Scripture is clear on the point that it is not only possible for man to learn the will of God, but it
is His desire for us not only to learn but to do His will (see Rom. 12:2; Eph. 5:17; Col. 1:9; 4:12;
Heb. 13:21). It was this-the desire to do God’s will_that ever characterized the Lord Jesus in His
sojourn on earth (Matt. 26:42; John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38; Heb. 10:7,9).

What, then, is the will of God? We might begin by saying that it is in large measure revealed to
us in His Word. We are specifically told that it is God’s will for "all men to be saved, and to come
unto the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:4); that none "should perish, but that all should come
to repentance" (2 Pet. 3:9); that every one that "believeth on Him may have everlasting life" (John
6:39,40); that believers should be brought into relationship with Himself as sons (Eph. 1:5); that
we "should abstain from fornication" (1 Thess. 4:3); that we should be subject "to every ordinance
of man" (1 Pet. 2:13); and that we should give thanks in everything (1 Thess. 5:18). Throughout
Scripture we find commandments given by God to His people; we find statements of those things
with which God is well pleased; and we find many details of the Me of One who always did the
will of His Father. Thus, an excellent and necessary foundation for finding the will of God is
obtained by becoming thoroughly familiar with God’s revealed Word through daily reading,
memorizing, meditating, and making it our own through practicing it in our daily lives. Many
questions as to God’s will for our lives would disappear if we took more pains to become
acquainted with the written Word.

However, we all come to face decisions for which the Bible does not give definite instruction. For
example, (a) whom does the Lord want me to marry? (b) where should I go to college and what
course of study should I take up? (c) should we go to the mountains or to the seashore for our
vacation this year? A general principle for such situations, which has been mentioned once and
again in the preceding articles and which we repeat here for emphasis, is that we must be emptied
of our own desires and preferences before we can begin to look for God to reveal His will for us.
Even in matters where a clue may be found in the Bible as to God’s will for a given situation or
decision, if we turn to the Bible with our own desires in the forefront, we will most likely end up
doing what we wanted to do in the first place, and will have twisted Scripture to fit our
preconceived notions.

Along with emptying ourselves of our own will and preferences, we must take care not to overly
restrict our possible alternatives. Consider again the three questions asked at the beginning of the
previous paragraph. The first one (a) should only be asked in conjunction with the more basic
question, Is it God’s will for me to marry at all? (see 1 Cor. 7:25-40). Similarly, a more basic
question to (b) would be, Is it God’s will for me to go to college in the first place? And finally,
even though we may have spent our vacations either in the mountains or at the seacoast for the
past twenty years, we need to determine, on our knees, whether the Lord wants us to go to either
place; perhaps to attend a Bible Conference or to conduct a vacation Bible School or to visit shut-
ins is His will for our next vacation. Suppose, now, that we are truly emptied of our own will and
preferences. How, in matters other than those specifically addressed in God’s Word, are we to
recognize God’s will for us? It is impossible to give a definite formula as to this since God uses
a variety of means of communicating His mind to us, and the means He uses in communicating

to one person may differ from those He uses for another. It has been pointed out in preceding
articles in this issue that these various means include God’s Word, impressions He puts in our
minds, circumstances, and comments, advice, and counsel given by other persons. Let us rest
assured that if we are desirous of knowing and doing God’s will and are in a proper spiritual state
(for example, emptied of our own will, having a spirit of self-judgment, and obedient to the light
and direction which God has given us thus far), we shall surely recognize God’s will for our lives.

With regard to circumstances, again it must be emphasized that while God may on occasion use
circumstances to show clearly His mind when our own will is absent, it was never intended that
we should put ourselves at the mercy of circumstances (Psa. 32:9). A typical example of this
would be to decide, without first conferring with the Lord, to go on a picnic or to a ball game or
whatever, and then as an afterthought to ask the Lord to prevent us by sending bad weather if it
is not His will that we should go. While the Lord may, graciously, prevent us from going our own
way at times, let us not have the presumption to assume that He will always do so. The Lord
wants us to learn to look to Him for counsel before we make up our own mind.

We need likewise to be cautioned against relying on circumstances in the matter of Biblical
doctrines. I once met a believer who had formed a very strong opinion on a certain doctrinal
point, and justified his position by saying that he had asked the Lord to strike him sick if he was
wrong on that point. Since the Lord had not done so, he took this as conclusive evidence that he
had to be right. Thus he had closed his mind to any possibility of receiving further spiritual light
on the subject.

This leads us, finally, to the matter of "putting out the fleece" to test whether one has the mind
of the Lord (see Judges 6:36-40). It is important to notice that prior to the test involving the
fleece, Gideon had received a clear, often repeated, definite message from the Lord as to what he
was to do (verses 11-21). If he had had more faith he would not have needed confirmation with
the fleece. Yet, God honored Gideon’s desire to know for certain whether he had the mind of the
Lord and thus He responded in a confirmatory way to Gideon’s tests.

The principle for us would seem to be that God encourages our seeking to confirm what we feel
to be His messages to us in the first place. It has been well stated by another:"The boldness of
faith, even when it seems to need confirmatory signs, never offends our gracious God" (S. Ridout
in Lectures on the Book of Judges). In the present day, the Lord may not so much use miraculous
signs as with Gideon to confirm His will, but perhaps more He uses the power of the Holy Spirit
indwelling us to burden our hearts and minds as to what He would have us to do.

May the Lord grant us an increasing desire to know and to do His will in every aspect of our
lives.