God’s Will For Your Life

It is a privilege for you to be called a child of God, but if you don’t understand this, you will not have the influence or resources God has for you. With so many things in life vying for our attention and so many different voices trying to influence and direct our choices, to control our actions, it can be challenging to know what we should do when the circumstances and challenges of life arise.

When you don’t understand who you are, you deprive yourself of what God has for you. You will not walk by faith with trust in God, His love for you, and His plan for your life, but that is one of the most important things we can do as believers. We are told to walk(live) by faith, with confidence and trust in God, and not by what we see or feel.

“For we walk by faith, not by sight.” – 2 Corinthians 5:7

God has destined you for greatness, but you must sustain and grow your faith and trust in Him. Faith and trust go hand in hand on your journey through life and in your walk with God. They are complementary and inseparable; without one, the other wanes. People often use the words “faith” and “trust” interchangeably, but trust is not the same as faith.

Scripture defines faith as “…the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1). It is the confidence that God can and will do what He says in His Word, even when all evidence points to the contrary. Not just for the pastors and preachers, the ministers, or evangelists, but for you.

God gives every believer a measure of faith (Romans 12:3), but trust is earned and developed through our relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. Without faith, you will never build and establish trust because faith leads to trust and confidence. It is the foundation of our belief system, but we build trust through our relationship with Jesus over time.

Trusting in God’s will is the most important thing we can do as believers, but faith and trust require an act of will. You must make the choice to have faith or trust in God when challenges and problems show up. You believe something to be true and place your trust in it—choose to rely on it. Trust that God knows best and only wants what is best for us.

It is easy to say, “trust in God’s will,” but what exactly is God’s will for your life? How do you know? God is not trying to hide His will from us; He wants to reveal it, and His primary way to tell us his will is through His word, the Bible (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Through the Bible, we learn who God is, how we should live, and His plan (will) for our lives.

We aren’t here by accident, and God did not make a mistake. God created you and me with a divine purpose and plan. He has a plan for us! Isn’t that comforting? I know that it is for me. With so much going on in life, it can be overwhelming to figure out what you should do. Knowing God is always there for me, with a plan for my life, is very comforting and makes Jeremiah 29:11 one of my favorite scriptures.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” – Jeremiah 29:11(NIV)

Things may not appear to be working well in your life, and some of the things God allows on your life path are painful, but there is good working in you, and all things will work for your good if you trust and rely on Him. God called and complimented you as good and put it in you to perform good works. We are here to be used by God to do good works and relate to Him.

“For we are His workmanship [His own master work, a work of art], created in Christ Jesus [reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, ready to be used] for good works, which God prepared [for us] beforehand [taking paths which He set], so that we would walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us].” – Ephesians 2:10 (AMP)

As believers, His will and desire are to be in a loving relationship with us and for us to perform good works. It is through Jesus Christ and His sacrifice that our relationship with God is restored, but we have to do our part to grow, strengthen and develop the relationship. You must understand your relationship with God and learn how to relate to Him. A healthy relationship requires time, communication, and consistency. Your relationship with God, with Jesus, is the same. You should spend time getting to know Him by studying His word, communicating through prayer, and consistently seeking Him by faith.

When you spend time getting to know God through His word, you will find the word getting into you and your mind beginning to transform. Your mindset and ways of thinking start to align with God’s word, and you begin to develop the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16). You get to know God better, and the better you know Him, the more you become familiar with His will and desires and attract the things He has for you.

When you know someone, they don’t have to be there to tell you what to do or say in every situation. You will develop a sense of what they would say, and if you’re like me, you’ll even hear it in their voice. The same is true when you spend time getting to know God. We know Him, which helps us understand His will and increase our faith in Him. As a result, we will begin to live, speak, and act as we have designed, leading to good works.

As you get to know God through His word, it is important to spend time communicating with Him. In our walk with Jesus, that communication takes the form of prayer. When you pray, you get to know God, and when you know Him, you will grow in love for Him. Prayer is communication with God, our heavenly Father. As believers, we must understand that we aren’t just sinners saved by grace; we are children of the most-high God.

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” – 1 John 3:1 (ESV)

Always acknowledge whom you are when praying to Him and speak from your word position, as His child, and not from your present conditions. God is not looking for a reason to get you, to tear you down, or keep something from you, but is trying to get something good for you, to you, according to His plan. You don’t need to understand how it will work, but you need to trust in the one doing the work. Pray according to the known will of God in faith, and He will answer you. You can pray in faith for it when you know it is His will.

“And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” – 1 John 5:14-15 (ESV)

When you’re praying in faith for something, you will encounter obstacles. Faith requires obstacles to grow, and when you are praying for something and standing on your faith, you will have a faith fight. Everything around you will feel like it fights against you. Especially your thoughts and feelings.

If you speak by faith, faith shows up, but it is up to you to receive it. Do not let the other voices, or your past failures and experiences, cause you to limit God’s ability in your eyes. Allow yourself to hear and receive what He has for you. You have to release your faith to acquire what you ask for. What God wants to happen in your life is not automatic (Matthew 6:9-10). It requires persistent prayer and acts of faith. You have to believe to receive and speak it by faith in prayer.

Persistent, unwavering faith and acts of faith can answer anything you lack. Trust in God, abide in His word and release your faith through prayer. Don’t tie the answer to your prayers to your ability or ask others’ permission for what God has promised. Don’t try to direct God’s work. You don’t need to understand how it will work, but you must trust the one doing it. Be persistent in your prayer according to the known word of God and act in faith. Let God lead you on the path He has for you, and you will never lack what you need.

 

Writing this article has helped me discover areas in my own walk with God that I need to work on and surrender to His will. I pray that it also helped to encourage you. Keep an eye out for my next article, where I go over “Trusting God’s Will For Your Life.”

The information expressed above are excerpts from the sermon “God’s Will For Your Life” preached by Dr. Lee A. Simpson. You can listen to the complete sermon on our YouTube channel.