As I was studying this morning, I heard from God LOUD and CLEAR.  You know, I have always wanted to do “God’s will for my life”, yet the concept of “God’s will for me” has remained such an elusive mystery, despite the many times I’ve asked God to reveal it to me.  The “not knowing” has left me feeling rather unfulfilled.  I mean, how was I supposed to do what God wanted me to do, if I didn’t know what that was…?

Well, today as I was studying, it occurred to me that God rarely reveals what He intends for me to do “in the future”.  That’s not His modus operandi.  For example, God called Abraham to “get up and go to the land I will show you” (Genesis 12:1).  What did God require Abraham to do?  “Get up and go”.  It was like God saying, “get up and go, and once you move, I’ll show you what step to take next”.  

Obedience, “right now”, is the key to the will of God for you in the future.  What’s cool to me here is that in the Old Testament, believing men of God depended on God “appearing to them” or “coming upon them”, but from Acts 2 on, believers have the Holy Spirit of God dwelling IN them, guiding them and teaching them (John 14:26).  Today God’s Spirit doesn’t “come and go”.  When I accepted Christ, the Holy Spirit “came and STAYED”.  How awesome is that?!!!

As is commonly the case when I’m studying, God tends to lead me on many “bunny trails” to teach me what He wants me to learn.  On one of those trails this morning, I found myself reading Romans 8:5-7, “Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.  The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the spirit is life and peace.  The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.”  The word “peace” literally JUMPED off the page to me.  Living according to the Spirit (which means I don’t know all the details, but I just obey His leading) equals peace.  And who doesn’t want to live a life of peace, right?

Well, the next thought that entered my mind was how many years I have struggled with the question of “am I doing what God intended for me to do with my life?”, when all I needed to be doing was keeping “in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25).  

What a great strategy of the evil one — keeping me so preoccupied with the “big picture of my life” that I was missing what God wanted me to do today, right now, in this moment.  What God wants me to do every moment of every day is to “keep in step with the Spirit”.  As I was pondering this concept, the verse that says, “Today if you hear His voice” popped into my head, and of course, you know I had to look it up (smile).  It’s found in Hebrews 3:14-16.  When I read that passage in its entirety, I was really convicted by its message.  Check it out.  

”We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.  As has just been said: ‘Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion’.”  So by giving in to the temptation to want to know the “big picture” of what God wants me to do with my life, I was allowing my heart to become hardened to the gentle promptings of the Holy Spirit.  I was clouding my mind with the noise of my own thoughts concerning “the future” and drowning out the still small voice of the Spirit telling me what to do “right now”.  

Being too occupied with “God’s will for my life” in the large scheme of things had lulled me into a state of complacency and inactivity today; and frankly, today, right now, this moment – it’s all I have.

To break it down into simple terms, God’s “will” for my life is that I become more like His Son.  And how is that accomplished?  By listening to His Spirit within me, day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment – moving when He says move – staying when He says stay put – .speaking up when He says speak – saying yes when he says to say yes –  saying no when He do directs – looking at people through His eyes –  loving how He says to love – serving where and how He directs me to serve.

So the lesson I learned from God today, in a nutshell, is this — God is more concerned with “HOW” I do life than He is “what” I do with my life.  He’s more concerned with “HOW” I serve than “where” I serve.  He wants me to walk this path of life in step with His Spirit, so that whatever I find to do on any given day, at any given moment, I do it like His Son did, heartily as unto the Lord, with my utmost goal being to bring honor and glory to God the Father.