This is a follow-up post from yesterday… “When God Contradicts Us.”

There are some things I KNOW are God’s will… without a doubt!  I know it is God’s will that: I don’t steal… or commit adultery… commit murder… or covet.  I KNOW I am to keep the Sabbath Holy… that Jehovah is my only God… and I’m not to take God’s name in vain.  I know it is God’s will that I see others as more important than myself… love others… forgive my enemy… treat others with kindness… forgive others as I have been forgiven… be merciful… along with everything else contained in God’s Word.  Get that?  Whatever is IN GOD’S WORD I am 100% sure IS God’s will for my life.

Past those things… I cannot say with the same 100% certainty what IS or IS NOT God’s will.  I can have a certain degree of certainty.  I can come to a reasonably good conclusion that it seems God would have me do this or that.  Truth be told… in the major decisions of my life (Except for God’s call to salvation and the ministry)… at best I’ve been 90% sure of what God’s will was (And those are the times I feel really good about what to do!).  Usually I operate in the 80% range (give or take).

THINK!  90% of the decisions we are faced with are NOT directly revealed in Scripture.  Do I marry that person or not?  Do I choose this career or that one?  Do I buy this house or that one?  Those questions and a thousand more are NOT directly addressed in Scripture… are they?  No, they’re not.

It is NOT faith to know something for 100% certain before you follow God.  That is the anti-thesis of faith!!  Faith is going forward… trusting God… without having all your questions or doubts answered!!  Abram didn’t know where he was going… all God told Him was, “Go to the land that I will show you.”  Moses didn’t have all his questions answered to his satisfaction before acting in obedience… God said, “I will be with you!”  THAT is faith!  Faith is following God WITHOUT having ALL your questions answered!

So how do we KNOW God’s will?  As one pastor I highly respect said… “Your standing in it!”  He said God’s will is not so much something He reveals as it is something He DOES.  “God works all things in accordance to His will” (Ephesians 1:11 b)… ” I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me…  My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all My purpose…” (Isaiah 46:9-10).  “God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).

Since those things are true, I rest that somehow… ultimately… at the end of the day… when everything is said and done… I AM ultimately in God’s will.  I rest in that even when what I see, think, or feel contradicts what I know in my head from Scripture!  Thus I “Trust in the Lord with all my heart and do not lean ON MY OWN understanding” (Proverbs 3:5).  How else am I to explain and/or understand the things that take place in my life I DIDN’T plan or expect other than (Somehow, someway) God IS working out HIS will in my life (Phil 2:13)?!  Am I to think Satan is in control somehow?  NO!

So therefore… God contradicts my human subjectivity.  He contradicts what I see with my eyes.  He contradicts what others tell me… what other people think… what I feel… my uncertainty… my fear… my anxiety… my lack of faith!  THINK!  It takes MUCH more faith to not be sure… to NOT have all your questions answered… and still follow God.  I might be perplexed about circumstances… but I DO NOT DOUBT GOD WHO CONTROLS THE CIRCUMSTANCES!

Then how do we KNOW God’s will?  We live by faith.  We obey what God has revealed in Scripture.  We trust Him in all things.  After all… we are standing in God’s will.  Because I am standing in God’s will… I am affirmed by Him according to His Truth (And the same is true for every Christian).