How Do We Know If It Is the Will of God?
🌿 How Do We Know If It Is the Will of God?
“If you are with God in truth and faith, whatever comes as a blessing or trial will be what God allows.” — Prophet TB Joshua
Every believer eventually asks this question the moment trouble arrives: is this God’s will, or is this simply what happens when a person drifts from Him? Scripture and the life of Prophet TB Joshua both point to the same answer, and it is far simpler than most people expect.
On this page
- How can we discern God’s will
- It strengthens you, it does not destroy you
- Your sickness is not unto death
- It draws you closer to God, not away from Him
- It brings glory to God
- What we need God to be, He becomes
- God sees trials as challenges, not crises
- Trial within God’s will vs. consequence of disobedience
- How to align with God’s will
- Prayer
🔑 How Can We Discern God’s Will?
People spend years praying for a sign, when the real dividing line has been sitting in plain view the whole time. It is obedience. The will of God is not a mystery reserved for the spiritually elite. It is revealed the moment you ask a much simpler question: was I walking with God, in truth and in faith, when this happened?
If you were living in obedience, submitted to His Word, and something still came against you, that thing did not slip past God unnoticed. It passed through His hand first. But if you were living in compromise, hiding sin, ignoring conviction, then whatever consequence follows is not God punishing you out of nowhere. It is simply what disobedience always produces. A field left unplanted grows weeds, not because God cursed the field, but because that is what happens to ground you neglect.
Prophet TB Joshua put this exact principle plainly:
“When we talk of challenges, knowledge is not the key; obedience is.” — Prophet TB Joshua
He said something even more direct about how spiritual growth actually works:
“Physical growth is a function of time; academic growth is a function of learning, whereas spiritual growth is the function of obedience to the will of God.” — Prophet TB Joshua
This is why two people can walk through the same hardship and reach two completely different verdicts. One was in obedience, so the fire refined him. The other was in sin, so the fire simply exposed what was already burning underneath. The event looked identical from the outside. The cause was entirely different on the inside.
And no one can force you out of that place of obedience except you. Prophet TB Joshua said it this way:
“No mortal man or devil can supersede the plan of God for your life. There is only one person who can get you out of the will of God, and that is you.” — Prophet TB Joshua
Once you accept that, the question stops being “why is this happening to me” and becomes “where was I standing with God when it happened.” That single shift in the question is the beginning of real discernment.
💪 It Strengthens You, It Does Not Destroy You
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
— James 1:2-4
A trial that comes from God’s will always leaves you standing taller than it found you. It may bend you, it may cost you sleep, it may humble you in front of people you wanted to impress, but it will not leave you in ruins. God uses challenges to build character, perseverance, and faith, the same way a blacksmith uses fire to shape iron rather than to burn it to ash.
Compare two people going through financial hardship. One lost his income because he was faithful to his conscience and refused to falsify company records. The other lost his income because the fraud he had been running finally caught up with him. Both are without a paycheck this month. Only one of them is walking through a trial that will produce perseverance. The other is walking through the natural harvest of a seed he planted himself.
Prophet TB Joshua taught that this is actually a test of blessing, not a test of punishment:
“Those who bless God in their trials will be blessed by God through their trials.” — Prophet TB Joshua
He also warned against a very common mistake many believers make under pressure:
“You have been allowing challenges to destroy you instead of you to destroy challenges.” — Prophet TB Joshua
A trial within God’s will was never designed to bury you. It was designed to build something in you that comfort never could.
🩺 Your Sickness Is Not Unto Death
“This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”
— John 11:4
When Jesus received word that Lazarus was sick, He did not rush to Bethany the way any of us would expect. He stayed exactly where He was for two more days. To Martha and Mary, that delay looked like abandonment. To Jesus, it was the difference between a miracle of healing and a miracle of resurrection. By the time He arrived, Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days, long enough that no one present had any hope left to lose.
That is the pattern to notice. If sickness comes and it is part of God’s plan, He does not always remove it the moment you ask. He often lets it run its full course so that when deliverance finally comes, no one can credit anything but Him. The delay was never neglect. It was the setup for a glory too large to explain any other way.
This does not mean every sickness is automatically God’s will, any more than every hardship is. It means that when you are walking with God in truth and faith and sickness still finds you, you can trust that the same God who called Lazarus out of the grave is still able to call you out of whatever the diagnosis says. The outcome may take longer than your prayer list would prefer, but it will not end the way the enemy is hoping.
🕊️ It Draws You Closer to God, Not Away from Him
Trials within God’s will do something the world’s troubles never manage to do consistently: they deepen your dependence on Him. If you find yourself praying more, worshipping more, and trusting Him more in the middle of a difficulty, that is not a coincidence. It is evidence.
Think about a marriage under strain. One spouse responds to the tension by pulling away from God, growing bitter, quietly building a life outside the relationship. The other responds by praying harder for their spouse than they ever have, spending more time in the Word, refusing to let the difficulty become an excuse to walk away from God. Same trial. Two entirely different trajectories. Only one of them is bearing the fingerprint of a trial that came from God’s hand.
Prophet TB Joshua connected trial to intimacy directly:
“If you have decided to make Jesus Christ your source and your protector, get ready for trial.” — Prophet TB Joshua
A trial that draws you nearer to the throne rather than further from it is doing exactly what God intended it to do.
✨ It Brings Glory to God
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”
— Romans 8:28
Notice the wording carefully. It does not say all things are good. It says God works in all things for good, for those who love Him. There is a difference between calling something good and trusting that God can work good out of it. Whatever you are walking through right now, if it ultimately leads to God being glorified in your life, either through the deliverance He brings or the character He builds in you while you wait for it, it is within His will.
This is the test that filters out counterfeit suffering from true testing. Sin’s consequences rarely end in God’s glory. They end in shame, regret, and cleanup. A trial that comes from God’s hand, no matter how painful in the middle of it, always ends somewhere that points back to Him.
🦁 What We Need God to Be, He Becomes
During a trial, your faith determines how you actually experience God. Give in to fear or doubt, and your perception of Him shrinks to the size of your emotions. Stand firm in faith instead, and God becomes exactly what the moment requires.
Your Rescuer, as He Was for Daniel
“So the king gave the order, and Daniel was brought and thrown into the lions’ den. The king said to Daniel, ‘May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!’”
— Daniel 6:16
Daniel did not negotiate his way out of the den, and he did not have a contingency plan waiting in his pocket. He simply kept doing what he had always done: praying toward Jerusalem three times a day, in full view of anyone watching. When the stone was rolled away the next morning, Daniel gave the king an answer that still echoes through every generation since:
“My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight… no wound of any kind was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.”
— Daniel 6:22-23
Your Healer, as He Was for the Sick in Jesus’ Ministry
Throughout the Gospels, Jesus consistently became whatever the person in front of Him needed most. To the woman who had bled for twelve years and could not afford another physician, He became Healer the moment she touched the hem of His garment. To blind Bartimaeus shouting from the roadside while the crowd tried to silence him, He became sight itself. He never applied a single formula. He met each need exactly as it stood.
Your Provider, as He Was for the Israelites in the Wilderness
“Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘I will rain down bread from heaven for you.’”
— Exodus 16:4
There was no farmland in that wilderness, no market, no harvest. And yet for forty years, an entire nation ate bread that fell from the sky every single morning. God did not need a natural system to provide. He simply became Provider in a place where providing seemed impossible.
Whatever you are facing right now was never a surprise to Him. He is already positioned to become exactly what you need, on the condition that your faith, not your fear, is doing the asking.
🔥 God Sees Trials as Challenges, Not Crises
Our God never dodges a crisis. He views it as an opportunity to demonstrate His power and His faithfulness in a way that comfort never could have revealed. He is a God of fire, and the best way to fight fire is with His fire:
- God’s Word — speak His promises over your situation instead of speaking your fear over it.
- God’s Presence — worship and pray constantly, inviting Him directly into the middle of your circumstances rather than only calling on Him from a distance.
Prophet TB Joshua tied this fire directly to timing:
“As a Christian, when your trial is getting hotter, you are getting closer to your breakthrough! Keep pressing!” — Prophet TB Joshua
He also made clear that trusting God is not only a matter of prayer, but of posture:
“Trusting God does not consist in praying alone. There are times to pray in faith and times to act in faith.” — Prophet TB Joshua
Daniel’s three friends demonstrated this same fire-for-fire principle centuries earlier, standing in front of a furnace heated seven times hotter than usual:
“If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
— Daniel 3:17-18
Notice what Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to build: a backup plan. They did not hedge their answer with an escape clause in case God chose not to intervene. Just as Daniel relied solely on God in the lions’ den without seeking an alternative, his three friends walked into the furnace with the exact same posture. If any of them had kept a backup plan in reserve, the world would never have seen the power of the one true God walking with them inside that fire.
📊 Trial Within God’s Will vs. Consequence of Disobedience
The two can look almost identical from the outside. Only the fruit they produce over time reveals which one you are actually facing.
| Feature | Trial Within God’s Will | Consequence of Disobedience |
|---|---|---|
| Effect on you | Strengthens, refines, matures | Wears down, exposes, wounds |
| Direction of your heart | Draws you nearer to God | Pushes you toward hiding or blaming God |
| End result | Glorifies God | Produces shame and cleanup |
| Your posture in it | Worship, prayer, trust | Regret, denial, or self-justification |
| Need for a backup plan | None — faith stands on God alone | Often built to escape the consequences |
If you are honest with yourself about which column describes your current situation, you already have most of your answer about whether it is God’s will.
✅ How to Align with God’s Will
Stay in Obedience
Walk in truth and faith, following God’s commands as your default posture, not just your emergency response. When you are living in obedience, you can trust that whatever happens is within His will.Trust God Completely
Resist the urge to build alternatives or backup plans that quietly take the place of God. A backup plan is often just fear wearing the costume of wisdom.Respond to Trials with Faith
Instead of murmuring or doubting, praise God and declare His promises over your situation.“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.”
— Proverbs 3:5-6Prophet TB Joshua warned specifically against the murmuring response:
“Don’t murmur and rebel in your hour of adversity. Trust in God in every trial.” — Prophet TB Joshua
Use God’s Fire to Fight Challenges
Meditate on His Word to fill your heart with His promises before the trial arrives, not only after it does. Pray constantly to stay connected with Him, so that when the fire comes, you are already standing close enough to feel His presence in it rather than searching for Him from a distance.
🙏 Prayer
Lord Jesus, help me to walk in truth and faith so that I may always align with Your will. Teach me to trust You completely, even in trials, knowing that You are using every difficulty to take me to another level. Be my Rescuer, my Healer, my Provider, and my Defender in every situation. Let Your fire and Your presence guide me, and may Your will be done in my life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Before you close this page, sit with one honest question: when trouble found you the last time, were you walking in obedience, or were you already quietly compromising somewhere God could see and you could not?
Good Morning 🌄 and PROSPER ✨ today!
Let this blog stir your spirit. Share it with someone who needs to hear this today, and continue your walk with God in deeper intimacy at www.spiritworshipgen.org.
Please like, follow and subscribe to our social media channels:
Facebook: Generation of Spiritual Worshippers - GOSW
YouTube: @spiritworshipgen
X (Former Twitter): @gensworshipper
Instagram: @spiritworshipgen
References
How Do We Know If It Is the Will of God?
Published by SpiritWorshipGen – A Generation of Spiritual Worshippers