Finding your way in life is not always easy, but even more difficult is finding it in the will of God, and in so doing, bringing your life into line with God’s purpose. (Romans 1:10 & 15:32, NKJV) Doing this involves finding the right balance between God’s sovereignty and your responsibility, between what God will do for you and what He expects you to do for yourself.
Wondering how to find your way in God’s will? Don’t try to find your own way but instead, ask yourself the following questions:
1. Am I using the prophetic words I received as weapons of spiritual warfare?
Personal prophecy can be a useful weapon (1 Timothy 1:18). But don’t just wait for prophecies to work — war by them! If God prophesied that you would make it — you will! You don’t know how things will end, but He does, having known full well from long before you were born how His ability and your capability would work together.
2. Am I allowing others to interpret what the Holy Spirit is saying to me?
The apostle Paul went “bound in the spirit” to Jerusalem (Acts 20:22). Paul was captive to the will of God. The prophetic voice “in every city” confirmed that dangers lay ahead (Acts 20:23). However, the apostle did not allow that knowledge to hinder his own guidance from God (See 2 Kings 2:3, 5). What others say prophetically should be interpreted in the light of what the Lord has already put into your heart — even if those who warn are prophets (Acts 21:4, 11). Mature believers do not allow a prophecy from another person to override God’s personal guidance.
3. Am I being spiritual to the detriment of my own physical well-being?
Paul did not consider his Divine call and his civil rights to be mutually exclusive (Acts 22:22-29). The Jews were his chief persecutors at that time, so why let them use the Romans to punish him to no good purpose? Jesus would not have been glorified in a flogging that had no purpose.
4. Am I using wisdom to overcome the worldly forces that have combined to oppose me?
Paul used Julius Caesar’s “divide and conquer” principle of warfare to divide between Pharisees and Sadducees (Acts 23:6-10; Matthew 22:23). He made the theological division between the two groups work for his good (Philippians 3:5; 1 Corinthians 7:31). Christianity has nothing in common with fatalism. “Whatever will be” will not be when your renewed mind has resolved the issue.
5. Am I saying, “I’ll try hard not to let things stop me,” or “I will not permit anything to stop me”?
The Divine Imperative (“must”) alone would not have brought Paul to Rome if he had accepted it as simply inevitable. Prophecy does not encourage passivity (Acts 23:11-24). Paul had to do and did what he could in order to save himself.
6. Am I making my own choices, or am I allowing others to direct my life?
Paul claimed his citizenship rights to prevent a grave injustice. A person in authority wanted to curry favour at his expense (Acts 25:8-12; 24:27). Paul appealed to a higher authority of Rome. Your heavenly citizenship gives you access to God in prayer, but you should not overlook your earthly citizenship – Paul didn’t.
7. Am I taking charge in desperate situations, or am I allowing others to direct me?
The Divine Imperative of Acts 23:11 is repeated in Acts 27:21-26. Yet it was necessary that everyone on board the ship fit in with what the Lord had revealed to Paul (Acts 27:30-31). They did need a word of encouragement, but they also needed the strength that a meal would bring to enable them to swim to shore.
8. Am I allowing a sudden, unexpected ‘final straw’ to deter me from seeing my original vision through to a successful conclusion?
Safely ashore on the Island of Malta, the snakebite was nothing to the apostle. He shook off the snake from the sticks into the fire, knowing well that he had not escaped being flogged, assassinated, or drowned at sea — only to die from a bite of a poisonous agent of Satan (Acts 28:3-6). So, “shake off” any desperate, final attempt by Satan to stop you, knowing that nothing can now that you’ve found your way in the will of God and are so close to where He said you would be! Bear in mind that whatever you do, God knew — and that was not quit along the way! Whoever is born of God is an overcomer — born to win, born to an overcomer, not an undergoer!