What is Your will?

Does this situation sound familiar to you?  You spent more time in prayer these past few weeks than you have in a long time.  A decision looms that will impact not only you but those around you as well.  It's a good decision to make, but its not one made in a vacuum.  You continue to seek out His will, what He wants done, and to be honest, the decision looms without a real direction or answer yet.

Funny thing is, its not time for the decision to be made yet.  There is a time set for when it will be made, a time of prayer that is planned prior to making the decision, a discussion to be held after the prayer, and then on to the decision that you anticipate will be unanimous amongst those involved.  The point is you don't need to know His answer right now.  Does this sound at all familiar to you?

I can't take not knowing as a "lack of communication" on His part.  I remember when grades would be posted after a test; it wasn't that the professor was holding out on us, it just wasn't time for the information to be made available (I can say that the time spent between the test and the posting of the grades was full of prayer!).  I don't tell my children what I got them for their birthdays until they open their packages.

He's under no obligation to "let me in" on what He's doing until its time for me to know.  Because of who He is I can trust that I will find out when I'm supposed to, that the answer I receive will be the best one possible, and the answer will bring glory to Him.  I guess I'm saying that I've come to see it not as Him holding out on me, but on Him waiting until I can handle His answer.

Proverbs 3 tells me He directs my paths and makes them straight when I rely on Him, not me.  Romans 12 tells me that as I continue to renew my mind (read that as the Holy Spirit renewing my mind for me), through time spent with Him in His word and/or in prayer, I will be able to discern His Holy will for my life.  Pentecost in Acts shows me that if I will wait on Him and His timing He will show up with not only the plan but the resources with which to carry it out.

We were discussing what the Lord's will was for our lives in Bible study a few weeks ago.  One concern that rose amongst us was what if we missed what He was saying and messed up what He wanted us to do?  Let me ask this question in response:  How would you know that you weren't in His will?  Asked another way, what analytical process would you use to make the determination if your past decision was or was not "correct" with respect to identifying His will for your life?  I offer that the process by which you review the decision will be much like the one you used to make the decision in the first place; you will seek His face, His counsel, and His confirmation/assurance that you did what He wanted you to do.

So let me ask you, how does the Father speak to you?  For me its through His word.  He leads me by His Spirit to passages that speak directly to the answer I need (sometimes).  He speaks to me through my wife more than anyone else.  The Lord also gives me peace once a decision is made that is in line with what He wants done.  In the end I have to rely on the Holy Spirit's conviction within me that the decision made is the right one.  By "right" I mean in line with His will.  The challenge for me is to spend time listening to Him and not talking at Him.  When I ask Anna a question I will typically shut my mouth and listen to her answer.  My habit with Him is to ask, ask, ask, then get up and move on.

Father, I love You and need Your Spirit to speak to me.  Please remind me to sit with my mouth shut long enough for You to speak!  If I've in any way misrepresented how we discern Your will, please forgive me and point us by Your Spirit into truth.  Thank you for loving us.  In Jesus' name, amen.