How Do I Know What God Wants Me to Do?

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you." ~Jeremiah 29:11-12


 How do I know what God is calling me to do?


This is a question I ask myself almost every day. I have not figured it out, and I probably never will completely. Sometimes I think I know what God wants me to do, but other times I think it is just my idea and not God's. God doesn't come out and speak to us as clearly as he spoke to people like Moses and the prophets. God speaks to us in indirect ways and I wanted to share with you all how I am learning to follow God's will. I'm by no means as close to God as I want to be, but I want to encourage others as much as I can.



Prayer
 
"We are sure that if we ask anything that He wants us to have, He will hear us.  If we are sure He hears us when we ask, we can be sure He will give us what we ask for." ~1 John 5:14-15  

Every day, I pray for God to use me to carry out His will for my life. Sometimes I feel like I am doing a good job loving people and doing what God wants me to do, and sometimes I feel like a complete failure. I get mad and say things that I wish I didn't, and I apologize to God for not living how he wants me to. And then, I try again the next day... And the next. I am trying to learn how to listen to God in prayer instead of having a one-sided conversation. For me, it's hard to be quiet and listen. But, prayer is so important in learning what God wants us to do. It brings us closer to Him and His will for our lives. Constant communication with our Father helps us to feel at peace with ourselves, also.
 
The Bible

"This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success." ~Joshua 1:8

Another way to know what God is calling you to do is simply by reading His Word. By reading the Bible every day, we are constantly soaking in God's written words. My pastor says we need to "marinate like chicken" in the word - constantly reading, thinking, and applying it to our lives. You don't have to doubt if what you read in the Bible is from God or not. The Bible is God-breathed and written perfectly by chosen people who were filled with the Holy Spirit. I love reading the Bible - especially Jesus' words - because it can teach us and guide us in almost any situation.

  God's Fingerprints

"Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush." ~Exodus 3:1-2

A third way that I have found out what God wants me to do is through unusual occurrences. Sometimes, things happen that are so miraculous that you can just see God's fingerprints all over them. When I was in Daytona Beach last summer, I asked God to send a sign of what he wanted me to do, and it ironically came in the form of a tweet. It was a tweet about Nicaragua missions. And it came at the exact time I asked. God is calling me to missions. This was after my Nicaragua trip and he was whispering to me that he's not done using me to share the gospel with the world. He has sent more signs calling me into missions since then. Stuff just happens in the weirdest, abnormal ways. Another instance of God's fingerprints was when I was praying for a friend's salvation because she had been struggling with some issues, and a few weeks later, we were at a track meet together. She was shaking and nervous before her race, and she came up to me and asked me to pray for her. I was so thankful that she did that. God is good.

John 4 is a good example of this. The woman at the well is getting water in the middle of the day to avoid the judgmental society, and Jesus showed up and started talking to her and changed her life. I'm pretty positive that this did not happen by chance. God had that moment planned out since the beginning of time. It is one of my favorite Bible stories because Jesus breaks the standards of society, approaches the woman, confronts her with her sin, and gives her what she needs - the living water! It is a story filled with hope for the woman and us, and it had God's fingerprints all over it. The woman left the well changed forever and filled with hope and life. Signs might not be as obvious as God speaking to you through a burning bush like he spoke to Moses or having an angel come and speak to you like Mary and Joseph, but God will show himself in your life in ways that are so unnatural and God-breathed that no one but the Father himself could have sent them.


The truth is, God's will for each of our lives looks completely different. Our lives aren't meant to be carbon-copies of each other. We were made to live radically different lives. We are called to use the gifts that God has given us.

Heavenly Father, help each of us to passionately purse You every day of our lives, living to please You alone. Help us to know what you are calling us to do. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.