King David knew God and His will, and how you can know too
If we have a difficult decision, we can ask God. But it is harder to discern His answers and His will if we haven't already put in the time to get to know Him.
One of my favorite examples in the Bible of knowing God's will (and there are many examples there) is King David. King David was human and by no means perfect, none of us are, but he did seek to know God. He knew God well enough to know His will and His desires for some situations - but not others, as you will see if you read 2 Samuel 11 where David had Uriah killed, against God's wishes.
In the situation where David knew God's will, Saul had tried to kill David many times. If David had the opportunity to kill Saul, no-one would have blamed him for doing so. Yet David knew that this was not God's will. Let's take a look:
Then David set out and came to the place where Saul had encamped; and David saw the place where Saul lay, with Abner son of Ner, the commander of his army. Saul was lying within the encampment, while the army was encamped around him.
Then David said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Joab’s brother Abishai son of Zeruiah, “Who will go down with me into the camp to Saul?” Abishai said, “I will go down with you.” So David and Abishai went to the army by night; there Saul lay sleeping within the encampment, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head; and Abner and the army lay around him. Abishai said to David, “God has given your enemy into your hand today; now therefore let me pin him to the ground with one stroke of the spear; I will not strike him twice.” But David said to Abishai, “Do not destroy him; for who can raise his hand against the Lord’s anointed, and be guiltless?” David said, “As the Lord lives, the Lord will strike him down; or his day will come to die; or he will go down into battle and perish. The Lord forbid that I should raise my hand against the Lord’s anointed; but now take the spear that is at his head, and the water jar, and let us go.” So David took the spear that was at Saul’s head and the water jar, and they went away. No one saw it, or knew it, nor did anyone awake; for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen upon them.
1 Samuel 26: 5 - 12
In this passage, by human reasoning, it would have made sense for David to kill Saul. Abishai clearly states this reasoning. However, David knew that this was not God's will. David explained that Saul was God's anointed and it was up to God to strike him down, not David.
A question that I often posed when I was younger was "how do people know what God's will truly is?" I used to wonder if David just guessed! Now I know that there was no guessing involved. Instead, David knew God's will through reading the Bible and prayer. David sought to truly know God, not just to "tick the boxes", but to actually have a relationship with God.
As we spend time with God, through prayer and Bible reading, we know Him more and more. As we know Him more and more, we have an easier time knowing His will for a situation. This is something similar to when we know a friend or relative more and more, we know their likes and dislikes - we almost can't help knowing their likes and dislikes!
So knowing God and His will is not something that is only reserved for David and other people from the Bible. It is something we can know too.
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