The Personal Weblog of Travis Kaiser

Well isn’t this the number one thing every Christian wants to know! I have more conversations about this particular topic during the months of March, April, and May than I do any other time of the year. The reason why - seniors. They are flipping out about looking ahead to college and all of the the unknowns that come with that season of life. So the question is asked - how can I know God’s will for my life? I think the answer is rather simple yet we often try to make it more difficult than it is. The following are some markers of guidance followed with some extra comments.

Here are 5 markers to knowing God’s will -

1. Ask “What does God’s Word say on the topic?” I have expressed multiple times in the last few weeks in our Wednesday night program, River’s Edge, that we flat out don’t know the Word of God. He has expressed MUCH of what He wants us to do but we don’t know the Word well enough to say what they are. For example we know we are to: share the Gospel, love one another, meditate on God’s Word, pray, worship corporately, and all the other “one another” verses.
2. Leading of the Holy Spirit - According to John 16:13 one of the jobs of the Holy Spirit is to guide us in truth. In your own personal study of the Scriptures, how is the Holy Spirit leading you?
3. Godly Council - I love the story of God calling Samuel to ministry. It is one of the greatest examples of how God can use others to help give us clarity to what God is doing in our lives. It was Samuel’s mentor, Eli, that knew what God was doing in Samuel’s life even before Samuel recognized it. Check out Proverbs 12:15 and 19:20 as to the value of having people in your life who love God and love you. The wisdom of those who have more life experience and who have walked with God for decades can bring great clarity. 
4. Open Doors - In Revelation 3:7-8 the Lord had a message to the church at Philadelphia “God opens doors no man can shut and shuts doors no man can open” (this isn’t a quote but the gist of the passage)! I have seen people set their hearts desires in one direction and be convinced that it was God’s leading all because they prayed about it. In the long run there was no opportunity. The door had been shut. Is there a door open where you sense God leading? Maybe 3 or 4 doors open?
5. Personal Preferences and Desires- I love this one! Historically in the church we have disregarded this principle. Yet, in Psalm 37:4 we know that delighting ourselves in the Lord leads to Him giving us the desire of our hearts. Likewise in Proverbs 3:5-6 if we trust in God through faith we will make our paths straight. These verses are not referring to a free pass to anything we want. The understanding is that as we spend time with God we will become more like Him. As we spiritually mature our desires will mimic the desires of our Father. Then He is ready and willing to give us the full desires of our hearts! Related to this is the theological concept that we are the imago Dei. We are crafted in the image of the Creator (Gen 1:26-27). As image-bearers God has given us creativity, reason, personalities, etc., in order to live our lives. God has crafted you with tastes and preferences for a reason. We have been plagued with the broken thinking that if we like something it can’t be Godly. Somewhere in our messed up minds we have equated misery with greater spirituality. This kind of thinking is behind people asking “if I really love God do I have to sell everything and move to Africa?” It is very much related to Luther during the Protestant Reformation. He used to climb stairs on his knees saying prayers and whipping himself thinking that it lead to greater spirituality. Jesus said that “He has come to give life and give it to the full”. I have never seen God push someone begrudgingly to do His work. Instead, as our hearts are made more into His likeness our desires will match with His. Ah - there is so much more to say on this point but I will leave it for another posting.

So… how can you determine God’s will for your life? Through the lining up of God’s Word, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Godly council, open doors, and your desires I think you can have great confidence in walking through the next season of your life. Individually you can’t take any of these alone aside from God’s Word and the Holy Spirit. However when all five line up in accordance with each other - GO!