The view taken that we can not be certain that we are doing God’s will without having personal guidance and revelation from God is a most comfortable belief. But, many are paralyzed by fear that they may not be hearing God accurately, whether they believe that he speaks only through the Word or through personal revelation and guidance.  Confidence is accomplished by being responsible in our handling of the Word of God and our application of its principles in our lives. As important as it is to understand the will of God, it is more critical that we apply what we have come to accept as His will and live by it. Our judgment is not tied to how much we know, but whether we have done His will.
God isn’t revealing secrets from vague impressions and unctions of the Spirit’s activity within us.  What He has revealed is for us (cf. Deut. 29:29) and when it comes to decisions, we make them based on two general principles: (1) Our best judgment (2) Within the framework of what has been revealed (authority of Scripture). Our preference is the last consideration. However, it is common for people to start with our preferences, and then, pray that God gives us some sign or confirmation that the preferences are a part of His will. This is not taught in the Bible. As long as we make decisions that do not violate what has been revealed, God approves. He’s not waiting for us to ask Him to give us His will about which decision we should make. As long as we are not acting outside the authority of Scripture, doing our best to walk wisely, we need to act on it. Too many have conditioned themselves to think that God has a will for every decision we make in life. As we have shown in other blogs, this is far from the truth. God is not displeased with us for not obeying something He has not revealed in His word because that revelation is all-sufficient for our knowledge and obedience.