How to Know God's Will for Your Life | Sermon by Mark Finley

now how can you be sure that god is guiding you how can you be sure that it's not simply your own mind that's leading your own thoughts have you ever wondered how can i know god's will how can i be certain that god is guiding me suppose you're faced with a choice of a job and there are two jobs that loom before you two jobs that present themselves two opportunities you have and you're wondering i'm confused i don't know which one to take will god guide you in that what about something as significant as moving

you're perplexed you've been wondering about should i sell my house or not how can you know god's guidance what about if you're contemplating marriage will god guide you in that area or in your choice of school the good news is that the bible promises that god will guide us the bible promises that as we seek his will he'll give us direction let's look at that in scripture psalm 32 verse 8 if you're wondering about whether god will guide you if you're perplexed about the future here's a promise of god for you psalm 32 verse 8

i will instruct you and teach you in the way that you shall go i'll guide you with mine eye there's real certainty in that promise god promises to guide us he promises that if we're sensitive to his voice that he will give to us wisdom this is repeated this idea of god's guidance is repeated throughout scripture we're not specks of cosmic dust left alone here to struggle in the universe but god wants to guide us it's one of the functions of the holy spirit the holy spirit comes to impress our minds the holy spirit comes

to reveal wisdom to us here in the book of james chapter one verse five the bible invites us to come to god and seek him it says james 1 verse 5 if any of you lack wisdom let him ask of god that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not it will be given to him so god is a liberal giver he's a liberal giver of wisdom he grants to us wisdom to make the decision so when we're at a crossroad when we wonder what to do we know just what to do to seek god

in prayer now how can you be sure that god is guiding you how can you be sure that it's not simply your own mind that's leading your own thoughts is there a difference between a divine conviction and a human impulse there's one way that we can tell the difference so human impulse is flighty it's often here today i desire to do something maybe i should somehow maybe i shouldn't maybe i should take this job maybe i shouldn't so human impulse is often here today we feel like we ought to do something but you wait a

week two weeks and that situation passes and you don't feel that way anymore a divine conviction is a growing constant awareness that you cannot shake that god's leading you in a certain direction so when i feel that i ought to do something the more important the decision is the longer time i'll take to make it the less important decision is the quicker i have to make it now do you have to pray about every decision in life i don't think so god's given you a brain you you can make the decision for example i walk

into my closet and i look in my closet i see a blue shirt and i see a tan shirt and i see a green shirt do i have to kneel down and say okay lord impress my mind what shirt i shall wear today no god's given me a mind i don't want to wear something that doesn't match i want to be give god glory and honor in what i wear sure but look those kinds of decisions god has given me the mind to make when we pray about something we don't check our brains at the

door we pray we seek god we follow certain principles and then we believe god's leading our mind to make the best possible decision you say well pastor mark you said you you there are certain principles of guidance what are they there are seven basic principles of guidance that i'd like to give you today the first principle of guidance we've already noted god wants to guide you psalm 32 verse 8 i'll guide you with mine eye isaiah 58 verse 11 i'll guide you continually james 1 verse 5 if any man or woman lacks wisdom when i'm

asked of god so believe that god wants to guide you when you have to make a major decision in life when you're faced with a decision that you're uncertain of know that god wants to guide you the second aspect of guidance is this commit your life to doing god's will we find that here in the life of jesus the book of hebrews the 10th chapter and the seventh verse if you are committed to do god's will you can know he'll guide you but if you want to just run off and do your own thing god

may let you run off and do your own thing but you may have to face the consequences of that as well hebrews 10 verse 7 then said i written about jesus though i come in the volume of the book it is written of me to do thy will o god so as i believe god's going to guide me as i'm praying about the decision that god wants me to make i say lord i only want your will if you want me to sell this house and move i'm going to do it but i need to

know it's your will i'm not going to just go jump and do this thing on some wild whim god if you want me to take this job give me clarity help me to understand what you want me to do help me to be able to know your will and god if you reveal your will i'll do it now how do i know if something is god's will or something is my will how do i know that if you are willing to give up the thing that you want most you can know that that you that

that's god's that you are willing to do god's will so the willingness to do god's will means that the thing you really want the thing you really desire the thing you long for more than anything else you are willing to give that up if christ asks you for his sake young man young woman come to me and say pastor we really wonder whether we should move or not and we found this beautiful beautiful home that we think we we ought to sell our home and move to it but we're not sure we're a little confused

we're going to be quite a distance from my husband's job and uh we are not sure because there are not real good schools there for our kids and there's so many other decisions but we love that home pastor we love that home but we're not sure we're confused we pray we don't get real answers what do i tell them weigh out the decision look at every option write down all the pros for the decision and the cons against the decision but then tell god we are willing to give that thing up we are willing to

do your will god we don't have our minds set on that we are willing if you give us direction in another way we're willing to do that you see if your mind is fixed on something already if you've already determined in your mind then you'll have a difficult time finding god's guidance so what's the first principle no god wants to guide you what's the second principle be willing to do god's will third principle analyze your motives we find that in james chapter four analyze your motives why do you want what you want james the fourth

chapter third verse why do you want what you want analyze the motives of your heart analyze the desires of your mind james 4 verse 3 you ask and receive not because you ask a myth that you may consume it on your lusts were these people asking god for something sure were they praying about it definitely but did they get answers what no why not because their motives were not pure you ask and you receive not because you ask only to consume it on your own lusts so they weren't seeking god's will they had their own

agenda when they came to god they believed what they wanted was what they were going to pursue in spite of god's will so they didn't have guidance when i come to god i say god purify my heart so i will know your will. the fourth principle in the area of guidance is to look into the bible and to see if there's any biblical principles that guide us we find that here in psalm 119 verse 24 psalm 119 verse 24 if i want the guidance of god the bible also always will give me principles that will

help me to understand which direction god is leading psalm 119 verse 24 thy testimonies also are my delight that's the word of god the testimony of scripture and my counselors so the bible is my what the viva it's my counselor notice psalm 119 verse 105 thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light to my path so i look for biblical principles let me give you an example of this when i was a young man i was not brought up in a home where we study the bible on a daily basis my father

was a protestant my mother was a catholic and dad eventually became a seventh adventist christian and witnessed to us but was very discreet very wise in the way that he was witnessing during those years i didn't know the truth of god about the bible sabbath and i was just beginning to study it and i just began to open scripture and god was revealing to me the truth of the sabbath leading me but i was playing on a basketball team for the ymca and in the ymca team in our city in norwich connecticut we would have

tournaments and if we did well the all-star team from rymca would go to play a regional tournament for new england and so i was chosen to go on this all-star team to play and we were going from norwich connecticut up to springfield massachusetts we were to stay in a hotel i came from a home that we didn't stay in hotels we didn't have that kind of money we're going to stay in a hotel with the basketball team we were going to um eat in restaurants i was going to travel i thought man this is my

only chance to travel coming from my home background i'm not going to travel i'm going to fly around the world on jets i'm not gonna be staying at hotels my only chance now remind you i was just studying about the sabbath just getting that conviction and what did psalm 119 24 said the word of god is our what counselor what did psalm 119 verse 105 said it said thy word is a lamp under my feet a light under my path so i was a senior in high school now the way the the basketball tournament worked

was this if you played you played on thursday night if you won thursday night you would play friday if you won friday during the day you'd play friday night if you won then you'd play sabbath so here's the way i rationalized in my mind well i'm gonna go because if i play on thursday night and we we lose i come home but if we win then i can at least play on friday and you know i kind of believe the sabbath so i don't think that it's going to be a problem because i'll just play

the first two games and i won't play friday night i won't play sabbath but i'll be there with the team and i'll get to stay in a hotel and i'll get to and so it was a few days before i had to make my decision to go with the team and i was in the at my high school and uh i didn't go to a christian high school it was a public high school 3 000 plus students and there was a phone booth over in the corner and i remembered an older woman who was an

adventist who kind of befriended me i was 17 years old she kind of took me and i said yeah i'm going to call her because i thought if i call her she might say oh yeah mark that's a good idea you go thursday night and you go friday and just don't play on sabbath well you know if i would have played thursday night and i played friday i'd have been so into the sport that the devil would have used that for me to compromise and i'm sure that i would have played friday night and sabbath

because the pressure would have been so great to play so i called her on the telephone the pay phone in the lobby of the high school i said sister sister francis yes yes this issue mark it is you know i i'm planning to go on the basketball tournament and uh she was a faithful adventist christian and i told her all about how excited i was and she just said one sentence that really impressed me mark what does the bible teach about sabbath and what do you think jesus would do what do you think jesus would

do all that day what would jesus do well what what did he do as his custom was he went to church on sabbath and i just became so convicted based on the word of god that i had to go tell the team look i just can't play i i just can't play i i just i'm not able to go i never went to that tournament and you know when we begin compromising the word of god for our own desires we fail to let god guide us young person came to me and they said i want

you to meet my boyfriend we're thinking about marriage he is just the most wonderful wonderful guy oh i'd love to meet him love to meet him and i said now you're a faithful adventist christian yes and what about your boyfriend oh oh he's he's not a christian but pastor he said that if we get married we can go to church together and pastor i really love him and and i really think that he is the one for me let's suppose that he didn't go to church with you how would you bring up the children you're

telling them that uh sabbath is sabbath and you're getting ready to go to church and he's going out fishing or out to the ball game or something else is that going to be a positive influence on the kids you're telling them that uh eating pork is not in harmony with god's will and he's saying something else you see uh you're telling them one thing and it's kind of the the you remember what it says in amos chapter 8 verse 3 it says can two walk together except they be agreed maybe you ought to spend a

little time maybe we can study the bible together with him maybe it's possible that he will make a decision before you're married now this young lady could have run off and marry this guy but it could have been a disaster i can tell you time after time after time i've had christian young people that have dated somebody that was not a christian we've studied the bible together and i've found and we've led those to christ sometimes they've had to break up because they weren't in harmony but god led them to somebody else so i really

when i'm talking to young people really urge them not even to begin to court or date somebody that's not a christian and particularly not an adventist christian because it i've seen too many problems for every instance where you have two people that are united that works out you have scores at times that it doesn't work out and so as you're praying about something here are four principles what are they now do you have them in your brain number one believe god's gonna guide you number two believe that he will guide you as you surrender your

will to him and you only what want what he wants number three analyze your motives number four look for biblical principles look for bible principles when it comes to scripture and you're wondering about expenditures but you're going to go into deep debt with these expenditures one of the principles of scripture is oh no man anything in other words don't go into deep debt that you can't pay back that you don't have the wherewithal so look into the bible see what you can find here is your fifth principle your fifth principle of god's guidance is find

godly counselors that you can counsel with we find that in the book of proverbs and we look there at proverbs 11 verse 14. recently i i had to make a significant decision in fact it was just last week and the decision for me was pretty important it made it would make quite a difference in my own personal life and i really wondered about it and i was just inclined not to not to move ahead in a certain area i just didn't feel comfortable about it didn't feel good about it and i called one of my

dear friends i have probably three key people i counsel with in my life and i called one of my dear friends and i kind of bounced back my feelings to that person and that individual said to me mark i really urge you not to do this particular thing there was nothing right or particularly wrong about it but it was something which would have uh made some difference in my own personal life and the more we talked about it the more i became convinced god was not leading in that direction and i had to make a

phone call and say to the individual on the other end of the line the thing you asked me to do i do not believe i can do because i don't believe god is leading in that direction what does it say in proverbs 11 verse 14 where no counsel is the people fall but in the multitude of counselors there is safety what is there in the multitude of counselors there is what safety proverbs 15 verse 22 proverbs 15 you're looking there at verse 22 and here it says without counsel purposes are disappointed but in the multitude

of counselors they are established so your purposes are disappointed if you don't have godly counselors who do you go to when you have to make those critical decisions of life when you're uncertain do you have a few people that are praying that are seeking god that you have confidence in that you can call them at any time and say look i'm faced with this decision in my personal life there are probably three people like that maybe four that as i'm praying about something as i'm weighing it out as i believe god is going to guide

me as i'm looking into the bible sometimes you don't find your answer directly in scripture you may find principles but god's not going to tell you in scripture buy this house don't buy that house he will guide you certainly you can find principles of not going into debt god's not going to say in scripture you're not going to read a bible text that says take this teaching job and don't take not take that teaching job so you're praying about it you're weighing it out you're looking at the whole picture and as you do it's helpful

to get counsel because god is going to guide you through those counselors and he will help you to understand the direction to take the sixth principle that we find in scripture is one that i like to say look for the providences of god look for the providences of god the bible these are god's ways and we find that in proverbs 23 verse 26 and i want to spend a little time on this one because it's really significant proverbs 23 verse 26 my son give me your heart that is make a decision commit your life to

me seek my will god says and let thine eyes observe my ways what does scripture say let your eyes god says observe my ways so we're looking at the providences of god we're seeing what god wants us to do in 1980 my wife and i attended the general conference session of seventh-day adventists and at that session i had two invitations one was to go to the middle east headquarters at that time were in singapore and be in charge of lay evangelism throughout the far east actually in singapore that would have covered in those years korea

and taiwan philippines indonesia etc that would have been my responsibility lay evangelism coordinating that i also had an invitation to come to europe and live in england and be the ministerial secretary counseling with pastors my wife and i struggled over the decision we weren't sure what to do and so my wife said to me look the way we're gonna know this is if we ask god to do something for us specifically we counseled with a number of people some people felt yes you ought to go to the far east you ought to that would be

a wonderful opportunity for you other people said no you should go to england and we were struggled back and forth we're not sure what to do and as we prayed about the decision still no real clear light came and my wife said to me one day she said i think we could know this way she said let's tell the lord that if the group in england if the committee in england that's inviting us if they vote and that it's a hundred percent favorable for you to go i think we should go let's look at their

vote and see what it is so we went to our hotel room we prayed dear lord give us your guidance all we want is your guidance phone call came in the next morning the president of that division dear dear friend of mine pastor john paulson who later became the president of the general conference he is a dear man we're just close friends this day pastor paulson said we voted and our vote was for you to come to england and my wife said mark ask him what the vote was i was a little hesitant i said

well pastor what was the vote he said well it was a hundred percent we knew that god had guided us in that direction for many years three years actually i worked at a little self-supporting medical missionary so-winning institute i taught and i had kind of felt that god was leading us from there and but i needed to know for sure so my wife and i came home and one night we prayed and prayed actually an hour and a half two hours said god where are you guiding us we've been here three years not sure where

you're guiding us we need your guidance next morning telephone call comes and this it always doesn't happen this way but sometimes god has to almost hit you over the head it has to be really dramatic phone call came from southern new england conference in south lancaster massachusetts mark yes we'd like you to coordinate evangelism through connecticut massachusetts and rhode island i said let us think and pray about it as my wife and i talked about it we said look we're going to have to really see the providence of god in this one i'm teaching so

they're going to have to wait six months that would be a providence of god watching god's ways secondly i want to bring an evangelistic team with me of five six people seven people whatever bring them with us let's see if they'll accept that thirdly i have little children i can't travel from place to place without some accommodations they're gonna have to purchase us a trailer mobile trailer to live in so we said okay god here are the conditions and if you open these doors providentially we will go we watch god open one door after another

now sometimes god's going to shut doors but here's the point in any major decision first you believe god's going to guide you you have no question about that you quote psalm 32 8 i'll guide you with mine eye secondly you tell god all i want to do god is your will that's all i want to do i just want to please you god third you analyze your motives you be sure that there's nothing in your heart that you want something selfishly fourthly you look at the bible you say are there any biblical principles on this

that can give me direction fifthly you watch the providences of god you say god what are where where are you opening doors what opportunities are you opening before me lord i just want to know your will and uh then you also blend that with counsel with godly counsel you look at your counselors you have people that are guiding you and if you are praying about something if you're looking at the word of god if your motives are pure if you know god is going to guide you if you are watching the providences of god the

way things open up if you're making the counselors that you have if you're making their counsel as part of that decision-making process then here's the last thing there comes a point where you weigh everything out in your mind and you make the best possible decision you can knowing and believing that's god's will we find this in psalm 90 verse 12. there comes a point where you have to make a decision there comes a point where you no longer stay in in decision psalm 90 verse 12 so teach us to number our days that we may

apply our hearts to wisdom teach us the number of days so we can apply our hearts in other words it comes a point where you apply the wisdom that god has given you it comes to a point where you say god it's time to decide and you begin going down a certain path now there are some paths that you really have to be sure before you go down marriage is one you want to be absolutely positive if you're a young person and you're thinking about marriage this direction you have to go but other than marriage

there are very few things that you're locked into for the rest of your life and so if you believe god is guiding you in a certain job and you move in that direction then three years later you recognize that this is not the job for you you could always back up from that you could always say god you put me there for a purpose but maybe maybe you have something else for me so you you don't have to wait to make a decision on most things until every single thing is clear what you have to

do to make a decision for god is to have the conviction that this is god's will there may be certain unknowns out there but if you know something is god's will because you've been praying about it you've been getting counsel about it you've seen enough providences in it then you move ahead by the name and the glory of christ god longs to guide you god wants to guide you god will guide you as you open your heart to him as you put these principles to practice it's going to make a dramatic difference in your life

let's pray father in heaven thank you for your willingness to guide us thank you that all the wisdom in heaven is ours thank you that you are the fountain of wisdom and that you will pour out your spirit to give us the ability to make the right choices so that we can live for you and be and honor your name and glorify you we're just so thankful that you are a god who wants to guide us and we claim the promise of isaiah 58 11 i will guide you continually in jesus name amen