How to Find God's Will for Your Life

It's a little something I've heard that's stuck with me over the years. First of all, you have to distinguish between the two wills of God. There are not more than two, nor are there fewer than two. One will of God is the preceptive or revealed will of God. This is the Bible, pure and simple. Then you have the decretive or secret will of God. This is whatsoever comes to pass. You can see already that I believe in predestination, foreordination, etc.

Now the key here is that there is no category called the "perfect will of God" distinct from what I have already mentioned. Both the preceptive and decretive wills of God are perfect, in their own ways. Some people don't want to "miss out" on the "perfect will of God", because that would deprive them of happiness. They're thinking of the "perfect will of God" almost as a subset of the "will of God", and they want to aim for that center. But this is an incorrect way of thinking.

So now that we've defined the two wills of God, you might well ask, "Adrian, if you believe in predestination, then aren't you always following the decretive will of God whether you want to or not?" Answer: Yes! So, evidently, when I'm talking about "finding God's will for your life", I'm not talking about the decretive will. I'm talking about the preceptive will. We don't know the decretive will of God (hence the other name, "secret will"), so the best we can do is attempt to align ourselves with the preceptive will.

I'm really asking this question: what does the Bible say about wisdom in living your daily life? There are five aspects of which I am aware, that I've found helpful in finding godly wisdom in making choices. Let's consider the aspect of choosing a vocation. What questions are valuable to ask? I would put forth these questions:

1. Is this vocation in accordance with the law of God (and therefore the laws of the land)?

2. Is this vocation something I like doing?

3. Am I good at this vocation?

4. Do other people think I'm good at this vocation?

5. Do I have the opportunity to do this vocation?

When all of those point in the same direction, I say go for it!

Question Number 2 includes all those little promptings of the Holy Spirit nudging you one way or another. God does change our desires from time to time, and this question encompasses all of that.

Also note that these questions presuppose a few things. Most importantly, you must know your Bible. Secondly, you must be in prayer. It is in prayer that God most often changes our wills to align with His revealed will. Also, you will note that the Holy Spirit never, ever contradicts Scripture. If God wrote the Bible, and He did, and God is utterly consistent, and He is, and if the Holy Spirit is a Person of the Trinity, and He is, then it is impossible for the Holy Spirit to go against Scripture. That would be equivalent to the Holy Spirit telling Jesus Christ (the Second Person of the Trinity), "We don't need you anymore - you're kind of superfluous in this whole salvation thing. Leave." It wouldn't happen: God does not change.

You'd have to modify the questions a bit for different situations in life. There are analogies for other situations.

I hope this proves helpful to people struggling with how to choose godly paths in life.