Discovering Your

2. Discovering Your Destiny

3. “God wants to reveal his will to you more than you want to know it.” ~ Garry Friesen

4. “We must substitute the idea of ‘finding God’s will’ with that of ‘following God’s program for guidance’. ~ Dr. Bruce Walthe

5. “It is easier for me to know God’s will for my wife than it is for me to know God’s will for my life.” ~ Charles R. Swindoll

6. “Everything that has happened in your life to this moment has been part of God’s determined will for your life. It has happened because He has determined it to be so.” ~ Grant Howard

7. “Scripture presents man as being a free moral agent who is responsible for his decisions. God is not a Cosmic Puppeteer, and we are not marionettes that jump when He jerks our strings.” ~ Garry Friesen

8. “Nothing happens unless the Omnipotent wills it to happen.” ~ Augustine

9. “Scripture does not support the view that there must be a specific divine reason behind all events.” ~ Gregory A. Boyd

10. “All events are governed by God’s secret plan.” ~ John Calvin

11. “Everything that happens is part of God’s will.” ~ Pastor Bill Thompson

12. “Nothing happens to the Christian by chance.” ~ Dr. Bruce Walthe

13. “This is a challenging world where chance has a role and in which things do not always go as God would desire. But for this same reason it is a world that is, by God’s grace, capable of love. Hence God chose to create this world rather than the safer but uninteresting world of predestined puppets.” ~ Gregory A. Boyd

14. “If chance existed, it would destroy God’s sovereignty.” ~ R. C. Sproul

15. “The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.” ~ King Solomon (Ecclesiastes 9:11)

16. “God desires creatures who are capable of choosing love, so he risks the possibility that their free decisions will interact in unfortunate and unplanned ways.” ~ Gregory A. Boyd

17. “Control is an illusion, you infantile egomaniac! Nobody controls anything.” ~ Nicole Kidman to Tom Cruise in Days Of Thunder (Not a very good movie; so don’t bother renting it.)

18. “Why would a God who wants us to do His will hide it from us? Why do Christians go through such convoluted, painful efforts to know it? His will needn’t be hidden or elusive; a mystery, a puzzle, an enigma.” ~ Dr. Bruce Walthe

19. “The idea of an individual will of God for every detail of a person’s life is not found in Scripture. The most startling ramification is that many believers are investing a great deal of time and energy searching for something that is nonexistent.” ~ Garry Friesen

20. “Today is mine. Tomorrow is none of my business. If I peer anxiously into the fog of the future, I will strain my spiritual eyes so that I will not see clearly what is required of me now.” ~ Elisabeth Elliott

21. “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.” ~ Romans 12:2, NIV

22. “You cannot continue life as usual or stay where you are, and go forward with God at the same time.” ~ Henry Blackaby

23. “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God –this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.” ~ Romans 12:1-2, NIVi

24. Not A Blueprint, A Game Plan X X X X X X X

25. “Whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, you must do all for the glory of God.” ~ 1 Corinthians 10:31, NLT God's Moral Will. God's Individual Will for your life most of the time. God's Ultimate Sovereign Will.

26. How To Hear Our Coach… • Scripture 4) Inner Witness • 2) Wise Counsel 5) Delighting Desires • 3) Circumstance 6) Divine Intervention • 7) MAXIMUM IMPACT: • The Way of Wisdom

27. Precept Practice

28. Principle Precept Practice

29. “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.” ~ Proverbs 15:22, NIV

30. We’ve All Got Blind Spots…

31. WHO TO ASK AROUND HERE… • 1. Mature brother or sister. • 2. Home Church leader. • 3. Home Church elder/pastor. • 4. Overseer or Staff pastor.

32. God's Will

33. God's Will Free Will Scripture

34. God's Will Free Will Chance Providnce Scripture

35. God's Will Free Will Chance CHOICE CIRCUMSTANCE Providnce Scripture

36. PROBLEMS WITH “FLEECING”…

37. PROBLEMS WITH “FLEECING”… • 1.) He did not use the fleece to receive guidance but to confirm guidance that had already been given.

38. PROBLEMS WITH “FLEECING”… • 1.) He did not use the fleece to receive guidance but to confirm guidance that had already been given. • 2.) Gideon’s request was for a supernatural miraculous sign, not an a supernatural arrangement of natural circumstances.

39. PROBLEMS WITH “FLEECING”… • 1.) He did not use the fleece to receive guidance but to confirm guidance that had already been given. • 2.) Gideon’s request was for a supernatural miraculous sign, not a supernatural arrangement of natural circumstances. • 3.) Gideon’s request was not born out of faith, but out of fear and doubt!

40. PROBLEMS WITH “FLEECING”… • 1.) He did not use the fleece to receive guidance but to confirm guidance that had already been given. • 2.) Gideon’s request was for a supernatural miraculous sign, not an a supernatural arrangement of natural circumstances. • 3.) Gideon’s request was not born out of faith, but out of fear and doubt! • 4.) There is no NT example of this kind of decision making.

41. “An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign” ~ Matthew 12:39, NRSV

42. “So she departed and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers; and she happened to come to [Lit. “her chance chanced upon”] the portion of the field belonging to Boaz.” ~ Ruth 2:3, NASB

43. “Now a certain man drew his bow at random and struck the king of Israel in a joint of the armor.” ~ 1 Kings 22:34, NASB

44. “Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.” ~ Luke 10:31, NRSV

45. “Perhaps this is the reason he was separated from you for a while, so that you might have him back forever, 16 no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother – especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.” ~ Philemon 15-16, NRSV

46. “Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” ~ Hebrews 5:13-14, NRSV

47. “For it is God's will that by doing right you should silence the ignorance of the foolish.” ~ 1 Peter 2:15, NRSV

48. “Whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, you must do all for the glory of God.” ~ 1 Corinthians 10:31, NLT

49. “Whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, you must do all for the glory of God.” ~ 1 Corinthians 10:31, NLT God's individual will for your life most of the time. God's ultimate sovereign will.

50. “In everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.” ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:18, NASB