what is god's will?
Connect With Uswhat is god's will?
Connect With UsHow do you hear God’s voice? How do you know His will?
Here are some easy ways to start to identify God’s voice.
What is God’s will for my ____?
Marriage? Career? Kids? College life?
How many times have you been faced with a difficult decision or circumstance and wondered “what is God’s will for me in this”?
Sometimes, God’s will is very clear, like when He says to not murder, avoid adultery, or give to the poor.
But when we ask questions like: “What job should I take?” “Should we have kids” or “should I marry this person?”, we don’t often get straightforward answers.
For most of us, our questions are met with silence and God’s will feels like a treasure hunt with no map.
Look for where what God is doing around you
lines up with what He is doing inside you.
God’s will can feel really vague. Looking for this intersection can help you start to identify the Holy Spirit’s voice. Here are 4 practical tactics.
What God is Doing Inside You
Tactic #1: Ask God About It
For many of us, our lives are simply too busy, chaotic, and loud to hear God. One reason to pray is to simply get enough space to think deeply and reflect on our lives and about God.
Spending time in prayer, asking God for clarity and being with Him makes us get familiar with His voice.
Here are some helpful questions to consider while praying.
- How do I think Jesus would handle this decision?
- What grabs my heart?
- What do I find myself continually coming back to think about?
- What in my life has contributed to bringing me to this place?
Even if we don’t have clear answers, God uses our prayers to align our desires, hopes, dreams, and convictions with His own priorities. God uses prayer to make us the kind of people who trust Him, even when answers are unclear.
Tactic #2: Know the Bible
How does your decision or choice line up with what God has made clear in the Bible?
Our emotions can run all over the place, and another way to evaluate what God is doing inside of you is to stack what you feel against what God has written in the Bible.
Is your desire or decision in line with the commands or priorities God has set up?
When we spend time reading the Bible, we become more familiar with who God is. And like the ability to pick out our parent’s voice from a crowded room, the more time we spend getting familiar with God’s voice, the more we are able to hear it.
One way to get to know the Bible is to listen to Biblical sermons. Watch relevant, biblical messages now.
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At , we have encouraging sermons to help you see where God is moving in your life. Watch a message online at any time or join us this weekend in .
What God is Doing Around You
Tactic #3: Get Advice
Ask yourself: what do the people I trust say?
As you seek God’s voice, pay attention to the feedback of the people around you. They can see what God is doing in our lives in a unique way, offering perspective we might miss on our own.
That’s why we’re supposed to be having close relationships with mature and wise people who can help us. When you are faced with big decisions, wise counsel from other believers can help you hear God’s will. They can give input, ask good questions, and help see our blindspots.
Proverbs 12:15 says “The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice.”
Even if you get different advice, mature and intentional Christians will give you the multiple perspectives you need to think wisely about the choices you are making.
Tactic #4: Tune into your Opportunities
Ask yourself:
What doors have opened up in my life?
What opportunities are coming my way?
What topic has come up a few too many times to feel like a coincidence?
Sometimes God leads us to His will by placing us in just the right place at the right time. Are the opportunities around you nudging you in a certain direction?
The opportunities around you might be revealing God’s will for your life in ways you didn’t realize.
Not every opportunity is an open door from God, but when the work that God is doing in our hearts aligns with the doors that are opening around us, we should pay attention!