Discerning God's Will - Part Three - Practical Tips

Tips for finding out God’s will for your life: 

1.  God’s calling will be illogical.

If God's will was rational and logical, you would not need God to guide you to it because your own reasoning could do the job.  If God is interacting with you in an attempt to get you to do something, then it is going to be something that you would not rationally do.  For starters, it’s not rational to give money to the church when you could use it on yourself.  It’s not rational to spend your time helping other people.  It’s not rational to spend time in prayer, sing songs to an invisible God, move to an area without a job, or do any of the things that are routine things that God calls His people to do.  When we follow the specific will for our lives, it will be less than rational. 

2.  God’s calling will change things.

You cannot expect to follow God and have things be the same for you as they are right now.  We often value steadiness and stability over encountering God and bringing about His will.  God does not call His people with the intention of things remaining the same; He calls them and knows that things will be different if they are listening and faithful. 

3.  Your passion is not always a good measure for God’s calling because God might be calling you to something that will develop a passion in you and change you.

One of the most important things God is going to use you to work on is yourself.  I want people to be heading up ministries in the church that they are passionate about.  If we don’t have someone passionate, then we should not do that ministry because it will not be done well.  If you feel you are in a ministry you are not passionate about, then you need to reevaluate things.  Either God wants you to foster a new passion, or he wants you to move to another field of ministry.  If it needs to be done, then God needs to stir up a passion in someone to bring that ministry to fruition.  The worst thing for a church is ministries on autopilot without someone passionate guiding them, and it’s also true about your life.  The worst lived life is one on autopilot that does not allow God to lead it.  It just sucks the life out of a church, and it sucks the life out of your life.  But remember that God might want to develop in you a passion to do something rather than you just striving after your current passions.  God’s in the passion shaping business.