Most people's Christianity is a series of simple things made complicated. Many ministers take pride in how carefully they can complicate the simplest scriptural truths. You are not a good minister if you can take a simple truth and complicate it; instead, you are a good minister if you can take a deep Biblical truth and simplify it! Christian ministers seem to specialize in making the simple as difficult as possible.
A man once approached Dr. Monroe Parker. “I've been visiting as many churches as possible,” the man told Dr. Parker, “because I'm trying to understand God.”
“How are you coming along in your quest to understand God?” Dr. Parker asked.
“Understand God?” the man replied. “I can't understand preachers, let alone God.”
Leave it to preachers to make things complicated. We complicate salvation. Salvation by faith in Christ is literally the easiest teaching in all the Bible. However, if you ask the next ten professing Christians that cross your path how to know that you are saved and heaven bound, you will get fifteen different answers. Every church has a plan of salvation that it endorses, but very few preach salvation by grace through faith in Christ.
We complicate prayer. Some say you must kneel; others say you must quote prayers verbatim from a prayer book. Others insist that you pray long prayers; others demand loud prayers; others promote secret prayers; and others endorse public prayers. Yet, the sum of all these things matters very little in a person's actual time of prayer.
And we ministers are great at complicating the truth of how a Christian finds the will of God. Mark my words – one of the easiest things for a Christian to do, hands down, is to find the will of God. When I was a student in Bible college, I watched as young ministers prayed, wept, and fasted because they wanted to find God's will. Almost all of their praying, weeping, and fasting was completely unnecessary. These young ministers wanted to know from God - “Am I going to be a pastor, or an evangelist?” “Am I going to live up north, or down south?” They would lose sleep worrying about the details of God's plans for their lives. It was sad to watch many of them lack the simple Bible teaching about the will of God and how to find it.
How Does a Christian Find the Will of God?
Finding God's will is clearly laid out in Proverbs 3:6 –
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Please notice that the above verse has two distinct parts. The first part is my part; the second part is God's part. Nearly all of the turmoil that possesses Christians attempting to find God's will occurs when they get out of the first part of the verse (their part) and meddle in the second part of the verse (God's part). The first part of this verse is the condition we must carry out; and the second part of the verse is God's promise to fulfill His part.
The first part of the verse (our part) reads this way - “In all thy ways acknowledge him.” My part ends there. The rest of the verse is no concern of mine. The rest of the verse is God's part – God's promise that He will fulfill. Proverbs 3:6 promises that, if I acknowledge God in every area of my life, He will direct my paths. This is one of the greatest promises of the Bible. Finding God's will is as simple as believing what God said. Period. If you believe what God said, you will never sweat this concept of finding God's will ever again. My part in this matter is to acknowledge God. In turn, God will lead me. He promised. He cannot lie. As a Christian, I have never lost any sleep worrying over whether or not I was in the will of God. I have only tried to acknowledge God where I am, and God has always done the leading. As of now, I serve as a pastor in Indiana. Am I worried that maybe it is God's will for me to be elsewhere? Not at all. I am going to serve God, acknowledging Him where I am, and when I need to be elsewhere, He will lead me. He said He would. He promised.
To someone who wants to be sure of God's will, simply acknowledge God in all you do, wherever you currently are. God will take care of the rest. A friend of mine once stated that many times, Christians miss out on God's will because they are always looking for some big project in the future. I have heard Christians say, “I am going to have a great ministry someday.” And they say it their entire lives. As their fleeting lives drift away, they do nothing for God because they believe that God's will contains something big for them... down the road. Don't think of God's will as being something in the future. There are opportunities to carry out God's will all around you. Serve God where you are. If you cannot serve God where you are, you cannot serve Him anywhere. Someone in very close proximity to you needs salvation. Someone you know is hurting. Someone associated with you is hungry. Give the gospel to the lost; it is God's will for you to do so. Feed the poor; it is God's will. Give to the needy; it is God's will. Lighten the load of a fellow Christian; you are fulfilling the law of Christ – the will of God – when you do so.
Acknowledge God. Serve Him today. Serve Him now. Serve Him where you are. Don't wait until God's will takes you to another location. Acknowledging God is your part. Do it. Directing your paths is God's part. He will do it. He promised.
