Knowing God’s will may be a difficult concept to grasp. Some may ask, it is possible to know God’s will? It feels like a mountain that is impossible to climb. But even the highest, most impossible climbs have been accomplished.
On a global scale, it’s not likely that we can know God’s will for the entire world. On a personal scale, I believe it is possible to know His will for our lives. It is my opinion that one of the hardest things we are meant to do in this life is to understand and know our Heavenly Father’s will for us personally. The next, and possibly harder thing is to then do His will.
Is it important to know God’s will for our lives? I think it’s not only important, but it’s essential. This life is hard to maneuver through. To maneuver involves action that requires skill, something that is deliberate or planned. It may also involve a purposeful change of course in our lives. The world is a confusing place to be right now. We need guidance from heaven in order to find our way through the commotion. God sees and knows the big picture of life and its’ purposes, He holds the ultimate knowledge and skills to understand what we are going through. We NEED to know His will and understand His purposes for our lives. Making our own judgments about how to find our way in a messy world is just not enough.
I felt so lost as my trial began. For me, turning to the Lord for answers and to know His will for my life was a natural outcome of my desperation to simply continue life, to survive the days. I did not know what to do of my own accord, so I turned to my sweet Father in Heaven because I knew He would know what I should do even if I did not. I wanted to do what He desired of me. I yearned to know His will. My desire to know what He wanted was born out of the despair of my heart. I wanted His will to become my will. I had no other desire because I knew that He was the only way that I could be delivered from this trial. My desire to know the will of my Father in Heaven rose above all other desires in me. Coming to that place of desiring and understanding His will came from the deepest, darkest condition of my soul that I had ever experienced. My desire to know the Lord’s will became my greatest blessing of all the things I learned in my anguish.
The Lord sent me answer after answer of what He wanted me to do. Sometimes these answers would go against what someone else was telling me I should do, and that made it harder to stay focused on the Lord’s will. But I found that as I listened, felt His will and did as the Lord guided, I was blessed with such peace. Things that didn’t seem to have any way of working out did work out. That isn’t to say that life was easy (it was not) as I took the path of following His will, but my children and I were blessed in ways that I couldn’t have imagined or expected. Miracles rose out of the heartache of my life, and I was continually amazed at God’s grace and love for me and my children. It was a line upon line, precept on precept journey, here a little and there a little. I had to be patient and sometimes it was very hard to be patient. I did not have the capacity to see the big picture then, but with eyes that can now look into the past and see how it has all come together, it was an amazing journey!
I’d like to share specific things I learned in my journey to understand, know and do God’s will.
- How can we get to a place in our understanding to know what God’s will is for our lives? It seems like a tall order to fill. Our biggest roadblock to know His will is because of the limitations of our own human nature. It’s not very comfortable to consult with someone else when making decisions for our lives – it takes vulnerability! It is so hard for us to let go of our own desires and listen someone else’s advice. It is not weakness in our characters to listen to advice from someone else who has experience and wisdom. We can trust God to be the most trustworthy individual in our lives to guide us. Letting go of our own desires and doing what God desires for us may be very difficult, yet it is the key to happiness and real peace if do just that. We must be willing to let go of our wants and wishes so that the Lord can send us what He desires for our lives.
- We might wonder…how can I know God’s will? How can I let go of my own agenda? It sounds simple, but it begins with personal communication with God. Pray and ask for help. Knowing God’s will can be accomplished through meaningful, personal prayer as we develop a spiritual connection with our Father in Heaven. As we pray, we “talk” to God. Our supplications must come from our hearts as we openly express our deepest feelings, desires and needs to God. Our genuine prayers will be heard by Him, and when He answers He may not be speaking directly into our ears, but always straight to our hearts. Continual prayers are important – a “one time” prayer will be heard, but isn’t going to establish the relationship we need with Him in order to know His will on a consistent basis.
- In our prayers, we can ask that our desires become His desires. I have done this at times when I knew my own desire was selfish and wasn’t right, and I didn’t how to change it. So I prayed, asking Father to help me understand, and He actually changed my desire to be what He would want it to be. I was having a difficult time feeling kindness toward some individuals I knew. As I prayed, He sent me His desire, and my answer came, with the instruction, “Just love them”. It changed the way I looked at these people and I was able to feel sincere love for them. It was an important progression in my relationship with them, and it was also an important step in my relationship to God. All I had to do was ask with a sincere heart, and the Lord actually changed me for the good. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could see all things as Father sees them? I believe we can, if we turn to Him and truly desire to know His will.
- We also need to remember that His will isn’t always going to be a huge, one-time answer. His will may be that we follow His many, small messages that end up having huge ramifications in our lives. We can’t change our nature’s overnight, but small and regular changes in our behavior and attitudes can make changes in us, causing amazing things happen.! Doing the Lord’s will and following His path will bring about great things in our lives. We may wish there was an app that we could download that brought His messages directly to us each day. But we won’t need it if we attempt to understand the ways of the Lord for ourselves. He can send His messages to us through our minds and hearts. And we need to open our minds and hearts to Him so that we can “hear” what He will tell us.
- The world teaches us to go out and get what we want, when we want it. Though it is important to have confidence and courage in ourselves and work at making things happen in our lives, there is a greater lesson to be learned in trying to know God’s will for our lives. I am not suggesting that we must totally give up who we are, because we are His creation and He loves us. He’s given us certain qualities, strengths and weaknesses that teach us, talents and abilities that can bless us and others. But I know that that in order to receive His will that we must give up some of our earthly desires, our worldly wanderings. We must seek the Lord and try to live as Christ taught.
- The scriptures teach us that in order to know God’s will for our lives, we must be meek, submissive, humble and teachable to receive His word. So often we learn to know the Lord’s will best through trials. Trials are allowed to come into our lives to teach us, we learn through them and from them. As I’ve said before, I learned some of the most important things during my darkest hours. That is the time we are the most teachable, because we are in very humbling circumstances. Our own personalities may not be meek and humble, so we have things that happen in our lives that teach us these qualities. Meek does not mean weak, it means that we are teachable. And humble does not mean that we don’t have any feelings of self-worth. We actually become stronger and more confident as we go through trials, asking the Lord for His help. It may be improbable to think that we become stronger through our infirmities, but I know that it is true.
- Sometimes we see the act of giving our will away to Father as a punishment or a loss of personal freedom. We perceive that giving up our own will is going to be frightening and that we will lose some of ourselves in the process. We may see the commandments as a list of restrictions that keep us from doing what we want to do. God’s commandments are actually set of guidelines given from a loving Heavenly Father who desires that we return to Him. Living the commandments and doing His will makes it possible for us to return to Him and to be in His presence. By giving away our will to do His, we actually become more – more of what our eternal spirits have the possibility to become, thus growing into a more complete and holy being. Heavenly Father’s plan would offer to us all that He has – an eternal life of love, happiness and joy.
- We need to understand that if we don’t give our will to God, we risk the danger of giving our will over to Satan instead. Lucifer intends no goodness in his plan for us. He may appear to promise us fame and fortune, the accolades of men, etc., yet he actually despises us and seeks to make us miserable by making us choose what he would choose for us. Satan masquerades our personal choice as freedom, that if misdirected is actually taking us into his power, which then gives him control over our lives. We lose all real freedom when we choose to follow Satan. He is a liar and cheats us out of our eternal exaltation. He wants us to doubt and fear, making us feel that we lose personal choice by doing Father’s will. All Satan has to offer is an eternity of spiritual imprisonment.
- We should never assume that we know more than God knows. I don’t think the assumption of knowing “more” or knowing “better” than God knows is always recognized in ourselves, but often we think that our lives are totally in our hands, and we can and should make all our decisions on our own without turning to God. We think we know best and God has no place in us or in the decisions we make. If we stop and think about it, do we think that our plan is actually better than God’s plan for our lives? God is exactly that – God. He exists, He is omniscient, omnipresent, He is the supreme being of the universe, He created our world, He knows all things, loves us all unconditionally, and comprehends all things. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are two separate beings, but one in purpose and exalted station. Christ represents his Father so they are often interchangeable in the scriptures. They are referred to together, as one in heart and mind. A friend of mine gave me a plaque one year for Christmas that listed many of the names used in the scriptures for Jesus Christ. Jehovah, King of Kings, Lamb of God, Bread of Life, Emmanuel, Redeemer, Good Shepherd, Messiah, Mediator, Master, Lord of Lords, Light of the World, Savior, Wonderful Counselor, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, Living Water, Advocate, Holy One of Israel and more! All of these descriptive names of Christ describe His place in our lives. He is our shepherd, our light, our counselor, our advocate. Do we not realize what a gift we have in Christ? We are meant to love and worship Him, because He loved us first. We do not teach God “who knoweth all things”, but we are to seek His knowledge and perfect understanding to teach us and bless our lives. Why then are we so resistant to take His advice and do His will?
- Doing the Lord’s will is not always easy – it would be a lie to make such a statement. But doing His will does make our trials and our crosses easier to bear. Submitting to the Lord’s will makes our inner desires more in line with His. It means letting go of our pride, old traditions, the feelings that we have about who we are and letting the down the walls that we create to protect ourselves. Those walls must come down to know the will of the Lord. It takes patience, meekness and a willingness to be taught by the Master. Submissiveness is not easy, but essential. I found that the more I submitted to the Lord’s will during my trial, the more I was blessed with peace. It’s quite a gift to feel peace among chaos.
There is a blessing that often comes from our trials…being brought to a low point in our lives, so we turn to the Lord for guidance. That is the blessing – a crash course as we are lost in this world and need to find guidance from one whose world we ultimately want to be a part of. As we lose ourselves during times of trial, we find ourselves by coming to know our maker, Lord and Redeemer by giving ourselves and desires fully to Him. Matthew 10:39 states it best, “He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.” Bending to His will is a victory for us!