Knowing God's Will

Already Revealed: The Secret Things and the Things That Belong to Us

"What is God's will for my life?" may be the question believers ask more than any other, and it almost always means something specific: a job, a person, a city, a school. If that is the question you brought to this course, you are in good company, and this course intends to take it seriously. But Scripture answers it in a way that surprises most people, and the surprise arrives in the very first session: the overwhelming majority of God's will for your life is not hidden. It is in print. Before you learn anything about discerning what God has kept quiet, you need an honest inventory of how much he has already said.

²⁹“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.Deuteronomy 29:29 · ESV

That single verse draws the line this whole course walks. There are secret things, and they belong to the LORD. There are revealed things, and they belong to you and your children forever, with a purpose attached: "that we may do all the words of this law." Keep both halves of the verse and you will be protected from the two oldest errors in guidance, which are prying into what God has hidden and neglecting what he has published.

One Phrase, Two Scriptural Uses

Scripture uses the phrase "the will of God" in two distinguishable ways, and confusing them is where most guidance anxiety begins. The first is what theologians call God's sovereign will (sometimes his decree): the comprehensive plan by which he "works all things according to the counsel of his will" (Ephesians 1:11). Nothing escapes it. Nebuchadnezzar, the proudest king of his age, learned it on his knees: "he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand" (Daniel 4:35). This will is hidden until it happens, it is always done, and Deuteronomy 29:29 tells you plainly that decoding it in advance is not your assignment.

The second use is God's revealed will: the commands, promises, and wisdom of Scripture. This is the will of God you can read tonight, the only sense of "God's will" a person can actually disobey, and the one the verse says belongs to you. Sorting a question into the right category does more for peace of mind than almost anything else in this course. "Will this surgery succeed?" belongs to the secret things; worry addressed to that category is worry God never asked you to carry. "Should I forgive the surgeon who was careless?" is answered in ink.

Confusing the two produces predictable wreckage in both directions. Treat the sovereign will as your assignment and you get anxiety, sign-hunting, and paralysis. Collapse everything into "whatever happens was God's will" and you get fatalism, where choices stop mattering and obedience goes slack. Scripture refuses both. God reigns over everything, and you are responsible for something: the revealed things, starting today.

The Sentences Scripture Actually Finishes

Here is an exercise in listening to how the Bible talks. Every time the New Testament completes the sentence "this is the will of God," notice what it names. "For this is the will of God, your sanctification" (1 Thessalonians 4:3). "Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" (1 Thessalonians 5:18). "For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people" (1 Peter 2:15). Character, gratitude, goodness. Not coordinates. Not once does the completed sentence name an address or an employer.

³For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;1 Thessalonians 4:3 · ESV

Look back at the three sentences Scripture actually finishes with "this is the will of God." What do all three name, and what do none of them name?

The Old Testament had already set that trajectory. When Micah asks what the LORD requires, the answer is not an itinerary: "to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God" (Micah 6:8). The center of God's will for your life is public information. That is either deflating or liberating, depending on what you were hoping for, and this course will argue hard for liberating: it means the person who never once hears a voice about a job offer can still walk squarely inside the will of God every day of their life.

The Question You Brought

None of that erases the decisions. You still have to pick the job, say yes or no to the person, sign or not sign the lease, and you want God in that with you. Faithful, Bible-believing Christians have answered the "how" question in two broad ways, and you should know both by name, because this course will be honest with you wherever they diverge.

The specific-individual-will view holds that God has a particular plan for each believer's major decisions and expects us to seek it and find it, through prayer, Scripture, the Spirit's prompting, godly counsel, and circumstances. Its proponents point to Psalm 32:8 ("I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go"), Proverbs 3:5-6, the guidance narratives of Acts, and the reality of a personal walk with a God who speaks.

The wisdom view holds that within God's moral will the believer is free and responsible to choose wisely, and that God's guidance now ordinarily comes through Scripture, a renewed mind, and counsel rather than through private revelation of a blueprint. Its proponents point to Deuteronomy 29:29, Romans 12:1-2, the way Paul reasons through decisions in 1 Corinthians 7, and the sufficiency of Scripture in 2 Timothy 3:16-17.

Both views are held by people with a high view of Scripture. Both reject superstition. And both insist on the same daily means: Scripture saturation, transformation, wisdom, counsel, prayer, and obedience to what you already know. This course trains that common ground, flags the divergence honestly when a specific case raises it, and sends you back to the text and your own pastors. The platform does not make either view a test of fellowship, and neither should you.

A Lamp, Not a Floodlight

Nun ¹⁰⁵  Your word is a lamp to my feet     and a light to my path.Psalm 119:105 · ESV

One image will follow you through all six sessions. "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." A lamp in the ancient world lit the next few steps, not the next decade. That is how God's guidance usually works: enough light for the next act of obedience, rarely a floodlit map of the years ahead. He could hand out maps. He mostly gives lamps, because lamps keep you walking close to the one who carries the light. The badge for this course is that lamp, on purpose.

Worked Example: Assembling the Revealed Will

Take fifteen minutes and trace the sentences Scripture finishes. Read 1 Thessalonians 4:3 and 5:16-18, 1 Peter 2:15, Romans 12:2, Ephesians 5:17-21, and Hebrews 13:20-21, and write down, in one list, everything these passages plainly call the will of God or attribute to his working in you. Your list will say things like: sanctification, sexual holiness, rejoicing, constant prayer, thanksgiving in every circumstance, doing good publicly, a transformed mind, understanding the Lord's will, being equipped with everything good to do his will.

Now sit with the list. Most people discover something reordering: they have more revealed will still un-obeyed than hidden will un-found. The question "what is God's will for my life?" turns out to be mostly answered, and the unanswered remainder suddenly looks smaller and less frightening. God's will for your life is first about the kind of person you are becoming, wherever you happen to live and work. Get that order right in this session and every decision the rest of the course touches will sit on solid ground.

Common Misreadings This Session Corrects