Numbers 23:13 — And Balak said unto him, Come, I pray thee, with me unto another place, from whence thou mayest see them: thou shalt see but the utmost part of them, and shalt not see them all: and curse me them from thence.

You know why we have trouble knowing God’s will sometimes? It’s because we don’t really want it. In fact we probably even know it. The trouble is, we know God’s answer isn’t the answer we want — so we’re going to keep on looking until we find the “right” answer.
Balak and Balaam are the biblical poster children for this kind of “answer shopping”.
When Balak sent messengers to Balaam to come and curse the Israelites, God told him not to go. When Balak sent another set of messengers, Balaam didn’t just say “We talked about this …no”. He said, “Let me see if God has a better answer.”!
When Balaam blessed the Israelites instead of cursing them — because that’s what God told him to do, Balak didn’t say “OK, they’re blessed, how can I help?”. He said, “Let’s try over there, and see if God has my right answer”.
It’s easy to get all superior about the silliness of Balak and Balaam (and the story of Balaam’s ass is funny) but at one time or another we all make their mistake … Some of us more often than others!
So let’s suppose you have a decision to make. How do you know God’s will? You’re a good Christian, so you go to the Bible. You don’t find your exact case … Which is true 90% of the time. What do you do? You phone a friend, right?
You explain the situation, the decision you need to make to your friend. She doesn’t see it the way you want her to do. What do you do? If you’re like me, sometimes you go to another “trusted advisor” … and keep going until you get the “right” answer. Sometimes you even convince yourself that God wants you to be happy (I’m not sure the Bible really says that) so He’d expect you to decide things the way you would like them to be!
What’s wrong with this story?
We went wrong at the first step. When it comes to the will of God, and knowing what to do. The Bible has a lot more principles than prescriptions. Chances are, if you can’t find the applicable principle you already know the answer and you’re avoiding it (and the same goes for me too!). But maybe — just maybe — you really can’t find the guiding principle. Then by all means get the advice of that godly friend … and ask for the Biblical principle that supports the guidance. When you get the first Biblically supported answer, stop looking.
One last thing …this works backwards. When you find God’s will, it’s not always easy to follow — but when you follow God’s will, it’s gets easier to find!