Sermon preached on Sunday, January 12, 2014 at Garden Valley Chapel during our morning worship service based on 1 Tim 2:3-4; Eph 5:17-18.

The one question dominating most Christians today is:

How can I know the will of God for my life?
or
How do I know what God wants me to do?

You may have had someone quote this verse to you or you may have already memorized it and it has become a favorite.

As God addressed the conduct of His people while in exile, promoting the welfare of their society and government while waiting for their return home, He promises His people in Jeremiah 29:11 –

11 ‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.

His promise was that their exile would one day come to end. The Lord adds in Jer 31:17 -

17 “There is hope for your future,” declares the Lord, “And your children will return to their own territory.

During the captivity, recalling God’s compassion gave Jeremiah hope and so he writes in Lam 3:21-24 -

21 This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope.
22 The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in Him.”

*The promises of God give us hope. God knows what He is doing and He has a plan for your life, but the question still remains in our hearts at times, “what are those plans for my life.”

I believe every believer longs to know those plans and more importantly do them to the glory of God.

David expresses this truth in Psalm 143:10 –

10 Teach me to do Your will, For You are my God; Let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.

David settles the priorities. They should be on pleasing God not self-fulfillment. *Life is about pleasing God and finishing His work.

But we need help along the way. We need guidance. And David knows it and so he prays, “let your good Spirit lead me.”

Our blessed Lord Himself set the example. He walked in the path of obedience. In fact, no greater pattern or model for obedience to the will of God could ever be given than Christ Himself.

Even on the eve of His crucifixion He prayed, “not as I will, but as You will” (Matt 20:22).

People refer to it as the Lord’s Prayer, but it is really the disciple’s prayer in Matt 6:9 – “your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Yet some treat God’s will as if it is lost somewhere you are to go searching for it as it were some Indiana Jones movie “In Search for the Holy Grail.”

Some think that you have to find God’s will through some mystical experience or some miracle – spin a globe and where it lands is where you ought to move or take a year book and open it up some page to find out who you are going to go to the dance with.

Some are simply afraid to find out what God’s will is for their life as to what it will mean. Some athlete might be afraid of God’s will because he might think that God would want him give up his sport or be in a hospital bed for the rest of his life because of some accident.

The thinking is that God is out to kill joy in your life.

Some people believe that God has a Plan A, and if that doesn’t work out there is still Plan B, and if that doesn’t work out there is always plan C.

And so they use Romans 12:2 in this fashion –

2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Plan A (perfect) would be so and so to marry.
Plan B (acceptable) would be so and so to marry.
Plan C (good) would be so and so to marry.

This is all what is out there in people’s minds when it comes to find God’s will. But I believe that you can know God’s will and you can be certain of it.

If God has a will for your life, He must want us to know it, right?
And so if He does want you know what His will is for your life, where would you find it?

Answer: The Bible; His Word; In Scripture

I want to give you six principles to know God’s Will for your life.