How To Discern God's Will

So this will be lesson number five in our discernment series and the question we're going to be looking at is how do

I? discern God's will and notice I said, how do I Discern God's will not how do

I know for a fact? but how do I try and discern what it is because we have to We have to wrestle with our own thoughts and feelings of what

I think God is Doing and what I think God is trying to tell me so this is a matter of discerning

The answer so this is probably one of the most Common questions that pastors get people will ask how do

I know God's will for my life? And there is a biblical answer, but before we look at it

I want to look at how they discern God's will in the Old Testament because things were a little different back then

So we're going to look at some biblical examples in the Old Testament scriptures of how they discerned the will of God There were many different ways

They did that but today for New Testament Christians people will typically say

Follow the leading of the Holy Spirit right isn't that kind of the that's the answer I would expect

Follow the leading of the Spirit, which is great advice. That's the right proper advice

But how do you go about doing that right, and how do you discern between the

Holy Spirit and your own spirit and How you feel I mean, that's that's the challenge

So this is why I think it's important to look at these Old Testament Examples and sort of get a baseline of how people in the

Bible discerned God's will so here's a list If you take notes you can write this down there were several ways people discern

God's will in the Old Testament they included number one the casting of lots

Number two they would discern God's will through dreams and visions

Number three they used the Urim and the Thuman or at least the high priest used those objects

Number four they might lay out what we would say lay out a fleece or ask

God for a sign Also number five they would discern God's will through the words the message of the prophet and Then six last but certainly not least they would look to God's written word

The Torah God's law and then of course it expanded with the writings of the prophets etc

And there's overlap between the prophets and God's Law, so let's turn to Joshua 18

We'll look at a biblical example of the casting of lots so in Joshua they cast lots to Determine you know which

Israelite tribe got which land so casting lots is a very common practice in ancient times and We're not really sure what it was

The way it's described, and this is why I have dice on the board How do

I discern God's will well just roll the dice well don't do that okay, but Casting lots.

We don't know what it is, but it sort of sounds like it's similar to Rolling dice.

I'm not saying that is it nobody knows But that's what it sort of sounds like and even the

Apostles Casted lots in the New Testament remember to replace Judas Iscariot They casted lots and chose

Matthias But after the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost that practice seems to be no more so look at Joshua 18 6 through 10

Casting lots was something that God sanctioned Joshua 18 verse 6 you shall therefore survey the land in Seven parts and bring the survey here to me that I may cast lots for you here before the

Lord our God But the Levites have no part among you for the priesthood of the Lord is their inheritance in Gad Reuben and the half tribe of Manasseh have received their inheritance beyond the

Jordan on the east Which Moses the servant of the Lord gave them? Then the men arose to go away and Joshua charged those who went to survey the land saying go walk through the land

Survey it and come back to me that I may cast lots for you here before the

Lord in Shiloh So the men went passed through the land and wrote in the survey

Wrote the survey in a book in seven parts by cities and they came to Joshua at the camp in Shiloh then

Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before the Lord and there

Joshua Divided the land to the children of Israel according to their division so Casting lots was definitely one of the ways they discerned the will of God and it's not just that they did it because there's a lot of things that people did in the

Old Testament that Weren't necessarily the right thing to do. This is something that was clearly

It was sanctioned God approved of it in Proverbs 16 33 It says the lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from the

Lord So God approved of this practice of casting lots But again in the

New Testament after the Spirit came at Pentecost, you don't see anybody doing it from there on out and throughout church history

Christian teachers have pretty much all agreed that we don't we don't encourage this and again

Nobody really knows what it was anyway, so you wouldn't be able to do it, even if you tried All right.

So any questions on casting lots? Ray One of the things

I seem to have noticed is that when you cast lots biblically There are no losers

So, you know, there's not one guy wins and 5 ,000 people lose

Yeah Okay Yeah, that's a good.

That's a good point So the next way people discern God's will in the Old Testament was through dreams and visions

So we don't have time to look up examples for every point here But when I think about this,

I think of how God revealed his will to Joseph, right? Joseph son of Jacob God gave him dreams and if you remember his dreams were not well received by his family in part

Those dreams are what led to him being sold into slavery, but God told Joseph Joseph knew it was the

Lord's will that he would be exalted So it was that knowing God's will along with Joseph's faith that Really got him through all those hard times because he knew what

God was gonna do He didn't know how or or when but he knew the will of God because God told him in a dream

Okay, and then obviously visions you think of the book of Daniel God revealed his will through visions for the children of Israel And I think this is a good time to add that Just because these things were happening in the

Old Testament, you know, God giving Joseph dreams Of course, he gave dreams to the New Testament Joseph as well

The stepfather of Jesus just because God revealed his will to them through dreams

That does not mean that he will do that for us I mean, I realize most of you all of you probably know that but you know

There are some people who assume they see something in the Bible Oh God gave These people dreams and revealed as well.

So my dreams must mean something. I mean, this is the way some people think well your dreams

Maybe they mean something and you could talk to a you know, psychologist or something they could tell you and they might be

I don't encourage that either but You know, they might be right they might be wrong

Could God reveal his will to us in a dream? You know, it's possible

But these were unique events. So Point is you should not look at your dreams as you know,

God trying to Speak to you or something like that. There are a lot of people who do that They read the

Bible if there's if there's something in the Bible if it happened in the Bible, it must must be happening now

That that's just not the way it works as far as visions and Miracles when we talk about Gideon and his fleece asking for a sign like God if you want me to do something work a miracle

Let me know that way. Well Could God do that? Yes, but if you look at the

Bible, there's only three periods in biblical history where you know supernatural activity and miracles and Visions and this type of stuff was common.

That's the ministry of Moses and Joshua Elijah and Elisha and then

New Testament Jesus in the Apostles. So this is this is not the norm. Okay, so we cannot

Seek God's will through dreams today. Like I said in theory, it's possible. It's probably not going to happen

All right. Let's turn to Numbers chapter 27 So we've looked at God revealing his will through the casting of lots dreams and visions those things carried on into the apostolic era so There were

New Testament examples, even though technically the dream of Joseph Jesus's stepfather that technically part of the

Old Testament period The New Testament starts after Jesus's death and resurrection but Numbers 27, we're going to look at an example

Here of the Urim and the Thummim. So the Urim and the Thummim These are definitely this was reserved only for the

Old Testament. Okay, who knows what the Urim and Thummim were? Who's never heard the term?

Okay, everyone knows the term that's good before I read from Numbers 27 just to get an idea of how this worked

Exodus 28 29 through 31 says the Lord speaking so Aaron shall bear the names of the

Son of Israel on the breastplate of judgment over his heart and He says and you shall put in the breastplate of judgment the

Urim and the Thummim So these are objects that were inside the priests high priest breastplate.

We it's like casting lots We just don't know what they were There was incidentally there was one man who claimed the founder of Mormonism Joseph Smith You might remember this story from our series of the cult

He claimed that he found the Urim and the Thummim in upstate New York now how they got from Israel all the way to New York is and he said that they were objects that he could put in these like decoder glasses and that's how he

Interpreted I think the golden plates, which he also found supposedly in New York. Obviously, we don't believe that is legitimate

But you know, there's there's been all sorts of people saying that you know theories throughout history

But nobody knows what they were except that the Urim is how they would discern

God's will the high priest could inquire of the Lord Using these objects.

So look at Numbers 27 20 through 22 And it says and you shall give some of your authority to him.

This is Moses giving authority to Joshua that all the congregation of the children of Israel may be obedient and he shall stand before Eliezer the priest who shall inquire before the

Lord for him by the judgment of the Urim At his word they shall go out and at his word

They shall come in he and all the children of Israel with him all the congregation

So when they had a question they could go to the high priest and they could ask him and he could in turn

Go to God with the question and he would just use these However, it worked he could ask

God and God would answer through the Urim. Can you imagine if there was? somebody today a

Christian Minister so you could go to him and he had these objects where he could get an answer from God There'd be a line a mile long, you know, so presumably

These these objects were used for like big big things. Like are we gonna go to war with these people?

Yes or no? Like not every day. Hey, what should I do this afternoon? Where should I go to eat?

Okay, let's let's inquire of God, you know But sometimes when you deal with how do

I know how do I discern God's will I mean This is what some people want to know like what should

I do today? You know, what should I do in my life and they want? Specific questions of the personal life answered.

How do I know God's will for this this this this? It's just not the way it works I mean God just doesn't give answers for you know, all these different areas of life.

At least I don't see that In in Scripture also in 1st

Samuel 28 verse 6 you remember when King Saul Offered the sacrifice.

He wasn't supposed to offer God rejected Saul and it said that the Lord no longer spoke to Saul through You know dreams

Urim or the prophets so God totally cut off King Saul and You know the

Urim I guess didn't work you try to inquire of the Lord and God was just silent Do you think

God is silent right now? This isn't really a trick question.

But do you think he's silent now? Because you look at it from Old Testament to New Testament, you know

Malachi to Matthew you go to any seminary any Bible college that they're all going to tell you the same thing and I Agree with this that they say there were 400 years of silence who's heard this

Really no miracles God God was not giving any revelation There were no prophets after Malachi until John the

Baptist showed up. So God was silent for 400 years Do you think God has been silent for the past?

1 ,900 years Who says God has been silent for the past 1 ,900 years

What do you mean by silent you mean giving? No more direct words.

No more Right, okay, right. Yeah. Yes God answers prayer

God, I believe and he answered prayer for those 400 years, but as far as God being silent not giving revelation not giving specific words not

Speaking directly to someone in a dream vision or something like that who thinks God has been silent

Okay, I won't ask who thinks he hasn't been because you'll be in the small minority

But we're probably in the minority and I've talked about this, you know with the charismatic movement most

I suspect most Christians today would say no God isn't God's speaking to people.

There's prophets There's all this going on So I would probably be in the minority

But of course God is still at work and the one thing you always hear God is still speaking through what?

His word. Okay. I mean that's one thing that we all agree on thankfully Okay, so we've talked about these different ways.

Let's go to the next Way that God would reveal his will through the prophets and this is another question.

Okay, are there prophets today? We don't believe there are modern -day prophets So this is something we talked about last week.

The prophets were God's mouthpiece, right? God spoke to people He spoke to the children of Israel Generally, he spoke through the prophets

Hebrews 1 1 Mentions that so the prophets God would give a message directly to them and they would give it

To the people and when they wrote it down it was considered Scripture so the

Old Testament prophets whether it be Moses Elijah Jeremiah God literally spoke to them gave them specific messages for that usually for the children of Israel revealing his will what did

God want the children of Israel to do and most often if I can characterize

Characterize the message of the prophets God wanted Israel to do what most often repent

I Change you know turn that seems to be the most common message

Maybe I'm wrong, but that's that's the way it looks now. What's the challenge of okay?

You're you're living in Old Testament Israel and you have Jeremiah. He's alive and he's giving you know words from God.

What's the challenge? How do you still discern God's will even if you have a prophet?

What's the challenge? Talked about it last week Yeah, well people believe him because they would often believe the false

Prophets so even back then when you had a true prophet I Mean while you're alive at that time people there was a debate there was an argument about who was really speaking for God And and who wasn't so now let's turn to Judges chapter 6

Talked about the prophets. That's another way to discern God's will This next way that people discern

God's will asking for a sign or with Gideon He laid laid out a fleece

Now you have to be careful with this one I Suspect if I were to ask you who has ever asked

God for a sign Probably everybody has asked God for a sign

Depending on what you're asking for I think I think it's legitimate to ask

God for a sign now if God speaks Like let's say in his world.

We know what's right and wrong, but Lord take the people and this is very common thing People say well,

I'll believe in God if God will you know prove himself Lord I'd be your faithful servant if you just show me a sign

I mean, that's a way of like putting God to the test because God has already given a sign of raising

Jesus from the dead and You know Acts 17 verse 30 God commands all men everywhere to believe on Jesus so to add something else like God You need to work a miracle in order for me to believe.

I mean, that's the wrong Way to ask for a sign, but you know depending what you're asking for God You know work out the situation so I understand or you know give me direction give me a sign

I think that's I think that's okay, but what Gideon did Just it kind of does seem like Gideon was on thin ice a little bit here.

Let's just read judges 6 36 through 40 So Gideon said to God if you will save Israel by my hand as you have said

Look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor if there is dew on the fleece only and it is dry on All the ground then

I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand as you have said now What's the problem with that?

Yeah, I mean he acknowledges God you you've already told me this is gonna happen and now he's asking for further evidence

He's asking for something miraculous so I think Gideon was you know say putting

God to the test, but You know this God allowed it so verse 38 and it was so so it actually happened and when he arose early the next morning

And squeezed the fleece together He rung the dew out of the fleece a bowl full of water

And then if that wasn't enough look at verse 39 then Gideon said to God do not be angry with me

So he kind of recognizes what he's doing, but let me speak just this once more

Let me test so he acknowledges the test I pray just One once more with the fleece let it now be dry only on the fleece

But on all the ground let there be dew and God did so that night

It was dry on the fleece only but there was dew on all the ground so Gideon probably

I would say definitely should have just Believed God the first time But God was being

I think God was being gracious to Gideon you know God permitted this and Gideon is a unique figure so Again, it would be unreasonable.

I think for me to say Lord if you want me to serve you Do something miraculous tonight to prove yours like no that I'm just gonna trust what

God's Word says trust what he has given to me and Asking for a sign you just got to be careful with this one any comments or questions about that All right so Let's turn to Psalm 119 this is the last thing that we're going to look at as far as Old Testament ways people discerned the will of God This is looking to God's Revealed you know will in his word because again as I said

Discerning God's will sometimes it can be very subjective someone because it why feel as though God is trying to say this right

I think God is leading me in this direction, but if it's just your thoughts and just your feelings

I mean, how do you really know for sure? I don't know that you can know for sure But when something is written in the

Bible, and it's a commandment or it's something clear that got that's the revealed will of God And that's what we can know for sure

Okay, so look at Psalm 119 97 through 101

The children of Israel They knew God's will because they learned all about God in in the

Torah in the law David writes Psalm 119 97. Oh how I love your law.

It is my meditation all the day Do you think David knew God's word well he did?

He says you through your commandments make me wiser than my enemies for they are ever with me

I have more understanding than all my teachers for your testimonies are my meditation

I understand more than the ancients because I have kept your precepts

I have restrained my feet from every evil way that I may keep your word so David and the children of Israel could know

God's will because much of what God wanted was written in In Scripture, and this is the one thing you know now moving into the

New Testament for us how we can know God's will If you want to know God's will

I mean, you know the advice I'm gonna give to you I'm gonna say Look to his word right.

I mean this this is the safest advice. It's the best advice But of course when people ask you know what's

God's will for my life Are they asking kind of the big -picture questions that are revealed in Scripture what people are often asking is you know?

What college should I go to you know who should I marry? What career field should

I enter into what should I do this afternoon? You know what church should I go to these are all the questions that If God doesn't give you a direct revelation, which we don't really believe

God is doing today You're just not gonna get those specific answers Someone would disagree with that.

I'm sure but Jesus said in Matthew 4 for man shall not live by bread alone But by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, you know

If you want an answer to a question, I would say get into the Word of God and do what pray about it

Right, isn't that the first place to start? It seems like basic advice, but you know, you can't assume that everybody already knows

So get into the Word of God learn God's precepts if a person does not know

What the Bible teaches? This is kind of a moot question. Well, how can I know

God's will well, have you read the Bible? No, I don't have time to read the Bible then don't bother asking them, you know, because you just not gonna

You don't get like the the most basic things you're not gonna get into the deeper things if you won't start with that I don't mean for that to sound harsh, but I mean it you need to know

God's Word So the most objective way we can know God's will is to look to the

Bible. All right Let's look at 1st Thessalonians chapter 4 As far as God's will for your life.

I think there is a well I know there is a clear answer 1st Thessalonians 4 gives us the straight answer of What God's will is for your life?

Really for everybody's life It may not be the answer everyone's looking for but it is an answer

What's some of the common advice today? Like what do you hear out there when people are searching, you know trying to discover the will of God What what's the kind of advice that you hear?

I Hear I was listening to Joyce Meyer on the radio and you know, not something

I do very often But she was giving advice on the subject I wanted to see what she had to say and she she essentially her advice was follow your heart

Well, you know the heart is deceitful This is how my brain works You know Jeremiah 17 9 the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it that doesn't seem like good advice

There is a sense though where it could be good advice, so I'll get to that but this is something you'll hear follow your heart

Some people say you need to listen to the still small voice of God who's heard that I?

Think what they're saying is you need to listen to your conscience and they attribute your conscience to God's Voice I would argue that when because in the

Bible the still small voice is only mentioned once and it was the Prophet Elijah And I would argue when the

Prophet Elijah heard the still small voice. It wasn't his conscience. It was actually God speaking directly to him, but you know,

I Think following your conscience as long as your conscience isn't seared right as long as you're walking with the

Lord following your conscience is a Is a good thing to do

But the most basic advice is follow the leading of the Holy Spirit But again, how do you do that?

Let's first get this answer first Thessalonians 4 1 through 5 you want the clear answer if somebody were to ask me what's

God's will for my life. This is what I would say It's your sanctification. Okay, that's the short answer

But let's just read at first Thessalonians 4 1 through 5 Paul writes finally then brethren

We urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more

Just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please

God for you Know what Commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. Here's the statement for this is the will of God your sanctification

That you should abstain from sexual immorality that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel your body in Sanctification and honor not in passion of lusts like the

Gentiles who do not know God Okay, so this this is a clear answer to the question.

Is it not? What? Hey, what's God's will for my life? your sanctification that you would

Grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. This is what God wants from every believer

If not every human being but what God wants is for you to be conformed to the image of Christ That's what he's saying, right?

Again, is that what most people are asking? Huh? Some people are maybe but I'm not sure that's the answer everyone's

Looking for but he says in verse 1 he talks about how you ought to walk and please

God again if people are not Looking to strengthen the relationship with the

Lord if they're not seeking God's will if they're not looking to his word Then really you shouldn't even be asking a question because you're not really sincerely asking you're just looking for you know something you're looking for someone to tell you what you want to hear and and that's where People take advantage of that and then he mentions the commandments in verse 2

Basically he says that your sanctification that you abstain from sin from sexual immorality, you know practice self -control

This is what God wants from his people the short answer God wants

Obedience, isn't that something that a preacher would say? That's what Paul said and that's that's the answer

Any questions on that? Yeah, I mean that's the type of thing you would expect to read in the

Bible But again Not what everyone's looking for so I want to try to answer this question of The Holy Spirit.

Okay, I would say the casting lots that did end when the Holy Spirit came So my other piece of advice with this is the general advice.

It's good advice How do I discern God's will we would say follow the leading of the

Holy Spirit? How does one go about following the leading of the Holy Spirit One I like what one pastor said he said

He said obey God Leave all the consequences to him all you need to do is

Obey God, you know do the the next right thing and just see what happens.

I think that's great advice This idea of following your heart

Psalm 37 says Delighting yourself in the Lord if you delight yourself in the Lord, the

Lord will do what? Give you the desires of your heart So what does that mean?

God will put the desires if you're delighting yourself in him He will put the right desires in your heart

So in that sense as long as you're building your relationship with God, you're seeking to obey

God Your thoughts and your feelings and following your heart actually, you know, that is a way

To follow the leading of the Spirit when your will in God's will are aligned. So what you want to do is

What God wants you to do because you want what he wants so he's gonna put those desires in your heart

So in that in that sense you could almost say Do what you want to do Now that can again can be abused right because someone who's well, this is what

I want to do and God approves and obviously R .C. Sproul once told the story of how he was talking to I don't know if it was a member of the church.

He Was leading at the time, but he said a man came into his office and he said, you know

I really believe the Lord is leading me to divorce my wife and you know

He opened up the scripture and showed him why this is this is not the Holy Spirit leading you to do that But you really can follow

The spirits leading follow your heart as long as it's not Contradicting God's Word you understand that?

Okay. I want to end with just a personal Story, you know, this doesn't carry any weight or authority but as far as how

I Discerned God's will so I can just tell you years ago when I was younger

Before I submitted my life to Christ being a pastor was really it was like the last thing in the world

I ever wanted to do like no interest at all but then I Started delighting myself in the

Lord and I believe that he put the desire In my heart because the first qualification for a pastor or a bishop and first Timothy 3 is you know

If a man desires the office of a bishop like that's the first step the desire.

I did not have the desire Before I was walking with Christ as you know, obviously

But once I started walking with the Lord strengthening my relationship with him all of a sudden

This is like one day the desire was there Where did that come from I believed it was

God's will I believe God's will that he was leading me Into the ministry just because I thought that though just because I felt that didn't make it true

Here are some other advice trying to discern God's will seek counsel from people, you know are walking with Christ so I was given an opportunity my circumstances or you know a door opened up and I I Went through it.

So look at your circumstances So I did that I asked people they seem to confirm that.

Yes this we believe this is what God is doing We believe that God is leading you in this area.

We believe he has gifted you in this area. So I felt it Other godly people affirmed it

But still if I didn't get a call from a local church to be that, you know If it never happens,

I guess it wasn't God's will right? So I still needed a call So long story short, you know another door opened up the situations everything things that were outside of my control it all worked out and Finally, you know,

I I became a pastor. Is that God's will I'm convinced It was

God's this is God's will for my life You know, there's some times where you get discouraged in the ministry and you think back and you think

Was that really God's will was he really telling me to do that? you know the devil will always try to you know, put doubts into your mind, but that was

God's will because You know many factors the desire Confirmation from others advice the circumstances.

So in that way, there's no one answer Well, okay, just how do I know God's will yes, and it's that simple

I mean you have to you have to ask people seek advice. What are the circumstances?

What do you want? Strengthen your relationship with him These are the ways that we follow the leading of the