Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Discerning the Will of God

For quite sometime now I've been confused as to when I'm hearing from the Lord and when it's just something I've conjured up in my imagination. Of late, I've been deciding whether I should date someone or not. I was so confused as to what the will of God was. I prayed and prayed but could not discern the voice of the Lord in this instance.

I've learned several points with respect to discerning the voice of the Lord. (1) There are two types of wisdom. The first comes from mankind and is earthly, sensual and demonic. The second comes from God. It is pure, peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruites, without partiality and without hypocricy. In summary of the first point, the wisdom from God should lead us to righteousness. It should encourage us to be godly, to see our wrong in a situation and it will not seek it's own because God's love doesn't. (2) When discerning the will of God pay close attention to your heart. Is it confused, anxious or at peace with the wisdom you have received? There's a difference between confused anxiety and fear. If your mind is racing and the thoughts you are having are contrary to the wisdom you've received then you ought to keep pressing God for clarification or for an answer. Use Phil 4:6-7 as your guide. Ask Him to lead you to a scripture or seek godly counsel in the form of your pastor or spiritual mentor. Fear, on the other hand, arises when God has called us to a situation that we sense could be dangerous or we are inadequate to perform. This type of fear is natural and we need to pray for God's grace and strength. We know that God will give us the strength and it is enough to accomplish the task and that perfect love casts out fear.

So next time you are struggling to decifer the will or voice of God, remember that God's will, will always align with scripture, he will never go back on His word and God's wisdom will be in the best interest of all involved.

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