Living To Do God’s Will

As believers, it should be our desire to do the will of God for our lives, in every area of our life. Many people have a strong desire to do His will but struggle with finding out what exactly His will for their life is. And there are those who know God’s will for their life but struggle with stepping into it and walking it out. There are specifically unique things that God has planned for each of His children and there are general things that He wills and requires for all of us to live out. So whether you’re walking in God’s will for your life, don’t yet know what His will is for you, or you know but are afraid to walk it out, here is some encouragement for you in your process of living to do the God’s will…

God’s will for all believers

God’s will for us, first and foremost, is to obey His Word. Before you can ask God to show you specifics about your personal life you have to make sure you’re doing the basics. If you can’t stop (and aren’t making the efforts to stop) backbiting, fornicating, lying, defiling your temple with cigarettes, alcohol, and etc., aren’t reading your bible, or don’t have a relationship with God, then why on earth would He tell you how He’s going to use you in ministry or what career path to pursue, or anything about a husband? If you’re not obeying the basics of the Word of God, HE CAN’T TRUST YOU with any of those things! Your sinful lifestyle would totally destroy His plans for you. So the first step of living to do the will of God is to obey the Word of God. Obey the elementary things that He commands ALL believers to obey and walk out. We should be obeying the word on a daily, minute by minute, second by second basis; it should be our nature and our lifestyle. Now if you just gave your life to Christ and don’t yet know all of the basics of living a Christian lifestyle, then do what you know to do and continue to obey the word as you grow in your knowledge of the God. But if you’ve been in Christ for a while and know the word but are not obeying, this is most likely why God isn’t showing you anything new concerning His will for you. You can’t go to the first grade until you’ve passed kindergarten. When you present yourself completely to God as a holy sacrifice, are no longer conforming to the ways of this world, and allow God to transform your mind through His word, then you will be able to find out God’s will for your life (Rom. 12:1-2).

When God’s will is something that was not in your plans

For some of us (myself included), the will/plan that God has for your life is something that was not in your plans what-so-ever. Or you may have had plans but then God begins to shut them down one by one, and you know that it’s clearly God who is allowing those plans not to go through. I’ve been through this and know from personal experience that this is a very difficult thing to go through. I had plans to work in the medical field. I was in school, ready to complete the last two years for my bachelors, go on to get my masters, eventually get married, have a big beautiful house, nice cars and live the “American dream.” When I say God shut those plans all the way down – He shut them ALL the way down!! Smack dab in the middle of my plans too! He didn’t even let me complete my Bachelors! Every time I tried, it just didn’t work. Finally, after trying and trying to make MY will for my life come to pass, I asked Him if it was what HE wanted and He revealed to me that it wasn’t. In all honesty, it hurt. But because I really desired to do God’s will for my life, the only choice I had was to let go of the old and embrace the new thing as He led me. (I’ll talk more about my journey and testimony in this process in a future blog post)… So the longer you hold onto the old or the longer you stall by not starting something He’s leading you to start, the longer your process will be! God may lead you to end one thing while at the same time not give you instructions for what He wants you to do next. Trust Him. He’s testing you and building your faith in Him. Don’t delay and waste time by trying to pursue something that you KNOW God is not leading you to do. Walk by faith and not by sight (or feeling). His ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. Faith is key in situations like this. Years down the line after you’ve obeyed you will be able to look back and see exactly why God was leading you in that direction.

And keep in mind that some things He may have you to let go of for a season but then pick back up later on; some things are simply seasonal. This is why it’s so important to stay in tune with God and know His voice. Never get routine with Him because He may be trying to usher you into something new but you’ve gotten comfortable and familiar with the old. When you become routine you’ve gotten religious. You no longer are looking for or expecting God to speak. God could have moved two miles away but you completely missed Him. We should always have a heart that says “God what are you saying? What are You doing? I want to be where you are and know what You want for me.” We should always have our ear pressed into the heart of our Father. And it is an HONOR to be asked by God to do anything — whether it’s letting go of something or going into something new. Even if He tells us to wait and be still, it is still an honor! (And please keep in mind that not everyone will go through a process of God asking them to change career paths, for some people the career path they have chosen is the one that God wants them on. So don’t compare your journey with someone else’s; it’s all a matter of doing and knowing what God wants YOU to do).

Discovering God’s will/the new, and waiting for further instructions

I’ve realized in my journey with God that He will not give you certain pieces of the puzzle or the fullness of the things He’s called you to do until an appointed time. You may be in a place where God showed you to let go of or walk away from something (ie, career path, relationship, job, etc.) but He hasn’t shown you the “new” or the thing that He wants you to do instead. Know that in this “limbo” or waiting period, God is working behind the scenes although it may seem like He isn’t speaking or doing anything at all. He’s working behind the scenes in your heart to prepare you for what He does have for you. God works in times and seasons. He will never do anything in your life out of time or out of season. He is not going to bring something new in your life which He has not prepared you for. He has to take you through the fire and purge out your ideas of how you think your life should go so that you can receive His purpose for your life. In the meantime, do what you know to do and MINISTER WHERE HE HAS YOU. If you’re in school, then do it with a spirit of excellence; if you’re a son/daughter then honor your parents wholeheartedly; if you work at a coffee shop then work as unto the Lord; if you’re a mother then be the best godly mother to your children that you could possibly be…  Sometimes doing the will of God simply means honoring Him and living for Him right where you are at! At times we look to God for more, but God is saying to us, “are you doing what you are supposed to be doing where I have you now? Are you faithful to Me there?” He’s only going to hold you accountable for what He has entrusted you with. So if He hasn’t shown you anything new then don’t worry about that, focus on what is in front of you TODAY.

I understand that at times it can get tiring waiting on God to give you direction or new instructions — especially when you’re not working or in school or you’re doing something that you really don’t enjoy. It can be tempting to just go out and create something, anything, just to have something to do. But all that will do is cause you to eventually bump your head and look around and wonder (after months/years of pursuing the wrong thing), “why am I here and what on earth have I done with my life.” It will end up being a huge waste of time. Don’t force it; don’t try to create something out of nothing. Don’t try to create God’s will for your life out of bits and pieces, assumptions, other people’s recommendations, or dreams that you’ve had that you haven’t gotten the full revelation of yet. Don’t do these things out of anxiety and wanting to rush the process because it simply won’t end well. When God is ready to give you further instructions He will give it to you. He didn’t all of a sudden forget where you live or how to reach you, lol! He knows how to get your attention it when He’s ready. After God revealed to me that He didn’t want me pursuing a career in the medical field, years –YEARS!! – went by before I got full instructions on what to do instead. During those years He gave me bits and pieces of the puzzle here and there, a few visions of what I’d be doing in the future, He had me work a few jobs, and work in ministry at my church. It wasn’t until just recently (months ago) that He began to put the pieces together, give me more, and actually have me begin to walk into the “new”. And God said to me through Isaiah 48:6 — “THIS is My appointed time for revealing all this to you Deborah, and THIS is my appointed time to have you walk in it. I could have shown you sooner but this is the time and season I’ve ordained for you to know this.” So be patient and know that your times and your seasons are in God’s hands; don’t try to force a season to end or begin. Don’t rush your process.

God’s will vs. other people’s opinions

Do what God is leading you to do and do it to bring HIM the utmost glory. People will give you their opinions and tell you that you’re foolish for doing God’s will, especially when it doesn’t fit the world’s definition or pathway of success. To be honest, it comes with the territory. The enemy will use someone somewhere to try and discourage you; it’s something that you have to walk through. Will you obey people or will you obey God? Expect family members, especially your parents, to question your decisions. But just like Jesus said in Luke 2:49 when His parents were looking for Him and found Him in the synagogue, “I must be about my Father’s business.” See they don’t understand the importance of living to do God’s will, so because they don’t understand they’re going to persecute you about it. Stand! One thing I used to tell myself when people taunted me for doing what God wanted me to do was: “when I stand before God and give account for my life, those people aren’t going to be able to stand for me and tell God why I wasn’t obedient to Him. At the end of this life, I PAY THE PRICE for living to do God’s will or not doing His will, not those people.” Abraham had to leave his Father’s house and go to a place he wasn’t familiar with (Genesis 12:1-9). I’m pretty sure people around him questioned his decision. But look at the fruit that his obedience birthed thousands of years down the line! The 3 Hebrew boys chose not to bow down to the golden image, they were thrown in the fiery furnace but God delivered them (Daniel 3). Your parents and those around you might be telling you to bow down to the image of the American dream, or the image of money, worldly success, or material possessions. They may be threatening to throw you in the fiery furnace of getting kicked out, fear, their taunts, and persecution, or whatever. But if you stand, GOD WILL DELIVER YOU!! When you stand God will get the glory in the end because they will know that your God is God. So stand!

To the parents: Allow your children to be free to do the will of God for their lives. Don’t put restraints on them or make it hard for them. Keep in mind that God may not want them to go to college, get a typical career, or go down the typical career path; God may call them to do missions when they grow up! Nurture and encourage the gifts that God has placed in them. Pray that they discover what their purpose is early but also know that some gifts or callings may not come out till later on in life. Remember that “where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty” (2 Cor. 3:17); liberty to do the things that God has ordained your children to do. When you allow freedom to reign, it creates an atmosphere for that to take place. You don’t want to be a burden and hindrance to them in their process of walking out their God-ordained destiny, you want to be a help and a blessing to them. So support them and give them godly counsel as God reveals His will for their lives.

There’s no better place to be than in the center of God’s will for your life!

So if you’ve just read all this and you’re thinking to yourself: “I’ve never even thought to live to do God’s will or ever desired to do His will,” perhaps you are a lukewarm Christian. Our greatest desire as believers should be to do the will of God. The WHOLE CHRISTIAN WALK is about doing God’s will! Or maybe you just gave your life to Christ and haven’t come to that revelation yet. But if you’re not doing God’s will, aren’t concerned or thinking about it — even His will to obey the word –, if it’s not even at the forefront of your mind, then what are you doing? When doing His will is at the forefront of your mind then it controls your actions and how you live your life! This means you’re living your life how you want to live it. It’s time to re-evaluate your walk and get yourself in order according to God’s word!

To those who are and have a desire to do God’s will for their life but are afraid or discouraged for one reason or the other, know that the world needs what God has placed inside of you! The world needs you to walk in your God-ordained purpose.  Someone once told me that God told them that the world is partly the way it is now because the children of God won’t walk in their purpose; they are either too afraid or too disobedient. The world would be in much better condition if all of God’s children did what they were called to do. So be encouraged. You don’t want to get to heaven and God says to you, “why didn’t you fully live out My will for you on earth?” NOTHING ELSE YOU DO WITH YOUR LIFE WILL WORK OR BRING PEACE. THE ONLY THING THAT WILL WORK AND BRING TOTAL PEACE IS DOING THE WILL OF GOD. There are so many people right now who chose a career path, spouse, etc. that they KNOW God told them not to choose and right now they are living miserable lives, living somewhere they should have never been, with someone they should have never been with, doing something they should have never started and FULL of regrets; all because of disobedience!! So please, choose to do God’s will for your life in the big things and the little things. Let your plan A to Z be to do the will of God!

Prayer: “God, I want you to get ALL of the glory You can possibly get out of my life — every ounce and every drop — in every season of my life.”