Introduction

Don’t ask me what the will of God is for your life. I don’t know. I can tell you what I think you are good at. I can recognize your strengths and weaknesses. Based upon your beliefs and character, I can tell whether you will be successful or not. Only God knows exactly what He has planned for you. Believe me, God has a perfect plan for you as He does for everyone! While I can’t tell you what God wants you to do, I can tell you how to find out what God wants you to do.

The greatest verses in the Bible on finding God’s will are found in Romans 12. The whole chapter comments on this fundamental truth that is seldom understood. People will spend years and tears trying to figure out where they fit in, what life is all about, and what God wants them to do. My understanding is that God has made His will plain. He has no problem explaining His message. God’s problem has always been in preparing the man or woman to deliver it!

            Take the prophet Jonah for instance. God called Jonah, gave him a message, and a place to deliver it. Jonah went in the opposite direction. Was Jonah out of the will of God? Yes and no. Yes, he was not doing what God wanted him to do. But it is deeper than that. You can’t run from God. God used Jonah’s rebellion to prepare Jonah for the mission He had for him! God sent the storm and Jonah uses his free will to convince the sailors to throw him overboard! God was waiting for him with a prepared fish!

The man that taught me the Bible commented on the Apostle Paul’s journey to Rome one time. He said, “Paul could have taken a first-class trip to Rome, but he didn’t. He ended up third class and went in chains and spent a considerable time in jail.” It is hard to say that he was out of the will of God, because during this time he gained understanding and wrote some great Bible Epistles!

            Jonah eventually ended up where God wanted him and preached the message God had for him to deliver. The sad thing and the important thing to consider is that Jonah was not happy. The amazing thing about the book of Jonah is what is not stated in it. If you study history, you will find out that the Ninevites worshipped two false gods that were part fish and part man. One of the fish gods was Dagon. He is described in I Samuel 5:1-5. God put Jonah in the belly of a whale and delivered him to the shores to show the Ninevites that God had a message for them. Can you imagine their reaction when a great fish swam up the river and spit the prophet out! God knows how to be dramatic and knows what will get our attention! It is very interesting that the book of Jonah uses the word "fish" in referring to the whale. Jesus uses the word "whale" (Matthew 12:40). Many agnostics point out that a whale is not a fish.  They use this as proof that the writer of Jonah did not know science. They go on to believe that Jonah was a parable and not a real story. Their whole purpose behind this is to get rid of Jesus’ testimony of the veracity of the story of Jonah. See Matthew 12:40! Of course, this is Jesus’ prophecy on his death, burial, and resurrection! Their real motive is to get rid of that! I have found that the supposed mistakes in the Bible are advanced revelations that God is trying to reveal to believers and is hiding from those that won’t believe His word! God got His message across. However, Jonah did not receive peace or happiness.  Because of his rebellion he was miserable.

It is my experience that if you obey God willingly, God gives you peace, joy, happiness, and satisfaction. My prayer is that you will lay hold of these truths and find out what it is that God wants you to do. I have found out if you don’t run from God but run to God, and submit yourself to His will, God will give your existence purpose, liberty, and meaning. You will end up happy, successful, and satisfied!

Isn’t that what you want?

While I can’t tell you what the will of God is for your life, I can tell you how to find out what it is God wants you to do! I know this, if you want to find joy, find personal peace, be happy, be successful, and be useful, you will only succeed if you find the perfect will of God for you.

God has a purpose for you being here currently.

I was listening to a couple of people talking about history and commenting on how great it would have been to be alive and present when Christ was on earth. One of them said that they would have liked to live during the time of D. L. Moody and be able to see a lot of people get saved. 

I made the comment that if they lived back in Jesus’ time, they probably wouldn’t have recognized Him! If they were around when D. L. Moody was preaching, they probably would have accused him of being a false prophet! I further told them that it was silly to want to live in another time because God put you here now to live in this time. This is the only time you will get to live for God. You had better take advantage of it!

The reason Romans 12 is a good place to start searching for the will of God is that it is mentioned here. Also, all three parts of you are covered: Body, Soul, and Spirit. (in that order) This passage of Scripture tells you what to do with all three!