Figuring out what God wants.

“I just wanna go God’s will for my life.” I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard kids and new Christians say this.

They hear it preached all the time: “God has a wonderful plan for your life! Just seek his face.” So… they try. They pray. They worship. ’Cause that’s what popular Christian culture tells them “seeking God’s face” consists of: Prayer and worship. And yeah, these two things do in fact “seek his face.” But for newbies, these activites are not actually gonna help ’em learn what God’s will is.

And you’re gonna find a lot of newbies—and a lot of longtime Christians!—have given up on the idea God’s plan is even knowable. Some of ’em even claim God’s plan deliberately isn’t knowable; it’s a secret. God has a secret will for your life—and for that matter, the whole universe, which he’s micromanaged all the way down to every single atom. He keeps it a secret because—let’s face it—there’s no way we can fathom it in all its complexity. God is thinking a trillion steps ahead. If he clued us in, just a little, it’d blow our minds.

(Or, which is more likely, we’d respond like a backseat driver: “You know what you oughta do, God, is this…” and try to steer the Almigthy in the direction we want, instead of the direction he wants. But since we only have the smallest fraction of knowledge about the infinite cosmos, we’re really in no position to judge how God rules things.

“It’s way beyond me,” these Christians’ll say, like the TobyMac song goes. And true, the song’s about how God stretches us beyond where we’re comfortable… but too many Christians use this “way beyond me” idea as an excuse to become know-nothings, who don’t seek God’s face because God-knowledge might be too hard for us. It’s rubbish—and honestly, for a lot of people, it’s pure hypocrisy. ’Cause knowing God’s will for our lives might, just might, mean we have to change. And they don’t wanna change.

But the scriptures teach us to change.

Romans 12.1-2 CSB

1Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. 2Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

If learning God’s will—God’s perfect will—isn’t possible, why would Paul advise the Romans to do it?

Nope, God’s will is not beyond us. He’s made it available: You know what Jesus teaches. If you don’t, read your bible. Then do that.

God’s will isn’t at all hard to find!

If you wanna “seek God’s face,” it’s more than prayer and worship. It’s learning what he wants, and he said what he wants… in the bible. You gotta read your bible.

The bible contains the general, revealed will of God. The stuff the LORD and his prophets told the Hebrews; the stuff Jesus and his apostles taught us Christians. Plenty of Christians debate about which of these things still apply in the present day, and which ones don’t count anymore. While they’re busy debating this issue, they do none of them. Don‘t fall for that scam. Do ’em.

Start with Jesus. Look at what he teaches in his Sermon on the Mount. Mt 5-7 Try to live like that. No, it’s not easy. Talk it over with the Holy Spirit. Ask him for help. He’s great at help!

Look at the Law in the Old Testament. Look at the Prophets. Try to discover God’s attitudes about his people. Read Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and Job; put some of their wisdom to practical use. Read the apostles’ instructions to the churches. Work on transforming your life and renewing your mind.

Apply God’s will. Start looking for opportunities to do it, and just do it. Do it so often, our only questions about his will aren’t about what he specifically wants us to do next, but whether we’re doing the revealed-will stuff properly. “Am I taking this verse too literally? Not literally enough? This verse sounds impatient; since love is patient, 1Co 13.5 how ought I interpret it?” We shouldn’t worry about whether we’re living in his will, ’cause we’re doing it. We’re right smack in the middle of his will.

Listen to the Holy Spirit. Talk this stuff over with him constantly. You’ll find he sorts us out as we go: Whether we’re overdoing it, underdoing it, doing it fruitlessly or legalistically, or interpreting it all wrong. He’ll direct us towards other scriptures to apply to our lives. He’ll work on us. ’Cause our obedience demonstrates to him that we’re serious about our relationship with him; that we’re not hypocrites.

The reason people assume God’s will is unreachable? They’re not even looking for for it. They expect if it’s out there, God would hand it to them like when your mom used to give you vitamins as a child. They don’t imagine it’s something we gotta climb for and get into, like the cookie jar.

Seek God’s will and you’ll find it. Avoid God’s will, keep telling yourself it’s not available, and you’ll find nothing. But will you be ready for God’s kingdom when Jesus finally brings it with him?

That’s not a rhetorical question, actually. No, you won’t be ready for the kingdom. So get ready!

God’s will, or God’s rubber stamp?

Whenever we Christians get to talking about God’s will for our lives, we’re seldom talking about the revealed-will stuff he’s provided for everyone. We don’t actually care about wht he wants. (We’re kinda selfish that way.)

What we really mean is we want God to approve of our plans. We want divine approval… or at least for God to not respond, “No! Don‘t do that! That’s so messed up! What is wrong with you? Now I gotta send you to hell!” (Relax; he’s not gonna do that.)

“Am I living within God’s will?” is usually Christianese for “Am I still going to heaven, even though my lifestyle is admittedly kinda pagan?” Is it okay that I’m selfishly trying to fulfill my desires as much as possible, and doing little to nothing for God’s kingdom? Is it okay that I never pray, never crack open a bible, never go to church, never even check to see what Jesus commands, and generally live so much like a pagan I’m indistinguishable from them?

Can God live with the lifestyle and vision board we’ve chosen on our own? Is he okay with the choices we make without his input? Are we good? Or have we offended him, and when Jesus sorts the lambs and kids we’re gonna find ourselves among the kids?

’Cause if God’s unhappy, we can change! Maybe we’ll change. Well, we’ll change just enough to get into heaven. But otherwise… are we good?

I’ve met youngsters who are so anxious about knowing God’s will, for just this reason. And every time I point ’em to Jesus’s teachings in the bible, they actually get annoyed with me. That’s not what they mean at all! They know God’s spelled out his general will in the bible; they don’t care about that! They want specifics info that’ll help steer them towards what they consider a happy and prosperous life:

• Where to go to school.
• What to study.
• What career to choose. Is it easy? Does it pay?
• Whom to date. Whom not to date.

Things, their parents and pastors insist, which’ll affect the rest of their lives. And they can—though in reality, none of these things really have to affect the rest of our lives; it’s not as hard to make radical changes in our lives as it was in previous generations!

Well, I break the “bad news” to them: God gives us free will about an awful lot of things. Including all these “big deals”: Usually he has us choose where to go to school, what to study, our career paths, whom to date, and so forth. He gave us brains to figure all these things out; he’s okay with us using them! It’s called wisdom.

But let’s get real: The only reason we wanna know what God would have us do, is because big decisions are risky and scary. We might be wrong! I get that. Every human gets that. We don’t wanna be wrong, and it feels safe and easy to just hand these decisions over to an omniscient God who always knows the best possible timeline.

Hate to tell you: God doesn’t care. He only wants us to be wise, and follow him. And when we’re doing that—when we’re already obeying God’s commands, and learning how he thinks, it’s way easier to make wise big decisions. ’Cause it’s a lot more obvious when we’ve deviated from wisdom. It’s a lot easier to hear the Holy Sprit’s warnings: “No, don’t go there,” or “Good; keep it up.”

I know; we all wish there were quick fixes, shortcuts, and God overriding us when we’re going the wrong way. We all want simple yes and no answers from God. We want the ability to “live in God’s will,” without actually obeying God’s will. And he doesn’t work like that. He wants his children to obey. It takes obedience.

Sorry if that’s not the easy answer you were hoping for. I tried to keep it simple though.