The Christian Life: Sanctification

How Can I Know God's Will in 2014?

By Dr. Paul M. Elliott
Today, many Christians don't want to hear the Biblical answer. Do you?

From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

Today, many Christians don't want to hear the Biblical answer. Do you?

Give Me a Formula

They say, in effect, "Don't tell me all I need is the Bible. It can't be that simple." So what's in the religious bookstores? Not Bibles mainly, not books to really help you study the Bible, but self-help books: How to manage your finances. How to find the right spouse. How to have a better marriage. How to raise your kids. How to get along with people. How to be a leader. How to grow your church.

The message of most of these books is a canned formula: "Do these 5 steps" - "Learn these 10 principles" - "Say this prayer every day" - and you'll know the will of God. So that's what many people go after today.

Not Worth the Cost of a Match

Some of those programs, a very few, may be of some help. If any of them are truly helpful, it's because they don't rely on canned formulas. They explain what the Bible actually has to say about these issues. They're designed to increase your knowledge of God's will, knowledge that is found only in God's Word.

But most of the books about God's will, quite frankly, aren't worth the cost of a match to set them on fire. They have little or no basis in the Bible. They're cheap, confusing substitutes for the Bible. They offer the same human philosophy and dubious ethics you find in the lost world, with some Christian words wrapped around them. They're worse than worthless, because they lead you away from God's Word. They tell you to rely on something else, or worse yet, someone else.

Most of the how-to books and programs say, in effect, "Turn off your spiritual brain" - "Just do this" - "Here's the easy, foolproof way." And when you don't rely on God's Word, sooner or later the 5-step program or the 10 principles aren't doing the job. You're right back in the same problem you had before, only now perhaps it's worse.

God's Way to Know God's Will

These things aren't God's way. God's way to know God's will is through God's Word. Paul tells us this in Colossians 1:9-12 -

For this reason we also, since the day we heard it [of the Colossians' faith in Christ], do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.

Let me give you an expanded translation of the Greek text. We are praying, Paul says, "desiring that you may be liberally supplied with the precise, correct, and thorough knowledge of His will - that is, God's will and intent and purpose - in all spiritual wisdom in the broad sense, and in all spiritual understanding in the more specific sense, joining together in your minds the things that you have learned, are learning, and will learn about God."

Now that's a big statement. It's a very weighty statement. From it we can derive six propositions:

  1. Believing the Gospel of Christ is what makes knowledge of God's will possible.
  2. Precise and correct knowledge of God's will is possible.
  3. Precise and correct knowledge of God's will comes because of two things: prayer and study of God's Word.
  4. Knowledge of God's will involves wisdom in the general sense.
  5. Knowledge of God's will involves understanding in the specific sense, and it is an understanding that involves joining various aspects of God's revelation together in the mind.
  6. The Christian's knowledge of God's will is superior to the world's false and speculative knowledge and wisdom.

Practical Advice

The most practical thing a Christian can do is to prayerfully read, study and internalize God's Word. That's how you'll be "filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." It's that simple - and it's also that profound.

You'll find a series of three messages dealing with the knowledge of God's will on our website. They're part of our broadcast series, Christ Above All: Studies in Colossians. Click the titles to hear the message or read a transcript:

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