God's Will / Guidance

I was speaking at a youth group on Sunday night on the topic of Guidance/God's Will (Topic was given to me). In studying it my mindset and understanding of this has shifted quite a bit.

I believe a key point in understanding what it is to walk in God's will, is an understanding of Paul's words in Romans 1:17

"The righteous will live by faith"

"Faith" we know from Hebrews 11:1 "is the essence of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (underlining added)


Even here we ask 'How do we increase our faith?' The answer; "Faith comes by hearing the Word of God."
While the Bible has much to say about the revealed will of God (1 Thess 4:3; 1 Thess 5:18; 1 Peter 2:15; 1 Peter 3:17 . . . ) It seems from other places in Scripture that these are to be done in our lives by the Spirit, which leads us to the declaration of Ephesians 5:18 that it is God's will for us to be *filled (driven) with the Spirit.

How are we filled with the Spirit?
Galatians 3:5 answers us with another question;

"Does He (God) who supplies (fills) the Spirit to you and works miracles among you (the fruit and gifting of the Spirit in action) do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith?"

According to Paul we receive the Spirit by hearing with faith.
What do we hear?
We hear the Bible; what is described in Colossians 3:16 as "The word of Christ"


This good news about Jesus Christ both builds our faith and drives us by His Spirit.

We walk in God's will and His guidance when we seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Perhaps to take that a step further we'd say that the kingdom's focus is Jesus, so we ought to focus on Him. After all the Bible is all about Him.
When we focus on Christ through the word, we are driven by the Spirit and can trust that it is He who is at "work in us both to will (desire) and to work." (Philippians 2:13).

Lets focus our attention on the Word of God, which helps us know and love Jesus more and more, and trust Him for the rest . . .

*Filled: think more of a ships sails filled with wind than of a glass with water.


[My full notes are available here]