Discovering God's Will

In our lives, we are faced with many decisions.

• Who should I marry?
• Which school should I attend?
• Should I serve in a particular ministry?
• What’s the next step in my career?
• Where is God calling me?

The list goes on and on, and we often wonder, “God, what is the right decision to make? Where do you want to lead me?”

We pray to God and ask, but there are rarely any prophetic dreams, or clear signs that ascertain a specific path to take.

The truth is - God’s plan for our lives is not something we can pick up at a prayer meeting or service. Neither is it dependent on our performance, purity or pedigree. Instead, as we journey and submit ourselves to God, He will lovingly reveal His will and do His work in us.

While we may not receive clear answers to decisions in our lives, God does reveal to us His will in Scripture. As we spend more time in prayer and meditation on His Word, we will begin to discern His will for us, and He will give us wisdom to make decisions that honour Him and assure us that He loves us and is guiding us each and every step of the way.

In this blog post, I would like to share two key components of God’s will for all believers that I have discovered in the Scripture. I will also share scriptures that assure us that God has the best plans for us, so that we can trust in Him in every season of our lives.

Key #1: God’s Will is For Us to Know Him

When we receive Jesus into our lives, we are not only receiving forgiveness for our sins. We also receive a new life that is rooted in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, our Living Saviour. God created us not to live in isolation. Rather, we were created to know Him and His love.

In John 17:3 (NIV), Jesus said “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” 

Eternal life is not only about life beyond our present time on Earth. Instead, we experience eternal life – life to its fullest – today, when we know Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit intimately.

In Ephesians 3:16-19 (NIV), Paul’s heartfelt prayer for the Ephesians was this “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

In Paul’s prayer, we catch a glimpse that God desires for us to be rooted in His love, so that we may grasp how infinitely worthy, priceless, and satisfying, is the love of Christ. This was also Paul’s main goal, as he declared, “…I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord…” (Philippians 3:8 - NIV).

From these verses, we understand that God desires for us to know Him intimately. But what does it mean to know God? And how do we know God more and more?

(a) We Can Know God Personally, Only Because of His Supernatural Intervention

In 2 Corinthians 4:4 (NIV), it says “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

The Bible tells us that sin not only separates us from God, but that Satan deceives and blinds men from truly knowing and seeing the glory of God. However, as believers, Jesus assures us in John 14:17 (NIV) and John 17:26 (NIV), that we do know Him.

John 14:17 (NIV), “the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”

John 17:26 (NIV), “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

We can know God personally, not because of any merit and act on our part, but because He gave us a new heart, and because the Holy Spirit now lives in us.

(b) We Can Know God Personally Through His Word

In John 1:1 (NIV), the Apostle John tells us that Jesus is God, and He is also the Word of God, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

In John 1:14-15 (NIV), John further expounds, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Jesus Christ is the Living Word of God, the personification of God’s revelation. As we read the Bible with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, God will reveal more of Himself to us. As we receive these revelations of who He is, we behold God’s love, glory, Holiness, peace, grace and all His goodness in ever-increasing measure…

Romans 12:2 (NIV) says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

We receive the first key component of God’s will. He wants us to receive eternal life – life to the full – which is to truly and personally know God. This is a process and a lifelong journey. It involves the renewing of our minds through His Word.

We have access to know Him through the Holy Spirit in us, through prayer and His Word. Let us pursue to know Him more. For the richness of God’s love and glory, is worthy and inexhaustible.

Key #2: God’s Will Is For Us To Share in His Glory

Did you know? We are called not only to glorify and know God, but we are all called to share in His glory. All of us who belong to God have received His glory. This is no matter of our existing imperfections, our external appearances, or how others may view us.

In John 17:22 (NIV), Jesus says, “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one”

The glory that we received is the glory of the indwelling Spirit of Christ. God desires that individually and collectively as the Church – which is His Body, demonstrate His glory in us, through an outward manifestation of a spirit-led, godly life – full of grace and truth. 

It is the highest privilege and joy, that as we know God, we become more and more like Him – experiencing His freedom, love, and all of Him - and manifesting His glory to the watching world.

His glory has not yet been made fully manifested in us. God’s glory in us will be fully manifested when Christ returns again to redeem us from our mortal bodies. He redeems us to a new spiritual body – not a mere bodiless spirit, not mere flesh and blood, but a new body like Christ’s body, perfectly suited for constant spiritual fullness and for life in a new heaven and new earth. 

We see a preview of this in Romans 8:18-21 (NIV) where it says, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.”

This is our secured hope – that we will be redeemed to forever enjoy an intimate communion with God and partake in His glory. This is also God’s will as we are here on Earth. To walk in the Spirit and increasingly share in His glory.

2 Corinthians 3:18 (NIV) aptly captures God’s will for us to increasingly share in His glory. It says, “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

How wonderful is this? We are not purposeless in life. We do not simply eat, work, and rest. There is more. We are made and called to know our Creator God who loves us, and increasingly share in His glory. This is God’s call for us as we journey this life with Him.

Question: Will God Care for My Needs and Desires?

At this point, you may agree that God’s plan for us is to continue to know Him and share in His glory. However, a very real concern that all of us have is, will God care for our needs and desires?

We all have very real needs, for food, for shelter, for protection for ourselves and our loved ones and more. We also have desires, to enjoy loving relationships, to be healthy, to enjoy pleasurable things in life and more.

The reality is that we live in a fallen world, where there is death, suffering, unmet needs, selfish and sinful desires and troubles. Even if a man has all his needs met, He will never truly be satisfied apart from God.

The good news is that, in this fallen world, God is our constant. He loves us and He cares for our needs. He desires for us to have life – and life to the full. God also cares for our wants. But He may not provide for them in the way we expect, as He knows what is truly best for us. Here are a few scriptures that I pray will comfort us in their affirmation that God cares for our needs and desires:

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10 - NIV)

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33 - NIV)

“Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4 - NIV)

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:7-11 - NIV)

As you seek to know Him and make Him known, you can take hold of these promises that God cares and will provide for you.

Question: But How Do I Know If I’m Making the Right Choices in Life?

It is wonderful to know God’s will and to know that He cares for us. However, one concern that still often enter our minds is - how do we know if we are making the right choices? Which is the right school, the right job, the right spouse, the right ministry?

God does not usually give us a clear answer in these decisions. He may lead us to a specific call at a point in our lives, but otherwise, God allows us to make choices.

We do not have to live in fear of making wrong choices. Instead, as we know God’s call to know Him and share in His glory, as we know that He cares for us, as we know that we can seek Him and trust that we will receive His wisdom, He will guide us to make right choices in life.

Sometimes, we may make choices that result in pain, choices that are sinful and displeasing to God. Even then, we do not have to be lost or paralyzed. We can repent, continue to look to God, and be assured that God continues to work in our lives.

Amidst the uncertainty, you can be certain that He works in all things – all choices, all circumstances, everything – for your good and for His glory. Romans 8:28 (NIV) says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Closing Thoughts

God’s will for us is to pursue and be satisfied in God himself. Let’s us continue to seek Him. For He holds our future, and He is our exceedingly great reward.

As the Apostle Paul considered all things a loss compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ, may we desire to know Him and share in His glory more and more.

This is our assurance as we journey through life with God:

• He will guide you.
• He will be with you.
• He cares and will provide for you.
• He understands and knows you.
• He will work in all things for your good.
• He will eventually redeem you to fully enjoy His presence and share in His glory.

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Joel Isaiah Koh

Joel serves with Cru Media Ministry and worships at Hope Church Singapore.

He likes cold jokes, good Japanese food, and loves reading the Bible.

As part of his time of reflection, Joel writes and journals