The Will of God: Understanding and Pursuing His Ultimate Plan for Your Life - Hardcover

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Dr. Charles F. Stanley is a New York Times bestselling author who has written more than sixty books, with sales of more than ten million copies. He has been senior pastor of the First Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia since 1971, and his outreach ministry—In Touch—reaches more than 2,800 radio and television outlets in more than fifty languages. Dr. Stanley was inducted into the National Religious Broadcaster’s (NRB) Hall of Fame in 1988. Dr. Stanley’s goal is best represented by In Touch Ministries’ mission statement: to lead people worldwide into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ and to strengthen the local church. This is because, as he says, “It is the Word of God and the work of God that changes people’s lives.”

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Chapter 1: Step In 1 STEP IN
A Starting Place on the Journey

The will of God.

We talk about it in church and our Christian circles enough. We hear repeatedly that the Lord has a plan for us and that it is good. We are instructed to seek it, embrace it, and live it. We are even told that it is the key to our future. But what is it? Even though God’s will sounds like something we would like—and even need—to know, the whole idea of it often stirs up more questions than answers.

After all, it is the will—the volition that drives the workings of the universe, the paths of empires, and the lives of all peoples—of God, of the all-knowing, all-powerful, unseen, indescribable Creator of all things. Who wouldn’t want to be aware of such lofty information?

Yet even those of us who have been believers a long time sometimes have mistaken ideas about what the will of God really is. Some think it is special knowledge or divine and mystical revelations that the Father gives to super-spiritual people, which is not true. Still others would admit that they shy away from God’s will because they believe the Lord will ask them to do what they really don’t want to do. They believe God’s will is always difficult, sacrificial, or heartbreaking. That’s not accurate, either.

Sadly, whatever your view of it, God’s will can seem grand and unreachable, can’t it? In fact, after my many years in ministry, I have heard enough people talk about how frustrated they are about their Christian life that I am fully persuaded there’s one ultimate reason: They do not understand the nature of the will of God, nor do they know how to find it. And if you don’t understand those two things, you may feel insecure and directionless in your walk with Jesus. Both the small, daily pressures as well as the life-changing and overwhelming issues in life can make you feel as if you are under constant assault, lost, and helpless.

Maybe that’s what stirred your interest in this book. Certainly, it could be that you want to honor your Savior and stay on track with what He envisions for your life. After all, He created you and knows what He intended you to be. If He has a plan for your life, who wouldn’t want to experience His very best?

But that’s not usually what drives people to seek God’s will. Often there are questions about the future, decisions that must be made, or challenges that arise that have no foreseeable solution that drive us to our knees before the Father. Our only hope is the Lord’s insight, intervention, and provision.

In other words, perhaps you’re interested in the topic of God’s will because you are at a crossroad and have no idea which way to turn. Or maybe you’re between a rock and a hard place and see no hope of escape.

It also could be because you don’t know why the Lord has waited so long to give you the desires of your heart. Is this longing part of His plan for you or isn’t it?

Or maybe you simply don’t understand why certain hardships have befallen you.

The problem is, of course, how do you seek out God’s will? And how do you know for certain if you have heard Him correctly? There is an incredible level of frustration when you are desperate for the Lord’s guidance, but heaven seems silent. We can get so discouraged that we are tempted to say, “I really don’t know how to find God’s will, so what I’m going to do is the best I can and hope it all works out.”

But understand, you merely “wishing that everything will be all right” is not the Father’s intention. It’s not His best. It’s not the relationship He desires to have with you. He has a very specific plan for your life—one that can and should inspire your complete confidence. He promises in Jeremiah 29:11: “I know the plans that I have for you… plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.” This is the hope each and every one of us can cling to. God has plans for you and He knows how to accomplish them in the best, most effective way possible for your particular personality, giftedness, and future.

The Lord Is a Planner

So right now, set your mind on this truth: Our God is a planner. He is not a reactor. He did not set this world in motion to be ruled by chance or wild, unchecked forces. Nor did He create you to live without hope and purpose.

In fact, from before the beginning the Lord has been making plans for you and for me. Just think about how He created this world with a variety of landscapes, colors, animals, plants, foods, smells, and textures. He thought of everything we would ever need and innumerable objects and creatures to satisfy our needs, stir our imaginations, fascinate our minds, and give joy to our souls.

Likewise, Ephesians 1:4 tells us God “chose us in Him”—in Christ—“before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.” In other words, the Father knew you and I would have the problem of being separated from Him by our sin. He understood the pain and frustration you and I would feel at not being able to reach Him, interact with Him, and receive His love because of our fallen human state. Therefore, the Lord has been strategically unfolding His grand design to send a Savior Who would forgive our sin and restore our relationship with the One for Whom our souls most yearn. And He was careful about it—God went to great lengths to show us Who would make us right with Him. Through the prophets, the Father began unveiling what He would do and He precisely pointed to Who our Savior would be—each prophecy and revelation narrowing down the possibility of Who could fulfill His requirements.

For example, Isaiah foretold: “A virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel” (Isa. 7:14). This may seem like an odd prerequisite for a Savior. However, Romans 5:12 tells us: “Through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.” At the Fall, all humanity received the sin nature—every one of us is a sinner (Rom. 3:23). This is because the seed of the sin nature passes through our fathers. But this is also why the virgin birth was necessary—without a human father, our Deliverer would not receive the sin nature.

One would think this would be sufficient to distinguish Who the Savior would be. But the Lord knew that other religions would arise that would falsely declare that they were the way to Him—and they would claim virgin births as well: Buddha, Krishna, the Egyptian deities Horus and Osiris, the Persian Mithra, the Aztec Quetzalcoatl, the Chinese Lao-Tsze, and others. So, in order to protect us from their false assertions, God narrowed the identification process further. The Anointed Savior, or Messiah, would be a fulfillment of the covenant to Abraham and come from his line (Gen. 12:3). And not only Abraham—but a specific great-grandchild of Abraham named Judah.

Abraham fathered Isaac; Isaac’s wife, Rebekah, gave birth to twins, Jacob and Esau; and Jacob had twelve sons—including a child named Judah. About Judah, Jacob prophesied, “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall...