How to Know: Part One

How to Know The Will of God. Can it be done? Is it of our own making?

Using a quote, that's basically the question that Lalaith is posing here. This quote reminds me of the movie "The Kingdom of Heaven" where you see Muslims and Christians fighting over Jerusalem both because it is the will of their god.

First, two terms to know - sovereign will and moral will. Now, the two terms do not exclude one another - God's sovereign will is not immoral and God's moral will is not lacking in sovereignty. Another way to describe it is God's will and God's plan. God's will is that none should perish (His moral will that no one ever did anything wrong and all were perfect always); His plan is that some do (His sovereign will, the will that allows evil). Because it's easier, I'll use will and plan as our terms; but I wanted to be clear that nothing that happens is OUTSIDE God's will.

So did God will the fighting over Jerusalem? Yes, that was in His plan - we know this because it happened. If it wasn't His plan and it happened, He wouldn't be sovereign. Was it in line with His moral character? Not if it happened like it did in the movie. I'm not a historian, but I highly doubt that many of the actual events were morally upright.

It is definitely true that we need to be VERY careful that we are not using "God's will" as an excuse to do what we want. This is more easily done if we first purpose to do WHATEVER God wants us to, especially if we're thinking about specific things, like what kind of job to pursue or where to live.

For instance, the man I married lived 2000 miles away in a state I pretty much ignored because my thinking was that nothing good came out of it. I did NOT want to move to CA. I hated the idea of leaving my church, my family, and my Michigan. Combined with the rest of the stuff we had to work through, had I not been CERTAIN that I was supposed to marry Zack (as in, that was the guy God had for me), I wouldn't have done it. My mother-in-law told me once that she was thankful that I loved Zack enough to come all the way out here. I had to think about it for a while, but I'm quite convinced that I didn't love Zack enough to come all the way out here. I almost broke up with him multiple times because I DIDN'T love him enough. I came out here because for years I had been saying to God, "I will marry whoever You want me to." And I would look at any guy and I would look at the ones I thought were unattractive or the ones that I didn't get along with really well as much as the ones I really liked - because I knew that whoever God wanted me to marry was going to be the best. And that's why I'm in CA. Now, of course, I love Zack more and I'm happy to be wherever he is. But it would have died had I not been saying for so long, "Whoever You pick."

Are there other times when we trick ourselves into thinking that something is God's will and it isn't? Oh yeah. I have an example for that too. When I was younger, my dad told me very specifically not to do something. After a few months, I did it anyway because "it felt right." It was a very bad decision. I don't believe that the thing itself was wrong - but the fact that I had so blantantly disobeyed my dad WAS wrong. It was sin, and I terribly regretted it.

Misrepresenting God's will is a large danger, and it can cause a great deal of problems. And that is why Christians are wise to spend a lot of time praying, seeking counsel with each other, and spending lots of time in the study of the Bible.

On the other hand, God has promised that if we are seeking Him, He will direct us. You know that verse (paraphrasing here), Whatever you ask in My name, I will give it to you? Does that mean whatever we ask and tack on the words, "In Jesus' name" God is obligated to give us? No. "In His name" means, in line with Him, in line with His desires. Whatever we ask Following Him. I can't tell you how many times I've seen on Facebook, people post "prayers" that say things like, "I pray that such and such will happen in JESUS' NAME!" and then they say that therefore it will happen. And then it doesn't. That's a horrible misunderstanding of the Bible. It's NOT about the words. It's about the heart. If we are seeking God, He will direct us; He will show us what the path is. But we have to make sure that we're seeking HIS will, not OUR will. And that can be difficult, because we have sneaky hearts.

Well, this is getting long, and I haven't even touched the actual post part. I guess you'll get a part two, hopefully tomorrow.