People are always praying to know God’s will. That’s actually wrong. This sound heretical, but bear with me for a bit. We need to try to get wisdom, here’s why…
Do you just pray that God will tell you through your feelings what to do about your back pain? No, you go to a doctor. The doctor prescribes medication, not God.
So why should Christians go to a doctor and not just pray for God’s will?
It’s because God has already told you what his will is in his Word; in it’s simplest form it is To Love God and Others (Matt 22:36-40, 1 John 3-4). And he also said you don’t need anything more than his Word to know he wants you to do.
2 Tim 3:16-17. All Scripture is breathed out by God… that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
So we have all the commands that we need to KNOW God’s will like, ‘love your neighbor,’ or ‘love your wives’ but we don’t know HOW to carry it out.
God did not say, “Bob, when your wife is upset on July 15th at 6:01 pm say, ‘Those pants don’t make you look fat’, then rub her feet for 4.51 minutes.”
So how do we figure out HOW to carry out the commands?
And this is when Christians go, “I know the command, but don’t know HOW, so I’ll pray about it, and God will tell me HOW through my feelings; and somehow I’ll be able to differentiate God’s leading from my flesh, Satan, the world or that bad taco I ate.” (Eph 2:2-3, Rom 7, Jam 1:13-14)
But wait, God did tell you HOW to figure out HOW to carry out the commands… he told you to seek wisdom and instruction. In fact, he devoted an entire book to tell you to do that.
Prov 1:1-7 The proverbs of Solomon… To know wisdom and instruction… to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity… Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance … fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Prov 12:15 The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice.
Prov 15:22 Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.
So, if your kids are sick, you take them to the doctor who has received wisdom and instruction on health matters. Hopefully, you already KNOW the Bible commands you to take care of your kid. It doesn’t tell you HOW, but you KNOW it tells you to seek wisdom and instruction to find out the HOW.
So to be obedient, you can’t just obey the command to take care of your kid and disobey the other command to seek wisdom and instruction.
You must obey both parts, or else you become one of those parents who thinks they know more than their pediatrician with a medical degree and years of pediatric experience because they Googled something for an hour and then end up harming their child.
It’s also like those people who try to please God by eating healthy by getting a salad but don’t get nutritional wisdom and instruction and drown the salad in dressing.
It’s the same with the rest of life. To be obedient to God we must seek wisdom and instruction in all areas of life: finances, relationships, career, nutrition, spiritual matters, etc.
If you want to know God’s will then walk in the three parts of faith:
1. KNOW the commands in his Word – which basically Love God and Others (Matt 22:36-40). ‘Love God’ is praise, thanks, and obedience. ‘Love others’ is to serve others spiritual and physical needs. So you need to study God’s Word.
2. Have and pray to have the right motive and HEART by having the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23).
3. Figure out HOW to carry out the command by obeying the other command to seek WISDOM and instruction. Find experts in the field of the situation you’re dealing with and consult with them. Then you pray for wisdom (James 1:5) to balance the wisdom (Proverbs) you’ve received so you can know HOW to carry out the command from scripture.
In short, WISDOM is properly carrying out God’s commands.
To be in God’s will: you must first KNOW the command, have the right HEART, and obey it in WISDOM.