Knowing the Will of God

“For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” (Colossians 1:9)

Here, Paul is asking that the Colossians might come to understand God's will.  This is important to Paul, because He knows that if they begin to understand the will of God, then everything good that He desires for them will follow.  So, the principal goal of a believer's life ought to be to know God's will.

Here is where many young Christians get off track.  They think the will of God is an itinerary leading them to where God wants them to go, and what God wants them to do.  Most of them pray with those thoughts in mind.  But knowing God's will is about much more than simply knowing what to do, it begins with knowing who we are.

The beauty of the good news is that He has made us into something different than what we once were.  So the primary course in the curriculum of the Spirit is to learn what God has made you to be.  You no longer belong to yourself, so you are no longer to live for yourself. Your will, your pleasure, your comfort are no longer to be primary in your life, but what God calls you to be and what he has made you to be.  The more you understand who you now are, and what God has done to make you that way, the more your behavior will automatically change and you will do the things that please Him.

Where do we find that out?  Paul goes on to say, “...through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.”  There are two things that enable us to discover the will of God.  The first is spiritual wisdom.  This is wisdom that comes from the Spirit, not from the natural mind of man. That is what Christians need to discover, what God thinks about life.  That is reality.  If you want to be faithful, then read and study your Bible to discover how God looks at things. Everything else is fantasy.

The second thing necessary to discover the will of God is understanding.  That is the application of the wisdom you are learning to specific circumstances of life.  Understanding is a clear vision of what needs to be done.  Some are struggling with problems and don't know what to do.  So, the first thing to do is to understand how God sees your problem, and what He says about it in His word.  Then, as you pray and seek His face, a clear vision will appear of what needs to be done; what steps to take or not to take.  These are not natural abilities. They are given by the Spirit, and therefore possible to all believers.

So, when you open the Bible, pray that God will give you spiritual wisdom, the wisdom of God, and will help you to understand what it says.

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