The Will of God (Part I)

By Gobel Brockman


I read a minister's article once where he said he began a sermon by asking, "What is your greatest need, and your greatest fear?" He had already prepared his message on what HE thought the answer was. But a young man, unfamiliar with the concept of starting a sermon with a question, stood up and answered! He said, "Sir, my greatest need is to know God's will for my life, and my greatest fear is that I'll miss it." The audience responded with enthusiastic applause. The minister said he's never opened a sermon with a question since!

The will of God - that mystical thing that seems so hard to find. One thing I find interesting is that we always seem to struggle with finding God's will for our own life, but seem to always know what God's will is for everyone elses's. But actually, the answer for finding God's will is simple - it's in the instructional manual (a.k.a. 'BIBLE') When it comes to God's will, I look at it this way: there is what I call the 'general' will of God, and the 'specific' will of God. This week I want to talk about the general, which simply means that there are thing's that are God's will for everyone. To know the specific - what does God want ME to do - we must be living in the general first.

There's no way I can cover everything in one blog, but here's a good starting point:
I Thessalonians 4:3 - "For this is the will of God, your sanctification..." Sanctification is just a fancy word for being totally devoted. God doesn't want your talent and ability, He wants YOU. Totally and completely devoted to Him. He wants us to determine in our hearts that we will live for Him regardless of the circumstances.
I Thessalonians 5:18 - "Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God..." He doesn't say we have to be thankful FOR every circumstance, but we can be thankful that IN every circumstance, He is there.
I Peter 2:15 - "For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people." Simply put, if we're sanctified - totally devoted to Christ - it should be evident in the way we live.

Again, there's no way I can cover everything in one article, but the basic idea is that if you want to know what God wants you to do, you must first commit your life to Him, trust that He is there in every situation, and live like you believe what you say. I encourage you to look up all the Scriptures about God's will, then begin to live them to the best of your ability. Will you stumble? Of course. I do, a lot more than I want to. But as you begin to live in God's 'general' will, He will begin to reveal what He wants from you. You just have to be close enough to hear.