“And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me …” (Jer 29:13, NKJ)
We have not yet considered one of the most fundamental aspects of our faith’s walk, namely: how does one hear the voice of God? It goes without saying that it is central in terms of all facets of determining the will of God for one’s life. (We’ll return to this in detail later on.) It is thus important that we lay the foundation of how a believer can discern and know the will of God. In the Amplified’s paraphrase of Col 1:9 Paul prays: “[asking] that you may be filled with the full (deep and clear) knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom [in comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God] and in understanding and discernment of spiritual things”.
Know one thing: it is more important to God than to you that you are able to discern His perfect will. Prov 16:3 is consequently one of the most important Scriptures giving us direction as to how to hear the Lord in terms of our plans: “Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed.” (Amp). People often miss the sequence and order of this process. Firstly, you must “roll” your works before the Lord – the KJV translates this as “commit your works”. The best translation, though, is the 1899 Douay-Rheims Bible: “Lay open thy works to the Lord.” The CEV states: “Share your plans with the LORD.” The works are thus, as it were, the groundwork or your plans (Ex 31:4). Through intercession you “roll” them as “first fruits”, literally first works, before Him – like the Old Testament “wave offer” (Ex 29:24; Lev 23:20)! The next step is that He makes your thoughts “agreeable” with His will. This means that He modifies/scraps/widens/focuses the plans, in other words He brings supernatural wisdom to the situation and thereby makes them His plans. By means of this “you hear the counsel of the Lord” (Jer 49:20). Often there are many plans in a person’s heart (Prov 19:21), but Prov 15:22 is correct in saying: “Without counsel, plans go awry …”! With this strategy “shall your plans be established and succeed”.
This powerful process David describes like this in Ps 37:5: “Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass”, but Paul qualifies it in Phil 2:12-13 when he says: “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure”.
- Sela: You must please read through and ponder on the Scripture in Phil 2:12-13.
- Read: Ex 31; Ps 81; Mark 7
- Memorise: Mark 7:13a
