How do I know if I am living in God’s will?
I have asked myself this question often. As a Christian I have a deep desire to live God’s purpose for my life and yet at times I can be confused as to what I should do to honor Him. Learning to live in God’s will can be difficult and challenging. Practices such as being in the word, prayer, fasting, and fellowship are certainly tools for healthy faith. But at times I have found a need for a more specific approach. The following three questions have been a great help in bringing clarity to the discernment of God’s call on my life. Maybe my story here can help you too.
1. What am I Gifted at?
Giftedness is a part of being called. Essentially if I am good at something I believe there’s a high probability God wants me to use that talent to glorify him. Giftedness is not comprised of natural talent only but also involves the skills I’ve acquired over time because of practice and experience.
For example I have a natural talent for music. Music has always been easy for me and simply made sense. I’m very right brained and creative by nature. On the flip side, like most right-brained people, I don’t have a natural talent for being organized. Does this mean I’m disorganized? Not really (Note the simple, organized design of this blog or my desktop.) For me organization has become a learned skill. It’s something I’ve worked hard at to attain a level of proficiency.
So am I called to be musical and organized? Yeah. I find God saying to me, “Billy, because you are gifted at music and organization you are called to use these talents in your life.
2. What am I Passionate about?
The next element of calling is passion. Like giftedness, I find that if I have passion for something there is a high likelihood that God is calling me to it. I look for God’s calling in my passion even if have no experience in it. I try not to let lack of giftedness stop me from following God’s will. I believe in an enormous God who has the power to use passion to raise up the necessary skills.
The axiom reads, “God doesn’t always call the equipped but God always equips the called.”
For example I have a heartfelt passion for loving lost people without an agenda. I’m not very gifted at this as I’ve spent most of my life experience living in a Christian bubble. I’m very experienced at loving other Christians and short on experience loving non-Christians. However, I’ve found this fact to be of little consequence. It doesn’t matter that I have very little experience doing it, God has called me to it through the passion in my heart. In the last year of my life I’ve spent more time with non-Christians than all of the last 10 years combined. In that time I’ve gained skills that I didn’t have before. God has opened this door by saying, “Billy, you are called to love and serve unbelievers because you are passionate about the lost.”
3. Where is the need?
Finally, the need in my community and in the world helps to determine my calling. Even if I don’t like doing something and even if I’m no good at it I still find that God can call me when there is a deep need.
For example a few Sundays ago I was dropping my daughter off at her children’s church class when I noticed the teacher was nervously alone in a ever growing room full of children. The stress in her voice made it evident that she needed help. Now I’m not very gifted with small children. I’m great with my own daughter and I have talent with teenagers but little kids kinda freak me out. Also, I wasn’t particularly passionate about missing the adult worship service in order to hang out with the kiddos but I stuck around anyway. The need dictated my call. (Ya know what? I ended up having fun!)
The Sweet Spot
These questions work well individually as indicators of God’s call in my life but they work even better collectively.
I am gifted at way too many things to pursue them all. I have some mad coffee drinking skills but I’m not sure I’m necessarily “called” to drink coffee.
I have passion in way too many areas to use it all. I have a lot of passion for video games, but honestly I haven’t played one in over 8 months.
There is definitely no lack of need in the world. The task of trying to meet every need in the world is just a bit large for me to accomplish by myself. I only get stressed out when I try to meet more needs that God is calling me to.
The trick to discerning God’s will is to be focused.
“What am I most gifted at?”
“What am I most passionate about?”
“Where is the greatest need?”
“Where do all three of these intersect?”
My personal sweet spot is being a worship leader. With my musical talent and outgoing personality I have a natural propensity toward leading worship. I’ve been leading worship for 10 years of my life in various capacities. The sum total of my skills and experiences equates to giftedness in worship leading. I also have an enormous passion for worship. I’m a worshiper first and a worship leader second. Corporate worship is what revs my engine and I love it. There also exists a deep need for gifted, passionate worship leaders. For all of these reasons together I am pursuing a worship/creative arts job in a local church.
This is the sweet spot where my gifts and passion come together to meet a need.
I tend to agree with you here, a lot. I do believe God wants to use our talents… way else would he give them to us? But the thing that keeps bugging me, any time I read or even write things like this, I can’t help but think of Moses. Here’s a guys who hates public speaking, and does it rather poorly, but God used him in that way. It all went with your #’s 1 & 2, What was Moses passionate about? Well he was passionate about God. He put God above all else. And number two, where was the need? The Jews freedom was the need. So God used Moses’ passion for God to fulfill a need, that was the Jews freedom, despite Moses’ talents. I think that is something we need to keep in mind when we are seeking God’s will.
Nick,
Great call! If we are not most passionate about God and seek his kingdom first we can’t expect to live in his will.
These 3 factors don’t always need to work in tandem. Take for example my Sunday School experience. Moses wasn’t gifted at public speaking so God raised up Aaron to help him. Again I find this axiom true, “God doesn’t always call the equipped but God always equips the called.”
The sweet spot is more of a diagnostic tool to help you hone God’s calling in your life when multiple avenues all seem right and you are spread thin from trying to follow them all.
Thanks for sharing this. I think your diagram and the questions are useful tools to help gauge how God would have us respond in our everyday circumstances. Of course, we all naturally have a particular disposition toward one or more of these areas — gifts, passion or needs — but the key is to recognize that God asks us to utilize the gifts he has deposited in us, harness and pursue our passions that God has cultivated in us, and serve others to the best that our own limited resources may allow. If we’re faithful to honoring God, then people will be ministered to and lives will be changed.
I really like the quote you gave — “God doesn’t always call the equipped but God always equips the called.”
What is God calling me to do? Very interesting question. I believe, and this is my personal crazy opinion, God is calling me to love Him, to say “yes” to him in the midst of my own messiness, in the midst of my inadequacy, even in the midst of being without gifts. I think it is a privilege when you have gifts or talents that are obvious, like music, teaching, relationships, working with your hands, but what happen when you don’t have those talents or you keep asking yourself “what am I good at it?” Then is not about what we do, it is not about what we have to offer, it is about saying just a simple “yes”. You can have a tremendous talent, something that people will say “yes, God blessed him with this or that”, but most of all I think is saying “yes” and when you say “yes” you are willing to die to yourself and may be be used in things and places you never imagined. My wife and I were in our way to North Africa to serve God in the Nations. Psalm 2:8 “Ask of me,and I will make the nations your inheritance,the ends of the earth your possession.” I wanted to go to share Jesus to the unreached in the Nations. Until God told me to die to myself and just say “yes” to Him. Never imagined to be a missionary in the USA and now after six hears, he gave the nations because Connection is a group of people from Peru, Guatemala, Mexico, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Cuba and USA. How do I know if I am living in the will of God? because as a broken person I am saying “yes” to Him everyday, even when I don’t want it anymore. Thank you for your thoughts, I think you have another gift and may be you have not notice it: the gift of teaching (may be you already know that!)
Pete,
Yes! Positive life change is the result of living in God’s will, both for ourselves and others.
Miguel,
“Then is not about what we do, it is not about what we have to offer, it is about saying just a simple “yes”.”
This is so true. I believe God has gifted and equipped all of us more than we ever imagine. Sometimes by selling ourselves short we are saying, “I believe in a little God.” But when we say “yes” to God, even when don’t feel like we have what it takes, we are saying, “I believe in an big God who can make it happen.” Then He does amazing things through us.
Billy,
I think saying a simple “yes” it is not a simple as it sounds. I think is the hardest thing to say, because then you will go to a places where may be you never wanted to go, or you will do things that you never imagined. It is the way of self-sacrifice, and wow! I have a lot to learn about that. “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?” Math 16:25 from The Message.
Just saying “yes”……..
Ummm…that’s pretty much the best way I’ve ever heard the concept of being in the center of God’s will. Gooooood call on the whole copyright thing. Permission to shamelessly rip that off and include it in a sermon?
Ben,
Permission granted.
Yeah I put these graphics up for the purpose of being easily posted on other websites. If someone were going to use it on the web I’d like the copyright intact of course.
If you’d like to use it for a sermon feel free to rip away. If it’s for worship setting feel free to use my graphics or create your own with no credit necessary. I constantly borrow, er…um…cough… steal concepts from others when I teach.
Looks A LOT like the “Hedgehog Concept” from the book “Good to Great” … an incredible read!
Wow. This is so relevant to me right now…because I’m finding life hard right now. I have so many gifts, experiences, passions and see sooo much need.
I have 4 major passions…
1) Worship (with my whole life - but I’m musical and my life has a soundtrack to it!!)
2) Discipleship for young people
3) Sexual and Reproductive Health
4) Social action & community
The 3rd one is a bizarre one, and causes me a lot of issues as a Christian - it’s a controversial topic because the bible has a lot to say on the topic, and in parts of this topic the bible isn’t very detailed - leading to the controversy! But I do feel that at the moment God is calling me into this area…as a Youth Worker, educator, prayer warrior and Counsellor…through the work I do with the pregnancy crisis centre, through my blog and through education programmes in schools and youth groups…
At the same time I’m now getting the chance to develop my youth work skills into a Christian setting of discpleship for the first time - I’ve done the evangelism stuff, and I’ve done plenty of secular youth work…now I’m doing youth work within the church!
But I’m soooo badly missing singing!! And I have a vision for interdenominational unity in Edinburgh…and I have a vision for how to use my passion for singing and musical worship to help interdenominational unity in Edinburgh which I hope would lead to social action and community - reaching out to the lost…
I can see the beginning and the end, but can’t see all the in between!!!
Fred,
I’ve been teaching the basics behind this post for many years. (I probably heard them from someone else long ago.)
I’ve not read “Good to Great” yet but I did read Thom Rainer’s “Breakout Churches.” This book follows exactly “Good to Great” but applies the data to churches. I was excited when I saw a similar diagram in Breakout Churches and I told Sarah, “Dude check out Thom Rainer, he’s teaching what I teach!”
Laura Anne,
I feel you on having multiple passions. This is why I posted this now. For a long time I was struggling between:
1. Being a worship pastor
2. Being a youth pastor
3. Going to seminary and becoming a lead/teaching pastor
Through a lot of desperate prayer and asking the questions above I came to the conclusion that although I am gifted for all three of those jobs, right now I am really only called to be a worship leader.
I really miss youth ministry and perhaps someday I’ll be a teaching pastor, but I’ll tell you the choice to simplify and follow God’s will by not doing what I’m not called to has been an enormous blessing in my life.
Billy, this is a really good way of putting it. It’s funny, I just got a worship/arts job, and when I told my old church that I was leaving I used the term “sweet spot”. I’m good at youth ministry, but I’m a better worship pastor.
What would church look like if everyone spent 80% of their days working in their sweet spots?
Billy, great diagram. Quick thought. Have you ever read the book “Go! Put Your Strengths to Work” by Marcus Buckingham? I heard him speak at this year’s Willow Creek Leadership Summit and then read his book. It’s all about the idea of working out of your strengths, your sweet spot…sounds like it might be of interest to you. Thought I’d pass it along! I’ll be praying for your search bro, I know that God is faithful to bring to completion the task to which He has called you!
Stephen,
Thank you tons bro! Buckingham sounds like a good read.
Dear Billy:
Nice of you to share…
Just to add a little here:
God’s will can be further disclosed, clarify and specify in his written Word. Or in another perspective, our time spend in interating with his Word generates the passion within us.
For your information, I have a passion to fulfilled or realize Colossians 3:16 “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God”
and correspondingly
Ephesians 5:19 “Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and psalming with your heart to the Lord,”
Altough I have never written any songs, nor am I verse in music.
But I see the “tremendous” need–which can be found in the prior verse and that is to “be filled in spirit” (Eph. 5:1
and to faciliate the dwelling of the Word in our hearts which is critical for the individual and the church life. Speaking and singing with grace in our hearts the Word enable us to be filled in spirit and experience the revival that God is seeking in our life and good works.
Praise is to Him!
Though I cannot realize these all by myself (and therefore need help), I belief I have the skills, insight and the resources to make it happen…
Anyone can help?
Your brother in Christ
Joseph Lam
Very good insight here. I am 29 and have always been wondering what Gods will is for my life. I have a few talents. I can draw like there is no tomorrow. I jam the drums real good. I can play guitar well. But being stuck in construction…well…your forced to do what the bills demand you to. I am not sure if I have any passion left. I am passionate about my wife. If it weren’t for God placing her in my life I don’t know where I’d be. I would love to get out of construction and do something fun. But then I think of people who don’t have jobs and I should be thankful I have one at all. So stop complaining. Y’know?
Eric,
I feel ya. I do some “tent-making” as well to pay the bills. I have found that God has used me in at my secular job sometimes even more than he uses me in my “church” ministry. There is a huge need for Christian construction workers.