The Secret to Knowing God’s Will

Perhaps you have heard someone say something like:
“How do I know what God’s will is for my life?”

If you are serious about being Jesus’ disciple, you also, have asked a question similar to the one above.

Is it God’s will that we break up?
Is it God’s will that I get married?
Is it God’s will that I be a priest?
Is it God’s will that I quit my job?
Is it God’s will that I take that job offer?

Is it God’s will to enter full-time ministry…purchase that home…become a missionary?

God usually doesn’t “tell” us what to do… for many reasons.
First, most of us, have a rebellious streak and don’t relish being told what to do.
The account of the fall of man in Genesis attests to this dynamic perfectly.

And when we are told what to do, we often respond by:

Refusing to do it.
Questioning why we have to do it.
If we do it, we eventually resent the one who made us do it.

God is not concerned with maintaining a master-slave relationship with us.
God wants a relationship with us as a Father to a son, or a husband to his wife.
God wants us to share with Him our desires, hopes and plans.
He wants us to seek Him and His counsel.
He wants a partnership in the plan of our lives.
He does not want to decide for us, but for us to decide with Him what we ought to do and not do for Him.
God wants your life to be an adventure of seeking Him, trusting Him, following Him and creatively determining how to glorify Him.

The Certain Way to Know God’s Will

Nevertheless, there is a certain way to know God’s will in every situation.

St. Paul says,
“This is God’s will for you, your sanctification” (1 Thes 4:3).

St. Paul clearly reveals what God’s will is for each of us.
Let’s try to understand what he means by this.

The Greek word rendered “sanctification” is agiasmos,[i] which comes from the Greek root word hagios.[ii]

Hagios is the word that the angel Gabriel used in his annunciation to the Virgin Mary, when he described Jesus as “The Holy” (see Luke 1:35). Literally “The Hagios.”

Hagios can be interpreted as holy, sacred.
However, the literal meaning is “set apart”, “different.” [iii]

The temple in Jerusalem was hagios, that is different than any other building in the city, and therefore it was sacred, holy and set apart; dedicated to God.

The men from the tribe of Levi were dedicated as priests unto God.
They were set apart, different than all of the men from the other eleven tribes of Israel.
Jesus is The Holy, the completely Other, uniquely different than any other human being because He is God incarnate.
He is Hagios.

What does this have to do with you knowing God’s will for your life?

God’s will for you is “your sanctification.”
Your sanctification is to be hagios, to be different than worldly people.

God’s will for you is to be sanctified, hagiazo: to be made holy, sacred, set apart.

God’s will for you is to for you to be different than the world by no longer depending on the promises of the world, but rather the Promise of His Word.

God wants to set you apart from the world for Himself.

When someone meets you, gets to know you, God wants them to think: “This person is so different than others—He is special.”
God wants others to see that He has set you apart from the worldly.

How does God accomplish His Will in you?

Every situation, challenge, minor event, discussion, relationship, digital communication, suffering, triumph, each body ache, job difficulty, relational squabble, every chore, every duty—regardless as to how trivial it appears to be; whether it snows, rains or the sun shines, is all for your sanctification.

God uses every little aspect of your life—even the most trivial—to purify you from being attached to the promises and pleasures of the world.

God’s will for you is quite simple:
Your sanctification: for you to be different and set apart from the world.

Ask yourself:

Do I look like worldly people?
Do I act like worldly people?
Do I love the things the world loves?
Do I desire the things that the world desires?
Do I live for the world’s promises and pleasures?
Do I seek safety and security in worldly things rather than in God?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you have not been sanctified fully.
You are not different than and have not been set apart from the world.

This is not because the desire is lacking on God’s part but rather on yours.
This indicates that inadvertently, or intentionally, you are resisting God’s will for your life.

You can repeatedly and constantly ask if (fill in the blank) is God’s will for my life.
Most likely you will not receive an answer until you have answered the call to be sanctified in the trivial events of life.

How Do You Accomplish God’s Will?

1. Embrace every moment, every event, every situation, as being God’s will to sanctify you.

2. Stop quibbling whether it is or isn’t God’s will.
Quit doing the mental gymnastics of trying to determine whether this or that is God’s manifest (positive) will or permissive will. [iv]All you need to know is that God permitted that which is currently occurring—even if it is a travesty.
God is not evil, nor does He will evil.
However, He is concerned with you to not be evil or consumed by evil.
Paradoxically, God will allow evil to bring about the great good of you not being evil, by you overcoming the evil that you may be good.

3. When confronted with the disagreeable, embrace it.
God allowed it.
Don’t complain about it.
Therese is famous for saying, “Everything is grace.” [v]
Yes, everything.
Because God can use everything to sanctify us.

4. If the situation is troublesome or grievous, do all that you can to alleviate the pain.
Beg God to intervene and fight on your behalf.
Attempt to find a solution that will mitigate the difficulty and relieve you of the suffering.
As St. Augustine or St. Ignatius of Loyola said (depends on the source), “Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.” [vi]

5. Work with excellence.
Do everything, especially the toilsome, burdensome, trivial, banal tasks of your daily life with effort and a striving toward excellence.
Do everything for the singular purpose of glorifying God in the moment.
Embrace the task entirely for Him and His glory.

6. Embrace Humiliations
As you strive toward excellence and you encounter your own limitedness, resist grumbling, complaining, or becoming impatient.
Understand that God is offering you the “gift of humiliation.”
Humiliations, if embraced, avail us to receive the virtue of humility.

Sanctification is God’s will for you.

Virtues are necessary for sanctification.
Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo said, “Humility is the foundation of all the virtues.”[vii]
As St. Francis of de Sales said, “The path to humility is paved with the sharp stones of humiliations.”

God wants you for Himself that He may impart Himself to you.

God may have a certain call on your life, but He is more interested in you embracing and accepting the call to sanctification in your daily life…
For this is God’s will for you.

The next time you are wondering, “What is God’s will?”
Respond by embracing and engaging the “right now.”
Strive with effort and excellence to glorify Him in the present moment.
By doing this repeatedly, you will be hagios, set apart, a saint.

[i] https://biblehub.com/greek/38.htm

[ii] https://biblehub.com/greek/40.htm

[iii] The Letter to the Galatians and Ephesians, William Barclay, p 88: “Paul things of the purpose of God’s choice. Go chose us that we should be holy and blameless. Here are two great words, Holy is the Greek word hagios, which always has in it the idea of difference and of separation A temple is holy because it is different from other buildings; priests are holy because they are different from ordinary men and women; an animal to be sacrificed is holy because it is different from other animals; God is supremely holy because he is different from us: the Sabbath is holy because it is different from other days. So, God chose Christians that they should be different from other people.”

[iv] https://spiritualdirection.com/2016/02/01/what-is-gods-will-part-ii-of-ii-his-permissive-will

[v] https://www.amazon.com/Story-Soul-Autobiography-Translation-Manuscripts/dp/0935216588

[vi] https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/work-as-if-everything-depends-on-god/

[vii] https://tanbooks.com/products/books/humility-of-heart/