It stands to reason that to know God's will we must first have a meaningful relationship with God. Becoming a Christian in the New Testament begins with being reconciled to God and entering into a personal relationship with him. Jesus made this possible by dying for us on the cross and paying the penalty for our sins. What he asks of us is to acknowledge our need of forgiveness and reconciliation, repent or turn to God, and accept Jesus as our Saviour and the Lord of our lives. When we trust him to forgive and accept us, and surrender to him as Lord, he comes in the person of the Holy Spirit to take up residence within us.

As the Holy Spirit is the one who both gives us the desire to do God's will and enables us to do it, then one of the chief evidences that we have indeed received the Holy Spirit, and been reconciled to God, is that we really want to do his will. Our motivation for this is the gratitude we experience for all that he has given us in Jesus. Guidance is something that grows out of our relationship with him. The better we know God, the better we will be able to discern his will.

It is significant that the Greek verb "to call" occurs about 150 times in the New Testament, and in most cases it is used of God calling human beings. God is "he who called you" (Galatians 5:8; 1 Peter 1:15) and we are "called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28). He calls us first to be reconciled to him and then, being reconciled, to enjoy him in this life and the next, and to live a life that will prove worthy of that calling.

In order that we may have a balanced perspective on the subject of knowing God's will, I would suggest five basic principles.