KNOWING THE WILL OF GOD

Brothers and Sisters:


In my last letter I shared with you the two basic principles of knowing the will of God.  Now I would like to go a little further in this matter.  As I said before, the basic requirements for knowing the will of God are: (1) Presenting our body a living sacrifice. (2) Denying self, taking up our cross daily.  Now we move to the next three steps, even though these steps are not as basic as the first two they are nevertheless very important in the matter of knowing the will of God.

(3) Dealing with the Heart

The heart, spirit and mind are organs for knowing the will of God.  The condition of the heart is very important.  It has to be pointed in the right direction, which is toward God.  It must  not be preoccupied with the things of this world, if it is, we can never know the will of God.

The following four scriptures show clearly the relationship between the heart and knowing the will of God. They also show the importance of dealing with our heart.

(1)  2 Corinthians 3:16 says, “Whenever the heart is turned to the Lord the veil shall be taken away.”  If our heart fails to turn to the Lord then it remains veiled and we cannot see nor can we know the will of God.  It is absolutely imperative that we turn our heart to the Lord daily.

(2)  2 Corinthians 11:3 says, “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent deceived Eve through his craftiness, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”  If we lack simplicity and pureness of heart this means we have been corrupted by the enemy and have our heart set on something other than God, so that we cannot know the will of God. God alone must be our goal, our heart must be turned toward Him or we can never know His will.

(3)  Matthew 6:21-23 says, “ For, where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.  The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.  But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness.” We see in these verses first the matter of the heart going after the treasure, then we see light and darkness involving the eye. If our heart is set on God our vision is clear, but if our eye is set on other things then our eye is evil and full of darkness and we cannot see the will of God. Here, the Lord exhorts us to have our heart turned toward Him.

(4)  Matthew 5:8 Says, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” We must be the pure in heart, those who have no mixture in our heart.  Our heart must be single and pure, wanting nothing  but God.  Many people are seeking and desiring something other than God. They want God plus something else, therefore they lack a pure heart and cannot see God nor understand His will.  By this we can see that our heart must be absolutely turned toward God and desire nothing but God.

These four scriptures show us how the relationship between the heart and knowing God’s will is determined by the condition of the heart. It is so sad that among Christians today there are very few that have their hearts absolutely turned toward God.  These days it is evident that the heart of the majority of Christians are turned either to the right or left, they are never absolutely turned toward God, they always want Christ plus something else.  These Christians not only fail to see God but their consecration and self denial are also a problem.  Since their heart is not right, their consecration is full of reservations and their self holds stubbornly to its own thoughts, opinions and ideas.  Therefore it is impossible for them to know and understand God’s will. 

Dealing with the heart, although not as basic as consecration and denying self, is very crucial and deep. We need to bring all the hidden things of our heart into the light of God and let the Holy Spirit deal with them, correcting them, until our heart is fully turned to the Lord desiring nothing but Him and choosing nothing but Him.


(4) Exercise the Spirit

Once our heart has turned to the Lord and has Him as our goal we can then touch the will of God in a practical way.  At that time we need to exercise our spirit.  Since God and His will are one and the same, and since God dwells in our spirit as the Holy Spirit, the first step in knowing and understanding God’s will is to exercise our spirit to touch the feeling of the Holy Spirit in the depths of our spirit.  Under normal conditions this feeling in our spirit is the will of God.

However, our problem is not only that our heart is not right but that our spirit is also too weak.  A heart that is not right causes us to be confused and uncertain about God’s will. And a spirit that is too weak causes us to be dull and numb in knowing the will of God. This is why when God reveals His will to us, most of the time, we are unconscious of it.

Therefore, for us to know the will of God, our spirit must be strengthened by our constant practice of exercising our spirit. The best way to do this is through much fellowship and prayer with the Lord and calling on His name, O’ Lord Jesus, as we read His word daily. If we can set aside an hour a day to spend time in fellowship and prayer with the Lord in the inner chamber, after a certain time, our spirit will be strengthened and become very keen.

Besides setting aside time for prayer and fellowship with the Lord we need to practice exercising our spirit in all matters of our daily living.  If we do this, our spirit will be strengthened and become more sensitive to the will of God.  Then knowing God’s will is not difficult.




(5) Train the Mind

After we have contacted God and obtained the feeling in our spirit, we still need our mind to interpret and understand His will practically, or else, the feeling in our spirit is nothing but a unknown burden and is not meaningful so we will not know God’s will.  It is like hearing a message in a foreign language, we might pickup a word here and there, but the message is lost to us because we have no practical understanding of the language being spoken.  If our mind has not been trained in spiritual matters, we have no way to understand the will of God.

It is regrettable that with many brothers and sisters there is a serious lack of training of the mind in spiritual matters.  If you ask the brothers about the stock market or sports they can expound on it for hours. Sisters when talking to each other often display a very active mind on so many things. But when they sit in a meeting and listen to a message they are not able to understand it.  It is not that they are unwilling to listen or that the message is to deep, but that their mind is simply not able to grasp the spiritual content. Even though they strive to concentrate, before long they become very sleepy and doze off. Their minds have not been trained in spiritual things, therefore, they are very ignorant and dull in spiritual matters.

The training of the mind is the work of the Holy Spirit.  The more we let the Holy Spirit renew our minds the more it becomes spiritual and is able to cooperate with our spirit.
Our responsibility is to exercise our mind in spiritual matters, set our mind on them daily and always turn to our spirit, paying close attention to the movements therein. When our mind is in contact with the spiritual realm daily it becomes sharp, keen and living, thereby understanding the feelings in our spirit and knowing God’s will.  

May the Lord Jesus grant us the grace to live daily in our spirit that we might finish all the work He has given us to do.  That at His coming we will hear Him say, “Well done thou good and faithful servant.”  Amen.

In Christ
Pastor Harry