People often tell me that they want to do certain things for God, but they don’t know for sure if they are supposed to. How they can know if they are being called by God?
I’m certainly no expert at discerning God’s perfect will for everyone else’s lives, but there are some biblical principles we can apply.
I was talking today with a local pastor, his wife, and one of his church members who is feeling the call to become a full time missionary, but is still waiting to see how it will work out.
God doesn’t always tell us all of the details when He calls us. When He called Abraham, He simply told him to, “Go into a land I will show you,” without telling him exactly where it would be or how it would all work out. Abraham had very few details, yet he uprooted his wife and all his possessions and wandered into the desert, where God revealed to him, step by step, His will for his life. (Genesis 12) When Abraham took those steps of obedience, God would continue pointing him in the right direction.
But God also told Abraham that he would have a son, and in that case, he had to wait until God’s perfect time for Isaac to be born.
Psalm 37:4,5 tells us to, “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.” Does that mean God will grant me all my heart’s wishes of a bigger house, better job, or nicer car when I make the demand? Not quite.
When you delight yourself in the Lord, and have your mind and heart set on heavenly things, then God will give you desires for right things and align your will with His. That’s why he says that it is God who is all the while at work in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. God is at work in your heart to conform your desires to His.
According to Eph 5:8, “We are His workmanship, create in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” God already has good works laid out in front of you for you to walk in. Are you? Or do you need to discover what they are?
We are told in 1John 5:14,15, “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.”
When you know that what you are asking is consistent with God’s will, you can move forward in faith.
When God told Abraham to “Go”, He didn’t possess him and uncontrollably force him into action. It was Abrahams will to obey God that motivated him to physically GO when prompted. But when God told Abraham that he would have a son, then all the effort in the world produced nothing until God provided the miracle.
Sometimes God gives you the desire to do something, and when you step out in faithful obedience, all the doors open up and you enjoy immediate success in the Lord.
Sometimes, he gives you a desire, but you have to wait for it. In such cases, let me encourage you with more from David in psalm 37:7 “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.”
Have you received a vision from God for your life, but you’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting but haven’t acted yet? Are you delighting yourself in the Lord? Have you committed your way to Him?
Maybe it’s time to step out in faith!