The Basics: Knowing God's Will

When you realize how important the will of God is and how it will affect the rest of your forever, then you will seek God seriously. You will not continue as you are because the will of God will give you new direction and purpose. Vision brings direction. – Ricky Leonard**

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** quotes or excerpts taken from Ricky Leonard’s Book “You Can Know The Will of God.”
 
 Proverbs 4:7 (NKJV) says “Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.”

Jeremiah 29:11 (AMPC) “For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.”
 
1. Basic things every Christian can do to be in God’s will:
          a. You must be born again

John 3:16-18
2 Peter 3:9

   We should and we will do good works because the love of God lives in us and we desire to do these things. We are not under any compulsion or condemnation – if we do not do them God loves and accepts us anyway. We are not justified by what we do or don’t do – God Himself has justified us and it is through His righteousness we are made right with God. Our only job is to believe.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, (trust, belief), and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9 (NKJV).**

          b. You must be baptized in water Luke 3:21 – Jesus baptized

Mark 16:16

The word here which has been translated baptism in Mark 16:16 is the Greek word baptizo (βαπτιζο) which means to “dip under” or “make fully wet.”    The Apostle Paul equated this with Jesus burial. Romans 6:3-4 (NKJV) “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” You cannot bury a body by sprinkling dirt on the coffin! Bury = submerge. Water baptism is our way of identifying with our Lords total commitment to serving God.**

          c. You must be baptized in the Holy Spirit Luke 3:16

   There are five places in the book of Acts where it says people were filled with the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:1-4; Acts 8:15-18; Acts 9:17 (see I Cor. 14:18); Acts 10:44-46; Acts 19:1-6. In all five of those accounts, it says the evidence was that they all spoke with and or prophesied with other tongues.
   Acts 2:38-39 (NKJV), tells us that this gift of God was for those and for all in the future. The Bible does state that no one can come to Christ except the Spirit of God draw him, and that we are born of the Spirit, so all believers have the spirit of God when born-again. But to have something or be filled to overflowing with the same are two different things.**

2. God’s will for you isn’t a secret, you can find out what it is

Jeremiah 29:11
Are you prosperous? Do you have living hope? Do you know your future? God has these answers for you.

          a. It is important to follow God’s plan, not your own plan
Proverbs 19:21
Mark 3:33-35

          b. Do not trust circumstances to lead you into God’s will – only be led by what he tells or shows you to do.
Romans 8:26-28 (read in amp) - many misread this passage in vs 28 to imply God is in control no matter what you are doing... but if you read the verses before it, you will see that it is the people who are submitted to God's will, who are obeying his leading, who are called according to his purpose, that God is working everything out for. 

John 16:13

          c. The Will of God is the word of God, the Word of God is the Will of God.
Matthew 4:4
Proverbs 15:22
Romans 8:5-9

3. Ask Him and he will show you what the plan is.
​Jeremiah 33:3
Matthew 3:11
Ephesians 1:9
Matthew 7:7-8

   If you are serious about finding the will of God for your life, then you might need to put some things on hold for a while. You will need quality time alone to pray, listen, and take notes. Look at the apostle Paul’s own version of settling the will of God for his life and ministry. “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood. Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.” Galatians 1:15-17 (KJV). **
 
As long as you are on the earth, God still has work for you to do.
Philippians 1:22-25