How to Know God’s Will for Your Life
How do you know if it’s actually GOD’S WILL for you to be doing what you are doing?
Now this is a question that few Christians can answer. If you ask them if they are fulfilling the purpose that God has for their life, most, if they are honest, will tell you that they aren’t really sure.
Paul gives us some astonishing insight into finding God’s will right here in this short little passage. And if you read on, I promise that this insight is really going to bless you!
Paul was writing this letter to the Corinthian church while he was ministering in the city of Ephesus. And Ephesus was the mega-city of the Roman province of Asia (not the modern continent of Asia, but near the modern country of Turkey).
Ephesus had been on Paul’s radar for a long time. Early in Paul’s ministry, Paul had wanted to go there, but the Holy Spirit had forbidden him from going into Asia.
Now from a church-growth standpoint, Ephesus made lots of sense. It was the biggest city in that part of the world, and so it stood to reason that he and his team would find success there.
But the Holy Spirit had prevented them from going in. How did He do that? I will postulate that He removed Paul’s PEACE when he attempted to go in a direction that the Spirit did not want him to go.
This is a critical point to learn in determining how to follow the will of God for your life.
That point in Paul’s life was fairly early in his career. Although he had a DESIRE for mega-city ministry, he did not have the CAPACITY for mega-city ministry.
DESIRE AND PEACE must be present together, or it is a sure sign that this direction is not God’s will for your life. And God will never move you into a position where you don’t have the CAPACITY to handle it, because He will never set you up for failure.
But Paul is writing this letter at a much later point in his career. His CAPACITY has expanded because his EXPERIENCE has expanded. He has some powerful ministry experience under his belt, including an amazing two years of miraculous ministry in Corinth.
And now he is in the mega-city of Ephesus. His DESIRE and God’s PEACE have come into alignment!
And when he came into Ephesus, something astounding and miraculous happened. And this is what you need to understand if you want to know for sure that you are following God’s will for your life.
There are two ways to walk through a door. You can either open the door yourself, or you can wait for someone else to open the door for you.
When Paul came into Ephesus, he found that the door for his ministry had already been opened by God! The verb tense that He uses here is for an action that was 100% completed in the past!
Paul didn’t walk into Ephesus with a crowbar to pry open the door. Rather, it was already open and waiting for him to walk through it when he got there!
Who had opened the door for him? God, of course! There is no need for a crowbar when you are following God’s will for your life. The door will already be open for you.
Paul had prepared himself through ministry experience. But he didn’t open his own door for advancement. God opened the door for him. And so he just stepped through it!
He knew for certain that his path was lining up with God’s will because he wasn’t the one making things happen.
Two last quick points and then I’m done. First, the door that God opened for him was GREAT (Greek word “mega”) and EFFECTIVE (Greek word that we get our English word for “energy” or “energetic”).
When God is the One who opens the door for you and you aren’t doing it with your own crowbar, you will find that it’s mega-energetic.
And second, Paul was confronted with many ADVERSARIES. Just because you hit opposition does not mean you have missed God’s will.
Do you have DESIRE, PEACE, EXPERIENCE, CAPACITY, and an OPEN DOOR? Then you can expect OPPOSITION too, because Satan doesn’t want you operating in God’s perfect plan for you.
Paul knew for sure that he was fulfilling God’s plan. You can too!