Getting To Know God's Will: Finding your path in life

In an article I wrote, located here, I introduced a factitious character from the 2015, post-apocolyptic zombie game, Dying Light named Toygar. I showed that just as the creators of Dying Light, namely Techland and Warner Brothers designed Toygar to have a specific role in the video game God has designed His creation for one specific goal, namely to Glorify Him. So no matter where you may feel called as a believer in Christ to you are called to the same overarching goal namely to glorify God, (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:23-31).

Finding the specific will of God for ones life can be difficult because it involves every aspect of their life. The Christian wants to know His will for them when it comes to relationships - should they get married or stay single? God's 'Will' invades their education and career; should they go to school to learn medicine or politics? And so on. These types of questions are important as it is one thing to say that its God's will for the Christian to glorify Him by 'whatever they do' (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:31), but it is a totally different question to ask: 'How do I bring glory to Him?'

The first step in being abel to do God's specific will is to know what His will is? As James, the half-brother of Jesus states:

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. - James 1:27

This reiterates the point made in the aforementioned article about bringing glory to God by loving one's proverbial neighbour, but James adds a mandate to keep oneself separated from the unGodly world's morals, values and practices. John, Jesus' disciple encourages his readers to "...not love the world or anything in the world. ... —the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—..." - 1 John 2:15-16. So one way the Christian can bring glory to God is to stay on the right side of the line; in sum hold to Godly interpretations of abstracts concepts such as 'love'. Moreover, do not participate in practices that the world sees no issue with but God does; and also speak out against those practices. In other words irregardless of job-choice or choice of ministry, God has called the Christian to holiness, (cf. Lev. 11:44-45, 1 Peter 1:16).

How can one ascertain that something is Godly verses unGodly? Jesus promises to abide in us if we abide in Him; conversely he also promises that those who do not stay connected with him, will suffer eternally, (cf. John 15:1-17). The way we can learn what is Godly verses unGodly is to stay daily connected with him in prayer and in quite devotional times. However one also has to be attentive to what 'the world' believes so to be able to make the contrast, as there are several values that both 'the world' and Christianity share at the superficial level, such as to love one another. (cf. 1 John 3:11); but in the thick of it, Christianity's version of showing love to one's neighbour and the world's version of loving one's neighbour do not always see eye to eye. Representing God's views on various things bring's glory to God; it is God's 'Will' that we represent Him.

Another way the Christian can bring glory to God is to sit back and enjoy Him, through what he has made (cf. Psalms 46:10, John 1:3). God wants the Christian to not just stand up for him, but also relax in him, (cf. Psalms 23:1). Relaxing in the comfort of God brings God the glory of being a God of refuge, (cf. Psalms 46:1).

However how can the Christian know what they are called by God to do for their short time on this earth? All Christians irregardless of a specific calling are to abide in Him, rest in him, stand up for his morals and values, but not all people are called to be teachers, or go abroad as missionaries, or to work in the government, or preach from the pulpit, and so forth. How does the Christian ascertain God's will for them in terms of a life-calling? This is the billion dollar question. I ended the aforementioned article with this ascertain that Christians can make choices for their lives "...(move here, do this, do that, etc.) just as long as whatever choices they make are God-focused and ones that can bring Glory to God." We are called to glorify God in whatever we do, but can we do anything to glorify God? No. I for example, cannot look at internet pornography 'for the glory of God', because the nature of pornography is non-glorifying to God. So the Christian's choices are limited to those that can actually bring glory to God. There are two types of choices that one can make that can bring glory to God: one type of choice is Biblical and the other choice is neutrally-Biblical. The former is a moral choice that is founded upon Biblical values, while the latter is a choice that is neither for or against Biblical values and may also neither be a moral choice. One question the Christian should ask themselves is if the choice they are making falls into one of three categories: 1) Biblical, 2) neutrally-Biblical or 3) counter-Biblical (sinful choices.) If a Christian's decision falls into the third camp, it is undeniably and exclusively their will and counter to God's 'Will'; and therefore it can never glorify Him. If however the choice is in the second camp then the Christian should recognize it as permissible but ask if it is beneficial for themselves and or others. If this permissible choice is not going to be beneficial or constructive then it may be best to choose not to embrace this choice; and then of course if the Christian's choice falls into the first category then it should be a no-brainer that it is something that will bring glory to God as it is a Biblical choice.

Moreover, it is a fallacy to suggest that one's calling will be counter to their personal skills or design. I am not saying that God won't call someone to do something that will take them out of their comfort-zone and cause them to stretch as people, but it is a simple fact of life that there are people for example who are very impatient with young children but have a head-for-numbers; these people can spend hours going over a church's financial records and being in-tune to every dollar that is spent, but throw their hands up in frustration when a child is being incommunicative or taking a tantrum. God may be calling this person to be their church's treasurer and to work in a bank instead of being an AWANA leader and a kindergarten teacher. For that person to choose to take an economics course and strive to be a banker and or serve on the church's board of directors as the treasure is never going to be sinful or unGodly choice. For a concluding point of consideration one should also look at where their heart bleeds for. Nehemiah's heart was broken when he got word about the state of the Jerusalem wall (cf. Nehemiah 1). This inspired him to instigate a renovation project to fix it up. In parallel if one's heart bleeds to see Children come to faith in Jesus, then that person is probably called to children's ministry. Who does your heart break for?