So how do we know it? Yeah, yeah, I know that we can know God's will through prayer, studying scripture, quieting our lives to listen to His voice, etc. I've got that. What I'm asking is, how do we know that what we believe to be God's will is actually God's will? Have you ever wondered about that?
When I came to my current ministry, it was a series of things falling into place neatly and perfectly that led me to believe that it was God's will for me to be here. I was finishing up college and needed a job. The pastor was someone that I had interned with at his last church. He called me up out of the blue to do a summer internship the summer before my senior year. He and the elders worked all throughout my senior year of college to exhort the congregation to increase their giving so that they could hire me full-time. The congregation responded. It was truly a 'perfect storm' of all the things happening that needed to happen, all at the right time. It was pretty clear to me that God had called me here.
But what if it's not the same story in your situation? What if you're faced with two or even three choices that all seem equally good (or equally bad)? What if God is calling you to something that isn't comfortable, or doesn't 'all fall into place'? What if you've prayed and prayed, studied and studied, cancelled your cable so that you'd be less distracted from God's voice, and you still don't have certainty?
I'd love to hear your answers to those questions, because I don't have any foolproof ones. I'm just as human, just as uncertain, just as foolish as anyone else when it comes to the things of God. But it's important for us all to know God's will and calling for our lives, so we have to keep striving towards knowledge and understanding.
