Hymns 913
Scripture Reading:
John 7:17 If anyone resolves to do His will, he will know concerning the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself.
Psa. 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
THE NEED TO OBEY GOD’S WILL
The life we possess has one basic demand—to walk according to God’s will. The more we obey God’s will, the happier we become within. The more we deny our own will, the straighter our pathway will be before God. If we walk according to our own will as we once did, we will not feel happy. Instead, we will suffer. After we are saved, the more we walk according to our own will, the more suffering and the less joy we will have. But the more we walk according to the new life and the more we obey God’s will, the more peace and joy we will have. This is a wonderful change. We should not think that we will be happy if we walk according to our own will. After becoming Christians, we will find our path filled with peace and joy if we do not walk according to our own will but learn to submit to and obey God’s will. Christian joy has to do with obeying God’s will, not with walking according to our own will.
Once we become Christians, we have to learn to accept God’s will and be governed by it. If a person can submit humbly to God’s will, he will spare himself many needless detours. Many fail and stop growing in life because they walk according to their own will. The result of walking according to our own will is nothing but sorrow and poverty. In the end we still have to walk according to God’s will. God always subdues us through things, circumstances, and the environment. If we have not been chosen by God, He will let us walk as we wish. But since we have been chosen by God, He will lead us to the way of obedience according to His way. Disobedience will only cost us unnecessary detours. In the end we will still have to obey.
HOW TO KNOW GOD’S WILL
What are the ways to know God’s will? A Christian must pay attention to three things in order to know God’s will. If these three things are in agreement with one another, we can be quite sure that it is God’s will. These three things are: (1) arrangements in the environment, (2) the leading of the Holy Spirit, and (3) the teachings of the Scripture.
Arrangements in the Environment
Once we believe in the Lord, we need to learn to know His will through the environment. Nothing that happens to us is a coincidence. Everything is measured by the Lord. Our career, spouse, parents, children, relatives, friends, and everything have been ordained by God. Behind everything that happens to us each day is God’s sovereign arrangement. Therefore, we have to learn to read God’s will in the environment. A new believer may not be that experienced in the leading of the Spirit, and he may not know that much of the teaching of the Scripture. But at least he can see God’s hand in the environment. This is a believer’s most basic lesson.
The Leading of the Holy Spirit
Romans 8:14 says, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” We are God’s children and God’s life is within us. God not only guides us through the environment but also speaks to us and guides us from within through His Spirit. The Spirit dwells within us, and God’s will is revealed to us through our innermost being.
There are two kinds of leading of the Holy Spirit. The first is an inner urging, as in Acts 8:29 when “the Spirit said to Philip, Approach and join this chariot” and in Acts 10:19-20 when the Holy Spirit said to Peter, “Rise up, go down and go with them.” These are inner urgings. The second kind of leading is an inner forbidding, as mentioned in Acts 16:6-7: “Having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, yet the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.” This is the inner forbidding.
The Spirit of God within shows us whether something is according to His will. Provided we have the divine life within, we will feel right when we act according to this life, and we will feel terrible and uneasy within if we disobey and deviate slightly from this life. A believer should live a life that yields to this life. We must not do things that will take away our inner peace. Whenever we sense any unrest, we should realize that the Holy Spirit within is displeased with what we are doing; He is grieved. If we do something that is contrary to the Lord, we will surely have no peace within. The more we go ahead with it, the less peace and joy we will have. If something is of the Lord, spontaneously we will have peace and joy.
However, do not overanalyze your inward feelings. If you keep analyzing whether or not something is right, you will be totally confused. Some people continue to ask what the feeling of the Holy Spirit is and what the feeling of the soul is. They are always analyzing whether something is right or wrong. This is very unhealthy; it is actually a spiritual sickness…. Actually, a person analyzes only because he does not have enough light. If he has enough light, everything will be clear to him spontaneously, and he will not need to waste his energy on such analysis. If a person is sincere in trying to obey the Lord, it will be very easy for him to sense the inner leading.
The Teachings of the Scripture
God’s will never changes. His will is revealed through the various experiences of men of the past, and all these things were recorded in the Bible. God’s will is revealed in the form of principles and examples in the Bible. To know God’s will, one must study the Bible carefully. The Bible is not a book of simple records, but a book rich in content. God’s will is fully unveiled through the Scripture. One needs only to find what God has said in the past, and he will know what God’s will is today. God’s will never wavers. In Christ there is only one yes (2 Cor. 1:19). God’s will for us never contradicts the teachings of the Bible. The Holy Spirit will never lead us to do something today that He has already condemned in the Bible.
God’s word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path (Psa. 119:105). If we want to understand God’s will and His leading for us, we must study the Bible carefully and seriously.
God speaks to us through the Bible in two ways: One is through the teaching of biblical principles, and the other is through the promises in the Bible. We need the Spirit’s enlightenment to understand biblical principles, and we need the Spirit’s leading to receive biblical promises. For example, the Spirit may speak to us through the Lord’s commandment in Matthew 28:19-20 that all Christians should preach the gospel. This teaching is a biblical principle. However, whether or not it is God’s will for you to go to a certain place to preach the gospel depends on the leading of the Spirit. You still have to pray much and ask God for a specific word. When the Holy Spirit puts a certain phrase or verse within you in a powerful, fresh, and living way, you have a promise from the Spirit. This is how you identify God’s will.
We should study the Bible conscientiously and consistently and memorize the Scripture well. When needs arise, the Holy Spirit will use the passages we have read to speak to us and to guide us. (CWWN, vol. 49, pp. 403-411)
Further Reading: CWWN, vol. 49, “Messages for Building Up New Believers (2),” ch. 27
