Freedom in Finding God’s Will
By Trevin Wax on Sep 1, 2009 in Book Reviews | 
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“I just don’t have peace yet.”
“God isn’t opening any doors.”
“I’m not sure which way God is leading my heart.”
The more I am in ministry, the more I hear young people echoing some of the above sentiments when it comes to the future. Truth be told, I too have postponed important decisions for some of the same reasons.
The desire to discover the will of God is admirable. But what happens when your expectations for discovering God’s will don’t ever come to pass?
At the age of 19, when I was wrestling with the decision of buying a one-way ticket to Romania, I went to my pastor for advice. I was waiting for some sort of heavenly confirmation of my plans. My pastor delivered a few gentle words that revolutionized my understanding of God’s will: “Trevin, no one wants you to know God’s will more than God does.”
Liberation! God’s will was not some mysterious code I had to decipher. It was a realm in which I could make wise decisions.
Kevin DeYoung’s book, Just Do Something: How to Make a Decision Without Dreams, Visions, Fleeces, Open Doors, Random Bible Verses, Casting Lots, Liver Shivers, Writing in the Sky, etc. (Moody, 2009) will probably have a similar effect on people who pick it up. Just Do Something is a short book (only 120 pages, and small in size) that can easily be read in an hour or two, but it still packs quite a punch.
Kevin gently corrects evangelicalism’s often-misguided teaching about the will of God. Lining the shelves of Christian bookstores are books intended to help people discover God’s will. Yet, much of the standard advice turns out to be paralyzing to young people. Other books focus on trivial decisions (where to park your car, what outfit to put on, etc.).
Kevin points us back to the sovereingty of God, encouraging us to take comfort in the will of God. The general will of God has been revealed to us. Christians are called to live within that moral framework.
According to Kevin, here is the will of God for our lives:
“God’s will for our lives is much simpler than the conventional approach. The will of God for our lives is that we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. The most important decision we face is the daily decision to live for Christ and die to self. If we do those two things then we are free to choose between jobs and schools and locations. God wants us to stop obsessing about the future and trust that He holds the future. We should put aside the passivity and the perfectionism and the quest for perfect fulfillment and get on with our lives. God does not have a specific plan for our lives and he means for us to decipher ahead of time.” (63)
Kevin writes that God does have a specific plan for our lives, and he is not trying to hide it from us. When we are trusting in God to work out his purposes, we are no longer paralyzed by the fear of making a mistake. Instead, we can “just do something!” We are to do what we believe what God has called us to do with the gifts that God has given us. And even when we are not 100% sure of our decision, we trust that God knows the outcome, and that our life will be part of his sovereign plan.
Kevin’s book differs from others on the will of God because he chooses to focus less on discerning the “specific plan” for your personal life and more on the cultivation of wisdom. We don’t make decisions based on signs and circumstances as much as we make decisions based on biblical wisdom. Instead of asking for revelation from God as to what you should do, ask for the wisdom from God to be able to make the right kind of decisions.
Just Do Something would make a great Graduation gift for the young people in our churches. And yet, anyone of any age can benefit from the teaching here. Kevin’s book frees us from passivity and paralysis. He calls us to get on with the task of “doing something” to the glory of God.
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DeYoung expresses the same perspective of the will of God as Garry Friesen’s book: “Decision Making and the Will of God” (1980, 2004). They both contrast the will of God with the conventional traditional view of God’s specific will for individuals.
Ben
Ben | Sep 1, 2009 | Reply
The “conventional approach” of a specific will of God (i.e. that He has one specific path he’d like us to take, and if we don’t take it, we’re out of his will) is actually unbiblical. It’s very prevalent in today’s church… but all it does is handcuff believers because they don’t think the decision they’re making is “in the will of God.”
God does have a will… two of them, in a matter of speaking. He has a moral will, the way he wants us to live our lives. This is the right or wrong types of things… loving our neighbor, coming in to a right relationship with him, etc. The other will is his sovereign will. No matter what we do, we cannot break away from that. He says it, and it happens. Think Jonah and the whale. We don’t have a choice in the matter… so the waffling some people do (and are thus paralyzed with indecision) is not trusting that God is really in control.
That said, God does still have foreknowledge. He knows the decisions we will take and he knows the consequences of our actions. But we have free will, meaning that we have the ability to make choices and we should use the resources we have (scripture, previous experience, Godly counsel) to thoughtfully and prayerfully make a decision… but not to wait for a voice from heaven telling us the 100% correct way… and to fear that if we don’t take that, then we will mysticly be out of God’s will and headed for disaster.
PointSpecial | Sep 1, 2009 | Reply
I recently read this book and was quite impressed with DeYoung’s passion that instead of seeking our own desires to be the will of God, we need to seek God Himself first and foremost. Christ is worthy of not just partial praise but our entire lives should be to honor His name and His glory (1 Cor. 10:31; Hebrews 11:6). How sad that so many get caught up in seeking God’s will instead of seeking God Himself and allowing Him to live out His will through us and in us.
Seeking Disciple | Sep 1, 2009 | Reply
It was encouraging for me to read this post coming from someone who can speak with a little more hindsight than I can. I am a 19 yr. old and just recently someone counseled me with very similar wisdom. “God wants you to know His will, more than you want to know it.” It was quite a perspective change for me, as I realize more and more every day that the more I focus on Christ, the more peace I have in my heart that I *am* fulfilling the will of God for my life… And I don’t need to be fearful of making the wrong decision. If my desire is wholly for the Lord, He will cause me to fulfill His purposes.
Kaylene | Sep 2, 2009 | Reply
I read this book recently and found it to be a liberating counterbalance to the hyper-cautious and fearful notion that our day-to-day decisions can screw up God’s plan for our lives. Christians need to hear this. At the same time, I noticed a couple flaws with the book:
1. One of Kevin’s key points is that moral decisions matter much more than amoral ones. Fair enough, but he tends to downplay the significance of life’s biggest amoral decisions such as who to spend your life with and how to serve God through your career/vocation. He almost goes as far as saying that God doesn’t particularly care who you marry or what your job is as long as you’re living in moral obedience to the Scriptures. In an effort to rouse lazy Christians from their couches (an important goal to be sure), Kevin ends up reducing the will of God to obeying the Bible. In other words, stop worrying about your future spouse, career or ministry calling and work on your personal holiness. This struck me as a false choice while trivializing the sincerity of those who seek to God’s will in their amoral decisions.
2. Because of Kevin’s strict delineation of moral vs. amoral decisions, the role of the Holy Spirit becomes little more than helping us understand and obey the commands of Scripture. As critical as this is, I got the sense that Kevin doesn’t put much stock in having a conversational relationship with God in which He actually speaks to us about life’s amoral decisions such as one’s vocational calling, which school to attend or when to start a family. As I look back on my 29 years, I can see many instances of God’s guidance, presence and provision though a variety of “non-moral” decisions that brought me to where I am today. These were not matters of biblical obedience vs. sin, but God was certainly concerned and involved throughout the process.
Dan S. | Sep 4, 2009 | Reply