Discerning God’s will for our life is a tricky business. Trying to discern the steps that He would have us take can be a difficult journey, especially when our heart is heavily engaged in the choice. Because this discipline is so difficult we often don’t take the time to walk this journey properly and instead we create man made sayings and rely on feelings that help to move us towards where we ‘think’ He might be calling us.

Here are a few phrases we often say;

“What God has for me will not go by me…” – nice…. but entirely wrong

“God just wants me to be happy” – hmmmmm, kind of, but not in the way you are thinking

“God will choose the one I least want” – that doesn’t sound like a good father. Finally,

“If there is no resistance I’ll know it’s God” – OK, this is the one I wanted to talk about.

We have built a false theology that if it’s God then it will be easy. I understand where it comes from. When God is the source of an idea and when He has truly called us to it then it will come to pass. We read about battles in the Old Testament where God assures them of victory and He was never wrong. However, that didn’t mean that those battles were easy or without injuries for the winning team. In fact, the opposite often happened.

We often forget, especially the western mindset, that we are in a spiritual battle. The enemy is defeated but he is also deceived. Therefore he chooses to fight until the end falsely believing that he might be able to turn things around. He’s wrong but that doesn’t mean his opposition is make believe.

When God is calling us to step out He is often calling us to come across opposition that the enemy has placed in that direction. That means it won’t be easy, in fact it might be super hard. Sometimes the opposition is a sign that it is God’s will. It’s worth mentioning, just to make it even harder, that the opposition is because we have been silly! Let’s not get distracted though.

Just in case you think I am making this one up, here is the apostle Paul talking about his discernment process when it comes to the spreading of the gospel in the New Testament.

8 But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, 9 because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me. 1 Corinthians 16:8-9 (NIV)

He just throws both realities in there and seems unaffected by it. He’d come to expect that when God opened doors the enemy was trying to close them.

I’m not sure what choices you are facing today. I’m not sure if you are facing opposition or not but let’s take the time to discern what the Father is truly saying rather than trying to fill the gaps with our own remedies and sayings. I know it can be tough but it’s so important that we learn to gain God’s heart on a matter.