How do you REALLY KNOW GOD'S WILL?

Christian is seeing a forecast predicting a hurricane. 

Level 4. 

67% certainty.

He has 5 children.  One is a newborn.  Another is 2 years old.  The other three are ages 6-8.

Evacuating is expensive. 
Hurricanes change directions and intensity levels.
What should Christian do?
What is God's will for him?

He is praying for the Spirit's direction.
He is sensing the Spirit leading Him to stay.

The hurricane passes.
Was staying God's will?

Joshua, praying like Christian did, feels led to evacuate, though the hurricane is passing.
Did He mishear God?

If the hurricane hit, would that have meant the first husband, the one who stayed, WASN'T hearing from God?

It depends on how we really know what God's will is.

Some church circles give this kind of formula for discerning God's will:
1. The Bible
2. The agreement of the church you attend
3. Common sense
4. Circumstances
5. The "prompting" of the Holy Spirit

Notice the Holy Spirit's prompting is last on the list.

It is assumed that this is the LEAST reliable way to know God's will.
The Bible is assumed to be the most reliable.

• How would these two men know from the Bible whether to evacuate for a hurricane warning?
• Would the consensus of the church give these men certainty in their decision?
• Common sense could tell one to stay and another to leave, and both be wise options given their situations.
• Circumstances in a hurricane change every moment. 

There is only one way to really know God's will:

Perfect Peace from God Himself!

How do I know?
The Bible itself!

Take Joseph, sold into slavery, arrested for a crime he didn't commit, and imprisoned for 17 long years.

1.  To Joseph, his situation may seem to contradict the previous word of God to his ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Joseph is supposed to bless and be a blessing.  Those who curse Joseph should be cursed, and those who bless him should be blessed.  (Now in actuality, this IS happening.  God is with Joseph, giving him success in everything he does.  Joseph is a blessing to his slave master and to his jailer.  In addition to all of this, Joseph's imprisonment is EXACTLY according to God's will and plan for Abraham's descendants.  God had already told Abraham the Israelites would be in Egypt.  Joseph is the beginning of the fulfillment of God's words to Abraham!)

2. His very own brothers sold him into slavery!  To whom could Joseph go for a consensus of God's will?

3.  At the time, his enslavement and imprisonment didn't make "common sense."  Later on, he saw that what his brothers meant for evil, God meant for good.  But he didn't see this at the time of his hardships,

4. according to his present CIRCUMSTANCES. 

The Prophet Isaiah says,

"You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You because he trusts in You."

God's peace, which is perfect and incomprehensible, is the only way to really know God's will.

Think of your own life as if you are a character in the scriptures.
Have you ever felt like EVERYTHING was going wrong in your life?
Did you feel like you were cursed, like you MUST be doing SOMETHING wrong?

So did Job's friends. 
His own wife told him to curse God and die.
But everything was going wrong in Job's life BECAUSE he was in agreement with God's will!

According to the wisdom of Job's day, God blesses those who are righteous and curses those who are unrighteous.  What word of God could Job appeal to?  What group of friends had the right words to say?  It made NO common sense at all what was happening in Job's circumstances.

He had to appeal directly to God.  And God directly responded.

We all know that things going our way may mean we are blessed....by God...or the devil!

What's the difference?
How do we know the difference between God "opening doors," and the devil doing the same?

Jesus said those who will to do God's will would know if His teachings were from God or merely human.

• Do you want God's will, no matter what it is?
• Do you know what His will is?

If you want His will, even if it meant bearing a cross, then God will reveal His will to you.
ANYTHING THAT CONTRADICTS THAT REVELATION IS FROM SATAN!

• God's will, made known to the one who really wants it, results in perfect incomprehensible peace.
• Even if you don't know the scriptures to back you up at the time.  (You will come to know them later.)
• Even if no one in the church backs you up.  (Joshua and Caleb were the only two IN ALL OF ISRAEL who believed they could go to the promised land.  It would seem that they had missed it, right?  Of course not.  God had spoken.  They listened.  It was only common sense to listen to God instead of the nation, even if the present circumstance seemed against Israel.  So was the Red Sea at one point!  Circumstances may not tell us anything!)
• Even if it doesn't make "sense."
• Even if the circumstances seem to disagree with the Spirit's leading

You will have a perfect incomprehensible peace with what God has shown you.

How do you REALLY KNOW GOD'S WILL?

1. Submit to His will and resist the devil's will, no matter the cost.
2. Ask God to show it to you, as He promises to do.
3. Wait for the sense of divinely perfect, incomprehensible peace.

• The Spirit never contradicts The Bible, though you may not know specific verses for you circumstances.

• Christians who are spiritual can affirm you. But you should seek the Spirit's direction, even if you don't have a spiritual Christian's affirmation.

• God's will is "good, acceptable, and perfect;" it makes perfect sense WHEN YOU STEP OUT IN FAITH.  Until you do what He says, you won't see how much sense it makes!

• Circumstances will indeed line up for God's will, but obstacles will also be presented against His will!  OR, God Himself may send obstacles if you are NOT in His will, like with Jonah. 

This is the key:  Jonah KNEW WITHOUT DOUBT he was supposed to go to Ninevah.  And you will know without doubt what God wants for you.  When you do, assume every obstacle to what God has clearly shown you is of the devil. 

Yet above all of this, if you follow the Lord, the Spirit Himself is in you to guide you.

--You won't know the scriptures that assist you unless you know the Spirit who inspired the scriptures.
--You won't know which spiritual believers to listen to without the Spirit in you agreeing with the Spirit in them.
--If you lean to your own understanding (common sense), you'll never receive guidance that transcends your understanding.
--And if you don't clearly know God's will, then you won't know when doors are really opening or closing; you won't know whether obstacles are from God or Satan.

Seek the perfect incomprehensible peace of God when you are making decisions.

This is how you really know God's will!

(Does this help you to know God's will with certainty?
Let me know in the comments box if it does, and share my words with your friends.
I look forward to your response!)