Knowing the Will of God for Your Life Before Praying

 

The Will of God

Many Christians have been deceived and robbed of their money and other belongings in the quest to know the Will of God for their lives from many false men and women in the church – and outside the church. While God still speaks concerning His will for the individual, His general Will for all His children is expressed in the Scriptures. The Bible expresses the Will of God. God the Father is faithful and truthful and He would say nothing without meaning it. Anything He said in the past, he meant it and in Him is no deceit. God cannot lie and everything He has said in the Bible, He is committed to performing them

Titus 1:2

² In hope of eternal life which GOD, WHO NEVER LIES, promised ages ago

God does not and cannot lie. Whatever He has said in His Word, He is watching over them to perform them (Jeremiah 1:12). So if you want the Will of God for your life, go to the Bible. It is sad to say most Christians have their Bible closed, yet they move from one ‘prophet’ to the other to seek the Will of God for their lives. The Word of God has the Will of God. Whatever God has said in His Word concerning His children is His Will for His children. Please get me well; I am not saying the Lord cannot reveal anything about you to another person – being a Prophet, Pastor, Apostle or whoever. The point is that the Will of God for you will not contradict what He has said in the Bible. So to pray according to the Will of God is the same as to pray according to the Word of God. You will need to pray base on the Word of God for results. Use the Word of God in your prayer and remind God of His Word.

Isaiah 43:26

²⁶ PUT ME IN REMEMBRANCE, let us argue together; set forth your case, that you may be proved right.                               

Is it about healing, marriage, childbirth, or what; go to the Word of God and find what the Will of God is for you on that subject matter and base on it to pray. One thing I have realized is that the moment the child of God realizes his inheritance in the Lord, and goes to God in prayer for it, the Lord cannot but to grant it to him. You need to pray according to the Word of God.

Daniel Prayed According to the Word of God

Daniel was one of those people who were carried to exile by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon when Israel sinned against God. The captivity of Israel was also in fulfilment of what the Prophet Jeremiah had prophesied.

Jeremiah 25:11-12

¹¹ This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon SEVENTY YEARS.

¹² Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, says the LORD, making the land an everlasting waste.

So we can say that the Will of God for the Israelites was that after seventy years of captivity, they should be freed; this was written in the Books or the Bible as we will call it. The Will of God for the Israelites was in the Bible. He didn’t want them to be slaves forever, though they sinned. His Will was that after seventy years, they should be out of slavery and everything was in the Word of God. Many Christians have neglected the Word of God and seeking for the plans of God for their lives elsewhere.

But Daniel, one of the Jewish young guys who the king chose to be trained and minister at the palace of the Babylonian king went to the Word of God and found the Will of God for His people. He saw the Will of God in the Bible and prayed accordingly.

Daniel 9:1-4

¹ In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by birth a Mede, who became king over the realm of the Chaldeans

² In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, PERCEIVED IN THE BOOKS [the Bible] the number of years which, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, SEVENTY YEARS.

³ Then I turned my face to the Lord God, SEEKING HIM BY PRAYER and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.

⁴ I PRAYED to the LORD my God and made confession, saying, "O Lord, the great and terrible God, who KEEPEST COVENANT and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments,

Did you see Daniel referred to God as a ‘Covenant Keeping God’? God cannot overlook His promises – you just have to pray according to those promises. Daniel saw the Will of God – in the Word of God – and prayed accordingly. As Daniel was on his knees, praying to God for mercy, Angel Gabriel was sent to him to give him more wisdom and understanding.

Daniel 9:21-22

²¹ While I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice

²² He came and he said to me, "O Daniel, I have now come out TO GIVE YOU WISDOM AND UNDERSTANDING

When you pray according to the Word of God, He can bring to you more insight and understanding of His Will concerning that matter you are praying about. God can bring to you more revelation on His Word as you base on it to pray. There is confidence in praying according to the Will of God which is the Word of God. If you pray according to the Word of God, you have the assurance that He will hear you because that is His Will for you

1 John 5:14

¹⁴ And this is the confidence which we have in him, that IF WE ASK [or pray for] anything according to HIS WILL HE HEARS us

If you pray according the Word of God which expresses the Will of God, you shall see results. Let’s examine what Jesus also said in John’s gospel;

John 15:7

⁷ If you abide in me, and my WORDS ABIDE IN YOU, ASK whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.

If you abide in me means if you are a believer and you have me as your Lord and Saviour, and my words abide in you means you know what I have said in My Word concerning you, then anything you pray about, you shall have it. The conditions are three;

·       Firstly, you have to abide in Christ; you must be born again and have the Holy Spirit come to live in you. You must be a believer (this has been treated in Chapter 5)

·       Secondly, the Word of God must abide in you; you must constantly and regularly read and meditate on the Word of God. You have to know what the Word of God says about all the aspects of your life. Search through the Word to find the plan and purpose of God for your life. The Word of God must dwell in you richly (Colossians 3:16).

·       Lastly, you must ask what you desire; since you have seen the Will of God for you from the Word of God, base on it and pray and your desire shall be granted.

 So you see, all these three principles are important. You can’t be selective because it won’t work with even two of them. You need to be born again first, have the Word of God in you second, and pray base on the Word of God. There are many born again Christians who are not seeing results in their prayers because they have neglected the second principle and doing their own things. It doesn’t work that way. You must pray according to the Will of God! There are others too who are born again and have the Word of God abiding in them, yet they don’t ask. Jesus said “Ye shall ask”. It is a condition. If you want to see results, you would have to pay attention to all the conditions and obey accordingly.

Perfect and Permissible Will of God

The Will of God can be put mainly into two; the perfect Will and the Permissible Will.

The Perfect Will of God

The perfect Will of God is His original plan for His children. This is the creative purpose of God for His children. His perfect Will is also good and the best. It is the perfect Will of God that can bring the individual to his glorious inheritance. It reveals the intent of God about man. The perfect Will of God aims at establishing the kingdom of God within man. It is that which will usher man to his eternal glory with the Father. The perfect Will of God is stated in the Bible and believers are required to pray according to the Perfect Will of God for results. The perfect Will of God brings hope.

Jeremiah 29:11

¹¹ For I KNOW THE PLANS I have for you, says the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a FUTURE and a HOPE

God the Father has a bright future for all His children. He therefore doesn’t want any of them to lose hope and trust. The perfect Will of God for His children is that it shall be well with them in all the facets of their lives. God is concerned about the welfare of His children; He is caring Father.

Romans 12:1-2

¹ I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

² Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the WILL OF GOD, what is GOOD and ACCEPTABLE and PERFECT.

Again, the perfect Will of God for us is to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. This is the commentary the Teacher, Derek Prince gives to this admonition; “Present your bodies a living sacrifice”. Derek says “Why a living sacrifice? Because Paul was contrasting it with the Old Testament sacrifices, which were first killed and placed on the altar. Thus, Paul was saying ‘Don’t kill your body and place it on the altar. Place a living body on the altar’”

He continues “When a sacrifice was placed on the altar it no longer belonged to the person who offered it; it belonged to God. It is as though God says here, ‘Place your body on My altar as a living sacrifice. From now on you don’t own it. I own it. You don’t make decisions as to what happen to your body – I make them. You don’t decide where you are going to go; you don’t decide where you are going to eat; you don’t decide what you are going to wear. Those are My decisions. I take full responsibility for your body.’”

God’s perfect and acceptable Will for all believers is that they would renew their minds and walk in the consciousness of the provisions in the Word of God. Paul writes to the church in Thessalonica and says that “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality” (1 Thessalonians 4:3, NIV). You see, so it is not the Will of God for you to leave in sin. God wants you to be sanctified! He wants you to flee immorality! If you are leaving in a certain kind of sin, you can pray for grace to overcome that sin and you will be heard. Because the perfect Will of God for you is to be sanctified and be holy; you should abstain from fornication or adultery.

You always cry whenever preachers mention the sin you are so much attached to when they are preaching but you aren’t making any effort to overcome it. The Will of God for you is to live not according to the dictates of the flesh but according to the guidance of the Holy Spirit (Romans 6:19). Go to Him therefore in prayer concerning that sin and He shall hear you because you are praying in accordance with His Will.

Also the Perfect Will of God for you is to have good health

3 John 1:2 (KJV)

² Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest PROSPER and BE IN HEALTH, even as THY SOUL PROSPERETH.

The Lord wants you to prosper and be in good health. The Will of God for you is to have your disease healed. Through the death of Jesus – by His stripes – we have been healed (1 Peter 2:24). So anytime you feel weakness or disease in your body, stand on the authority of Word of God which is the Will of God for all His children and pray.

Proverbs 4:20-22

²⁰ My son, be attentive to my WORDS; incline your ear to my SAYINGS.

²¹ Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart.

²² For they are LIFE to him who finds them, and HEALING TO ALL HIS FLESH.

The Lord does not want you to forget His Word in which His Will is expressed. If you will read and meditate on the Word of God always, you shall find life to any dead thing in your life and health for your flesh. Make time and relate to the Lord in His written Word.

The Permissible Will of God

Sometimes, God may permit the Christian to have his way through after he has persisted in having that thing. God may have had His own Will for the fellow but because the person consistently and persistently asked for that thing, God may grant it to him. This is what we refer to as the Permissible Will of God. For instance, God was the King over Israel. He put them under the law and ruled them through His own chosen prophets and priests. But one day, Israel rebelled against God. They didn’t want God as their leader again; they wanted one of their own people to lead them. They wanted a king as the other nations had; but they refused God to be their King. The elders of Israel then came to Samuel who was then God’s spokesperson and demanded for a king

1 Samuel 8:4-5

⁴ Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah,

⁵ and said to him, "Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint for us a king to govern us like all the nations.

This demand of the elders displeased Samuel but he prayed to God concerning it. You see, you can’t fight for God. Samuel went to God when the people wanted to reject Him as King. If anyone becomes rebellious in the church, you just have to bring the case to God. You don’t be a judge and give judgement. Samuel was displeased but he didn’t say ‘No’ right away; he went to God and told Him and God gave His judgement 

1 Samuel 8: 7, 9-10, 19-22

⁷ And the LORD said to Samuel, "Hearken to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for THEY HAVE NOT REJECTED YOU, but THEY HAVE REJECTED ME from being KING over them

⁹ Now then, hearken to their voice; only, you shall solemnly warn them, and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.

¹⁰ So Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking a king from him

¹⁹ But the people REFUSED TO LISTEN to the voice of Samuel; and they said, "NO! but WE WILL HAVE A KING OVER US,

²⁰ That we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles.

²¹ And when Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of the LORD.

²² And the LORD said to Samuel, "Hearken to their voice, and make them a king." Samuel then said to the men of Israel, "Go every man to his city.

God told Samuel to listen to the Israelites but to protest to them and warn them of what they were calling upon themselves. But they wouldn’t listen, God wanted to be their King forever but they rejected Him; they rebelled against Him. Well that was not the perfect Will of God for them but He eventually permitted them to have a king. He gave them Saul as their first king to rule over them. God permitted the Israelites to have a king but that was not His perfect Will for them. You see the Lord may permit you to have something but that may not necessarily be the perfect Will of God for you.

There are Christians who have rushed into marriages which were not the Perfect Will of God for them. But you see since you ‘forced’ God to allow you, you will never enjoy it but have to endure it. Many people are greatly disturbed in life because what they have was not the perfect Will of God for them – but His permissible Will. A married lady once told me, “If I had known I would not have married him”. This guy she has married too before their marriage was living with a lady he has promised to marry and she manoeuvred to snatch the guy from the other lady and was married to him. After getting married to this guy, he suddenly changed, maltreated her and abused her. She then wanted a divorce. If you want the Will of God for you, be patient and go to the Word of God.

God doesn’t want you to walk in His permissible Will; He wants you to walk in His perfect Will! Search through the scriptures and confirm it from your spirit.