Book: Absolutely the Will of God

“Does God care about the little choices we make, or is He simply interested in certain key decisions that are affected by Biblical principles? Does He really care who a person marries, does He have a specific place for us to work, how do we know when the time is right to make the move we believe He wants us to make? These are all questions Christians struggle with as they attempt to apply doctrinal truth to everyday decision-making.”

“What is the will of God? From Romans 12:2, it is “the perfect plan of God for the obedient child of God to continually bring glory to God”, and we are to know what it is. It is good; (that is, it is in perfect harmony with His revealed Word). It is acceptable; (that is, it is His plan to allow us to bring Him pleasure). And it is perfect; (that is, it is without error, it is complete, and it is unchangeable). That is the will of God. It is, simply put, what God wants you to do with your life. In detail. Without modification. Without compromise. He has such a plan for your life. And we can know it. We must know it.”

“There are two distinct aspects of the will of God, separate but interrelated. One is called the “general” will of God. It applies to all Christians at all times. It is what God has in mind for the Christian life. That is the foundation that must be sure. The second is the “specific” will of God. It is the finishing touch. It involves God’s specific, individual, perfect plan for your life. That’s what we all want to know about. First, however, we must build the foundation.”

“The major issue in most of our lives revolves around doing that part of the will of God we already know about. And here is the big problem: before God can reveal more of His will to us, we must be doing what we already know to do. The will of God, then, is a progressive process. Each act of obedience builds on the prior act. Doing what you know to do then equips you to both receive, understand, and obey the next step.”

“God allows you to have trouble; He wants you to trust Him and praise Him in that trouble, so He can rescue you, and you can praise Him. That’s the will of God for you: to give thanks in everything. When you do that, you are doing the will of God, and you are preparing yourself to know the will of God more specifically.”

“[Regarding] the specific will of God, so much conflicting theology beckons to the searching saint. Books abound today that either insist or imply that God is only interested in the broad, general choices we make, but that the “little things of life are up to us.” The suggestion is, “If we are obeying the general will of God, then aren’t the specific choices incidental? Aren’t they simply things God wants us to decide with no help or leading from Him?” This theology in essence, states that God defines the parameters, and within those parameters, whatever we do is okay with Him.”

“It matters to God where you live, where you minister, to whom you go, whom you marry … even to the point that the hairs on our head are numbered. It all matters to God, because He has a specific, peculiar, perfect plan for you that He has for no one else. The will of God is not some vague, general, set of guidelines by which we can become the captain of our own fate. The will of God is a specific road map custom designed in eternity past by a personal God just for you.”

“God is even more interested in revealing His will to us than we are in finding it. He isn’t hiding in the bushes, leaving clues to distract us, teasing us into getting confused. He is rather like a tender Father, leading, guiding, instructing, and caring for us. His every move and His every word are designed to show us where He would have us go. Our job is simply to read the road map and follow the instructions. By God’s grace, let’s get excited about the journey.”

“Many studies on the will of God overlook this one crowning truth: A heart that is not right with God cannot receive the leading of God because it’s cries cannot reach the ear of God. Period. That critical principle looms on the horizon like a gigantic door that either opens or shuts into the presence of The King’s inner chamber. All of Who God is, and all of what God has done, is ours for the taking unless we hold on to unconfessed sin or refuse to repent and get right with God.”

“If you are seeking to find the will of God for your life, no matter in what area, but sense no response from The Father, I wonder if God might not be speaking to you today, saying, “If you want to learn how to discern my will, you will need more than Sunday School lessons, patterns, principles, promises, and plans. You will need a heart that is pure, a heart so cleansed that the very thought of even listening to that which is defiling, or looking at that which is defiling, or thinking about that which is defiling, will break your heart as much as it does mine.””

“Unless we stop for a heart examination, studying “ten steps to the will of God” is just so much play acting. Maybe you have in some way dishonored God, and instead of truly repenting, you have rebuilt your life around a more tolerant theology and ignored the depth of your sin. Whatever is true of your life, it is between you and God. But before you can continue to search out the will of God, you must deal with it.”

“We proceed by looking at some practical principles involved in making decisions God’s way. The first is the issue of “cemetery leading” – the process by which we either assume for our own situation or counsel others that dead people can find and do the will of God. You say, “Wait a minute. I’d never go out to the cemetery and counsel dead people.” Oh really? Well, how many times have you tried to impart Christian principles to someone making a decision, when you did not know for sure that person was a believer, or worse, you knew they weren’t? Unless that person has been born again into the family of God by faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the Cross, unless he or she has personally confessed their sins and invited Jesus Christ to enter their lives, forgive their sins, and make them whole, that person does not possess the capacity to discern the will of God.”

“How often God allows the necessity for making a decision to enter a man’s life so that the man will be forced to look for answers, and ultimately to find THE ANSWER, even Jesus Christ. In very simple terms, if you want to know the will of God, You must be born again”. No other spiritual condition allows the human mind to receive the leading of God. Period.”

“Before [salvation] a person simply had to determine whether or not doing a particular thing was what they wanted to do, and whether or not it was in their best interest. … But now God has entered the picture, and we are no longer here to do what we want to do. I believe this is at the heart of why believers get so frustrated looking for God’s will. Once we become believers, we tend to think that our job is to integrate God’s plan into our lives. Not so. Our job is to die. God isn’t asking us to build on the old foundation. All things must become new. And until we understand that, we try to make godly decisions using worldly criteria. It doesn’t work.”

“(1) We have a new position. The issue is no longer “What do I want to do?”, or even “What do I want to do that will least offend God?”. The issue is “What does God want me to do?” (2) We have a new purpose which is spiritual in nature. … Every decision we make must be made on the basis of how it affects the Kingdom of God, not how it affects our comfort, convenience, or success. That means every other criteria we have ever used for determining right decisions in the past has to die. (3) There is a new probability: In order to do what God wants you to do, and in order to become what God wants you to become, you probably will not travel the easy road. The will of God is seldom the path lined with the aroma of flowers and the scent of success. It is often the road lined with the thorns of adversity, the bullets of persecution, and the pitfalls of failure. (4) We have a new prayer to pray: “Father, thy will be done, in earth, as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10b)”

“Finding the will of God is not directing God into your plans; it is surrendering your plans and yielding to His. It involves a total surrender of your dreams, your goals, your comforts, and your rights before you can discover what His will really is. Are you seeking to find the will of God? Commit your body once and for all, right now, as a living sacrifice to God.”

“Step one in the decision-making process is to get the facts. All the facts. Ask questions. Write letters. Read books. Make phone calls. And write down what you find, because what you find will be the basis for transferring information into inspiration about the will of God. … That may seem to be such an obvious point that it appears ridiculous to discuss it, but believe me, it’s not. In fact, it appears to be one of the greatest missing ingredients in the process.”

“[In Luke 14:28-33] Jesus is saying you don’t just “feel led” to build a house. You get out the plans; you estimate the costs; you contact the bank. You count the cost first. … Jesus [also] reminds us, a general doesn’t declare war on an enemy until he first inventories his troops and his ammunition. … He doesn’t just “hope for the best”. He counts the cost and then makes an intelligent decision. … God expects His children to examine the facts before they make a decision. You cannot apply the absolutes or the principles unless you have information to which to apply them. Rule number one in decision-making, then, is this: Before you begin seeking counsel, or applying principles, give time and energy to getting all the facts.”

“Often [a] person, when trying to decide whether or not to change jobs, enter a ministry, change churches, choose a school, or even choose a mate, will move ahead [because] they “feel right about it”, or “God has opened doors” for them. In some cases, they proceed because some “counselor”, based on information they provided, said “Why not?”.”

“The next step is to become a “pro-con” artist. [That’s] someone who has learned to take the facts he has accumulated, and list the “pros” and the “cons” on separate sheets of paper so he can watch God apply the principles, surface areas of concern, and begin to determine which way the scales are tipping.”

“It is important to determine what makes something a “pro” and what makes it a “con.” But remember our definition of the will of God. The will of God is that which furthers the kingdom of God, and thus brings joy to the heart of God. … [So you look] for the will of God, rather than just for what you want … That may not be the job with the highest salary or the greatest chance for advancement, but rather the one with the greatest opportunity to become a servant. That changes the complexion of what’s a “pro” and what’s a “con.””

“As you weigh the pros and cons, be assured of one thing: God’s plan for you will never conflict with the absolutes of His Word. Those absolutes will leave you the freedom to choose within the confines of God’s purpose.”

“How can you know when you’re on the right road for you? At the risk of seeming to oversimplify, you ask Him. That’s right. You ask Him. How strange it is that many people spend days talking over a decision with everyone but the Father. Of course in asking, you must know the absolutes, and you must be committed to His purposes, or you risk asking amiss.”

“Prayer is the ultimate weapon in spiritual warfare. It requires the armor of God to be in place, the heart of the saint to be cleansed and yielded, and the weapons of our warfare, which are “spiritual to the pulling down of strongholds”, to be sharp and ready. (1) God’s parameters are His Word. (See 1 John 5:14,15.) Praying for God’s will involves praying God’s word back to Him. You know what is according to His will, when you know His Word. (2) Secondly, praying according to His will involves praying under His preeminence. At this point, the whole essence of prayer can be reduced to one basic principle: … “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in Earth, as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10) What God desires is for us to want Him to rule our lives. Then we can be blessed, He can be glorified, and His Kingdom can manifest itself on earth, a reflection of its glory in Heaven.”

“By “absolutes” we mean those things that God has said that cannot change, cannot be broken, cannot be interpreted differently in a specific situation. An example of such an absolute is “thou shalt not lie”. It is not the will of God for you to bend the truth, even to the slightest degree, in order to follow His leading. If you must lie, then your decision is already made – it doesn’t matter how “good” you feel about it; how many “doors” are opened. (Satan is the master door opener); and it doesn’t matter how many well-meaning counselors tell you it’s okay. It’s never okay to lie to do the will of God. Another example of an applicable absolute is “Thou shalt not steal”. If you have to steal your present employer’s clients to take the job; your present employer’s time to look for the job; or your present employer’s confidence to leave the job, then you are violating a Biblical absolute.”

“Once you have run a decision through the grid of God’s absolutes, and found that they confirm rather than refute that [decision], then you begin applying God’s principles. [Examples:] Unequal yoking, submission to authority, preparation, talents, financial bondage, etc. There are literally hundreds of such principles found in Scripture. If you must violate these principles to do what you deem to be His will, be careful. Chances are, you are listening to “the voice of the stranger” (Satan).”

“You are then free to confirm that decision, using three basic kinds of confirmation revealed in Scripture; the peace of God, the circumstances of life and the counsel of men. You should not make decisions based on “peace” alone, for “peace” can be wrongly interpreted by emotional mood swings. You should not make decisions based on “open doors” alone, because Satan appears to “open more doors” than God; and you cannot make your decision based on counsel alone, for counsel varies, and it is often not the result of your seeking God, but of seeking men.”

“Here are some additional absolutes for you to study. See if you can locate corresponding principles and can determine which kinds of decisions might be affected by knowing these absolutes. (1) He who sows sparingly, reaps sparingly. (2) The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual. (3) Let him who glories, glory in The Lord. (4) Evil companions corrupt. (5) Whoever will save his life will lose it. (6) If a kingdom be divided against itself it will not stand. (8) He that is not with Me is against Me.”

“We must find out what it takes to glorify God, and whenever we have a choice to make, we should automatically choose in the order of importance.”

“Priority 1 – Your walk with Christ: The primary factor in the decision-making process: “That I may know Him; the power of His resurrection; and the fellowship of His sufferings; being made conformable to His death.” (Philippians 3:8-10) So whether the decision involves how, where, or even *if* you spend your time, your money, or your influence, if it means diminishing your walk with Christ even one iota, (be it by moral compromise, wrong relationships, or the absence of time to be with Him) fret no more over that decision – [it’s not best].”

“Priority 2 – Your character: Make a list of your character weaknesses and ask yourself “which of these choices will best allow God to develop that quality in me?” … You may say “I need patience.” If so, make the decision which will force you to be tested. You may say “I need humility.” If so, make the choice that will be least likely to exalt your strengths and your talents. …You may say, “I detest authority.” If so, put yourself under someone who is cruel, unjust, and likely to place undue pressure on you to respond.”

“Priority 3 – Your commitments to family: Our primary commitment is to know God, and our primary eternal purpose is to let God become Himself in us. But thirdly, we do have some earthly commitments that are eternally binding. A man’s commitment to his wife … is an agreement made on earth which is binding in heaven, so if there is a choice to be made and that choice might … decrease your effectiveness with your family, be careful – you are stepping out into a field loaded with spiritual landmines.”

“Priority 4 – Your commitments to those to whom you are responsible: Would your decision  demonstrate the Godly quality of loyalty? of faithfulness? Our God is a faithful God. He keeps His Word no matter what! His life operating in us will do no less.”

“Priority 5 – Your mission: Where could you best be used to reach those God has been equipping me to reach? Your witness is the result of the grace God has given you as you have been tested thus far. Being in the best place to use that witness is considerably more important than how much money you make, how happy you are, how comfortable you are, how much security you have.”

“Our singular purpose in decision-making is to glorify God. Our basic priorities in doing so are: (1) To be where we can know Him more intimately; (2) To be where we can be sandpapered into His likeness more perfectly (3) To be responsive to those for whom we are responsible (4) To be responsible to those to whom we are responsible (5) To be available to go where we are most needed to use the message of our lives which God has given to us as He has applied His grace to our own spiritual pilgrimage.”

“Let’s help Ed Wilson make a decision. Ed has a good job, but he has been offered a chance to leave that job, move 2,000 miles across the country to a “better opportunity” and a “big move up the career ladder”. It will mean much more money, much more responsibility, and much more chance for advancement. His family is not too keen on the idea. His pastor has questioned whether or not he is spiritually ready for that much pressure or that much success, but most of his counsel has been positive, and he “feels a peace” about it. Not only that, Ed states “God miraculously opened the door”. In other words, Ed hasn’t sought the job.”

“(1) To most glorify God, Ed must be in the place to best know God. He has been enrolled in a Bible Study training program for a year. This new job, however, will cause him to travel during the week, and he will have to forfeit that. Still, Ed is not convinced. He thinks he can find some other way to grow, and after all, the pressure will force him to walk with God.”

“(2) Ed should go where his weaknesses can be turned to strengths, not where his strengths can be exalted. This job is a great honor. Ed’s three great needs in life are humility, a submissive spirit, and faithfulness. But Ed has rationalized that God needs his talents in this new job, and that he will become more faithful, as soon as he has the right kind of authority to which to respond. Ed is ignoring an absolute. “The powers that be are ordained of God”. God placed Ed under the boss he now has, and the boss is quite a perfectionist. Ed can remove that pressure, or so he thinks, by moving.”

“(3) While Ed’s wife is to submit to his final authority, she is one of the key elements in God’s network of leading for his life. Her sensitivity, her love for him, and her understanding of spiritual things make her his best source of counsel. … She sees in him potential problems that Satan would exploit in this new job, time with the children diminishing to nothing, and the time with growing Christians giving way to pressurized relationships with people who would try to lead him astray — pressure for which he isn’t ready. She is quietly urging him to consider saying “No”.”

“(4) Ed’s present job and present employer have been good to him. They took him with no experience, trained him, and gave him a salary beyond what he had ever hoped for. They look up to him, and he is the only Christian at his level in the company. Were they to be approached about his leaving, they would feel betrayed, disappointed, and used. He has never placed himself under their authority to let God give him direction as to whether or not this move is of Him.”

“(5) Ed has just begun leading a Bible study where he is now working and has just begun discipling one of the men in his office. God appears to have sent him to that company much as He would send rain to a drying desert. To leave now would be to walk away from a group of people who are coming alive spiritually in order to better himself economically.”

“(6) Ed’s final argument is that “God opened the door”. But if you have to violate God’s best to go through a door, Satan opened it – God allowed it, not to tempt you (God cannot tempt you. James 1:13), but to test you (Romans 12:2) so you can prove what is the good and acceptable will of God. If Ed uses the common trilogy of counsel, leading, and open doors, he’ll go. If he stops and looks at the absolutes of God in the light of the purpose of God as it is revealed in the priorities of God, he won’t touch that job with a ten foot pole. Now apply that same yardstick to the decision that is facing you.”

“To discern the will of God for your life, you have to have a kind of two-tiered vision of His plan. The first is an overall understanding of His sovereignty, and how the all things of life work together for good. The second is an understanding of the principles of decision-making, and the responsibility we have to make every decision according to the absolutes of Scripture. When you can come to a healthy balance between what God has planned for you, and the part you play in that plan, you will have come to understand the will of God.”

“Finding and doing the will of God involves two totally different, but perfectly integrated activities. The first is the ability to respond to the choices of life using the absolutes of Scripture; the second is the ability to respond to the uncontrollable incidents of life without getting bitter.”

“The key is our response to those unexpected, uncontrollable “setbacks” of life that God is allowing behind the scenes. We are to immediately stop, surrender to His Sovereignty, even as Jesus did in the garden, and then implement I Thessalonians 5:18: “In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.””

“A “thread” is a series of Scriptures that you lay on your heart by memorizing them in a certain sequence. Each passage or verse has either a word or a thought in it that automatically triggers in your mind something about the verse to follow – a package that surfaces the will of God about a given subject. When a crisis comes and you need to know the mind of God, a key word in one of the verses will come to your mind, and your heart will begin to flow with an absolute ocean of God’s Word pertaining to a given subject.”

“The thread is one way to systematically lay the Word of God on your heart by absolutes, tying in the principles that teach us what to do to obey that absolute, and threading them together in a pattern that meets your individual needs. Then, when you need an answer, it has only to come from God’s Word; and it can come anytime, for God’s Word will be absolutely engraved in a thread upon your heart.”

“Burn the absolutes of Scripture into your consciousness; etch them into the fabric of your mind. They will never change. Heaven and earth will pass away, but one thing will not: The Word of God. It is the rock upon which we stand, the foundation on which we build, the shelter in which we rest.”

“We should never go to God when a decision is imminent and attempt to lay “our” options at His feet, asking for a little help. We must fall on our face before the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and having clearly asked, leave the decision to Him. His will may be none of the alternatives we would have given Him. It often will not be the preferred alternative for which we have entreated Him. The secret of the will of God is bound up in the sovereignty of God and is released only upon the surrender of man.”

“What to do when a decision apparently has to be made immediately: Remember the concept of God’s timing. It is perfect. If that house must be bought today, and if you aren’t sure today, either that house is not for you, or the owner simply doesn’t understand the God you serve. If it’s what God wants for you, it will still be available when you’re sure. If it’s not, you don’t want it. If someone wants you to commit yourself to a ministry and you’re not sure that it is God’s will for you, then wait. That’s right, wait. No, the ministry won’t collapse and you won’t either. Wait. Pray. Fast, until you have an answer from God based absolute-ly on what will best bring in the kingdom of God and thus accrue the most glory to God.”

“What to do when counsel is divided: (1) Find which counselors gave you absolutes from Scripture to back up their recommendation. Scratch off all the others and see if the counsel now agrees. (2) Consider first the counsel of those in authority over you, either spiritually, or in the area of the decision. (3) If counsel is still not clear, do nothing. (4) Remember that counsel is nothing more than confirmation. The job of counsel is to point you back to the Word where you can find the answers yourself. Use counsel to verify that what God has told you to do through his Word has been properly interpreted.”

“[If there’s] “peace” about a decision, but it violates an absolute of God’s Word, it means you are responding to the feelings of man, not to the Words of God. The peace of God must be true to the character of God (which is consistent) and to the Word of God (which is final). … The will of God doesn’t change from day to day, nor does God’s peace about it.”

“The will of God is [actually] simple. It is man who has made the simple complex by trying to impose the standards of man upon Scripture instead of imposing the standards of Scripture upon man. Much human wisdom is nothing more than taking the simplicity of God’s truth and making it complex by infusing it with man’s interpretations.”

“It is through the process of making right choices that we grow. Why don’t you, as a parent, simply make all the decisions for your children, instead of teaching them principles, and exposing them to situations so you can see how they respond? Because your goal is maturity. … Basically, “open doors” usually open the way we, in our subconscious minds, want them to. … The Scriptures make it plain that once we know God’s will in a given area, we have no excuses. The high hurdle is past. Now it is simply a matter of saying “yes” to what God has called us to do, regardless of the consequences from man’s point of view. … We can be Abrahams, or we can be Jonahs. The power to obey must come from Him, but the choice to obey is ours.”

“There is one last ingredient in the decision-making process which is sometimes overlooked. It is God’s greatest ally and one of man’s greatest stumbling blocks. That ingredient is time. … We have prayed and nothing has happened. At least nothing visible to us has happened, and certainly not within the time-frame in which we believe God ought to work. God will always seem slow. He is simply not in a hurry. His goal is character, and character takes time. … He is not as interested in time, as He is in timing. The timing of His revelations give Him glory, so He will often work at the very last minute, when the flesh has long since given up.”

“”After decision” time is the often inexplicable delay which occurs once we have found the will of God and think we’ve done it, before God gives us any visible confirmation. … As days go by, weeks go by, and then months go by, doubts arise. Patience – that’s what God is after. Patience leads to faith, and the just shall live by faith. God hasn’t forgotten you. … Obedience, you see, breeds warfare, but warfare is the gateway to victory. And once you have done the will of God, whatever it is, begin praising Him at every evidence you see of the enemy’s onslaught. … When you do His will, you have revealed His character, brought joy to His heart, and allowed Him to mature you into His likeness. By standing on the absolutes and surrendering to His sovereignty you have pleased the heart of God.”

“That’s what the will of God is all about. It is about our giving up the title to our lives so that a living, loving God can take us, break us, and make us into His likeness, until we become living demonstrations of how wonderful His will really is.”