Can We Know God’s Will for Our Lives?

Stop seeking God’s individual will for your life.

Two sorts of things exist: those things that God reveals, and those things that God keeps secret. We are responsible to do what he’s told us. And in the things he keeps secret, we have freedom. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed to us, they belong to us and our children forever, that we may follow the words of his law” (Deut. 29:29).

This perspective didn’t originate here. John Calvin said, “When God closes His holy mouth, I will desist from inquiry.” I will desist, I will stop inquiring. If God hasn’t spoken, I won’t ask any questions. Martin Luther said, “We must keep in view His Word and leave alone His inscrutable will, for it is by His Word and not by His will, His inscrutable will, that I’ll be guided.” In other words, go back to the Bible for God’s will, and if you don’t find it there, either he doesn’t plan to reveal it to us, or our decision falls under the amoral, personal choice category.

I am not saying God does not have an individual will for our lives. We just don’t have to worry about finding it. God will make it happen.

God could have spoken to me about marrying John in a powerful, supernatural manner. Lightning bolt, talking dog, whatever. But he didn’t, and neither did the Bible give me a direct answer. He allows us to make decisions, and I decided that John displayed the godly characteristics that I wanted in a husband. I chose joyfully and freely. In the light of God’s Word, trusting the God of the Word. But I could have done the same with another young man of similar character. John wasn’t necessarily God’s will for my life—until we were married. From that moment on, we were one in God’s eyes, and our continued oneness is his will.

“So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matt. 19:6), and “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous” (Heb. 13:4). God’s Word shows the way here (back to rule #1).

*These four steps to discovering God’s will were borrowed and adapted from Dr. Vic Anderson’s notes for a class at Dallas Theological Seminary.