How to Know the Will of God | Walking in God's Way

Today's episode of A New Beginning is brought to you by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God.

Learn more at harvest.org. And while you're there, browse our library of free eBooks designed to help you grow in your faith. Let's understand God's way becomes clear when we start walking in it. We all want certain things for our children. We want them to be healthy and happy. We want them to make good choices, foremost among them being accept Jesus as their Savior.

But our kids reach a certain point, and the principles we taught them are working their way into the specific choices they make. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie says our Heavenly Father's guidance is similar. The closer we get to God and His values, the more we'll know that we're walking in His ways. Does God still speak to people today?

I mean, let's be honest. When someone says God's been talking to them, we get a little suspicious, sometimes a little concerned. Does God talk to us? Does the Lord speak to us? Does God Almighty actually have a master plan for our lives?

And if so, how do I discover it? How can I learn how to know the voice of God? How can I know the will of God? Because we all need direction in life. If you're single, you're thinking, how am I going to know who to marry? I don't want to make the wrong choice. So that's something on your mind. If you're in college, you're thinking about, what should my major be?

You're thinking about, what should my career be? And then as you move on in life, you have other questions. We need supernatural input on these things. Well, we have two views that maybe are not accurate. View number one is, we think finding God's will is really hard. God's sort of hiding it from sort of like a celestial Easter bunny is not telling us where the golden egg is. You know when you have an Easter egg, there's the golden egg. That's the one that has a little money in it or something extra.

Where is it? And we think the Lord is up there saying, you're getting warmer. Warmer. Hot. Hot.

No. Cold. Cold.

Cold. So it's something we can never find. Or the opposite view is we think God's will is something undesirable. It's not good. Sort of like a diet. Is there a happy diet out there? It just seems like every diet I have ever seen or any diet I have ever gone on is it's either boring or it's horrible. And you know and so basically the rule of all diets is if you want to eat it, it's probably not in your diet.

Or maybe that's just me. Because I am drawn to all the wrong foods. I will tell you that right now. I am drawn to hamburgers and burritos. And I am drawn to pizza. Oh man. Come on. Hot. Bread. Dessert. But everything else I can resist.

Right? So we think of God's will that way. Oh if it's God's will it can't be good. It can't be desirable. It's going to be bad.

It's going to be miserable. That is false as well. So it's not like God is hiding it from us. And it's not like the will of God isn't good. So what is it?

Here's the thing you need to know. There is joy in the will of God. There is joy in the will of God. Romans 15 22 Paul says that I may come to you in joy by the will of God. So when you are walking in God's will there is joy.

Let me flip that around. When you are not walking in God's will there is misery. The most miserable place to be is outside of God's will. If you don't believe me ask Jonah someday.

He found out how that works out the hard way. So God's will is joyful. So why does God want to reveal His will to me? Because God is my friend.

And friends share secrets with friends. Remember Abraham is uniquely called the friend of God. And we are told over in the book of Genesis the Lord speaking shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I am about to do. You say well that's great for Abraham.

No it's great for you too. Because Jesus said I no longer call you servants but friends because a servant doesn't know what his master is doing. But everything I have heard from my father I have revealed to you. God as your friend wants to reveal His will. God as your friend.

Listen to this. Wants to reveal His secrets to you as well. Because the Bible says in Psalm 25 14 the secret of the Lord is with those that fear Him. There are things God wants to unfold in your life and unveil in your life.

But you need to learn to tune in. We are taught to seek the will of God in the Lord's Prayer. Which is a template for all prayer. Jesus said after this manner therefore pray our Father who art in heaven hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Isn't that interesting. Before I get to the petition part. Before I get to the give me this day my daily bread part I am taught to pray first and foremost your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So we should not only want to know the will of God. We should be anxious to know God's will. 1 Peter 4 says don't spend the rest of your life chasing after evil desires but be anxious to do the will of God. It is not something I have to do.

It should be something I want to do. The psalmist said in Psalm 40 verse 8 I delight to do your will O God. Yes your law is written in my heart. So listen. The will of God is not an option for the true Christian. And I will tell you this that after over 40 years of walking with the Lord a lot of times finding God's will is something that just sort of unfolds as I take steps of faith.

It is not like I wake up every morning and God audibly speaks to me. Ok great. Here is the plan for today. Here is the blueprint. Check it out.

No. He just leads me a step at a time. And that is because God's will is not an itinerary.

It is an attitude. And the Bible says that steps of a righteous man are ordered by the Lord. So I read the Word of God. I pray for another direction. And I just start taking steps.

And guess what. I find myself smack dab in the will of God. Let's not overly mystify this. Let's understand God wants to unfold His will to each and every one of us. God's way becomes clear when we start walking in it. He does speak. So we need to say Lord teach me Your will. Alright.

Well the best place to start is pick up the manual. God has given us the manual on how to know His will. And it is right here and it is called the Bible. So grab your Bible. Turn to Romans chapter 12. And here are the words of the Apostle Paul on how to know the will of God in your life. Romans 12. I am reading verses 1 to 2.

Paul says, I beseech you therefore brothers by the mercies of God that you present your bodies as 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 and acceptable and perfect will of God. This is called a conditional promise. And by that I mean there is a promise. And the promise is you can know what is a good acceptable and perfect will of God. The conditions are I must do what He tells me to do first. And that is to present myself to Him and not be conformed to this world.

But Paul begins with the word therefore. I beseech you therefore. By the way the word beseech just means I urge you. I am pleading with you. I am begging you. Brothers Paul is saying.

I am begging you to present yourself to God. Therefore. Therefore what? Well as I have often said whenever you see the word therefore find out what it is there for. And it means he is drawing on what has been previously said.

So what has been previously said. Romans 1 to 11. Which basically tells me I am a sinner separated from God. I can't meet God's standards. I can't keep the law.

I can't save myself. But Jesus died for me. And if I will turn from my sin and put my faith in Him and Him alone I am forgiven.

I am adopted into God's family and I am justified. In light of this Paul is saying. In light of all that God has done for you this is what you ought to be doing for Him.

Present yourself to Him. A modern translation of verses one and two put it this way. So here is what I want you to do. God helping you.

Take your everyday ordinary life. Your sleeping, eating, going to work and walking around life and place it before God as an offering. That is a good translation. And I think we need to understand this is to everybody. You might say well you know I think those who are called to ministry should do that. And I am not really called to ministry.

You know I think this is directed to every follower of Jesus Christ. We are all called to glorify God with our life no matter what our vocation in life is. Yes some are called to be evangelists. Yes some are called to be pastors. Yes some are called to be worship leaders. And others are called to be missionaries.

That is all fantastic. But we also need more Christian doctors. And we need more Christian nurses. And we need more Christian wait for it lawyers.

And we need more yes. And we need more believers glorifying God in business in entertainment in sports. We need more Godly police officers. We need more Godly firefighters. We need more Godly first responders. We need more Christians in the military. And we need more Christians especially in politics. We do.

Everywhere. We need Christians. Honoring the Lord with the gifts that He has given to them. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. We love hearing stories of how the movie Jesus Revolution is inspiring people in their faith walk. Pastor Greg, evangelism has always been my husband's calling until 11 years ago when he burned out from the stress of ministry after 23 years. The Jesus Revolution movie ignited a spark that has begun to fan into flame when after all these years he gave a sermon and his testimony at a small home church last Sunday. He is now considering going back into ministry. Thank you, Pastor Greg. If you have a story to share, why not call us and give us all the details?

Here's the number 1-866-871-1144, 866-871-1144. And now Pastor Greg continues his practical message based in Romans called, How to Know the Will of God. So what do I need to do? Number 1, verse 1, present your body as a living sacrifice. What does that mean? It means give your whole being to God. Give your physical body to God. Give your personality to God. Give your present to God. Give your future to God. Give your resources to God.

Number 1, we need to present our minds. Fill your mind with God's truth. Not the junk and twisted world view of this culture. We need to consciously and proactively choose to think about Godly things more often. Philippians 4 says, Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and praiseworthy. So present your mind to God.

Number 2, present your words to God. Present your tongue to God. Think about what you say before you say it. Over in James 3-5 it says, The tongue is a small thing, but what enormous damage it can do.

A tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. Think before you speak. Think before you tweet. Think before you hit send on your email. Think before you post it on Facebook. Think before you spread that information.

It may not even be true. Think. T-H-I-N-K. It's an acronym.

Ask yourself this. T. Is it true? H. Is it helpful? I. Is it inspiring? N. Is it necessary? K. Is it kind? If it doesn't meet that acronym don't say it.

Well Greg if I lived that way I would never say anything. Hallelujah. But you know what enormous damage a tiny spark can do. It can set a forest on fire. That is what words can do. I think of a Spurgeon that said, Lie us half way around the world while truth is still putting its shoes on.

It is amazing how lies spread so quickly. But I know this from experience about a little spark almost starting a forest fire. Years ago I was in Virginia staying at a friend's cabin out in the middle of nowhere. And he didn't have central heating. And he said the way we heat this cabin is we put logs in this stove right here.

And that heats the cabin. And he says Greg do you know how to build a fire? I said does Dura Flame count? You turn the gas on light and no we don't have gas here. We don't use Dura Flame logs. You have to build a fire.

Do you know how to build one? I said actually I don't know that I do. And he said well let's go get some kindling. I said great.

Where do you buy that? He looks at me like you are such a moron. He said you don't buy kindling. You get it off the ground.

I said great. Can you show me what it looks like? So we are walking around and he is showing me what kindling is. You know dried up little branches and things like that. And so he comes and he builds a fire. Gets a great fire going.

He says now here is the deal. This fire will fill up with ash. So you take the ash and you put it in a metal bucket. And then you can put more wood in the fire. And you have got to keep this thing going perpetually.

And sure enough at about 11 o'clock at night it is getting cold. I am putting more logs in. But the problem is there was a lot of ash. So I scoop the ash out. Put it in the metal bucket.

And then it burned through those logs. And now I have got too much on my bucket. I have got to empty the bucket. I look at it.

It looks good. So I go out on the porch of this little cabin. It is pitch dark out. And I throw out the ash and I see about 12 little burning embers. And they went out. Boom. Boom.

Little fire starts. Oh no. Boom. Boom. Another one.

Boom. I thought I am going to burn the whole forest down. I freak out. I literally run out there. I am picking up these live embers with my hands. Throwing them up on the gravel driveway praying oh God help. Oh God help. Then I run in the house for a bucket to fill with water.

It is like the smallest bucket I have ever seen. I thought I am going to burn the whole forest down. And I did.

No I didn't. Fortunately those little fires didn't go too far. But that is just what a little burning coal can do. The same is true of our words. And we need to present our hands and feet to God. Your body to God. Proverbs 6 16 says, there are six things the Lord hates.

No seven things He detests. Notice each one of these is a body part. Hottie eyes, which means an arrogant look. A lying tongue. Hands that kill the innocent.

A heart that plots evil. And feet that race to do wrong. Some people have feet that race to do wrong. Let me put it another way. They are called toddlers. Right. They learn how to walk and they are just you have to follow them everywhere.

Everywhere. They just don't know what they are doing yet. But some people are this way.

They are just always looking for things to destroy or ways to wreak havoc. No God doesn't want us to do that. Present that to God. You present your feet to God.

We talked earlier in Romans about how beautiful are the feet of those that bring the gospel. So we present our minds. We present our words. We present our actions. And yes we also present our finances. If you have really given your heart to God it will affect your finances.

And let me turn that around. If it hasn't affected your finances have you really given your whole heart over to the Lord? You know in 2 Corinthians 8 five Paul writes about the generous believers who lived in Macedonia. These people were not wealthy but they heard about a need and they gave generously. And Paul commends them and he says this they did giving themselves to the Lord. So before they gave their finances first they gave themselves and the finances followed. So give your heart to the Lord.

Number two. Don't be conformed to this world. Don't be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. By the way the Greek verb used here for conform refers to the act of assuming an outward appearance that does not accurately reflect what is within. In other words don't masquerade as if you really belong to the world. That would be patterning yourself inconsistently with who you really are. Think of Halloween. Maybe you dress up as a character. Like last year I was SpongeBob SquarePants.

No actually I was. But you know you put on a mask. Oh I am Captain America.

Oh you know she is Wonder Woman or whatever. And you pretend. But that is not really who you are. So the idea that Paul is communicating is don't pretend to be something you are not. Don't be conformed to this world or as the J.B. Phillips translation puts it, don't let this world squeeze you into its mold. So present yourself to God. Don't be conformed to this world.

Here is the question you need to ask yourself. Are you going to be a conformer or are you going to be a transformer? A conformer or a transformer.

You are either going to be conformed to this world or you are going to transform the world. Or you are going to be a thermostat or a thermometer. A thermometer tells you what the temperature is and a thermostat sets it. So you know you can be a thermometer.

You just react. Whatever it is I will blend in with that. Or you can be the thermostat. You say I am going to set the temperature of this room. I am going to walk into this room and I am going to be a light for Jesus Christ.

Or I am going to cave in and compromise and try not to stand out in any way. Don't be conformed to this world. Don't be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may know what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. God's will is good. Great insights on discovering the will of God here on A New Beginning.

Today Pastor Greg Laurie is continuing our study tour through Romans called Relentless Grace. Well we are so excited to make available the new film Jesus Revolution on DVD. People have been asking about it. Pastor Greg we have seen questions on social media about what situations in the movie were just as they happened and then situations where they took a little creative liberty. So let me ask you about these things. First did you really come to know the Lord after hearing Lonnie Frisbee speak?

Yeah that is true. Now in the movie I come to Christ right before I am baptized. The reality is and for folks that listen to our radio broadcasts you have heard me tell my story quite a few times but yes I was on my high school campus and that sort of reflected in the film where you see Lonnie get up and you hear a little of his message and then he says Jesus says you are for me or against me. That is exactly what Lonnie said and that was the statement that got my attention and I walked forward on my high school campus a little detail on that I didn't know until recently. I found out that normally that Christian group met in the science room on the high school campus but on that particular day the air conditioning was broken so they moved outside.

They normally did not meet on the front lawn. That is where I came across the Christians. Had they been in the classroom I would have never walked in that room and I would have felt too conspicuous and I wouldn't have done it but because it was out on neutral territory so to speak I went and sat close enough where I could eavesdrop on their conversation and that is the day I came to Christ so I believe it was all orchestrated by the Lord.

Oh absolutely. So did Lonnie Frisbee really show up at Pastor Chuck's house when Chuck wasn't expecting it? Well the real story is Kay Smith had a real burden for the hippies and she was really praying for them to come to Christ. In fact there was a group of kids that would walk by her house every day. They were young stoner type kids and she would pray Lord reach those kids. Reach one of those young boys there for the gospel and as it turns out and I found this out years later I was part of that little gang of kids because we used to get stoned that's 60's vernacular for you know smoke weed.

We would get stoned at a house not far from where Chuck and Kay lived. I didn't know Chuck and Kay lived in that neighborhood and we would walk right by her house so she in effect was praying for me as well as the others but so Chuck did want to meet a hippie and his daughter Jan did meet a young hippie man named John Higgins who introduced him to Lonnie Frisbee who was then brought to the house of Chuck Smith. Yeah it was a long way around the barn to say Lonnie came to Chuck's house yes. Okay so the historic band Love Song which we're all familiar with did they really get their start by informally sort of auditioning for Pastor Chuck that one day at his church? Yeah they did in the movie it happens in his front room but in real life it happened in this church. At this point Lonnie was preaching at Calvary the reputation was spreading quickly there's this hippie preacher at this church called Calvary Chapel so Love Song shows up there an existing band already just playing clubs and other things but they had all become Christians just recently.

In fact Tommy Coombs one of the members of Love Song was still going to jail on the weekends and so they auditioned in Chuck's office they said hi we're Love Song we have some songs Chuck's a little skeptical wouldn't you be and they start playing and he couldn't believe it Chuck began to weep as they played these beautiful songs that the Lord gave them and Chuck said would you like to play tonight and that's how Love Song got started. That's amazing well you know the movie has fascinated people it's inspired people many have been brought to the Lord through the film and now we're bringing the film home quite literally we're bringing this to people's homes. That's right you can now have your own DVD copy of the Jesus Revolution film now I know it's streaming you've probably seen it out there in different platforms like Apple and Amazon but here's what's unique about the Harvest Edition of the Jesus Revolution DVD you get the movie but then you get bonus content you won't get anywhere else including a special cinematic message I shot on the beach that is designed to be shown right after a person has viewed the film. I'm telling them how they can come into a relationship with Jesus Christ and I even lead them in a prayer. So this is a great tool I think it's one of the best evangelistic tools out there and I think it's the greatest resource we have ever offered here at Harvest by a country mile so I'm encouraging you now to order your own copy of the Jesus Revolution DVD order it from us and start doing evangelistic outreaches in your front room. Yeah that's right we really want to put a copy of this in your hands and we'll send you this new DVD along with a free streaming code to thank you for your partnership right now your investment so a new beginning can continue to come your way and by the way the resource costs us more than we normally pay for other resources so thanks so much for your generosity right now you can call us anytime at 1-800-821-3300 that's 1-800-821-3300 or write us at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514 or go online to harvest.org. Well next time join us for more insight on this practical issue of finding and following God's will for our lives. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher Craig Lord. Hey everybody thanks for listening to this podcast to learn more about Harvest Ministries follow this show and consider supporting it just go to harvest.org and to find out how to know God personally go to harvest.org and click on know God.