“How Do I Discern God’s Will?” – Ken’s talk in Thailand

(This is a talk Ken gave in late January to a group of Interns serving with CCC in Asian countries–adapted here from my notes)

It brings back a lot of memories to be here with you this week. While I haven’t been to Cha’am or anywhere in Thailand before, I was an Intern in Germany 10 years ago and loved the mid-year conference we had in Spain. We were also right on the beach and there were mountains close by. Close enough, in fact, that I went for a hike on my free afternoon while most people went to Grenada…and got lost on my way back, coming down the wrong side of the ridge. I eventually found the highway and made it back to the hotel, but it was well after dark by then and no one knew where I was. Not a smart idea to wander off by yourself in a foreign country, especially before cell phones were everywhere. So, be careful out here! Stick to the beach.

Beside all that, though, I remember it was a refreshing time. Sure, I may have been checking out what girls were on other teams, but I was also starting to think about what I would do when my year was finished. Would I come back? Did I want to go to grad school? Seminary? Join staff? There were a lot of options and I didn’t know what to do. I’m guessing many of you are in this same boat. Asking the question, “What is God’s will for my life?”

(Before I get too far, I want you to know I am speaking as much to myself as to you this morning. Let’s hope it doesn’t end up like me JUST talking to myself or it could be awkward for everyone, but what I mean is this is something Jenny and I still wrestle with too. It is something we are constantly wrestling with).

This is a question we should be asking. As followers of Christ, as disciples, we need to be concerned with this. It is at the heart of a surrendered life, of Lordship, of Jesus as our King. We are called to submit ourselves to God and His plan for our lives…which leads obviously to the question, “what is God’s will and plan for my life?”

It is likely that you have heard a number of talks on “discerning God’s will”, especially if you have been around Campus Crusade for awhile. You may have even given some. It is a seminar that always seems to be full at conferences. Frankly, who isn’t interested in this topic?!

My guess is that, for the most part, you have a pretty good idea how to discern God’s will. I think we already know some principles, like:
-being in line with God’s Word
-seeking godly counsel
-listening to the Spirit
-weighing things in light of our gifts, passions, skills

So, I’m not going to talk about those. If you want to read more about that, there is a great article here.

Maybe you’re thinking, “Wow, that was a short, pointless talk. At least we’ll have lunch sooner”.

You might also be thinking, “Then why does it seem so hard to discern God’s will?!”

That is the part I want to focus on. Because it does feel hard. Why?

The simplest answer is that it requires faith. And our flesh doesn’t like that. We walk by faith, not by sight (2 Cor 5:7). Discerning God’s will is about faith. The reaction of my flesh is fear. This is where we need to apply the gospel to making decisions, to seeking God’s will.

Fear vs. Faith
The greatest struggle I have with discerning God’s will is FEAR. I’m guessing that many of you struggle with the same thing. There is one who doesn’t want us to trust God, to walk by faith. Satan wants us to doubt God, wants us to fear. His desire is to take our focus away from God’s character as trustworthy and toward fear. Here are the most common ways it shows up for me:

1. I fear I will miss God’s will and therefore His blessing.
At the root of this fear is that I think God will only bless me if I make all the right choices. Sometimes we can feel like God won’t ever be with us or bless us again if we choose A instead of B. It sounds pretty absurd when I put it that way, but that is how it can feel. There may be times where we are obviously choosing against God’s will, but we usually know when that’s the case. Just a quick look at Jonah should remind us that even then God offers opportunity for repentance, a chance to trust Him and enjoy His blessing. More often we are faced with less obvious options and think “behind one of these doors lies God’s blessing and behind the rest lie…well, certainly less than that.”

We walk in the Spirit.
How is this different than what we experience every day? Consider how we do with the “minor” decisions we make throughout the day. We are continually making choices – and constantly choosing things that are not God’s will (pick a sin–thinking of ourselves instead of serving others, not speaking hard truth, avoiding opportunities to share the gospel…and on and on). If we expect God to bless us only when we make all the right decisions, we should never expect His blessing!

But God is gracious! We never earn His blessing, but He chooses to bless us out of His love for us. It is only in His grace to us, through Christ, that we experience intimacy with Him.

So, what do we do with this regarding decision making? The same thing we teach our students… 

To walk in the Spirit. We live in moment by moment repentance and dependence on the Spirit. We practice “spiritual breathing“. Even though this is one of the fundamental things we teach we can forget that it applies to our decision making, too. At least I can.

2. I fear I am not spiritual enough to discern His will.
A few years ago at a conference like this one, the speaker was talking about God’s will. At one point he asked all of us a very pointed question, “If you absolutely knew God’s will for your life, would you do it?”

The obvious answer was, “Of course!” But the speaker held up his Bible and boomed, “You’d say ‘Of course I would’, but this book is full of God’s revealed will…what do you do with what you know?!”

A powerfully convicting question, to be sure. And I know what the speaker was getting at. But something else happened in me and maybe it was the same for you as you listened to that. A fear rose in me. The fear was that if I can’t live out what God has clearly commanded in Scripture, what makes me think I can discern His will when it is not clear. That fear was that I was not spiritual enough.

And I’m not.

But Christ is! I am not righteous in my flesh, but Christ has become my righteousness. Paul says in 1 Cor 1:30 that God made Christ Jesus to be our righteousness. Our confidence is not in ourselves, but in the life we have in Christ. This is the heart of the gospel and the answer to our fears of our own deficiency. It is Christ’s sufficiency that we plead before God. We now “have the mind of Christ” (1 C0r 2:16)!

3. I fear He will  be disappointed in me if I don’t get it “right”.
This is related to the first two, but for me strikes at one of my core struggles. This is really a battle over God’s character and how He sees me. And Satan distorts my view of God as one who delights to know me and be with me, replacing Him instead as one who is waiting for me to finally “get it right”.

The decision is not what God is concerned about. Knowing Him is.
As we seek God’s direction, the subtle temptation is to think that it is the decision that God most cares about. Satan wants us to think God’s main concern is that we “get it right” and do things His way. But what God really wants is for us to know Him, trust Him, and delight in Him. The real treasure in seeking God for direction is seeking God Himself, not the decision itself. We can get so lost in what the “right choice” is that we entirely miss that our real blessing is Christ Himself!

This is what John describes in his first epistle. He says: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment…” (1 John 4:18).

John instructs his readers that “God is love” and to “abide in love”. And then reminds them that this love leaves no reason to fear. The more we experience God as He truly is, as Love, fear will vanish. There is no punishment for those in Christ. There is only love. God’s love is perfect. He is not disappointed in us, He delights in us!  

So, as we seek God’s will and direction, that is the lens we use. His love. We must seek to abide with Him, not make all the right decisions.

This was my experience a few summers ago as I was preparing to head back to Germany. I had felt God leading me to take a step of faith a few months earlier, but during our summer cross-cultural training I began to experience hesitance about going. As my coach explored that with me I began to notice that I was more worried about whether or not I was making the right decision than in enjoying God.

Soon, I turned my focus away from the decision and experienced an intimacy with Christ that I had not in a long time. His delight in me, regardless of where or how I served Him, became incredibly real to me. The fear was gone. And in the midst of that I was confident God was not leading me to go.

Around the same time, I heard of a development program at our headquarters and knew that was exactly what I needed to do. I cannot explain it, but I just knew. I was more confident of this than maybe any other time in my life. 

It was a few weeks later I met Jenny, my beautiful wife!

4. I fear He will lead me into something difficult.
There is one other area we can often fear when making decisions. It again is a distortion of God’s character. But as with the serpent in the garden, there is an element of truth that makes the lie that much harder to reject.

Many of us fear that God will lead us into something difficult. And surely a number of you feel like that describes your year pretty well so far. As much as I am thankful for my year in Germany, it was probably the toughest year of my life for a number of reasons. And God led us to these places.

The simple truth is, God’s will is not necessarily toward something easy.

Many refining things in our lives are not. If you hope to be married one day…marriage is not always easy. Shoot, intimacy in any relationship is not easy. Growing more like Christ comes with some pain. To put sin to death in our flesh will hurt. And God will lead us into many difficult things.

But as we are tempted to doubt God’s character we need only look to the cross to remember that Jesus, too, has suffered much following the will of the Father. Jesus went willingly into the most difficult situation of all. It was not easy, but it was best.

And it is a reminder that God has our best in mind. Paul put it this way in Romans 8:

“He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”

 

We can trust God’s character. That is how we can make decisions in faith. 

What about you?
Do you notice any of these fears as you seek God’s leading in your life? Where do you need to apply the gospel?

Who are others (on your team or not) who can process those things with you?