In my last post we looked at the question of whether there would be food in heaven, and how asking such a question can really be a powerful thing for a follower of Christ to do.
Today we're moving on to another question that was posed during our new membership class, and that is: "How does one know what God's will is?"
Again, a fantastic question.
First of all, let me say that if this question is on your heart, you're pretty much halfway to where you need to be. One of the greatest battles we have as followers of Christ is to...wait for it...keep following. We're often distracted or downright discouraged from following Christ, and therefore seeking God's will can often be the last thing on our mind. So if you are seeking it, AWESOME!
Now, how do we move from simply seeking to actually knowing what His will is for us?
The answer is fairly straightforward, thanks to the gift of the Holy Spirit. I'll break it down into three questions.
1. Has the Spirit been moving you? Not every follower of Christ has a clear sense of when the Spirit is speaking to them. Perhaps you've never experienced this (at least consciously). Each church teaches about our relationship to the Holy Spirit differently, so it's not always a given that a follower of Christ knows how to listen to the Spirit.
Here's the thing: the one given in Scripture is that those who put their faith in God can receive the Holy Spirit, and thereby receive the counsel and guidance of God. In Acts 13 we see the Spirit tell those gathered to set apart Paul and Barnabas for a special ministry. In Acts 7 Stephen is moved by the Spirit to preach a powerful word before the high priest, even though it led to his execution. 1 Thessalonians 4 indicates that by the Holy Spirit we can live godly lives and make decisions in line with God's will.
In short, if God is leading you in a certain direction, the Spirit that he has given you will be moving you in that direction as well. Sometimes He will speak through just a strong internal pull towards something. Sometimes it will be even clearer than that.
2. Has the Spirit been moving others? In what I might call the definitive chapter on the Holy Spirit, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12 this about the Spirit: "For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body...and all were made to drink of the one Spirit." Later on he goes on to teach how therefore we are to see the church as one body, united in God's Holy Spirit.
To make a long story short, if God is telling you something, you better believe he'll also begin putting it on others' hearts as well. The Spirit will speak not only to you, but to the rest of the church. If you feel yourself or the ministry called to something but no one else is showing any indication that God is putting it on their hearts, then it's time to slow down and really bear down in prayer. Time and time again when the Spirit moves, it'll move through the whole body, not just one person.
Again, in Acts 13 it's the entire group that's gathered that knows it's time for Paul and Barnabas to leave Antioch. Dissension and disunity are sure signs that we need to slow down and listen more carefully to the Spirit.
3. Is what you're thinking Scriptural? If what you think God is calling you to do strictly prohibited by Scripture, then it's definitely not God's will. Again, going back to this idea that the Spirit is one, if God is telling us something then it'll line up with what God gave us in his word through the Holy Spirit. What we see in Scripture isn't just a collection of stories written by people now long gone. Scripture is "breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness" (2 Thessalonians 3:16).
In short, if you're hearing God tell you to go get wasted or go steal something, you're not actually hearing from God.
So that's it in a nutshell. Let me know if you have any questions or thoughts on this!
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