Today, we continue our series entitled “Living the Grace Life,” where we will learn to embrace and walk in God’s unmerited, unearned, and often undeserved favor throughout 2025.
As part of this series, I am teaching you how to pray from a position of God’s grace.
Key scriptures for this year:
2 Corinthians? ?9?:?8? ?TPT??
“Yes, God is more than ready to overwhelm you with every form of grace, so that you will have more than enough of everything—every moment and in every way. He will make you overflow with abundance in every good thing you do.”
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??Galatians? ?5?:?4? ?TPT??
“If you want to be made right with God by fulfilling the obligations of the law, you have cut off more than your flesh—you have cut yourselves off from Christ and have fallen away from the revelation of grace!”
Romans? ?6?:?14? ?ERV??
“Sin will not be your master, because you are not under law. You now live under God’s grace.”
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1 Corinthians? ?15?:?10? ?NIV??
“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”
Additional scriptures for today:
Romans 12:2 NIV
“Do not conform 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.”
John 16:13 NIV
“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.”
1 John 5:14-15 NIV
“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”
Philippians 2:13 ERV
“Yes, it is God who is working in you. He helps you want to do what pleases him, and he gives you the power to do it.”
Setting the Stage:
In our journey through grace-based prayer, we’ve explored understanding prayer from grace, praying from grace versus need, Jesus’ finished work, praying in alignment with heaven, accessing God’s power, the authority we have in prayer, and praying from our seated position in heavenly places. Today, we will discuss one of the most common struggles in prayer: discerning God’s will.
Many believers approach prayer with uncertainty, wondering, “What if what I’m praying for isn’t God’s will?” This hesitation creates a tentative, doubtful prayer life that lacks power and confidence. Under grace, discerning God’s will isn’t meant to be an unbearable mystery but a natural expression of your relationship with Him.
Under the Old Covenant, people often used fleeces, lots, and external signs to determine God’s will. But under the New Covenant of grace, we have something far better—the indwelling Holy Spirit who reveals God’s heart and mind directly to us.
So, what does this mean to you today? A few things.
1. God’s Will is More Accessible Than You Think.
Under grace, God doesn’t hide His will from you; He reveals it to you. The struggle to discern God’s will is often rooted in Old Covenant thinking that sees God as distant and mysterious rather than intimate and revealing.
How this applies to you:
— God is not playing a heavenly game of hide-and-seek with His will. Actually, God desperately wants you to know His will even more than you want to know it. Because by you knowing it and aligning with it, His will can be done in this world!
— Through the Holy Spirit, you have direct access to the mind of Christ. Paul said, “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God,” and “We have the mind of Christ” (see 1 Cor 2). This means that part of the reason why God gave us His Spirit is so we can know what He is thinking, so we can accomplish His will on this planet.
— God’s will isn’t primarily about making decisions; it’s about knowing His heart. When you know His heart, the decisions flow naturally.
— Many believers agonize over God’s will as if He’s reluctant to reveal it. But the truth is that God is constantly speaking, and we must learn how to listen (discern).
— Under the Old Covenant, God’s people sought to discern His will through religious practices (sacrifices, ceremonies, etc.). However, under grace, discerning God’s will comes through a relationship with God, not religious rituals towards God. It’s not about performing spiritual gymnastics to twist God’s arm into revealing His will. It’s just about getting to know Him intimately enough to where you can walk with Him as He walks with you.
— God reveals His will in a way that is both incremental and progressive. It is incremental because the Lord will only give you enough vision to see what you need to see based on where you are in your journey. God may give you glimpses of what is far down the road, but you won’t have the clarity to walk in those realms until the time is right. It is also progressive because the more you walk with the Father and learn His ways, the more He is able to reveal to you. You should be able to handle more vision today than you could 10 years ago. By giving you an incremental and progressive vision, the Father equips you to pursue your purpose.
— The more time you spend with God in His Word and in prayer, the more familiar His voice becomes, making His will increasingly clear to you.
2. The Renewed Mind: Your Instrument for Discerning God’s Will.
Romans 12:2 teaches that a transformed, renewed mind is the key to testing and approving God’s will. Under grace, your mind becomes increasingly aligned with God’s thoughts.
How this applies to you:
— Your mind is being renewed daily as you meditate on God’s Word and walk in God’s grace. This renewal process makes discerning God’s will increasingly natural.
— A legalistic mindset interferes with hearing God clearly because your thoughts will be more focused on your performance (or lack thereof) than on what God is saying. Grace clears the channel so you can receive His signals without interference.
— The Word of God contains the character, attributes, and nature of God. The more you fill your heart with God’s Word, the more your mind will be renewed to think, act, and make decisions that align with God. The more your mind is renewed, the more you see situations from His perspective rather than through worldly filters.
— The more your mind is renewed, the less you have to strain to discern God’s will—it becomes almost instinctive. You simply know what to do in many situations because the Word of God is the will of God on paper, and you have filled your heart with God’s Word.
— When your mind is renewed, God’s will often feels like common sense to you. What would have seemed radical in the past now feels natural.
— A grace-renewed mind isn’t controlled by fear, which is one of the biggest obstacles to discerning God’s will. It takes faith to obey God, and you cannot be in faith if your heart and mind are filled with fear. The more your mind is renewed by God’s Word, and the more you learn to rest in God’s Grace, the more fear will no longer be an issue for you.
— Under grace, you’re not trying to choose between what people call “God’s perfect will” and “God’s permissive will.” You’re simply learning to recognize the promptings of the Holy Spirit in each moment. You are living from the inside out.
3. The Holy Spirit: Your Internal Guide to God’s Will.
Under the New Covenant, the Holy Spirit dwells within you, constantly guiding you into all truth. This internal guidance system is central to discerning God’s will from a position of grace.
How this applies to you:
— The Holy Spirit doesn’t just give you information about God’s will; He gives you the interpretation of circumstances, Scripture, and inner promptings.
— Under grace, you don’t need to look primarily for external signs to confirm God’s will. The primary confirmation comes from within, where the Holy Spirit dwells.
— God’s Spirit won’t contradict God’s Word. The Bible is your baseline for discerning God’s will. Any guidance you think you’re receiving that contradicts Scripture isn’t from God.
— The Holy Spirit speaks in various ways: through Scripture, through a still, small voice in your spirit, through Godly counsel, through circumstances, and sometimes through dreams and visions. Learning to recognize the way God is speaking to you is critical to discerning God’s will.
— Under grace, hearing God becomes less about technique and more about trust. The more you trust His desire to guide you, the more clearly you’ll hear Him.
— The Holy Spirit’s guidance is often progressive rather than comprehensive. He may show you just the next step, which forces you to rely on Him for ongoing communication.
— The Holy Spirit often communicates through a sense of peace or unrest. Colossians 3:15 says, “Let the peace of Christ rule [act as an umpire] in your hearts.” When you have supernatural peace about a decision, it’s often confirmation of God’s will. Think of peace as God’s umpire, calling “safe” or “out” on the decisions you’re considering.
— If you don’t have peace about that relationship, that job offer, or that major purchase – even if it looks good on paper – it’s likely not God’s will. Many believers have ignored that internal lack of peace, made decisions anyway, and later regretted it, saying, “I never had peace about it.” Let God’s peace be your guide, not pressure, fear, or the opinions of others. When you’re led by grace, peace becomes your confirmation system.
4. Praying According to God’s Will with Confidence.
1 John 5:14-15 tells us that when we pray according to God’s will, we can have confidence that He hears us and grants our requests. Under grace, this confidence comes from having a relationship with God.
How this applies to you:
— Praying according to God’s will isn’t about a feeling or a formula; it’s about having settled faith because of your relationship with God.
— Grace gives you the confidence to approach God boldly with your requests (even when you know you are not perfect). Because of grace, you can approach God with confidence, knowing that He a) has forgiven you and b) He wants to reveal His will to you.
— When you understand that God wants you to know His will even more than you want to know it, prayer becomes less about convincing God and more about receiving His revelation.
— Under grace, the Holy Spirit prays through you. Look at what Paul said about this.
“Also, the Spirit helps us. We are very weak, but the Spirit helps us with our weakness. We don’t know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit himself speaks to God for us. He begs God for us, speaking to him with feelings too deep for words. God already knows our deepest thoughts. And he understands what the Spirit is saying, because the Spirit speaks for his people in the way that agrees with what God wants.” (Romans 8:26, 27 ERV).
In this way, the Holy Spirit becomes your prayer partner, ensuring your prayers align with God’s purposes.
— Grace-based discernment isn’t about straining to hear but about resting to receive. Often, God’s will becomes clearest when you’re at rest in His presence rather than anxiously pleading.
— Under grace, discerning God’s will is never about earning His guidance through performance but about receiving His direction as a gift of His grace.
— Philippians 2:13 (ERV) reminds us, “Yes, it is God who is working in you. He helps you want to do what pleases him, and he gives you the power to do it.” This means God not only reveals His will but also helps you desire it. Basically, He helps to convince you of it to the point where you want it. And then, after you want it, God gives you the power to accomplish it. This is all grace, and it makes our journey ALL ABOUT HIM!
That’s enough for today.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, I thank You that under Your grace, discerning Your will isn’t a mystery but a natural expression of our relationship.
I declare that through the Holy Spirit, I have direct access to the mind of Christ, enabling me to know Your thoughts and ways.
The Holy Spirit is my direct connection to You. Your Spirit puts Your thoughts in my heart and mind.
I embrace the transformation of my mind through Your Word and Your Spirit, making Your will clear and natural to me.
I receive the confidence that comes from knowing You desire to reveal Your will to me even more than I desire to know it.
I release all the stress associated with “missing” Your will, and I learn to rest in You. As I do, you put Your desires in me, convincing me to pursue what You want. And after you give me the desire, You also give me the power to bring it to pass!
This makes my life ALL ABOUT YOU!
I am living THE GRACE LIFE in 2025, and GREATER IS COMING FOR ME!
I declare this by faith, in Jesus’ name. Amen!
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and prosper!
