The will of God may be the most misunderstood thing in Christianity. It should not be that hard; do not over think the issue.

Will of God 101 – God’s desire will never contradict His Word.

A couple of examples – It is not uncommon for me to receive a phone call from someone asking if I will perform a wedding ceremony. The person will tell me, “I am a Christian, but my fiancé is not saved.”

“Since you are a Christian and he is not, are you sure this is what God wants you to do?”

“Oh, yes! I know this is God’s will. If we get married, he’ll get saved.”

If you take God at His Word, there is a massive problem with this. 2 Corinthians 6:14, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?” Christians have been made righteous, not by their good works, but by the blood of Jesus Christ (Romans 10:4; 1 Corinthians 1:30; Philippians 3:9).

Also, throughout the Old Testament God warned Israel not to marry wives who worshiped other Gods. It is apparent that God’s will does not include His children marrying those that do not worship Him.

Another example – “I don’t really ever tell people about Jesus. I let them see Him through how I live,” a man told me.

Yes, people should see Jesus in the way we live. Our walking testimony, a good one at least, comes from the Holy Spirit living through us and cultivating the fruit of the Spirit in our heart and life (Galatians 5:22-25). However, God’s Word does tell us He wants us to share the gospel with everyone we can (Matthew 24:14; Mark 16:15). The Bible is also clear that salvation will come through His Word. Romans 10:13-14, 17 “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? … So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

Again, God’s Word tells us to tell other people His story.

Point number one – God’s will, will not contradict His Word.

We have already been working on point number two without even mentioning it. Much of God’s will for your life God has already told you. As we have seen, not being yoked with an unbeliever and sharing the gospel with others has already been said to us in His Word, therefore, what do we need further to know this is what God desires for us to do?

There is more of God’s will lined out in the Bible for us – Go to church (Hebrews 10:25), pray (1 Thessalonians 5:17), we are to visit those that have no one to visit them and to stay away from sin (James 1:27), we are to love God’s Word and teach it to our children (Deuteronomy 6:6-7), and the list goes on.

Some of you are probably thinking, “Well, this is all fine and dandy, but what you are telling us is the generalities; what about the specifics? What job does God want me to have? What church should I attend? Who should I marry?”

Here is the thing about the specifics – we will not know the details until we have done a pretty good job with the general stuff.

Romans 12:1-2 ends with the phrase, “that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

If we see what is before that phrase then we will know what God wants us to do to discover the specific will for our life; as it says, the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.

The first step in knowing God’s perfect will for your life – “… present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”

A sacrifice is freely given, but cost the giver something. There will be sins we will need to give up to accomplish this. We will need to study the Scripture, and when we discover a general thing we are not doing, we need to start doing it.

The second and last step is, “be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

With the renewing of the mind comes thinking in the light of the Word instead of the darkness of the world. As our knowledge of the Word increases and our thoughts are more continually on the Scripture, then we can know what to do in each situation. Doing God’s will becomes first nature to us. The stronger this is true in our lives, the better, and more often, we can know what God’s good, and acceptable, and perfect will is for our lives.

Do you follow God’s Word? The lamp to your feet is making known to you your next step and the light for your path is so you may understand which direction to follow in the long term.

The choice is yours.