How to Know the Will of God | Following God's Direction

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 e-books 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 a sort of like a celestial Easter bunny is not telling us where the golden egg is. You know when you have an Easter egg and there is a 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 is something we can never find. Or the opposite view is we think God's will is something undesirable. It is 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 is either boring or it is horrible. And you know and so basically the rule of all diets is if you want to eat it, it is probably not in your diet.

Or maybe that is 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 is God's will it can't be good. It can't be desirable. It is going to be bad.

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

Here is 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 was 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 is great for Abraham.

No it is 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 man 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 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 the steps of a righteous man are ordered by the Lord. So I read the Word of God. I pray for 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.

All right. Well the best place to start is pick up the manual. God has given us a 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 the 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 and entertainment and 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.

So what do I need to do? Number one. Verse one. 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 one 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 two. 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's what words can do. I think of a Spurgeon that said, Lie us half way around the world why truth is still putting its shoes on.

It's 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 twelve 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 5 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 a 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. But 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 today here on A New Beginning. Pastor Greg Laurie is presenting insights from the series called Timeless. But Pastor Greg, maybe someone has been listening and they felt God speaking to them today. They have never come to the Lord and asked him to forgive their sins. But they want to make a change today.

They can do that right now, can't they? That's right. The Bible says whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. So think of it this way. Maybe you are out in a riptide in the ocean and you can't get your footing and you are in trouble and you see a lifeguard. Call out for help and the lifeguard will rescue you.

The same is true spiritually. You're drowning in your sin. You need help. Jesus will save you. He will rescue you. But you must call out to Him.

And you know how you do that? You do it in prayer. So let me just lead you in a simple prayer. And you can pray this prayer after me. You can pray it out loud if you like. And this is where you are calling out to Jesus to save you.

Just pray this. Lord Jesus, I know I'm a sinner and I know You are the Savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. Now Lord, I turn from my sin and I put my faith in You. Be my Savior, my Lord. Be my God and my friend. I choose to follow You from this moment forward. In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen. Hey, if you just prayed that prayer, I want you to know that Christ Himself has come to live inside of you. And I have a resource I want to send to you. It's called the New Believers Bible. So the New Believers Bible is the New Testament in the New Living Translation with hundreds of notes that I wrote that will encourage you in this commitment you are making to follow Christ. There's some other materials included as well in what we call the New Believers Growth Pack, but let me get this New Believers Bible into your hands as quickly as possible.

Here's Dave to tell you more. Yeah, just get in touch with us and let us know you prayed with Pastor Greg today. We'll be glad to send you that New Believers Bible free of charge. Here's our number 1-800-821-3300. Call any time 1-800-821-3300. Or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514.

Or go online to Harvest.org. Pastor Greg, we're talking about your brand new film called Fame, talking about the dangers of pursuing fame and fortune. Let's say one of your grandkids came up to you one day and they said, Papa, when I grow up, I'm going to be a social media influencer and everybody's going to watch my videos.

I'm going to be rich. And you say, well, I don't think it's bad to want to be an influencer. I don't think it's a bad thing to want to be successful in life, but I think we need to do it for the right reasons and use the platforms for the best purposes. So there are social media influencers out there. There are people that have large followings on social media platforms and they use it for the glory of God. And I think that's fantastic because, you know, people need to hear the gospel.

And I'm always looking for ways to build bridges to people and talk about things that are happening in the culture and in the world today and show them what the Bible says and how Christ is ultimately the answer. So I don't know if that would be the best thing to pursue as your career. Having said that, whatever you do, do it for the glory of God. So if you can say, Hollywood be thy name over what you're about to pursue as your career path, then I think you're good to go.

That would include being a social media influencer or whatever other field you go after. But you do talk about the dangers of fame because we see that demonstrated throughout the entertainment industry. The stories of those who have really attained what they set out to accomplish and yet it destroyed them.

Those stories are everywhere. Sure. Consider Amy Winehouse, an incredible success, very talented musician. And yet here's what she said of fame and I quote, fame is like terminal cancer. I wouldn't wish it on anyone, end quote. So how's that for an answer?

For someone who's been there and done that and bought the t-shirt and maybe even was the t-shirt, right? So no, it isn't the answer. Solomon was one of the most successful men who ever lived. He had global fame. People traveled from across the planet to be with this man of God, this man of wisdom. But then Solomon walked away from his faith and backslid. He wrote about it in the book of Ecclesiastes. Here's his conclusion. It's all empty. It's like chasing the wind.

It's like a bubble that bursts. So here's his conclusion at the end of the book of Ecclesiastes. Fear God and keep his commandments.

Well, how about that? So here's your choice. You can learn these things the easy way or the hard way. You don't have to live the life of Solomon or the life of Amy Winehouse or the life of any famous celebrity who flamed out, burned out or even took their own life. You can learn it from what God says in this word. So I've written a book called Fame.

It's available right now. It's a brand new book and I want to make it available to you for your gift of any size that you send to our ministry. But I really play it out in this book.

I illustrate it with all kinds of sources and quotes and stories from people who've been there and experienced it for themselves. But then we have a brand new film by the same title, Fame. So Dave, tell them where they can see the film.

Yeah, you can watch the movie right now at our new Harvest Media platform at harvest.org and also other streaming platforms such as Roku, Apple TV, Samsung, Amazon Fire and Google Play. Fame is free to watch. And of course the book called Fame gives even more insight and examples of how God's plan differs from the world's plan, the plan that promises happiness but often delivers sadness and despair. We'll be glad to send a copy of the book your way.

Again, it's called Fame. To thank you for partnering with us so Pastor Greg can continue to bring the gospel through radio, through books and film and through so many other forms of outreach. And we won't be mentioning this much longer, so contact us soon. Get in touch with your donation today by calling 1-800-821-3300. Call anytime 24-7, 1-800-821-3300. Or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514.

Or go online to harvest.org. Well Pastor Greg, you began preaching at a young age and I know you're now celebrating 50 years of ministry and you've been on the radio a long time as well. Yeah, I have. And you know, I've enjoyed it so much because it's not a job to me, it's a calling. I never sent out to make this my profession or my career. I sent out to serve God starting with a little cartoon booklet I drew called Living Water leading to speaking of little Bible studies here and there, of course just sharing my faith on the streets and then eventually taking over a small Bible study in Riverside, CA that ultimately turned into our church. But it's funny, radio was there back then and radio is here today and radio is such a powerful medium. I have to say personally, of all the things I do, I enjoy radio the most because I'm an avid listener to Christian radio as well as being someone that has a program on Christian radio. I think it's a very personal medium. I almost feel like when I listen to other people that I enjoy, I feel like I have a relationship with them almost like we're having a conversation except they never asked me what I think. But I enjoy that and so we're really thrilled to be in this space and our objective is to reach unexpected people in unexpected places with the unexpected message of the gospel.

Yeah, yeah, that's right. And we want to thank you, our listeners, for being a part of this radio family. We thank you for your prayers and we thank you for your investments that keep these studies coming.

And of course you can reach out with that support at 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 Greg Laurie. Thanks for listening to A New Beginning with Greg Laurie, a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. Sign up for daily devotions and learn how to become a Harvest Partner at Harvest.org.