Keys to Discerning the Will of God: Unlocking the Door to Wise and Godly Decisions

Keys to Discerning the Will of God:

Unlocking the Door to Wise and Godly Decisions

By Douglas Hammett

Copyright 2011 Douglas Hammett

Smashwords Edition

All scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, King James Version.

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Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Table of Contents

Key One: Trust the God of the Plan

Key Two: Avoid Diabolical Deception

Key Three: Obey the Clear, Revealed Will of God

Key Four: Go Forward in Faith

Key Five: Use the Sound Mind Principle

Addendum: Insights to Discerning the Will of God

About the Author

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Key One:

Trust the God of the Plan

You can’t read your Bible very long before you realize that God has a plan for you. It is written on every page from Genesis to Revelation. God has a plan and purpose for your life. In that plan, He has highlighted exactly what He wants to happen with you and with others around you.

But you can’t go very far in the Bible without finding that man has a plan as well. Man’s plan is usually diametrically opposed to God’s plan. Man wants to be the one in control of his life. The ironic thing is that the devil has just duped man into thinking he is in charge. The devil is really the one pulling the strings, calling the shots, and running the show.

Many people are battling with God’s will. Even if you are a Christian, you may be wrestling with it. We tend to look at what we can see in our circumstances, then at what God has said, and we determine that God’s plan won’t work in this instance. We proceed then to go around God’s will because we think it will ruin our life.

How Can I Trust God’s Will?

There are four things about God’s will that causes us to trust it. It is absolutely essential that we understand these four truths before we can ever understand what God’s will is and be willing to follow it.

God’s will is best for us.

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." Romans 12:1-2

God set up a direction for the whole world at Creation. But His wisdom is so great that He can plug you and me into all of Creation’s purpose, and still make it best for us. What is best for me is also best for all of God’s plan. God knows exactly what you need in your life. He cares about you; His thoughts toward you have an expected end.

I have a lot of tools that I have collected through the years. I have had a lot of tools that I have sacrificed in order to do a job. In order to complete the job, the tool has been broken. Was that job worth the cost of losing that tool? Sometimes you will be willing to do the job, get rid of the tool because it is ruined, and buy another tool.

God never throws His people away. He doesn’t have to throw His people away in order to fulfill His purpose in Creation. He doesn’t look at you and think you are such a small, insignificant part of life and His greater plan will sacrifice you to get what He wants. His wisdom is so great that He can take small tools like you and me and fit us into the greater plan of Creation. What is best for all of Creation in God’s greater plan is also what God wants to do in our lives individually as well. God’s plan is what is best for us.

God’s will is described as good, acceptable and perfect. It is best for us. It is pleasing to me, if I am in tune with God as a child should be. If I am trying to live life my way, my will may seem pleasing at first, but will end bitterly. But when I am walking with God as I should, His will is pleasing to me. God’s will is perfect, complete, and total. It brings us to the end of life, and even into eternity, complete and perfect.

God’s will is built around us.

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." Jeremiah 29:11

The children of Israel were exiled in Babylon. The Babylonians had stormed into their country, laid siege to their cities, taken goods and people back to Babylon, and left a path of destruction in their wake. The children of Israel were now wondering why this had happened. Why were they forced out of the Promised Land? No doubt some of them were upset with God. They didn’t understand what He was doing. Then God comes to them through the prophet Jeremiah, and gave them this promise. He had an expected end in everything He was doing in their lives.

God’s will is built around you, not over you. God loves you and cares about you. God sees you right where you are.

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28

God has built His will around you, making everything in harmony, not only with your life and what He wants to do, but in harmony with His overall will for all of Creation. Does this give you a sense of who our God is? His wisdom and foreknowledge are absolutely mind-boggling. God’s leading in my life is the very best thing that could happen to me.

God is directing me each step of the way through life. I never have to be worried that God will take His best from me in order that you might have the best. He is able to weave all those details together so that everything that is best for everybody else will be best for me. It’s not like the communist countries where they make choices based on the masses while ignoring the individuals. In God’s will, He always builds it around every single individual that belongs to Him. When we follow His leading, we put ourselves in the center of His care and protection.

God’s will is broadcast for us.

"For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God." Colossians 1:9-10

Because God wants us to benefit from following His superior plan, He will reveal His will for us. Think of those captives in Babylon. God was telling them that His thoughts of them were of a desired and expected end. He knew exactly where He was taking them. He hadn’t made any mistakes. He wanted them to know what His will was, and gave commands that they seek Him.

God hasn’t made us to just be walking through life blindly. He wants us to know His will. He won’t reveal His whole life plan for you and every step for the next fifty years. But He will reveal it to you one step at a time. He wants you in touch with Him so you know where He is taking you next. This is a bedrock truth that God’s people need to grasp. God is more concerned about me knowing His will than I am at knowing it.

"To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:" Ephesians 1:6-9

God wants me to know His will more than I want to know His will. He desires to make it known to us.

God’s will blesses us.

"I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing…Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples…These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." John 15:5, 8, 11

Abiding in Christ is the equivalent of following Him, listening to Him, being attentive to His will. In abiding in Christ, we will bring forth much fruit. If we will find and discern God’s will, understand what He is doing, and follow that in our lives, then He will give us joy and fruit.

Obeying the will of God will bring joy in your life. That doesn’t mean that everything will be happy and all your circumstances will be great. But there will be a deep, lasting kind of joy that only God can give. When you look at what God has done in your life and where He is taking you, it will be better than all the joy in the world. Circumstances in life may give you happiness for the moment, but it won’t give you abiding joy.

Trust the God of the plan. Many are trying to figure out what God’s will is so that they can sit in judgment on it. But God only reveals His will to those who are willing to do it. We must be willing to do it before He reveals His teaching and doctrine to us.

"If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." John 7:17

Someone may not like God’s will. They don’t think it is good for them. They don’t want to trust Him with their life. Some people won’t even be saved because they are afraid that God will make them do something they don’t want to do. But that is a wrong picture of God. He is not a mean old man that sits up in Heaven looking for a way to mess up your life.

Even as a Christian, you may not want to do the will of God, unless you can be sure that it fits in with your plans. You want to know the plan ahead of time so that you can check it out for yourself. But God’s will is best for you. You have to take God’s will and determine that it is not the plan that you are after, but the Person behind the plan.

Imagine this illustration: If you have a three-year-old child and you tell them that you are going to Grandma’s house this weekend, they put total trust in you to get them there properly. They don’t start thinking about the laundry that must be done, the packing, figuring out which highways to take, finding out where the construction will be, packing toys and clothes, games and snacks for the road. They just accept the fact that they are going to Grandma’s house that weekend.

But if you have a seventeen-year-old and you tell them that you are going to Grandma’s house for the weekend, their response is a little different. They think of the things they had planned for the weekend, parties and meetings planned with friends. They think of their job and the fact that they have to work and how they need money to buy their things. They think of the long trip and how they don’t want to sit in the car that long. They begin to worry about it.

What is the difference between those two kids? At one age, they have total trust in Mom and Dad. At another age, they don’t trust Mom and Dad enough to make all the decisions and they think about all the problems. They assume that Mom and Dad haven’t even thought about the problems.

Now which of those two scenarios best illustrates how you approach the will of God? Are you like the three-year-old that doesn’t know enough about what is going on and just trusts Mom and Dad to figure it all out? Or are you like the seventeen-year-old who doesn’t trust his parents to look out for all the important details?

The approach that God wants is that you trust the God of the plan, instead of the plan of God. Now if you sit down with a seventeen-year-old and you explain the plan enough that all their problems are worked out and they see that you have ironed out all the details, then they will be able to sit back and go along with the plan. But if you have a three-year-old, they usually aren’t going to sit there arguing with you on how the details will be worked out. They will just trust you.

So how do you get to the place where you trust God? How can you leave things in God’s hands? You need to be captivated by the knowledge of God. Paul prayed, That I may know him… (Philippians 3:10) Paul wasn’t saying that he wanted to know God’s plan better, but God Himself better. If we knew God better, we could stay in the back seat and trust God in the driving of our lives.

The very first key to discerning the will of God is to trust the God of the plan. You have to learn how to trust Him and leave your life in His hands, rather than being concerned about His plan. You do this by learning the attributes of God.

God’s attributes are His characteristics. When we talk about the character of a man, we are talking about it in relative terms. I can say a man is honest, but that does not mean he has never been dishonest. It means that he does things honestly in general. But when I say God is honest, it doesn’t mean He is honest most of the time, for He is always honest. It is not just a characteristic, but an attribute. It is who He is.

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