Discerning the Will of God

‘Time in the Word’ By Clayton Adams

Serving as a pastor I have been asked numerous times, “Is it possible to know the will of God?”

Yes! It is possible to know the will of God to a certain point (Ephesians 1:7-9).

Do you believe you can know the will of God?

All we need to know about God is communicated to us in His Holy Word – the Bible. True, we want to know more about God, but He chose to share with us what He wanted us to know. What we don’t know and cannot know is the point where our faith takes control.

God spoke to the old prophet Isaiah and said; “For as the heavens are higher than the earth. So are My ways higher than your ways and My thought than your thoughts.. .So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty. Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:9, 11).

I often wonder how God accomplishes all He does.

How does death, divorce, disease, destruction, lies, crime and every other human malady work to accomplish His purposes?

God draws people to His Son by the power of His Holy Spirit. All the human ailments can either push one away from God or draw one closer to God.

Each person makes a choice to draw nearer to God or not.

When God spoke to Cain and warned him to control his anger (Genesis 4:6-7), Cain had a choice to make.

Cain did not control his anger and killed his brother Abel. I wonder how Cain felt the remainder of his life, especially when God protected him for the rest of his long life (Genesis 4:13-16).

When Naomi’s two sons died, she instructed her two daughters in-laws to go back to their own people (Ruth 1), why did one stay and one leave?

Ruth stayed with Naomi.

The Bible never states why Ruth stayed and the other did not. I wonder why Ruth stayed.

The old-time prophet Elijah has fascinated me. One day, Elijah stood facing 450 of the king’s prophets (false prophets) he won a great spiritual battle but became so intimidated by the kings’ wife, Jezebel, that Elijah ran and hid.

Why did he run away?

Elijah became so depressed he asked God to take his life. But God, by His mysterious will and purposes saved Elijah by asking one simple question, “What are you doing here, Elijah?

(1 Kings 19:9). Running away does seem to be easy, but, sooner or later God will ask us, “What are you doing here?”

God did some repair and restoration in Elijah and sent him back to what he ran from. God works that way. He meets us where we are, repairs us, restores us and then equips us to get back into life My favorite Bible person is the apostle Peter for several reasons. One reason is his ability to open his mouth and put both his feet in. He wasn’t good at communicating.

When Peter saw Jesus crucified and then placed in the tomb, no doubt he became depressed. So distraught was Peter that he had a pity party and then went back to what he knew best, fishing. But Jesus revealed Himself to Peter on the shore of the Sea of Galilee (John 21). As Jesus was revealing Himself to Peter, Jesus begins the work of repairing, restoring and equipping Peter for God’s purposes.

All these folks I wonder about. I wonder, if Cain, Naomi, Ruth, Isaiah, Elijah, Peter and so many others could be repaired, restored and equipped then we can be too. If God did it for these, He will do it for us! I wonder, will you let Him?

Clayton Adams has a message of faith he would like to share with the community. He would also like to hear from you. E-mail him at claytonpadamslll@ gmail.com.

Clayton Adams