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At this point in our discussion, you may still be wondering exactly how the Lord is going to reveal His Will to you. To be honest, how and when He will do this for you personally, I cannot say. After all, I am not in your situation. You are. However, allow me to review and expand upon the points we have already discussed, plus introduce a few new ones. I hope that this will help you to establish God's will for your life:

1. Begin by submitting yourself to God and having no will of your own. In addition to Romans 12:1-2 -- which I mentioned earlier -- here is another verse for your consideration:

"Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."


2. Look for possible opportunities which might point in the direction God wants you to take. Some Christians refer to these as "open doors". Here is a good verse from the Book of Isaiah:

"And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left."


3. Take note if the Lord is providing the means for you to go in that particular direction. Here again is a verse I shared with you in part one:

"But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."


4. If you have the faith for it, do as Gideon did and ask the Lord for some specific sign of confirmation. The more specific you are regarding your desired sign, the more you will obviously be convinced that something is God's Will, should He fulfill your sign:

"And he said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, then shew me a sign that thou talkest with me."


5. Look for similar examples or situations in the Scriptures which may shed light on what God's Will might be for you. As the Apostle Paul wrote to both the Roman and the Corinthian brethren, we can learn important lessons from events of the past:

"For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:"


"Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted . . . Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come."


6. Take counsel with those Christians who may be older in the Lord than you are. They may possess experiences, wisdom and insights which you do not yet possess. The Bible is full of Scriptures which encourage this practice. Here are a few of them:

"Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety."


"Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established."


"For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war: and in multitude of counsellors there is safety."


"But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established."


"This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established."


7. Listen to the still small voice of God speaking to your heart. It takes time to learn to recognize it, but you will eventually. In my experience, it seems that Satan usually speaks in a rather loud, intrusive voice which seems to be more directed at your head. The Lord, on the other hand, speaks in a quiet, almost imperceptible voice to your heart. It is not something audible that you hear with your ears. It is something you sense deep within. At least that is how it has been with me. Consider what happened to the Prophet Elijah:

"And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire A STILL SMALL VOICE."


As I said, I don't know how else to describe this process other than to say that it is a Voice very deep within you. In my case, sometimes I will wake up in the morning with Scriptures coming to me which I need to add to an article I have already written. Some of my poetry comes in this way as well. It is almost as if sometimes I wake up in the middle of a conversation with the Lord, or with one of His Angelic Agents, or with the Voice of His Spirit. Whatever you want to call it. And it isn't always just when I wake up in the morning. I can be sitting on the john, or washing dishes, or cooking, and something will pop into my head, forcing me to rush to my computer before I forget it.

Now, mind you, I am by no means any kind of spiritual giant. But I do know that the Lord does speak to me with Scriptures all the time. If it does not contain the Word, I tend to be kind of doubtful that it is the Lord. But beware, because Satan also knows the Word and can quote it as well. Remember Jesus' temptation by Satan in the wilderness of the Jordan River Valley?

At any rate, I am certain that you will know what the Lord's Will is for your life if you are prayerfully -- and patiently -- watching and waiting for Him to reveal it to you. It goes without saying that this can be the hardest part of finding God's Will. That is, doing the waiting. In this day and age of fast living, instant gratification and short attention spans, it seems we are always in a hurry to get things done. For some of us, patience is a very rare virtue. However, the Bible is full of verses which exhort us to strive to exercise this virtue, and to patiently wait on the Lord. It is when we patiently wait on the Lord that all of our needs will be met. It is when we patiently wait on the Lord that He will also reveal His Will to us. Consider this nice group of verses:

"But LET PATIENCE HAVE HER PERFECT WORK, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing."


"‭‭WAIT ON THE LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.‭"


"Rest in the LORD, and WAIT PATIENTLY FOR HIM: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass."


"[To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.] I WAITED PATIENTLY FOR THE LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry."


"The LORD is good unto them that WAIT FOR HIM, to the soul that seeketh him."


"For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in QUIETNESS AND IN CONFIDENCE shall be your strength: and ye would not."


"IN YOUR PATIENCE possess ye your souls."


"For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we WITH PATIENCE wait for it."


"For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be FILLED WITH THE KNOWLEDGE OF HIS WILL in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;"


"We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers; Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and PATIENCE OF HOPE in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;"


"And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the PATIENT WAITING for Christ."


"But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, PATIENCE, meekness."


"And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who THROUGH FAITH AND PATIENCE inherit the promises. For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after he had PATIENTLY ENDURED, he obtained the promise."


"Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For YE HAVE NEED OF PATIENCE, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry."


"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us RUN WITH PATIENCE THE RACE that is set before us,"


"BE PATIENT therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath LONG PATIENCE for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. BE YE ALSO PATIENT; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door. Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of PATIENCE. Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the PATIENCE OF JOB, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy."


"I know thy works, and thy labour, and THY PATIENCE, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and HAST PATIENCE, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted . . . I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy PATIENCE, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first."


In light of all of the previous verses, can there be any doubt then that patience is a very important virtue when it comes to serving the Lord? That brings us right back to the verses I shared earlier in part two from Paul's Epistle to the Romans. Once the Lord has revealed His Will to you, you have to be yielded enough to Him to want to do it. You have to present your body as a living sacrifice to Him. You must be willing. Otherwise, all of the waiting will have been to no avail. There is no use in asking the Lord what His Will is if you have no intentions of doing it once He reveals it to you.

So we must ask ourselves: What if we choose not to obey the Lord in something He reveals to us? In the case of some important lesson He might be trying to teach us, failure on our part to yield this area to Him will probably result in our spiritual growth being stunted. We may continue to grow in other areas, but it may be lop-sided growth. For example, we may have great knowledge of the Word, but we may be very short on patience. This could affect our ability to minister the Word of God to others in an effective manner. Or perhaps we are great at singing praises to the Lord, but we have a terrible problem with being critical and judgmental of others.

As I have said previously, it really comes down to personal choice. If we offer resistance, the Lord may still take us where we are at and try to use us as best as He can, but it may not be His best and highest calling for our lives. Using the example of the river again, we may still be swimming in the Great River of His Will, but we might not be in the part of the River where we can do the most good. That is, where we can save the most people from drowning in their own sins. This is indeed tragic. But under this present Age of Grace, God will not force Himself, or His Will, upon anyone.

One final area worth covering in this series concerns those people who either choose not to serve the Lord when it is offered to them, or who insist on doing something which they know in their hearts is not God's Will.

In the case of the former, let me remind you again of the story of the rich man who we discussed in part one. One thing we discover is that the rich young ruler appears to have a high opinion of himself. Maybe he is a little self-righteous. Outwardly, he feels that he has done all of the right things in order to inherit Eternal Life. After all, he tells Jesus "All these things have I kept from my youth up." But then he makes a mistake when he continues to prod Jesus with one last question: "What lack I yet?" The man is apparently feeling good about himself. But then the Lord is forced to expose the insincerity in the man's questions. Here again is the final outcome of the story, as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew:

"The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions."


Rather than experiencing the joy which one acquires when following the Lord, this man went away sorrowful. He is but one example of those people who come to the Light, but then refuse to continue to bathe in its midst when they realize that there's a heavy price to pay. In a symbolic sense, the rich man was probably cast upon God's junk heap reserved for those people who were simply found unfit for full-time Discipleship. Think of how his whole attitude must have changed after that encounter with Jesus. His whole world of plastic self-righteous living must have been blown apart by the Lord's revealing words. After all, as we are told in the Epistle to the Hebrews:

"For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."


It is a sad thing to fail the Lord; particularly when we know we have failed Him, and have to live with that thought for the rest of our days. Of course, as with the Parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke chapter fifteen, the Lord is always willing to take us back into His arms of fellowship, once we come to our senses and acknowledge our mistakes. In the Old Testament, we are told many times that the Lord is married to the backslider. Consider this verse from the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah:

"Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:"


As I explain in the article "OSAS: Are We Once Saved, Always Saved?", contrary to the belief which is held by certain Christians, I am not convinced that God loses His children. I believe that He will no more permanently cast us off, than we will abandon our own flesh children. We may be angry with them for a time, and we may have to chastise them, but if we are true parents, and if we really love them, we will always find a place in our hearts to receive them back again. Our Heavenly Father is the same way, as becomes evident by the following set of verses:

"All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."


"And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand."


"Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."


But what about those people who go against God's Will and do something they know is not of Him? The Bible offers a very clear answer to this issue, as we have already seen in the example of stubborn King Saul. Another example can be found in the story of Ahab, the King of Israel, who was insistent on fighting his enemies the Assyrians. All of the false prophets had encouraged the king, telling him that the Lord was with him, and would grant him victory. This man was not really interested in what the Lord had to say. His mind was already made up.

However, when Ahab counseled with Jehoshaphat -- who was the King of Judah -- Jehoshaphat voiced some reservations. So he called for a Prophet of God by the name of Micaiah. At first, Micaiah lied; probably to save his own skin because he knew that the King of Israel -- meaning Ahab -- did not like him. However, when Jehoshaphat insisted on hearing the truth, it was then that Micaiah informed them that God had sent a lying spirit into the mouths of all of Ahab's false prophets. As a result of his boldness in speaking the truth, Ahab had poor Micaiah thrown into prison. The chapter concludes with Ahab dying at the hands of his Assyrian enemies. If you wish to read the whole story, it can be found in 1 Kings chapter twenty-two.

While the story of King Ahab is an extreme example, it does highlight a key point in our current discussion; and that is that if you are so stubborn that you will consciously and purposely go against what the Lord knows is best for you, if you rebel against His Will, then you must be prepared to pay the consequences. Not only that, but as we learned in part two, the Lord might even choose to allow you to believe your delusion, just like when He sent the lying spirit to deceive the false prophets of King Ahab. Sadly, as we also discussed earlier, this very same condition exists in our world today. So many people have rejected Scriptural Truth, and embraced so many modern lies, that God is allowing them to live their delusions.

So, as can be seen, knowing what the Will of the Lord is or isn't, is indeed an important issue; particularly if you are a Bible-believing Christian. Following through on what He shows you is equally as important. But, if you are not yet sure what God's Will is for your life, then as we discussed previously, just be patient and wait until He does show you. Don't try to move ahead in your own strength. And while you are waiting for God's answer, do what you already know you are supposed to be doing. Be a faithful witness in whatever capacity you can. As Jesus said:

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."


That is something which you can do anywhere, anytime, while you are waiting on the other.

With these thoughts, I will bring this article to a close. It is my hope that you have found it informative, enlightening, and I pray that it has been a blessing in your life as well. If you have an account with Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or with any other social network, I would really appreciate if you'd take the time to click or tap on the corresponding link that is found on this page. Thanks so much, and may God bless you abundantly!

For additional information and further study, you may want to refer to the list of reading resources below which were either mentioned in this article, or which contain topics which are related to this article. All of these articles are likewise located on the Bill's Bible Basics web server. To read these articles, simply click or tap on any link you see below.

Age of Deception, Age of Delusion
All Are Given a Chance, But . . .
Are You a Burning Ember for the Lord?
Are You Crucified With Christ?
Are You Redeeming the Time?
Christian Witnessing: Winning the Sheep and Waging the Warfare!
Free Will and Personal Choice
Is Jesus the Only Begotten Son of God?
Is the Message of Salvation Meant for All Men?
Many Are Called, But Few Are Chosen
Message to the World
Not Everyone is a Child of God
OSAS: Are We Once Saved, Always Saved?
Parable of the Sower: Salvation and Service
So You Really Think You Are So Humble?
Study, Work and Don't Be Ashamed
The Only Credentials You Need!
This Little Light, Glory of the Lord and Our Bright Future

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