For example, many of us would have thought that God
directly speaks to us through Holy Spirit in our heart, so we ‘just need to
listen to the gentle voice speaking in our heart’ to follow God’s Will in our life. But
we should remember that even Satan can speak to our heart and can speak in a
similar voice and give us wrong advice. Others go and ask preachers about their future and believe in their ‘visions’ and ‘dreams’ without discerning. Even Satan can also
deceive us by disguising as an angel of light (2Cor 11:14). Paul says in Gal
1:8, ‘even if we or
an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one
we preached to you, let him be accursed.’ Some preachers say
that whatever blessings we ask positively, we would receive it, if we have faith in God. But this indirectly means that God can be changed according to our
own whims and pleasures. Rather the truth is, God is the one who controls
everything including our hearts(Dan 4:32).
So this
brings us back to the question: How can we find God’s will? Please turn with me to Deuteronomy
29:29
“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.” (Deu 29:29)
The ‘secret
things’ refer to God’s will which are going to happen in our life in
future. We can look back to our past and know that, whatever things which have happened in our
lives, are according to God’s will or not. Since we cannot know the future, we
cannot see what exactly God has planned for our lives. But still if we follow the law
of God revealed in the Scripture, then we would be following God’s will inspite of the ignorance of our future . For example, at present I am thinking of pursuing post graduation in my medical career. But I don’t know about my future. I have no idea even of the fact that whether I would
be alive tomorrow or not. But I am pretty sure that God has a plan for my future. At present I don’t know it. But one thing I can be sure of.
If I am following the revealed will of God, which God has written through
Scripture, then I would be in according to God’s will. So my duty for today is
to work hard and be biblical in my work ethics by being honest and sincere in
my workplace and prepare for higher studies according to my capacity.
Another
question for us now is this: Is Scripture alone sufficient to know God’s
revealed will or do we need extra biblical church traditions, visions, dreams,
prophecies etc?
All
scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for
correction, and for training in righteousness, so that one who belongs to God
may be competent, equipped for every good work. (2Ti 3:16-17) (NASB)
From these
verses, we can know that if we want to do good work, Scripture is sufficient. Therefore, let us read and meditate on God’s word through the
illuminating power of the Holy Spirit, so that we will be following the Will of
God by our obedience to His precepts.
Amen!
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