If any man desires to do His will (God’s pleasure), he will know (have the needed illumination to recognize, and can tell for himself) whether the teaching is from God… – John 7:17, AMP

During a recent missions conference held at our church, a young man asked missionary Kris Blumer how to choose between two apparent opportunities to serve The Lord.  The young man was struggling with identifying which opportunity was really the Lord’s will for his life, and Kris’ answer was no doubt a help to the young man, as it was to me.  In sum, Kris said, “Whichever option brings God more glory to God is the one God wants you to pursue.”

Deciding God’s will for our lives can be hard, but not because God makes it hard. We make it hard.  The way we make it hard is by creating competing plans that cloud our view of God’s plan.  In Romans 12:1, God calls us to be a living sacrifice, which means we are to die to self in order that we might live the way God would have us to live.  Yet, as the old saying goes, living sacrifices have a tendency to wiggle off of the altar, and we do just that when we allow our will to interfere with God’s.

When there seems to be two different ways that God would have us go, the alternative way is one of our own making.  When God calls us to a path that conflicts with our will, we hesitate. But so as not to totally disobey our King, we concoct an alternative path of service that requires an acceptable level of self-sacrifice. As we attempt to convince ourselves that our plan is God’s plan, we suffer confusion, and we struggle to discern what God would have us to do.  Our path is always the one that doesn’t give God as much glory, has less reason for us to fear man, and grants us more control over our lives.

God does not bring confusion to His children (1 Corinthians 14:33); He brings clarity.  You cannot find a single instance in the Bible where God gave one of His children competing commands.  He always lays out His path clearly, leaving it up to us to submit our will to His.

As Jesus said in John 7:17 (AMP):

If any man desires to do His will (God’s pleasure), he will know (have the needed illumination to recognize, and can tell for himself) whether the teaching is from God…

Our job is to choose to set aside our will in favor of God’s.  When we do that, our confusion will disappear.