The Secrets of Knowing God's Will

Mark Finley: Now how can you be sure that God is guiding? How can you be sure that it's not simply your own mind that's leading, your own thoughts?
Announcer: This is Hope Lives 365 with Pastor Mark Finley. Today's message: "The Secrets of Knowing God's Will." Enjoy and remember you can always catch up with past messages and stay up to date with Hope Lives 365 and Pastor Mark by going to hopelives365.com. And now, Pastor Mark Finley.
Mark Finley: Have you ever wondered, "How can I know God's will?" How can I be certain that God is guiding me? Suppose you're faced with a choice of a job and there are two jobs that loom before you, two jobs that present themselves, two opportunities you have, and you're wondering, "I'm confused. I don't know which one to take." Will God guide you in that? What about something as significant as moving? You're perplexed. You've been wondering about whether to sell your house or not. How can you know God's guidance? What about if you're contemplating marriage? Will God guide you in that area? Or in your choice of school? The good news is that the Bible promises that God will guide us. The Bible promises that as we seek His will, He'll give us direction. Let's look at that in Scripture. Psalm 32:8. If you're wondering about whether God will guide you, if you're perplexed about the future, here's a promise of God for you. Psalm 32:8: "I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you shall go. I'll guide you with mine eye." There's real certainty in that promise. God promises to guide us. He promises that if we're sensitive to His voice, that He will give to us wisdom. This idea of God's guidance is repeated throughout Scripture. We're not specks of cosmic dust left alone here to struggle in the universe, but God wants to guide us. That's one of the functions of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes to impress our minds. The Holy Spirit comes to reveal wisdom to us. Here in the book of James, chapter one, verse five, the Bible invites us to come to God and seek Him. It says, James 1:5, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it'll be given to him." So God is a liberal giver. He's a liberal giver of wisdom. He grants to us wisdom to make the decisions. So when we're at a crossroad, when we wonder what to do, we know just what to do: to seek God in prayer. Now how can you be sure that God is guiding you? How can you be sure that it's not simply your own mind that's leading, your own thoughts? Is there a difference between a divine conviction and a human impulse? There's one way that we can tell the difference. A human impulse is flighty. It's often here today: I desire to do something. Maybe I should sell my house. Maybe I shouldn't. Maybe I should take this job. Maybe I shouldn't. So human impulse is often here today; we feel like we ought to do something, but you wait a week, two weeks, and that situation passes and you don't feel that way anymore. A divine conviction is a growing, constant awareness that you cannot shake, that God's leading you in a certain direction. So when I feel that I ought to do something, the more important the decision is, the longer time I'll take to make it. The less important decision is, the quicker I have to make it. Now do you have to pray about every decision in life? I don't think so. God's given you a brain. You can make the decision. For example, I walk into my closet and I look in my closet. I see a blue shirt and I see a tan shirt and I see a green shirt. Do I have to kneel down and say, "Okay, Lord, impress my mind what shirt I shall wear today"? No. God's given me a mind. I don't want to wear something that doesn't match. I want to give God glory and honor in what I wear, sure. But look, those kinds of decisions, God has given me the mind to make. When we pray about something, we don't check our brains at the door. We pray, we seek God, we follow certain principles, and then we believe God's leading our mind to make the best possible decision. You say, "Well, Pastor Mark, you said there are certain principles of guidance. What are they?" There are seven basic principles of guidance that I'd like to give you today. The first principle of guidance we've already noted: God wants to guide you. Psalm 32:8, "I'll guide you with mine eye." Isaiah 58:11, "I'll guide you continually." James 1:5, "If any man or woman lacks wisdom, let him ask of God." So believe that God wants to guide you. When you have to make a major decision in life, when you're faced with a decision that you're uncertain of, know that God wants to guide you. The second aspect of guidance is this: commit your life to doing God's will. We find that here in the life of Jesus, the book of Hebrews, the tenth chapter and the seventh verse. If you are committed to do God's will, you can know He'll guide you. But if you want to just run off and do your own thing, God may let you run off and do your own thing, but you may have to face the consequences of that as well. Hebrews 10:7, "Then said I," written about Jesus, "Lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God." So as I believe God's going to guide me, as I'm praying about the decision that God wants me to make, I say, "Lord, I only want Your will. If You want me to sell this house and move, I'm going to do it, but I need to know it's Your will. I'm not going to just go jump and do this thing on some wild whim." "God, if You want me to take this job, give me clarity. Help me to understand what You want me to do. Help me to be able to know Your will. And God, if You reveal Your will, I'll do it." Now how do I know if something is God's will or something is my will? How do I know that? If you are willing to give up the thing that you want most, you can know that you're willing to do God's will. So the willingness to do God's will means that the thing you really want, the thing you really desire, the thing you long for more than anything else, you're willing to give that up if Christ asks you for His sake. A young man, young woman come to me and say, "Pastor, we really wonder whether we should move or not and we found this beautiful, beautiful home that we think that we ought to sell our home and move to it. But we're not sure. We're a little confused. We're going to be quite a distance from my husband's job, and we are not sure because there are not real good schools there for our kids, and there are so many other decisions, but we love that home, Pastor. We love that home." "But we're not sure. We're confused. We pray, we don't get real answers." What do I tell them? Weigh out the decision. Look at every option. Write down all the pros for the decision and the cons against the decision. But then tell God, "We are willing to give that thing up. We are willing to do Your will. God, we don't have our minds set on that. We are willing if You give us direction in another way, we're willing to do that." You see, if your mind is fixed on something already, if you've already determined in your mind, then you'll have a difficult time finding God's guidance. So what's the first principle? Know God wants to guide you. What's the second principle? Be willing to do God's will. Third principle: analyze your motives. We find that in James chapter four. Analyze your motives. Why do you want what you want? James the fourth chapter, third verse. Why do you want what you want? Analyze the motives of your heart. Analyze the desires of your mind. James 4:3, "Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts." Were these people asking God for something? Sure. Were they praying about it? Definitely. But did they get answers? No. Why not? Because their motives were not pure. "Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask only to consume it on your own lusts." So they weren't seeking God's will. They had their own agenda when they came to God. They believed what they wanted was what they were going to pursue in spite of God's will, so they didn't have guidance. When I come to God, I say, "God, purify my heart so I will know Your will." The fourth principle in the area of guidance is to look into the Bible and to see if there's any biblical principles that guide us. We find that here in Psalm 119:24. If I want the guidance of God, the Bible also always will give me principles that will help me to understand which direction God is leading. Psalm 119:24, "Thy testimonies also are my delight," that's the word of God, the testimony of Scripture, "and my counselors." So the Bible is my what? It's my counselor. Notice Psalm 119:105, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light to my path." So I look for biblical principles. Let me give you an example of this. When I was a young man, I was not brought up in a home where we studied the Bible on a daily basis. My father was a Protestant, my mother was a Catholic. And Dad eventually became a Seventh-day Adventist Christian and witnessed to us, but was very discreet, very wise in the way that he was witnessing. During those years, I didn't know the truth of God about the Bible Sabbath, and I was just beginning to study it and I just began to open Scripture and God was revealing to me the truth of the Sabbath leading me. But I was playing on a basketball team for the YMCA. And in the YMCA team in our city in Norwich, Connecticut, we would have tournaments. And if we did well, the All-Star team from our YMCA would go to play a regional tournament for New England. And so I was chosen to go on this All-Star team to play. And we were going from Norwich, Connecticut up to Springfield, Massachusetts. We were to stay in a hotel. Now I came from a home that we didn't stay in hotels. We didn't have that kind of money. We're going to stay in a hotel with the basketball team. We were going to eat in restaurants. I was going to travel. I thought, "Man, this is my only chance to travel. Coming from my home background, I'm not going to travel, I'm not going to fly around the world on jets, I'm not going to be staying in hotels. My only chance." Now mind you, I was just studying about the Sabbath, just getting that conviction. And what did Psalm 119:24 say? The Word of God is our counselor. What did Psalm 119:105 say? It said, "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path." So I was a senior in high school. Now the way that the basketball tournament worked was this.
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Mark Finley: If you played on Thursday night, if you won Thursday night, you would play Friday. If you won Friday during the day, you'd play Friday night. If you won that, you'd play Sabbath. So here's the way I rationalized in my mind: "Well, I'm going to go because if I play on Thursday night and we lose, I come home. But if we win, then I can at least play on Friday. And I kind of believe the Sabbath so I don't think that that's going to be a problem because I'll just play the first two games and I won't play Friday night and I won't play Sabbath. But I'll be there with the team and I'll get to stay in a hotel and I'll get to eat." Now mind you, I was just studying about the Sabbath, just getting that conviction. It was a few days before I had to make my decision to go with the team. And I was in my high school and I didn't go to a Christian high school, it's a public high school, 3,000-plus students. And there was a phone booth over in the corner, and I remembered an older woman who was an Adventist who kind of befriended me, I was 17 years old. She kind of took me in. I said, "I'm going to call her because I thought if I call her, she might say, 'Oh yeah, Mark, that's a good idea. You go Thursday night and you go Friday and just don't play on Sabbath.'" Well, if I would have played Thursday night and I played Friday, I'd have been so into the sport that the devil would have used that for me to compromise and I'm sure that I would have played Friday night and Sabbath because the pressure would have been so great to play. So I called her on the telephone, the pay phone in the lobby of the high school. I said, "Sister, Sister Francis?" "Yes, yes. Is this you, Mark?" "It is. You know, I'm planning to go on the basketball tournament." And she was a faithful Adventist Christian and I told her all about how excited I was and she just said one sentence that really impressed me: "Mark, what does the Bible teach about Sabbath, and what do you think Jesus would do?" "What do you think Jesus would do?" All that day. "What would Jesus do?" Well, what did He do? As His custom was, He went to church on Sabbath. And I just became so convicted based on the Word of God that I had to go tell the team, "Look, I just can't play. I just can't play. I just am not able to go." And I never went to that tournament. And you know, when we begin compromising the Word of God for our own desires, we fail to let God guide us. A young person came to me and they said, "I want you to meet my boyfriend. We're thinking about marriage. He is just the most wonderful, wonderful guy." "Oh, I'd love to meet him. Love to meet him." And I said, "Now you're a faithful Adventist Christian?" "Yes." "And what about your boyfriend?" "Oh, oh, he's not a Christian. But Pastor, he said that if we get married, we can go to church together and, Pastor, I really love him and I really think that he is the one for me." "Let's suppose that he didn't go to church with you. How would you bring up the children? You're telling them that Sabbath is Sabbath and you're getting ready to go to church and he's going out fishing or out to the ball game or something else. Is that going to be a positive influence on the kids? You're telling them that eating pork is not in harmony with God's will and he's saying something else, you see. You're telling them one thing and it's kind of... You remember what it says in Amos chapter eight, verse three? It says, 'Can two walk together except they be agreed?'" "Maybe you ought to spend a little time. Maybe we can study the Bible together with him. Maybe it's possible that he will make a decision before you're married." Now this young lady could have run off and married this guy, but it could have been a disaster. I can tell you time after time after time I've had Christian young people that have dated somebody that was not a Christian and we've studied the Bible together and I've found and we've led those to Christ. Sometimes they've had to break up because they weren't in harmony, but God led them to somebody else. So I really, when I'm talking to a young person, really urge them not even to begin to court or date somebody that's not a Christian and particularly not an Adventist Christian because I've seen too many problems. For every instance where you have two people that are united that works out, you have scores of times that it doesn't work out. And so as you're praying about something, here are four principles. What are they now? Do you have them in your brain? Number one: believe God's going to guide you. Number two: believe that He will guide you as you surrender your will to Him and you only want what He wants. Number three: analyze your motives. Number four: look for biblical principles. Look for Bible principles. When it comes to Scripture and you're wondering about expenditures but you're going to go into deep debt with these expenditures, one of the principles of Scripture is "owe no man anything." In other words, don't go into deep debt that you can't pay back, that you don't have the wherewithal. So look into the Bible, see what you can find. Here is your fifth principle. Your fifth principle of God's guidance is find godly counselors that you can counsel with. We find that in the book of Proverbs and we look there at Proverbs 11:14. Recently, I had to make a significant decision. In fact, it was just last week. And the decision for me was pretty important. It would make quite a difference in my own personal life. And I really wondered about it and I was just inclined not to move ahead in a certain area. I just didn't feel comfortable about it, didn't feel good about it. And I called one of my dear friends. I have probably three key people I counsel with in my life. And I called one of my dear friends and I kind of bounced back my feelings to that person and that individual said to me, "Mark, I really urge you not to do this particular thing." There was nothing right or particularly wrong about it, but it was something which would have made some difference in my own personal life. The more we talked about it, the more I became convinced God was not leading in that direction. And I had to make a phone call and say to the individual on the other end of the line, "The thing you asked me to do I do not believe I can do because I don't believe God is leading in that direction." What does it say in Proverbs 11:14? "Where no counsel is, the people fall. But in the multitude of counselors, there is safety." What is there in the multitude of counselors? There is safety. Proverbs 15, verse 22. Proverbs 15, looking there at verse 22. And here it says, "Without counsel, purposes are disappointed, but in the multitude of counselors they are established." So your purposes are disappointed if you don't have godly counselors. Who do you go to when you have to make those critical decisions of life, when you're uncertain? Do you have a few people that are praying, that are seeking God, that you have confidence in, that you can call them at any time and say, "Look, I'm faced with this decision"? In my personal life, there are probably three people like that, maybe four, that as I'm praying about something, as I'm weighing it out, as I believe God is going to guide me, as I'm looking into the Bible... Sometimes you don't find your answer directly in Scripture. You may find principles, but God's not going to tell you in Scripture, "Buy this house, don't buy that house." He will guide you certainly. You can find principles of not going into debt. God's not going to say in Scripture, "Take this teaching job and don't take that teaching job." So you're praying about it. You're weighing it out. You're looking at the whole picture. And as you do, it's helpful to get counsel because God is going to guide you through those counselors. And He will help you to understand the direction to take. The sixth principle that we find in Scripture is one that I like to say: look for the providences of God. Look for the providences of God. These are God's ways and we find that in Proverbs 23, verse 26. And I want to spend a little time on this one because it's really significant. Proverbs 23:26, "My son, give me your heart," that is, make a decision, commit your life to me, seek my will, God says, "and let thine eyes observe my ways." What does Scripture say? "Let your eyes," God says, "observe my ways." So we're looking at the providences of God. We're seeing what God wants us to do. In 1985, my wife and I attended the general conference session of Seventh-day Adventists. And at that session, I had two invitations. One was to go to the Far East headquarters at that time in Singapore and be in charge of lay evangelism throughout the Far East actually, in Singapore. That would have covered in those years, Korea and Taiwan, Philippines, Indonesia, etc. That would have been my responsibility, lay evangelism coordinating that. I also had an invitation to come to Europe and live in England and be the ministerial secretary counseling with pastors. My wife and I struggled over the decision. We weren't sure what to do. And so my wife said to me, "Look, the way we're going to know this is if we ask God to do something specifically." We counseled with a number of people. Some people felt, "Yes, you ought to go to the Far East. That would be a wonderful opportunity for you." Other people said, "No, you should go to England." And we were struggled back and forth. We're not sure what to do. And as we prayed about the decision, still no real clear light came. And my wife said to me one day, she said, "I think we could know this way." She said, "Let's tell the Lord that if the group in England, if the committee in England that's inviting us, if they vote and it's 100% favorable for you to go, I think we should go. Let's look at their vote and see what it is." So we went to our hotel room. We prayed, "Dear Lord, give us Your guidance. All we want is Your guidance." Phone call came the next morning. The president of that division, dear, dear friend of mine, Pastor Jan Paulsen, who later became the president of the General Conference. He is a dear man. We're just close friends this day. Pastor Paulsen said, "We voted and our vote was for you to come to England." And my wife said, "Mark, ask him what the vote was." And I was a little hesitant. I said, "Well, Pastor, what was the vote?" He said, "Well, it was 100%." We knew that God had guided us in that direction.
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Mark Finley: So you don't have to wait to make a decision on most things until every single thing is clear. What you have to do to make a decision for God is to have the conviction that this is God's will. There may be certain unknowns out there, but if you know something is God's will because you've been praying about it, you've been getting counsel about it, you've seen enough providences in it, then you move ahead by the name and the glory of Christ. God longs to guide you. God wants to guide you. God will guide you as you open your heart to Him.