Am I in God's will?

It’s a brand new week friend; it's filled with hopes and possibilities. It is fine to take a rest if you feel overwhelmed with the pressures all around, but, don’t stop moving.

I had a discussion with a friend around an issue in relation to God’s will. As the Lord helped me to speak the right words, there was light in my friend’s heart. I then discovered it was an issue I also needed to take out to time to meditate on for myself.  And I am sure it would be of help to you too. It centres on that big question that comes up often when things go sour: “is this God’s will for me?”

As humans, we get perturbed when situations go the way we don’t want in our lives. So, unpleasant situations have a way of draining our spirit and we begin to feel we may not be in God’s will. This kind of condition especially when it re-occurs makes us confused about our decisions; we begin to take stock of how and when we took the decision, all that surrounded it, just to justify what goes on in our head. Let me paint a scenario so you can get a full grasp of this.

A young man who is a passionate believer gets a good job immediately he graduated from the tertiary institution and it all looked God was smiling at Him, definitely He always does. Only to have serious problems on the job in just two weeks with the option of resigning or undermining his personal values. He had to resign. The pain was too much to bear; he already shared testimony in church and with friends and family. What would he tell them happened? He got the courage to move on.

Not too long, in a space of three months, he got another job and God was good again and definitely He believed this was all God’s plan anyway. The job responsibility seem not to be his area of strength but he took on the challenge, this however led to series of complains from his boss. Within two months, he had received sack threats more than three times. His self-esteem was under attack; he was suspended and his job conditions changed from salary-basis to contract. After seeking wise counsel, he decided to resign to avoid being sacked after the pressure had reached the peak.

Now, this is the question that comes from such experiences, having tried things and failed, most importantly when it occurs more than once: does God not want me to work? Perhaps, it is not God’s will that I work, so He is using those instances and heartbreaks to tell me. Have you found yourself in this position having tried on certain life ventures and you experience failure again and again?

The question of God’s will is one that makes everyone shiver as no genuine Christian, even unbelievers, wants to be outside of God’s will. However, there are two things that you must know as a believer for you to live right:

First, God is not a “god”, He is now your Father and a loving one at that. He loves you so much that He gave up the life of His son in exchange for your death. He makes all things abound unto you. He doesn’t derive pleasure in your heartbreak. You don’t determine God’s will for your life on the account of experiences. When your experiences becomes the benchmark to measure God’s will, you will quickly run into error and also miss out on His plans for you.

You have His Spirit within you that leads into all truth. What father would want his son to lose a finger to the grinding machine so as to let the son know he doesn’t want him to go near the machine? The problem is inability to recognize the pains are part of the plan to shape you for finest output, not to stop you from emerging. The Israelites were always seeing the fire as a sign to stay back in Egypt, but the Father loved them, He brought all the challenges to make them see how He could save them in any situation. The real strategy was to build faith in them. They missed it concluding at some points they should have stayed back in Egypt.

Job was inside of God’s perfect will for His life when tragedy struck in his life. This never meant God didn’t want him to have wealth. Cornelius was living large and was a good man in all ramification, yet, he was not in God’s will until Peter visited his house and introduced salvation to him. When you engage in experiential conclusion of God’s will over your life, you will lose out on the real essence of God’s purpose for you.

“A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps” Prov 16:9

So, take note: no matter how tough it gets, don’t conclude on what God’s will is based on related or unrelated experiences. Whatever it is that you are going through now is going to make you stronger in the end. Keep holding on, don’t lose up until He bids you to move.

Enjoy your week. I love you.

Be Innovated

Olufemi Ibitoye