How to Receive God's Will for Our Lives

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Sometimes we struggle to figure out God’s will for our lives; the Bible gives us a few key principles to help whenever we wrestle with discerning the will of God.

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Matthew 7:13–27 NIV

13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. 15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ 24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

God’s Will: threat or comfort

are these sayings a warning meant to scare us, or an encouragement meant to comfort us? do we read this passage as a threat or as an invitation?

I cannot help but wonder if we sometimes get the meaning of this passage wrong. These four short sayings of Jesus in Matthew’s gospel are the conclusion of a section that is known as the Sermon on the Mount. The question I bring to these sayings is one of perspective. Are these sayings a warning meant to scare us, or are they an encouragement meant to comfort us? Do we read this passage as a threat or do we read it as an invitation?

I am guessing your answer to that question makes all the difference in the world to how you understand the message of these words. And I would also guess it makes all the difference in the world to how you understand and receive God’s will for our lives. Do you see the will of God as an invitation or do you see the will of God as a threat? Perhaps this confusion only adds to uncertainties about God’s will for our lives in this world. Let’s untangle that mystery a little bit today. And let me begin by narrowing the playing field just a bit.

often we contemplate the will of God on an individual level

Often perhaps we immediately wander in our heads to contemplating the will of God on an individual level. You get two different job offers and you wonder which one is God’s will. Students need to decide on a college major and wonder which one is God’s will for them. Do you rent an apartment or buy a house? Do I have pasta or tacos for dinner? Which one is God’s will? Alright, sometimes there are things which are trivial and insignificant. It seems that God would say his will to allow you to choose pasta or tacos and either way he will bless you with nourishment for your body through it. But sometimes the questions have huge significance on our lives. Choosing whether or not to go to college, what to pursue as a career; these are big questions that lean a bit more sharply into considering what the will of God might be.

focus us on the shared communal understanding of God’s will for our lives

But today I want to begin by taking us away from that individual question of God’s will and instead focus us on the shared communal understanding of God’s will for our lives. Let’s begin by acknowledging that there is a certain level of receiving God’s will which applies equally to each one of us. There is such a thing as God’s will which applies the same way for everybody. Let’s start there and then work our way back to an understanding which gives us an individual application to take away.

When we focus a piece of our worship on receiving God’s will for our lives, it is this shared communal understanding of God’s will we are talking about. Most often this is a liturgical part of worship that is framed in the law of God. Perhaps you were once part of a church or grew up in a church in which the law of God was read every single Sunday as a part of the worship service. The Ten Commandments are often considered to be one of the primary examples of God revealing his will for our lives. This is exactly what we did here this morning in this worship service; I read the Ten Commandments from Exodus 20 as our understanding of receiving God’s will for our lives. Other weeks we may choose a different passage of scripture or a piece from one of our creeds or confessions as the focus for God’s will for our lives. It is something we do regularly in worship; and we repeat this pattern together in worship for a reason. It is a reminder that God desires for us to live in a certain way. Which brings us back to this passage from Matthew 7 and question I started with; is it a threat meant to scare us or an encouragement meant to comfort us?

verses 13-14 — narrow and wide

Perhaps the best way to approach that question is to consider what Jesus says in Matthew 7 about the gate and the path. You see, if we perceive following the will of God as though it were a threat, then maybe we understand these words about the narrow path and the wide path as a warning. Choose the right path or you will end up in destruction. In that line of thinking we might see the wide path as the ungodly immoral ways of the secular world. And the narrow path is the correct moral life put forth by God in the commandments of scripture. If we have the right faith and believe the right things, and if we do the right things and live the right way, then we walk the narrow path which leads to salvation. On the other side of that, those who follow whatever the world says go along with the crowd on the wide path. But ultimately the wide path ends in destruction and only the narrow path leads to eternal life. In this scenario, the law of God which reveals God’s will for our lives marks out for us the narrow path in which we must walk if we have to enjoy salvation and eternal life.

There are two problems with this understanding. First, it is works/righteousness. In that way of thinking it is obedience to the law of God which gets us to salvation and eternal life. It seems that just about every one of Paul’s letters in the New Testament presses against that very idea. Again and again Paul says that we are not saved by any works, but only by grace through faith. The second problem with interpreting Matthew 7 this way is that it gets the order of Jesus’ words wrong. Jesus does not present his teachings as a path to choose which leads to a gate of salvation. It’s the other way around. First comes the gate. The teaching of Jesus which reveals God’s will for our lives is not the gate. Jesus himself is the gate. The path is not something which leads to the gate. The path is something which proceeds from the gate. Do you see how this works? The narrow path is not the way which leads to Jesus as the gate. It is the other way around. Jesus is the gate through which we enter the narrow path.

Jesus becomes the way to get us to the will of God

Now that changes everything around. No longer is the will of God revealed in his word as a way to get us to Jesus. Now Jesus becomes the way to get us to the will of God. And now we can agree with Paul in the New Testament that we are not saved by any of our works of following the law, but we are saved by grace through faith. And now—having been saved by grace through faith—Jesus opens a path before us to proceed forward in Christ according to the will of God. That changes everything.

So then, let’s talk about this narrow path which is found in Christ, entered through Christ, and proceeds from Christ.

God’s Will: heart, head, and hands

verses 21-23 — true and false disciples

Starting in verse 21 Jesus talks about true disciples and false disciples. These are startling words which Jesus uses to grab the attention of his audience. Now then, IF we were to understand the law of God as a warning and as a threat, then these words are horribly troubling. Because Jesus is portraying here a group of people seem to honestly think that they are true disciples when in fact they are not. If that is the case then how can there possibly ever be any assurance of God’s grace and our salvation?

response in verse 22

Look at the response in verse 22

Matthew 7:22 NIV

22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’

They did all the right things. These are not rebellious people who rejected Jesus. There is a sampling of disciple activities in this verse which are all connected to the name of Jesus. And yet somehow Jesus replies that he never knew them. How can this be? What is going on here? How are we supposed to understand God’s will for our lives when we see an example like this—an example in which people who seem to be acting according to God’s will are turned away by Jesus? If you are the kind of person who sees the law of God as a threat, then a passage like this is terrifying.

However, it is certainly the case that Jesus does not intend to threaten his audience gathered there to hear his teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus does not intend these words to leave us bewildered and filled with doubt. Just the opposite. Jesus is offering an encouragement meant to bring us comfort. Jesus says in verse 21 that only the one who does the will of the Father may enter the kingdom of heaven. And who is it that perfectly obeys the will of the heavenly Father? Yes, Jesus is the only gate—the narrow gate—by which we gain access to the path which proceeds according to the will of God.

will of God is an assurance of our everlasting adherence to the righteousness of Christ given to us more than it is adherence to a list of rules which will someday determine whether we are in or whether we are out

Catechism places the commandments towards the end, in the gratitude section

Let’s bring it back down to a personal level. The will of God is an encouragement which leads to comfort more than a threat which leads to fear. The will of God is an assurance of our everlasting adherence to the righteousness of Christ given to us more than it is adherence to a list of rules which will someday determine whether we are in or whether we are out. The last few months when I was preaching a series on the Ten Commandments I noted often the way in which the Heidelberg Catechism places the commandments towards the end, in the gratitude section. Walking according to the will of God has become for us an act of thankfulness to God for the salvation we already have in Christ instead of a resume for entrance into the Jesus club.

the path which we walk as Christians is inseparably connected to Jesus a heart which is connected to the heart of Jesus

As an act of gratitude to Jesus, the law gives us a new perspective on receiving the will of God for our lives. Now, the path which we walk as Christians is inseparably connected to Jesus. And this passage tells us that it is about more than pursuing actions which follow in the actions of Jesus. It is about a heart which is connected to the heart of Jesus. Receiving the will of God for our lives is more about a heart connected to the heart of God than it is about a list of rules and behaviors.

Hosea 6

Examine that thought with me. Way back in the Old Testament God spoke through the prophet Hosea to inform the people of Israel that—even though they were going through the motions of Jewish religion—their hearts were disconnected from God. God says this through Hosea.

Hosea 6:4–6 (NIV)

4 “What can I do with you, Ephraim?

What can I do with you, Judah?

Your love is like the morning mist,

like the early dew that disappears...

6 For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,

and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

Mercy, not sacrifice; the inner pursuit of a heart that is connected to the heart of God, not the outer display of following all the right rules. The will of God is that we walk according to his path because our hearts are connected to his heart. Twice in Matthew’s gospel Jesus quotes this verse from Hosea—in chapter 9 and again in chapter 12. Jesus shares his summary of this with his disciples right before his betrayal and arrest. In John 13 Jesus gives this instruction.

John 13

John 13:34–35 NIV

34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

embrace outward actions in our lives which are expressions of grace, love, and mercy to others —then we walk according to the will of God with a heart connected to God’s heart

God’s will for our lives begins with the command to love others, to show mercy to others, to extend grace to others. These are the things which come from the heart of God. When you and I embrace outward actions in our lives which are expressions of this same grace, love, and mercy to others, then we walk according to the will of God with a heart connected to God’s heart.

Some of these actions are obvious, and explicitly given to us in the Bible. Do not murder, do not lie, do not steal. Those actions seem obvious enough as ways to walk according to the will of God in expressions of grace, love, and mercy to others. But what about issues which are more difficult to figure out? What about the student who wonders about either a job or college after high school? If a job, what kind of career? If college, what kind of major to study? What about the opportunity to take a new job promotion? What about the opportunity to retire? What do I do with my time in retirement? How do I know the will of God in all of these things?

which options open greater opportunities to express grace, love, and mercy into the lives of others?

Well, which options open greater opportunities to express grace, love, and mercy into the lives of others? A heart that is connected to the heart of Jesus is always looking to walk in a direction which follows deeper into God’s grace, love, and mercy. What if you have two options in front of you which both offer opportunities of grace, love, and mercy? Could it be then that both of these options are aligned with the will of God, and God is leaving that choice up to you? Could it be that God is saying, “you can choose either because they both follow within my will.” I suppose sometimes our struggle with discovering the will of God in certain situations might be because we are looking for one right black-and-white answer when, in fact, several options may be acceptable.

God’s will is not a list of rules meant to threaten us with fear; God’s will is a revelation of his heart which allows us to hold the assurance and comfort that Christ has aligned our hearts with his

This regular pattern we have together in worship of receiving the will of God for our lives is a regular reminder that we live in this world as people who have hearts aligned together with the heart of God. We search and know and discern the will of God every day by holding onto a heart that has been connected to the very heart of God. And the assurance we have from God in this life is that he will never let go of your heart. God’s will is not a list of rules meant to threaten you with fear. God’s will is a revelation of his heart which allows us to hold the assurance and comfort that Christ has aligned our hearts with his. It is a gift given to us as a way to walk in this life with gratitude because we are called by God as his very own people to be placed within the center of his will. We are redeemed in Christ to be joined with God’s forever-kingdom and granted the freedom and opportunity to walk the path of discipleship even now in this life connected to the heart of God.

Many years ago I read the book, Messy Spirituality written by Mike Yaconelli. It is a book that highlights the many ways in which following God as a disciple of Jesus runs into difficult choices without easy answers. It is a book that brings up situations in which discovering and following the will of God is not always crystal clear. I had an opportunity that year to get together and spend some time with Mike Yaconelli. I tried to bring up and talk about my desire that spirituality wouldn’t be a messy thing, that I wished there was a way to avoid the messes that come along side of a life following Jesus.

I will never forget Mike’s response to me. To this day it remains as one those formative events in my life that has helped shape who I am as a pastor and as a follower of Jesus. Mike told me, sometimes there will be tough choices in this world that can go one of two ways and maybe without knowing it I choose the wrong thing. I can either extravagantly extend grace to someone in a situation in which judgement should have been given; or I can withhold grace and pronounce judgement upon someone to whom grace should have been given. Sometimes it is a razor’s edge that divides those two options and we don’t know which one is right, which way aligns with God’s will. But I know without a doubt which side of that line I want to be on every single time. Far be it from me to ever withhold the grace of God from someone to whom it should be given.

grace instead of judgement, love instead of rejection, mercy instead of vengeance

Grace instead of judgement, love instead of rejection, mercy instead of vengeance. Knowing and walking within the will of God begins with a heart that is aligned with God. Listen to what God says about that through the prophet Ezekiel.

Ezekiel 11

Ezekiel 11:19–20 NIV

19 I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. 20 Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.

God’s Will

This is a heart that has already been given to you through Jesus. You and I have already received grace instead of judgement because of Jesus. You and I have already received love instead of rejection because of Jesus. You and I have already received mercy instead of vengeance because of Jesus. Yes, you and I have been given a new heart and a new spirit instead of the heart of stone held in the bondage of sin. God has already done this for you by grace through faith. Live this week embracing every opportunity to walk according to the will of God, extending grace, love, and mercy from a heart connected and aligned with the heart of God.

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