“Can I Know God’s Will for My Life?”  

**INTRODUCTION

Hello. Welcome to “Key to the Kingdom.” My name is Bret McCasland. Most of us have probably thought about our purpose in life. We have considered what we need to be doing and are pursuing that direction. In the midst of that plan, however, we suddenly have a change of direction. Something happens and we find ourselves with a new plan or a new purpose. Life seems to be a series of changed plans, doesn't it? And in the midst of those ever changing plans, one thing remains in the back, or perhaps even in the forefront, of our mind; where does God fit in all of this? What are His plans and purposes for me? And certainly those are good questions to ask. In our lesson today on “Key to the Kingdom,” we will consider that very thing. We will look into God's Word, the Bible, to see if we can find what God's will is for our life. The Bible reveals the answers we seek, but at the same time we need to be open to them. As they are discovered, we are then to pursue and to follow God's will. I hope you will stay with us for the next few minutes as we ask and seek to answer this most important question: What is God's will for my life? Open your Bible with me now as we study together.

**LESSON 

Many people struggle to know and to understand which direction they need to go in life and how exactly they need to get there. They get mixed messages from the society in which they live, and are somewhat confused about a number of things which demand a good and a biblical answer. They seem to ask all kinds of questions regarding life and its meaning and how they can best respond. And no doubt, some of those questions have been around for a very long time. Well, God's Word offers many answers to our questions. In fact, here is a question that I get asked quite often. Perhaps you get asked that question too, or maybe have even asked it yourself: Can I know God's will for my life? We ask a question like that when we are facing some big decisions or when we don't understand a recent turn of events. Then, as we get older, we wonder what we can say to our children or to our grandchildren as they try to find their way and navigate through the ups and the downs of their life. Well, we are to always be aware of how God is moving in this world. We are to be aware of how He is working in our lives and the lives of other people around us. At times, we might even feel like that Old Testament prophet named Elijah. One day he was asked by God to meet up with a man named King Ahab, the King of Israel; and he did. And they both accused each other of bringing trouble upon God's people, the Israelites. Well, they discussed having a contest, if you will, up on Mount Carmel. And so all of the people of Israel gathered with Ahab, along with 850 false prophets, and they met Elijah there on the mountain. Elijah told them to build an alter, to put a sacrifice on it and then call upon the name of Baal to consume or to destroy that sacrifice. And so that's what they did. And they cried out to Baal all day long; and yet, there was no response. Elijah even somewhat made fun of them and said, “Why don't you call just a little bit louder? Perhaps he is taking a nap or he is on a trip.” And they did that; and yet, there was no response. Finally, they gave up. Well, now it was Elijah's turn. He repaired the altar. He put his sacrifice on it. He then dug a trench around the altar and filled the trench with water. He called upon the name of the Lord God Almighty, and immediately God struck the sacrifice with fire, burned it up, burned up the altar, and even licked up the water around the altar. Well, with that, the people recognized that indeed the Lord was God. Elijah then took the prophets down to the river and killed them there. And then he began to run for his life. He was afraid. Ahab and his wife, Jezebel, pursued Elijah. They were going to kill him because of what he had just done. And Elijah is hiding out in a cave, and that's where we pick up the story in 1st Kings chapter 19. God appears to Elijah on that occasion. Here's what we read, beginning with verse 11. <“Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and put Your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”> It was on that mountain where God met up with Elijah, and Elijah poured out his heart to God and he said, “I'm the only one left. I'm the only one who's trying to do what is good and right. And now they're trying to take away my life.” Well, God revealed Himself to Elijah in three specific ways; in an earthquake, in a windstorm, and also in the fire. And yet there was not a message to be heard in any of them. Those big things were sent by God in order to get Elijah’s attention. And then when God had it, He spoke in a small whisper, a still, small, gentle voice. Well, Elijah heard that. And that voice revealed to Elijah the plans that God had for him, and those plans began to unfold in the next few verses. Well, something like that is not going to happen to you and me today. However, when we find ourselves in uncertain situations and when we don't know what to do, oftentimes, God tries to get our attention. We may be focused on the big things all around us, even to the point we cannot hear the voice of the Lord. We cannot hear and understand what He would have us to do, much like what we find here with Elijah. We might be distracted by the society in which we live. We may be listening to our friends or to our culture. We have no time to listen to or to pay attention to God's still, small, gentle voice. Instead, we might even believe all of these other voices are telling us what to do or where to go. And in the midst of that, we get some conflicting messages. We get tossed around and we end up finding ourselves somewhat like Elijah, lost in this big world, and everybody is against us. But if we are not listening to the voice of the Lord, if we are not in tune with Him, then there is no way to know what His will is for our life. Well, instead of that happening, we are to hear and to practice these words, from Psalm 37 verse 7. <Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him...> Or perhaps these words, from Psalm 46 verse 10: <“Be still, and know that I am God..."> When we are still and when we wait upon the Lord, it is then that He can share with us and reveal to us His will for us. It really doesn't matter who we are, does not matter what struggle we might be facing, or even of the uncertainty of the times in which we live, we can know and understand that yes, God does have a plan for our lives. I want to share with us three things which I believe help us answer the question, can I know God's will for my life? The first one is this: God really does have a plan. And sometimes we question that, don't we? Well, David was uncertain about the plans God had for him, but yet he still wrote these words in Psalm 138, verse 8: “The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me.” David wanted to build a temple for the Lord. He wanted to build some kind of great dwelling place for God here up on this earth. But that's not what God had in mind at all. God had in mind for David to replace the King of Israel, Saul, and for him to become the king. Yes, David had some great plans. It was a wonderful goal, a great idea. But yet that was not God's will for David. We keep reading on in the next Psalm, 139, beginning with verse 1, these words: <You have searched me, Lord, and You know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; You perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; You are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue You, Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and You lay Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.> We recognize from that passage, God really knows the details of your life, of my life. He created us. He knew us before we were born. He knows the number of our days, and He also knows the purpose for which He brought us into this world. And, God's hand is upon us. But like the Psalmist stated, sometimes that's just too much for us to comprehend. That knowledge is too great for us to understand. At one time, the Israelites were in Babylonian captivity. They had been there for quite some time. One generation after another was going through that captivity process there in Babylon, and many of the people thought God had given up on them. They thought He had forgotten them in captivity, and He really did not care about them any longer. And yet, God had a message, a message of hope and encouragement for them through His prophet Jeremiah. Listen to what Jeremiah told these people, the word of the Lord, chapter 29 beginning with verse 10. <This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill My good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”> God, indeed, had plans for His people who were being kept in captivity; and yet, those plans were not immediately made known to the people. It would take some time. It would take some 70 years for all of those plans to be revealed and for the people to be brought back to their homeland. Likewise, God has some plans for all of us. Those plans are always good; and yet, sometimes those plans take time. They are not always revealed to us at just the right moment for us, but God is working in this world. He is working in the lives of other people. He's working in your life, and in mine, and all of that has to come together according to God's will and God's purposes. And yet we are to find our hope in God's plans. And when we find that hope, we can expect something good to happen. Keep in mind that God is here for us, not against us, and it may take time for those plans to be revealed. Think back on a time in your life when you really wanted to know God's plan for you, and yet you didn't know what was going to happen. You were struggling, trying to figure that out. You were at a crossroads in your life. You were facing some big decisions. You didn't know which way to go or what to do, and you cried out to God for help, for some kind of guidance and instruction. Well, no matter what the situation might be, whether it be good or bad, God is still working out His plan for you. He’s working out His plan for me. Here's a second thing I want us to know: God will reveal His plan for us! God will reveal that plan. We know that He has a plan and we know that He's going to reveal it to us. But before we can really know that plan, we must first know God. And that's much different than simply knowing about God. Knowing God revolves around having a relationship with Him, knowing who He is, the Maker, the Creator of this world and our lives; and, knowing Him in a very personal and intimate way and then growing in that daily relationship with Him. When I reflect upon God's will for my life, I'm glad I did not know everything that was going to happen in the future. I really don't know if I could have handled that. And maybe you feel the same way. You really didn't, you wanted to know what was going to happen, but then again, you realize, on hindsight, maybe I could not have even handled that. And I think about that going forward. I'm not sure if I knew everything that was going to happen to me in the future that I could handle that right now. So I put all that together. And I think, well, God knows what He's doing. Listen to the words from Psalm 32, verse 8: <I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye on you.> Well, we can trust God to counsel us, to lead us, and to guide us, as the Psalmist states, from one day to the next. We just move from one day to the next day with faith and with obedience, and we know that God is counseling and guiding us as we go. With all due respect for those who counsel others as a profession, God is the ultimate counselor, isn't He? He shows us the way to go, even when we don't know for sure what all that involves. So with that in mind, we go back to the question, what is God's will for my life? Well, there are several Bible passages that indicate to us what God wants us to do, Some things that we need to know, as followers of Jesus Christ, that He calls upon us to put in to our lives, certain commands we follow, certain ways we live. I think immediately about the Ten Commandments. Oh, those were some standards by which God's people were to live a long time ago, and yet there is great truth and value in them even still today. Or think about Jesus' commands, He says there's two great ones; number one, love God with everything you have, and then the other one is similar, love people the way you love yourself. Love God and love others. And that makes sense. We know those. We go to the prophets in the Old Testament. Amos and Micah had some things to say, which were quite similar. Amos wrote this in chapter 5 verse 24: <Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream.> And then Micah, chapter 6 verse 8: <He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with God.> You know, those two prophets get right down to the heart of the matter, that is to live with justice and righteousness, mercy for other people, and always walk and live in a spirit of humility before your God. Jesus gave us some very pointed things to say, and they come in the midst of Him dealing with the religious leaders of the day. Listen to what He told them in Matthew 23: <Focus on the weightier matters of the Law, justice, mercy and faithfulness.> Very similar to what those prophets were saying; justice, treat people with mercy and live a faithful life. And then James wrote this in chapter 1 verse 22: <Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves; but, do what it says.> You know, it's important for us not only to know those passages of Scripture, to read or to even to memorize them, but then to put them into practice in our daily life. And as we do that, we're growing in that relationship with God. Hosea states, “Let us press on to know the Lord.” You know, knowing God is not a casual pursuit. It comes by walking with the Lord every day, in the midst of all of the ups and the downs of life. We may not know exactly what's going to happen in the future, but we walk by faith and not by sight (2nd Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 7). And in the midst of that, we grow in our knowledge, our understanding, in our relationship with God. And when we continually pursue a relationship with Him, it is then that we are in a better position to know and to understand what God's will and purpose is for each of us. Knowing God also involves seeking from Him the understanding and the wisdom to know that will. James puts it this way in chapter 1: <If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.> It makes good sense here: If we want to know God's will for our life, it begins with knowing the One who determines that will, and we seek wisdom from Him to understand and know His purpose for us. Here is something else we sometimes tend to forget: We don't have to know all of God's will for us at the same time, at this very moment. God has not, and He will not, reveal everything to us concerning His will at one time; because again, we may not be able to handle it at that time. However, we do know God has revealed everything we know so that we can move from one day to the next. And if we knew everything, in regards to our purpose and plan, there would be no way for us to handle that. You know, Scriptures verses like these remind us of God's will for us. And if we really want to know God's will, we will focus on doing two things: We will know God, and we will then live in accordance with His Word. We will spend time growing in that relationship with the Lord, and then we will put into practice what we are learning, as we study His Word. And when those things are done on a daily basis, then we can have the confidence that God's purpose and God's plan will be made clear for us. There is an Old Testament passage that we are familiar with. Perhaps we've seen it posted on a piece of board or a plaque of some sort and hung on a wall, but I believe it serves as a summary to our lesson today. Listen to these words from Proverbs 3 verses 5 and 6: <Trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.> That's true, isn't it? Oh, in ways we may not even expect, the Bible does answer the question, what is God's will for my life? The answer is, don't seek to find your path in this world, in an answer blowing in the wind or an earthquake or even a fiery trial, as Elijah sought to do, but rather, spend time quietly knowing and trusting the Lord, while putting into practice the teachings of His Word. And when those two things are at the center of your life, it is then that God's will become clear and you can begin to pursue His purpose for you. And I would encourage you to do that, today.

**VIDEO CLIP

Have you ever found yourself entering into a church building like this one and wondering if this is where you find God? You come in here wondering if the preacher will say something today that might give you some inspiration on what you need to be doing in your plan and purpose for your life. Or, maybe the hymns of praise that that you sing, you think, maybe, perhaps in them you find a direction and purpose. Or maybe a quiet time of prayer and meditation will lead you to know the direction God would have you to go in this world. Well, I don't know for sure if that works. Maybe you come away with something and go out and pursue that, and it really doesn't seem to fit. Well, there's nothing wrong with worshiping the Lord and listening to a message and praising God. But I wonder where is it that we find the purpose and the direction that God has for us. Maybe it’s in His Word, that we go to the Bible and we spend time meditating on and studying the Scriptures. And we think about those passages that direct us into a closer relationship with God. And we think about growing in that relationship. And we think about not only reading but also practicing and applying the teachings of His Word to our daily life. I really believe that when those two things take place, then God's will begins to unfold for us; that deep connection with God on a regular basis, that relationship grows. And then, to practice what we read, to put in place the commands and the teachings that we find in God's Word, and then to allow that to make a difference in our life. And when those two things are put together, then certainly God's will can be revealed to us. And we know the plan and purpose for our life.

**CONCLUSION

Thank you for joining us for today's lesson on “Key to the Kingdom.” I trust this message blessed you as we thought about God's plan for our lives. If you would like to view or to listen to this message again, it is available on our website. The site is keytothekingdom.com. These lessons can be downloaded in a variety of ways and there is absolutely no cost to do so. There are other ways to stay connected to our ministry. A free app is available for those who have a smart-phone. We have a dedicated channel on Roku® Television and a message is uploaded to Facebook® every Sunday night. These mass-media options are always available, and I would encourage you to access those which are most convenient. It is our privilege to share messages from God's Word on a regular basis. I certainly appreciate you joining us every week. My prayer is that you will experience and enjoy God's love and His free gift of salvation. Thank you again for tuning in today. And please join us again next time, as we continue to study the Bible on “Key to the Kingdom.”