"And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart" (Gal 6:9).
If we desire to discover God's will for our lives, we must learn to recognize the characteristics of His will.
God has already gone to great lengths to reveal to us in His Word what His will is for everyone - I call this the "standard will of God." But in addition to His standard will, God has something tailor-made for each of our lives. I call this the "specific will of God."
The specific will of God for your life will never go against His standard will - what He has already revealed to us in His Word.
God has a "good" will for your life, but He also has a "perfect" will. His perfect will and the blessings that accompany it are reserved for those who are willing to be radically obedient and to wait when necessary. There are moments when God's way will seem so difficult, so prolonged, and so unrewarding, while our idea will seem much easier, much quicker, and so much more enjoyable. But it is only an illusion.
Finding the will of God always requires faith for the impossible and a childlike dependence upon Him. The Bible is filled with the accounts of men and women who found their destiny in the perfect will of God by doing things that were impossible for them to do on their own.
God has given us the freedom to choose whether or not we are going to follow His will. Settling for less than God's best for our lives is often the easy road, and good things are often the greatest enemy of the best things. There is a perpetual conflict in the Christian life between what is "good" and what is "God." Whenever we choose to disobey and do things our own way, something is lost that can never be restored. God will forgive and heal, but He will not turn back the hands of time.
Many people have a vision given to them by the Lord. But a vision that is not embraced and nurtured through the appropriate season of preparation will invariably die. When God gives a vision, we must take some kind of action, or that vision will never become anything more than a fantasy.
One of the biggest misconceptions about discovering the will of God is that if something is truly part of God's plan for you, there will be no struggle involved in accomplishing it. That is a myth! If God has called you to do something, you will almost certainly encounter a significant amount of struggle. God may actually even allow failures along the way, because He is more interested in the worker than He is the work. The journey is an important process that matters very much to God. The process of following Him in obedience, step by step, through many unknowns, trials, and difficulties, is a significant part of our development and preparation. God uses the journey to teach us faith, to refine our character, and to equip us for the greater challenges that lie ahead.
Don't make the mistake of thinking, even for a moment, that just because you don't know today what God's will is for your life that you are not making any progress. Something is happening right now. Your faith is being stretched, and your patience is being tried. Your spiritual ears are being tuned as you listen to hear the voice of God's Spirit. God always prepares us in advance for what He has in store for us! That process may be uncomfortable, but it is necessary nonetheless.
Daniel Kolenda, Live before you die
If we desire to discover God's will for our lives, we must learn to recognize the characteristics of His will.
God has already gone to great lengths to reveal to us in His Word what His will is for everyone - I call this the "standard will of God." But in addition to His standard will, God has something tailor-made for each of our lives. I call this the "specific will of God."
The specific will of God for your life will never go against His standard will - what He has already revealed to us in His Word.
God has a "good" will for your life, but He also has a "perfect" will. His perfect will and the blessings that accompany it are reserved for those who are willing to be radically obedient and to wait when necessary. There are moments when God's way will seem so difficult, so prolonged, and so unrewarding, while our idea will seem much easier, much quicker, and so much more enjoyable. But it is only an illusion.
Finding the will of God always requires faith for the impossible and a childlike dependence upon Him. The Bible is filled with the accounts of men and women who found their destiny in the perfect will of God by doing things that were impossible for them to do on their own.
God has given us the freedom to choose whether or not we are going to follow His will. Settling for less than God's best for our lives is often the easy road, and good things are often the greatest enemy of the best things. There is a perpetual conflict in the Christian life between what is "good" and what is "God." Whenever we choose to disobey and do things our own way, something is lost that can never be restored. God will forgive and heal, but He will not turn back the hands of time.
Many people have a vision given to them by the Lord. But a vision that is not embraced and nurtured through the appropriate season of preparation will invariably die. When God gives a vision, we must take some kind of action, or that vision will never become anything more than a fantasy.
One of the biggest misconceptions about discovering the will of God is that if something is truly part of God's plan for you, there will be no struggle involved in accomplishing it. That is a myth! If God has called you to do something, you will almost certainly encounter a significant amount of struggle. God may actually even allow failures along the way, because He is more interested in the worker than He is the work. The journey is an important process that matters very much to God. The process of following Him in obedience, step by step, through many unknowns, trials, and difficulties, is a significant part of our development and preparation. God uses the journey to teach us faith, to refine our character, and to equip us for the greater challenges that lie ahead.
Don't make the mistake of thinking, even for a moment, that just because you don't know today what God's will is for your life that you are not making any progress. Something is happening right now. Your faith is being stretched, and your patience is being tried. Your spiritual ears are being tuned as you listen to hear the voice of God's Spirit. God always prepares us in advance for what He has in store for us! That process may be uncomfortable, but it is necessary nonetheless.
Daniel Kolenda, Live before you die
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