Special Revelation
Through visions, dreams, angels, or miracles, God reveals His will to specially
chosen people. Paul, for example, was one such specially chosen person to whom Jesus revealed His
will on the Damascus road: "Now get up [Paul] and go into the city, and you will be told
what you must do" (Acts 9:6). When Christians "seek God's will" today, they often and
mistakenly seek God's special revelation. Often they look for a feeling or a sign. But special
revelation is not for every Christian. God uses this way of revealing His will only to specially
chosen people such as Peter and Paul, though many Christians today claim to receive such special
revelations. Seeking this form of divine guidance usually ends up in frustration when the feeling
isn't strong enough, or when the sign was misinterpreted.
God's Sovereign Will
This is the powerful controlling force of God that secretly guides the world to
conform to His great eternal plan. This powerful force is called sovereign will. For example, the
crucifixion of Jesus: "Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and
the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.
They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen" (Acts 4:27,28).
This is not the form of God's will that Christians seek in order to make a decision. This is
because God's sovereign will remains largely hidden from us. Although some parts of God's
sovereign will are revealed in Scripture (e.g. the Second Coming, the resurrection), the details
are hidden from our view until they actually happen. We know that everything in the past has
worked out through God's sovereign will, but we will never know in detail how God's sovereign
will works for us in the future. When Christians seek God's sovereign will from the Bible, they
do so mostly to find comfort and hope, rather than make decisions.
God's Moral Will
These are the commandments of God that were meant to guide our daily living.
These include the Ten Commandments, the Fruit of the Spirit, and other moral guidelines revealed
in Scripture. For example: "In everything give thanks, for this is God's will for you in
Christ Jesus" (1 Thes. 5:18). In your seeking God's will for a decision, you must first
know His moral will. Know what the boundaries of the game are. In basketball, you can't begin any
meaningful playing until you know where the boundaries are. For example, in deciding a career,
you must know that prostitution and gambling are out of the question. And if you had to decide
whether to work in the construction of nuclear arms, you would need to search the Scriptures to
out if such a job is morally acceptable to God. Are the Scriptures the only place to discover
God's moral will? Yes. God's has completely revealed His moral will in Scripture.
God's Gift of Wisdom
While God's moral will helps us to choose between right and wrong, God's gift
of wisdom helps us to choose between good and better. For example, Proverbs 27:5: "Better
is open rebuke than hidden love." While God's moral will determines the boundaries for the
game, wisdom tells us the game strategy. Most of your decision-making will involve the gift of
wisdom. For most Christians, their career decision was not between farming and prostitution, but
between farming and engineering. Wisdom is given to you from God through the Holy Spirit, it
begins with Scripture (esp. Proverbs), and it is added upon through life experience.
