Billy Joe Daugherty - How to Know Gods Will

Table of Contents

God Has a Blueprint For Your Life

You are faced with daily decisions that will affect every area of your life. You can make the right choices by following the plan God has for you. You can know His will and know which way to go.

Ephesians 2:10 says:

For we are His [God's] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

God has a blueprint for your life. He has planned good works for you. You can understand this when you compare it to a building contractor's plans. No builder starts out with a pile of bricks, boards and concrete and says, "I'm going to build a building, but I don't have a blueprint yet." Plans are drawn up before he gets to the point of building, and so it is in our lives.

You are not here by accident. God planned for you and me to be on the earth at this time for a specific purpose. People sometimes lose sight of this because of the secular humanist viewpoint of life. But we know from God's Word that we were created for a divine and holy purpose, and we are being moved through life by God's hand.

God has promised to reveal His wisdom to you if you will only ask Him.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.

For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;

He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

James 1:5-8

Ask in faith, believing that God will indeed reveal His will for your life.

God Will Direct Your Steps

Exodus 13:21 says, "And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night."

Psalm 37:23 says, " The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.... "

Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."

Psalm 23:1 says, "The Lord is my shepherd.... " Jesus is our Good Shepherd to oversee, guide and lead us beside still waters, into the green pastures and keep watch over us.

Psalm 48:14 says, "...He [God] will be our guide even to death."

In Isaiah 58:11, part of the blessing for giving

to the poor and needy is given: " The Lord will guide you continually , and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail."

Proverbs 16:9 says, "A mans heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. "

Proverbs 3:5 and 6 offer some strategic advice on godly direction:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;

In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.

God will direct you in the way you should go. Many people are in anguish today over paths they chose and decisions they made when they weren't listening to the voice of God.

It's time to decide, "I'm going to hear from God. I'm not going to lean to my own understanding, but I will acknowledge God in all my ways." That decision is the beginning of being led by God in every step you take.

If we would only ask directions, we would get to the place where we need to go. One time when I was at Rock Church in Virginia Beach for a Ministers' Conference, someone offered to take me to the airport. Now, this man didn't live there, but he assured me that he knew how to get to the airport.

After nearly an hour of driving around, when it was approaching the time for my plane to take off, I finally said, "Would you please stop and ask someone for directions to the airport?" He stopped at a convenience store, and to make a long story short, I made my plane! We would have been there much sooner had we asked directions.

Confess John 10:4,5, and 27 on a regular basis:

And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.

Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.

My sheep hear My voice , and I know them, and they follow Me.

It's time to declare: I WILL NOT HEAR THE VOICE OF A STRANGER, BUT I WILL HEAR THE VOICE OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD, AND I WILL FOLLOW HIM.

Seven Guidelines to Determine, "Is It God or Is It Me?"

Here are seven guidelines by which you can determine God's will for your own life.

1. Will Jesus be exalted by this choice?

I call this guideline "the Jesus test," and I put it first, because Matthew 6:33 says, "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."

Colossians 1:18 says, "And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence."

John 16:13 says, "...when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak: and He will tell you things to come."

In June, 1969, when I had just completed my junior year in high school, Sharon's parents came to pastor our church. The first year they pastored , I thought of Sharon only as the pastor's daughter. She was in the youth group, her mother was our youth director and we did a lot of things together, but there was no relationship.

About a year later (in May, 1970), I was saved and shortly after that (about three or four weeks later), I had an open vision. In the vision, I saw Sharon and myself together standing before a large group of people preaching and ministering God's Word as husband and wife.

At that time, we had been together, but we really had never had a date. Three years and three months later, we were married. What I saw in the Spirit came to pass.

John 16:14 says, "He [the Holy Spirit] will glorify Me [Jesus Christ], for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you." Whenever the Holy Spirit is speaking, He will exalt Jesus Christ.

You can ask the question, "Will what I do exalt Jesus?" One of the ways you can ask this question is, "Does the person I'm considering for marriage already exalt Jesus? Does the business partner exalt Jesus in his life? Does the company exalt Jesus? Will the college I attend exalt Jesus? Will my decisions cause honor and glory to come to Jesus?" Everything is to be done for His honor and glory, because only what is done for Him will last.

2. Does your decision agree with the Word of God?

Hebrews 4:12 says, "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

This verse talks about the ability of God's Word to cut right down to the core of your being. Just as a surgeon's knife cuts and divides down to the bone, so the Word is able to cut into the core of your inner being and divide between your soulish ideas and what is coming from your spirit.

God's direction comes to you from the Spirit of God who dwells in your human spirit. When you are born again, your recreated human spirit is made in the image and likeness of God. What comes from your spirit, which is dominated by the Holy Spirit, is the revelation of God. The decisionmaking part of you is in your soulish realm, however, which is made up of your mind, will, and emotions.

A couple who were saved in one of our first meetings in 1976 when Sharon and I were traveling in ministry were alcoholics. Their lives had been devastated by drinking, and after they got saved, they went back to their home and asked the Lord what they should do. They opened their Bible and read what Jesus said in Mark 14:25: "... I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."