How to Know God's Will for Your LifeSample

Circumstances may (or may not) be signs

Sometimes, changing or unusual circumstances may assist us in determining the will of God.

We are steered into God’s will regardless of our own preferences. For instance, you may be visiting another city and trying to decide which of two churches to attend. Then you check the internet and discover that one of them doesn’t have a service that Sunday morning. Circumstances make the decision for you.

After the death of Solomon, young King Rehoboam set about asserting his reign over Israel, as he felt called to do. When most of the tribes of Israel deserted him, and he tried to raise an army to win them back, Shemaiah the prophet told him not to do so. Speaking on God’s behalf, he said, ‘This thing is from me’ (1 Kings 12:24). Rehoboam simply had not read the signs. Here was a set of circumstances confirmed by a word of prophecy that clearly indicated the purposes of God.

Joseph told his brothers that what they had meant for evil towards him had actually proven to be for good (Genesis 50:20). Potentially adverse events had been instruments of God’s purpose.

The men of Issachar ‘had understanding of the times’ (1 Chronicles 12:32). They could identify the voice of the Lord even in—perhaps because of—troubled situations.

Concerning the story of Israel’s enemies being engulfed by swarms of hornets (Exodus 23:28; Deuteronomy 7:20), one old gospel song puts it like this:

God did not compel them to go against their will,
He just made them willing to go.

Reliance on various circumstances for guidance is risky and is really only valuable when it lies outside our control, and there is no way we can manipulate events to serve our own purposes. It is always helpful to confirm God’s will in other ways, if we can. So when Paul and his team arrive in Galatia, they are clearly led by the Holy Spirit (Acts 15:9-10) but on other occasions, the reasons for travelling further are more circumstantial—the need to strengthen the churches (Acts 14:21-23; 15:38); eviction by civic leaders (Acts 13:50); rioting and imprisonment (Acts 16:19-40; 20:1); the threat of being stoned (Acts 14:5-7, 19). It was in the context of persecution that Paul wrote that God is at work in everything for those who are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28). But changing circumstances are not always directive. On more than one occasion, Jesus would not be swayed by them (Matthew 8: 23-26; John 11:1-6).

Furthermore, in a human environment, where odd things are happening all the time—traffic jams, freakish weather, mechanical breakdowns, jealous associates, loss of employment, economic fluctuations—we are foolish to accept every changing circumstance as a source of guidance. Sometimes we are simply called to continue as we are—to suffer patiently; to fight valiantly; to press on; to follow Jesus; and to use the power of the Holy Spirit to break through.

It all comes back to God’s sovereignty and our need to remember that when it comes to finding ourselves in God’s will, he himself will do all he can to keep us there.

What next?

·Recall examples of circumstances that you thought were obviously not God’s will for you but turned out to be so anyway. What did you learn from this?

·Memorise Romans 8:28 (with the reference).