Knowing God's Will In Decisions

Many believers find it difficult to find God's will in making their decisions. Some try a ministry or service that interests them and if it fails, they try something else, and if that fails, they keep on trying until they either find something that is successful or they give up. But a Christian should not have to go through such a painful exhaustive process.

As a Christian you are constantly faced with many choices. You must know and be doing God's will before you can make the best choices and avoid the many pit falls that can destroy your life. God wants to reveal His will to you more then you are willing to receive it. God knows you in a very intimate way. He has numbered all the hairs on your head. He knows all your actions and what you are doing every second of the day. He knows the motives behind your actions, your secret thoughts and your future. Since only God has all knowledge and knows the future, He is the only one who can give you the correct advice in making your decisions.

God wants you to be successful, but success must be based on His methods, not your desires or the world's methods or philosophy. Therefore, the first basic decision is to determine the motive for your life. Is your motive to be independent of God, gain self-honor, and be successful by the world's standards? God will not bless a ministry based on these motives. You may start a ministry, dedicate it to God, claim that God is the head of the ministry and yet fail because it was not in God's will.

God loves you and always wants what is best for you. You MUST accept this by faith! If you have the faith to believe that God truly wants you to succeed and have what is best for you, then your actions will show that you believe God's choices are best. In order to learn God's will you must have a close intimate relationship with Him.

You will learn God's will from the Bible, from the prompting of the Holy Spirit, and from the doors He opens and shuts. But great care must be used, for Satan uses the Bible for his own purposes. He will speak to you in temptations trying to get you to disobey God. And Satan can arrange circumstances which will lead you in the wrong direction.

To know God's will requires Bible study, lots of prayer, and patience in waiting on God to open closed doors. God is more than willing to guide you in making decisions. All you need to do is be willing to be guided.

Ask these questions when starting a ministry or service:
   * Have I dedicated my life, time, and possessions to God?
   * Is this ministry based on Biblical principles?
   * Does it meet a need?
   * What is my motive in this ministry?
   * Am I checking with God about every aspect of the ministry?
      The name
      The people associated with it
      The publicity and promotion methods
      The organization - who is in charge?
      Financing
      Is God's name honored in this ministry?
      Is this ministry God's will for me?

"Show me your ways, Yahweh. Teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation, I wait for you all day long." Psalm 25:4,5
"He will guide the humble in justice. He will teach the humble his way. All the paths of Yahweh are loving kindness and truth to such as keep his covenant and his testimonies." Psalm 25:9,10.
"Nevertheless, I am continually with you. You have held my right hand. You will guide me with your counsel, And afterward receive me to glory. Who do I have in heaven? There is no one on earth who I desire besides you." Psalm 73:23-25.

Claim the promises God made to Israel:
"And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, 'This is the way, walk you in it;' when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left." Isaiah 30:21
"...I am Yahweh your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way that you should go." Isaiah 48:17

Everyone who truly desires to know and follow God's leading will at times fail to heed His guidance and get into trouble. God is faithful to rescue us and get us back on the right way. Although after a serious failure we can return to a close fellowship with God, the consequences can have a serious effect on our future life. Therefore, we must always be very careful to be aware of God's leading.

The plans of the heart belong to man,
But the answer of the tongue is from Yahweh.
All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes;
But Yahweh weighs the motives.
Commit your deeds to Yahweh,
And your plans shall succeed.
Yahweh has made everything for its own end --
Yes, even the wicked for the day of evil.
The lot is cast into the lap,
But its every decision is from Yahweh.
Proverbs 16:1-4, 33.

Listen to counsel and receive instruction,
That you may be wise in your latter end.
There are many plans in a man's heart,
But Yahweh's counsel will prevail.
Proverbs 19:20,21.

"Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow let's go into this city, and spend a year there, and trade, and get gain." Whereas you don't know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away. For you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that." But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil. To him therefore who knows to do good, and doesn't do it, to him it is sin." James 4:13-17.

Watchman Nee in his book, Let Us Pray, wrote, "Prayer is the union of the believer's thought with the will of God. The prayer which a believer utters on earth is but the voicing of the Lord's will in heaven. Prayer is not the expressing of our wish for God to yield to our petition and fill up our selfish desire. It is not a forcing of the Lord to change His will and perform what He is unwilling to do. No, prayer is simply speaking out the will of God through the mouth of the believer. Before God, the believer asks in prayer for the Lord's will to be done.

Prayer does not alter that which God has determined. It never changes anything; it merely achieves what He has already foreordained. Prayerlessness, though, does effect a change, because God will let many of His resolutions go suspended due to the lack from His people of prayerful cooperation with Him." Let Us Pray, pages 3, 4.

"Most assuredly I tell you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these will he do; because I am going to my Father. Whatever you will ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you will ask anything in my name, I will do it." John 14:12-14.

"If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you will ask whatever you desire, and it will be done for you. "In this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; and so you will be my disciples." John 15:7,8

"You didn't choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you will ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you. "I command these things to you, that you may love one another." John 15:16,17.

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. Let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach; and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed. For let that man not think that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways." James 1:2-8:

Watchman Nee puts it very well, "No master has so many servants as our Master, and for each he has a suitable employment. Even the little maid was at hand to testify to Naaman in his need. Many of us murmur against the position God has given us. We want to do this, but God puts us into that. We have an ambition to serve him here, but his plan for us lies elsewhere. When faced by such apparent reverses, it is well to remember that God's purpose for us goes back before our conversion, for his foreknowledge has determined our circumstances even before we were born. God never does a think suddenly; he has always prepared long, long before. So there is nothing to murmur about, nothing to be proud about, in the calling of God. There is also no one of whom to be jealous, for other people's advantages have nothing to do with us. When we look back over life, we bow and acknowledge that all was prepared by God. So there is no need to fear we have missed something. To have this assurance is true rest. FROM A Table in the Wilderness Daily Devotions for March 8.

Trust in Yahweh with all your heart, and don't lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths. Proverbs 3:5,6

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