who already agree with us. We must fight that temptation and find counselors who truly love us and are willing to tell us what we need to hear, especially when we need to hear hard truths.<\/p>\n

4. Do you see God’s providential hand at work?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Notice this is question four, not question one. Too often, we look for \u201copen doors\u201d and \u201cclosed windows\u201d and make decisions accordingly. But what we want to do is lead people to root their decisions in the objective truth of God\u2019s Word and the wise counsel of mature believers.<\/p>\n

We want to be grounded when God, in His kind providence, opens a door, or two, or three. And we want to encourage people when God closes a door, perhaps, even when He slams it in front of us.<\/p>\n

5. What is the wisest course of action?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Some people get overwhelmed by the many opportunities before them, particularly when the opportunities are all good and when counselors are giving the green light.<\/p>\n

We need to remember\u2014and help our people remember\u2014that if what\u2019s before us is not contrary to Scripture, if we\u2019re pursuing God and walking in the Spirit, if mature, godly friends are encouraging us, and if any number of decisions will please the Lord, then we just need to make a decision.<\/p>\n

Having asked questions 1-4, we finally come to the question of prudence. Will this be wise?<\/em><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, we like to complicate matters. God has a plan for His glory and our good. God will accomplish all He\u2019s willed to do. Because He\u2019s revealed His overarching plan in Scripture, we can know God\u2019s will.<\/p>\n

As we renew our minds, testing everything according to Scripture, seeking the guidance of those who love us, and trusting in Christ for all we need, we may discern God\u2019s will, \u201cwhat is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God\u201d (Romans 12:2).<\/p>\n

Juan R. Sanchez (@manorjuan)<\/strong> is husband to Jeanine, father to five daughters, senior pastor of High Pointe Baptist Church, Austin, Texas, and author of Seven Dangers Facing Your Church.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
Dig Deeper at Lifeway.com<\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n

Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God’s Will<\/h2>\n

Kevin DeYoung<\/p>\n

FIND OUT MORE <\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Related posts:<\/h3>\n
What Do Pastors Believe About the End Times? What Do Pastors Believe About the Book of Revelation? 3 Ways to Reach Non-Religious People in Your Community <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Juan Sanchez Many people come to their pastor asking for help finding \u201cGod\u2019s will.\u201d Some ask out of a genuine desire to please God, while others ask out of fear of missing out. The problem with talking about \u201cfinding\u201d God\u2019s will is that it assumes God is hiding it and that it\u2019s up to … Continue reading “5 Questions to Discern God\u2019s Will”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31960\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}