How to Know the Will of God: His Plan for Us Is Better Than Our Own

The following message from Pastor Greg Laurie is made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. Check out Virtue, our website for Christian women.

Go to harvest.org forward slash virtue. The psalmist invited us to taste and see that the Lord is good. Pastor Greg Laurie assures us God's plans for your life are better than your own.

Listen to this. God really does love you, and He really does have a wonderful plan for your life. Many late-model GPS systems display live, real-time traffic information. They can show you what roads to avoid. Well, God wants to do that for our lives. He wants to direct us down the right road.

But some of us think we can make better decisions just looking out the windshield. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us see how to discover God's will for our lives and how His plans are far better than ours given His compassion, His foreknowledge, and His providence. The title of our message is How to Know the Will of God. So grab your Bible and turn to Romans chapter 12.

Romans chapter 12. Why don't we start with prayer? Father, we want to know Your will. And then we need the power to do Your will.

So we're praying now as we look at Scripture that You'll give us a clear understanding of Your plan and purpose for our life as individuals, but also as believers in general. And maybe there is someone here that needs to get some direction. They are grappling with some issues, some questions.

There are decisions they need to make. And they need wisdom from on high. Lord, would You give that to them in this message. Speak to us. We would ask in Jesus' name.

Amen. Well this is our last message in our series that we have been calling What Every Growing Christian Needs to Know. And I think of all the topics I'm asked about, this is probably one of the most popular, one that we all deal with as young Christians and even as older Christians. And that is, how can we know God's will for our life? We wonder, does God still speak to people today? Does the Lord have a master plan for our lives?

And if He does, how do I discover it? How can I learn how to know the voice of God? How can I discover the will of God?

Well here is the answer. Yes, God has a master plan for your life. Yes, God speaks to us today. Yes, the Lord wants to reveal His will to you. Because we as Christians are not victims of chance, hoping that our luck will be good or not run out. God has a plan for each of us.

But here is the problem. Some of us are afraid of God's will. Because we have a warped concept of God. We think God is effectively out to get us. He is out to ruin our lives.

Listen to this. God's plan for you is good. I know it is a cliché.

I know you have heard it before. But I believe it is absolutely true. God really does love you and He really does have a wonderful plan for your life. Having said that we come to Romans 12. Here are some steps you can take to sort of prepare the ground to hear the voice of God and know His will.

I am going to read verses 1-2 of Romans from the New King James Version. I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which is your reasonable service. Don't be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is the good.

Underline that word if you would please. What is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Notice it is called the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. God's will for you is good. In fact we are told over in Psalm 34a, taste and see that the Lord is good. But here is the problem.

Our definition of good is different than God's definition of good. And the best way to illustrate this is children and food. You know if a child had their way they would live off candy. And you have to come and rain on their parade and say no more candy. In fact you are going to eat a protein and you are going to have some vegetables and you are even going to have to eat some kale. Because it is good for you.

And you need to drink some water and you can't be drinking all those carbonated drinks all the time. So you are looking out for your child. It is not fair. And then they get upset and they cry. But you are doing what is good for them ultimately. So in the same way in life we are interested in what brings us immediate gratification. That is good. Getting everything I want we think that is good.

God says actually it isn't. If I were to give you everything you wanted it would destroy you. So I am going to hold back some of those things from you for your own good. You are interested in the small picture. God is interested in the big picture. Our definition of good is that which is happy, fun, pleasurable, pain free in the moment. God is interested in what is productive, character forming, and eternally focused. We are interested in the here and now. God is interested in the by and by.

What does that mean? God is interested in making you more like Jesus each and every day. And I think one day when we get to heaven we are going to see things a lot differently. And I think we may look at life and realize that some of those things we thought were good were actually bad. And some of those things we thought were bad were actually good. Because they caused us to depend upon Him and they made us more like Jesus. Does that make sense to you?

It will one day. And it will make more sense to me too. Alright so let's wrap this up.

We are almost done here. But just some basic ways that God directs us. So if you are trying to discern God's will here are just some good principles to keep in mind.

Number one. God primarily speaks to us through His Word. He primarily speaks to us through His Word. Scripture says His Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. So God will never lead us contrary to what the Bible says.

Here is a simple way to remember it. If it is not in the Word it is not of the Lord. If it is not in the Word it is not of the Lord. The Bible is our bedrock. The Bible is our absolute. The Bible is our touchstone. The Bible is the clear revelation that we measure all other so-called revelations by.

It is a rock of stability. We measure our fickle human emotions by. The way we know something is true or right is by comparing it to what Scripture says. In 2 Timothy 3.16 it says, All Scripture is inspired by God. It is useful to teach us what is true and to help us realize what is wrong in our life.

It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right. So God will never lead you contrary to Scripture. And I bring this up because sometimes people come along and say, I have a new revelation from God. It has never been disclosed before but the Spirit has given this to me. And I don't know why but people get excited about stuff like that. But here is something to remember. If it is new it is not true.

And if it is true it is not new. If you can't make a biblical case for what you are saying. If you can't show me where it is in this Scripture I have no interest in it whatsoever. On the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out and supernatural phenomena was taking place Peter stood up and said, This is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel. And he had a biblical basis for what was taking place. He should always have a biblical basis for what is taking place. And so the Word of God needs to be precious to you.

Here is a thought. What if we treated our Bibles like our cell phones? Have you noticed how important cell phones are to us now? I Googled this right before I came up and asked the question how many people have cell phones. Like 91% of Americans have cell phones. And 70% of those are smart phones.

So that means that we can text on them and we can check social media on them and all kinds of stuff like that. And you know think how important your phone is to you. I mean you carry it with you wherever you go. And sometimes you even carry it room to room.

Right? It is like where is my cell phone? It is in the other room. I have to get it.

You have it right there. Because you don't want to miss a thing. You want your phone with you at all times. And then maybe you get in your car and you are driving down the street and you suddenly realize I left my cell phone at home. What do you do?

You do a U-turn and you go home. Because you need that lifeline. What if you treated your Bible that way? This is not original to me.

Someone else wrote this. But what if we treated our Bible like we treated our cell phone? What if we carried it around in your purse or pocket?

What if we flipped through it whenever you had a break? You know when you are standing in line what does everyone do now? Pull out their cell phone. No one talks to anyone any longer.

They just ignore one another and look at their phones. And what if you treated your Bible that way? I will have a break. I am going to bust out the Bible. See what the Bible has to say. Now you can have the best of both worlds and have the Bible on your phone. And you can read the Bible out. But what if you treated your Bible that way? What if you turned back home to get it if you forgot your Bible when you drove out? What if we used the Bible to receive messages from the text? What if you treated the Bible as though you couldn't live without it? What if you gave the Bible as a gift to your kids?

I like this. Unlike our cell phones you are not allowed to worry about your Bible being disconnected because Jesus already paid the bill and there are no drop calls. Right. So it is all sad. So you need to open up the Bible and read it. Now here is the thing. Sometimes we don't understand how important it is to read through a book of the Bible.

Ok. Because here is where people get into trouble. They spiritualize Scripture. And by that I mean they don't read it contextually. They take verses and cause them to mean something they never were meant to mean.

And here is a good illustration of it. We looked at it last time as we looked at the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. The devil quoted the Bible.

Remember? And then he told Jesus to jump off the top of the temple. But the devil was quoting his Scripture out of context encouraging Christ to test the Lord instead of trust the Lord.

So man I have seen people get the weirdest things out of the Bible that are not really there. You know they are saying, Lord I just need wisdom today. Just speak to me from Your Word. And I just pray that the wind will blow it now to the page that I should read. And just do it now Lord. And a few pages blow and you are like.

And Judas went and hanged himself. Not really sure what that means Lord. Just show me what it means.

And then a few more pages. Well go thou and do likewise. Ok Lord.

Come on don't be silly. Read it in context. Understand what it is saying. God speaks to you through the Word. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment.

Hey everybody Greg Laurie here personally inviting you to join us for what we call Harvest at Home. It's a Bible study. It's a worship service. It's church in your home. Maybe you're not able to get out to your church right now. If so join us for Harvest at Home. People are listening in from around the world. Listen to this. We have seen thousands of people make a commitment to follow Christ. So join us this weekend for Harvest at Home at Harvest.org. Well Pastor Greg continues now with some basic principles to keep in mind by way of his message How to Know the Will of God.

Number two. God can speak to you through circumstances. He can speak to you through circumstances and we ask God to confirm His Word to us. Gideon was called by the Lord out of obscurity to lead the Israelites out of the bondage of the Midianites. And he picked an unlikely character in Gideon. And so the Lord said, I want you to do this Gideon. Gideon said, I don't know Lord.

You have to prove it to me. And Gideon came up with this thing. He laid an animal skin on the ground also known as a fleece. And he said, Lord if you really want me to do this I'm going to lay a fleece on the ground. And in the morning if there is dew on the fleece and the ground is dry I'll know it's you. So he gets up the next morning and there is dew on the fleece and the ground is dry. Then Gideon says, Ok Lord I'm going to put it again one more morning. And this time if there is dew on the grass and the fleece is dry I'll know it's you. And that is the expression laying a fleece before the Lord comes from.

Ok. But I don't suggest you base a huge decision on circumstances alone. But what I do suggest is you operate by biblical principles and then say, Lord if this is your will would you confirm it to me. I have found that God often leads us one step at a time.

Not a detailed blueprint. God told Philip go to the desert. He didn't say when you get to the desert there is going to be a guy from Ethiopia in a chariot with a caravan reading out loud from Isaiah 53. So read up and get ready.

God said just go to the desert. And sometimes the Lord will just sort of nudge us in a certain direction. We are not sure why we are doing it exactly. And when we take that step then the next step becomes clear. Then I take that step and then the next step becomes clear.

So there is sort of circumstantial confirmation. Sometimes God will stop you. Paul talked about how he was stopped by shipwreck and sickness. Yes God can even use sickness to alter your plans. You wanted to do this. Something happened.

Well you were not able to do it. That is where God leads through circumstances. Just be very careful about that. God can speak you through people too. And I have had times where I sense the Lord is speaking in my heart to do a certain thing. And out of the blue someone that I love or respect or maybe someone I have never met will come to me out of the blue and say, You know Greg you ought to think about doing this.

Just thinking about that. So that can be a confirmation. But on the other hand people come up with crazy stuff.

So you don't want to base everything on what someone says to you. Well God told me to say this to you. I had a girl come up to me years ago and she said, The Lord spoke to me and said, I am supposed to marry you. I said well let me get my wife. We have got to talk about this. Needless to say God didn't tell her that. But people come up with strange things. So you don't want to base a major decision on someone saying that. But here is another one.

Number three. There is that work in your heart. Sort of a peace in your heart. Colossians 3 15 says, Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Sin says members of His body you are called to peace and be thankful. Or another translation puts it this way, Let the peace of God as an umpire settle with finality all matters that arise in your hearts. Let God's peace be like an umpire. What does that mean? What does an umpire do?

Well he gets people mad at him or her. Right. Because we don't like the calls they make.

But an umpire generally is there to watch the game and make a decision. You know that was out. That was in. They are safe. They are out.

Whatever. That is the job of the umpire. Let the peace of God act as an umpire. I find when I am in the will of God I have the peace of God. And there are times when I just don't have God's peace about something. And by God's peace I mean that sense that this is right. There is something inside of me that is saying this is not right. The Bible says you will go out with joy and you will be led forth with peace.

And so put all those into play. Ask for God's wisdom. And I believe you will guide your steps. Let me close with one final thought now about God's will. I know this is God's will for every person listening to me. And I saved this one for last. I know it is God's will that everyone puts their faith in Jesus Christ.

How do I know that? Because 1 Timothy 2.4 says God's will is that all people be saved. And 2 Peter 3.9 says God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. That is God's will.

But listen to this. God is not going to force His will on people. He is not going to make you believe if you don't want to believe. He is not going to forgive you of your sins if you don't want to be forgiven of your sins. He is not going to make you go to heaven if you don't want to go to heaven. He is not going to say get up to heaven right now young man. No. If you don't want to go you don't have to go.

It breaks my heart. I sent my son to die for you and purchase your ticket so to speak so you can be forgiven and go to heaven. But if you reject this I am not going to make you take it. But God's will, God's desire is for you to know Him. Like I said earlier He wants to be your friend.

Think of that. God wants to be your friend. Yeah He wants to be your Savior and your Lord and your Master. He wants to be your friend. He wants you to confide in Him.

Listen. He wants to confide in you. He wants to enter into this relationship with you.

It is amazing. And you need to ask Him to come into your life. Jesus says I stand at the door and I knock and if you will hear my voice and open the door I will come in. And being a Christian is having a relationship with Christ who lives inside of you. And I ask you here now do you have this relationship with Jesus Christ? Do you know that He is living inside of you? Is God your friend or is He distant and someone that seems unknowable to you? Listen. You can know God.

You can have a relationship with God and you can discover the will of God. You say, but Craig I have made a mess of my life. It is too late for me.

No it isn't. God does a great job of taking messes and turning them around. And He can turn your mess into a message. He can take all of your problems and transform them for His glory and make you a different person. But you have to say God I need your help and I need you to forgive me because we are all separated from God by our sin.

And that is why Jesus died for us 2,000 years ago and rose again from the dead. And He will come into your life right now if you will ask Him in. So we are going to close in prayer and I am going to give you an opportunity to ask Jesus Christ into your life.

If you have not done that yet do it now. Some of you maybe you know what is right but you have been doing crazy stuff that you know you should not be doing as a follower of Jesus. And maybe some of you need to make a serious rededication to Christ tonight. So whatever your need is respond to this invitation as we close in prayer. Father thank You for loving us. Thank You for Your Word to us.

Thank You for Your promises to us. And I pray for anyone here, anyone listening right now. If they don't know Jesus yet help them to come to You. Help them to enter into this friendship with God and have the hope of heaven.

But also they have meaning and purpose in this life. Help them to come to You we pray. Amen. An important prayer from Pastor Greg Laurie. And if you would like to make a change today in your relationship with God Pastor Greg will help you take that step in just a moment before today's broadcast of A New Beginning concludes.

Now as Pastor Greg wraps up this message maybe you'd like to preserve this insight for the future. Well you can call us and we'll help you receive a copy. Dial 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300.

Or just go online to harvest.org for an instant replay. The study title is How to Know the Will of God. And then we're excited about making available Pastor Greg's book called Jesus Revolution. Pastor Greg during the Jesus movement you were a new Christian yourself. Did you have any idea the uniqueness of the season you were living in? Or when did you start realizing you had lived through something rather epic?

Yes. You know that's a really good question Dave. And the answer is I did not know I walked smack dab into the middle of a spiritual revival. You see I wasn't raised in the church so I had no real background in these things. I'd never really read the Bible for myself. So when I came to Christ on my high school campus and then went to this church Calvary Chapel where the Jesus movement was in full swing.

I thought wow this is amazing. And I didn't realize that I was in a revival until I started traveling around the country. Because I would travel with these Christian bands and speak in various venues. And I was in a lot of different church settings and I realized oh wow what we're experiencing is not happening everywhere. But it was happening in some places. You know revival is interesting.

It's sort of like will you open or close your door to it? For the churches that open their door to revival and open their door to the kids coming to Christ. Which in this case were primarily hippie kids. They experienced revival. To the churches that kept their doors closed they missed it. So it was really a lot up to the people.

Do you want to see God work or do you not want to see him work? So it was like little embers blowing and they would catch here and they would catch there. And many of those embers came together and it was like a fire. But a good fire spreading across our nation.

And we need to see that again. And so I've wanted to talk about it for a long time. So I decided to write a book. And I had a person work with me her name is Ellen Vaughn very talented writer. In fact she helped me write my autobiography called Lost Boy.

She did a lot of research on the time on the culture. And what was happening around us. And it gives you a greater appreciation of what God did in the Jesus movement in the Jesus revolution. And then I also weave my personal story throughout the book. And I seek to find takeaway principles in this book that we can apply in hopes that we can see another Jesus revolution. So you want to know more?

Well you got to get a copy of this book. It's free. Well let me restate that. It's free for your gift of any size.

This is not a gimmick or a trick. Some can only give a little. We'll send you the book. Some can give more. We'll send you the book.

But whatever you can do know this. We'll take those resources and use them to continue to get the gospel out to as many people as possible. So again for your gift of any size I want to send you a copy of my book Jesus Revolution. And we'll also include a copy of a brand new study guide that's been created that undergirds the insights in the book. Isn't that right?

That's right. Yes that's something special. We've prepared for this special edition of Jesus Revolution and this will help you to dig in deeper. Well we'll be glad to send you this special edition of Jesus Revolution along with a study guide to thank you for your donation of any size large or small. You know it's the investments of listeners that make it possible for us to bring you these studies each day and that help us reach out with the gospel. More than 150,000 people made decisions for Christ through Harvest Ministries last year alone.

We're so thankful for the investments of listeners that helped to make that outreach possible. So with your gift today be sure to ask for Jesus Revolution. You can write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514 or call 1-800-821-3300.

That's 1-800-821-3300. And we can take your call anytime or go online to harvest.org. And then for those who'd like to make a change in their relationship with God right now, Pastor Greg, would you like to help them do that?

I would. You know I receive so many letters, Dave, from people from every walk of life, from successful businessmen to those who are incarcerated, to mothers struggling as they're trying to raise their children, to young boys and girls writing and saying they've made a commitment or a recommitment to Jesus. And maybe you need to make that commitment to Him right now. Let me lead you in a word of prayer. Yes, you can meet God right now. And I would just ask you to pray this prayer out loud after me. And this is where you are asking Christ to come into your life.

Pray with me now if you would. Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner. I know that I've broken your commandments and I've fallen short of your standards.

But I thank you that you have loved me and you have called me to yourself. So I turn from my sin right now and I choose to believe in and follow you. Be my Savior. Be my Lord. And be my God from this moment forward. Thank you for calling me and loving me and accepting me. In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen. Hey, let me just say, God bless you. You've made the right decision and welcome to the family of God. Yeah, and we want to follow up with you by sending something called our New Believers Growth Packet to help you get started living as a Christian. We'll send it without charge if you prayed for the first time today to receive Christ. Just ask for the New Believers Growth Packet when you call 1-800-821-3300. Again, that's 1-800-821-3300.

Or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or go online to harvest.org and click Know God. Well, next time, Pastor Greg begins a fun series exploring the Jesus movement of the late 60s and early 70s. It's the last great spiritual revival our country has seen, and it has seen several. We'll begin learning about that next time on A New Beginning with Pastor Greg Laurie.