The Will of God versus Your Emotions
 

How do you know that you know what the will of God is?

How are you sure that it is the will of God, and not your emotions, or natural wants/needs/desires dictating what you think the will of God is?

Re: The Will of God versus Your Emotions
 

On most occasions one has to check what they are feeling against Scripture. Sometimes God gives a spiritual confirmation that can't be shaken.

However, I'm assured that where ever you are... that's the will of God.

Re: The Will of God versus Your Emotions
 

I believe that scripture is something we must always measure up against, regardless of our emotional attachment to the situation.

However, scripture is always based on personal interpretation, so one can actually twist the scriptures to interpret it to mean what one wants it to mean.

This causes the water to be muddied, when you say, "Back it up with scripture", because there are a hundred different opinions about possibly every scripture written in the Bible.

Who or what do you believe?

We must not forget that even Satan used scripture (his twisted version) against Christ.

How do we know that the interpreted version of scripture with which we've interpreted God's will, is not the twisted version of Satan, or own twisted interpretation?

So then... whose interpretation of scripture is right? How can we really know the will of God?

Re: The Will of God versus Your Emotions
 

That's a hard one sometimes. Personally, I try to look for conformation in a passage of scripture, not one that I'm looking for but one that suddenly shows up at a seemingly random time. Other times another person will confirm what I believe God has spoken to me. Other times, I simply try to obey and trust God to help me out if I'm made a mistake.

Re: The Will of God versus Your Emotions
 

Do you think that the will of God could involve a test? Could it be that God's will may actually seem like a very bad, horrid thing to our flesh, and mind, but yet, be His perfect will in accomplishing something greater in us?

The reason I ask this is because we tend to believe we have found "God's will" when all seems good in our lives... the bills are paid, our health is excellent, family is getting along, and we have a lovely home, vacation planned, and so on. Surely this must be God's will... we think.

However, should something terrible enter our lives, say, a death, or the dreaded disease of cancer, or a division in a family, or in the church.... could these be part of God's will too?

Re: The Will of God versus Your Emotions
 

Yes, I think a testing could be part of God's will at times. For example, about this time last year I had a medical report that was extremely negative. Doctors confirmed it, there was a very very life threatening issue they said. My reaction was to not receive the report, I believed the will of God for my life didn't involve what was being said to me by them. I had promises that were yet unfulfilled, direction in ministry that had not occurred yet and a road ahead that He had put me on that was yet untraveled. All this was God speaking to me, I believe. The report, the testing, was contrary to what God had spoken. So, I chose to believe what God had spoken to me, not what the experts said. Now, almost a year later the critical untreatable, life threatning issue (they said) is nowhere to be found.

That's a very simplified version of my experience. In reality, because of our carnality that battles us, there is a wrestling, a warfare that we must engage in. Did God really speak to me and make those promises, directions, or was it just mental gymnastics? Imagination. Hope without a spiritual basis. I had to decide, literally risking my life (the testing) if I was going to act on what I believed was the voice of God or the reality of the voice of the doctors.

Re: The Will of God versus Your Emotions
 

That is an miraculous testimony JL... thanks for sharing! Praising the Lord with you for the touch of the Lord through this health battle!

In all reality, as believers, we should be aware that the will of God may take us to places, through places, and in places that don't seem fair, right, or good, but in the end... His will and purpose for it can turn it into the greatest blessing of our lives.

Re: The Will of God versus Your Emotions
 

Amen. The decision is whether to trust God in the testings. Surely not an easy and simple thing to do sometimes.

Re: The Will of God versus Your Emotions
 

There are obvious proclamations of the will of God in the Word that many overlook when seeking the "will of God for their lives".

Two examples:

It is not the will of God that any should perish

It is the will of God that we be sanctified and flee fornication

Sometimes people get so caught up in the specifics that they fail the generalities. People are pursuing the will of God for ministry, marriage, and etc. that they end up neglecting some of the weightier matters.

Jesus told Martha that ONE THING was needful: to sit at His feet and learn from Him.

I think we need only pursue God Himself, and not His will, and so, wherever He is, we will be there, too. His will is wherever He is, so, when we get to Him, His will will be present, also.

Re: The Will of God versus Your Emotions
 

Nice.

"So then... whose interpretation of scripture is right? How can we really know the will of God?"

Your interpretation is the only one you need, and the only one that can be right for you. I got Scrip for this. Manana :D