Years ago I had a vision in which I saw a dam. On one side was a mighty river, but on the other side was dry, cracked earth.

I understood that the river represented the glory of God and the dry ground represented the world. I knew intuitively that the river was supposed to flood the dry ground, as the Scriptures say: “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Hab. 2:14, KJV). But the dam’s mighty wall seemed impenetrable.

Suddenly I saw something else. Tiny cracks began to form in the wall, and razor-sharp spurts of water were shooting out of these broken places. Soon larger and larger chunks of the wall began to fall away until water was pouring in from all sides. Suddenly, in one moment, the entire wall was swept away, and the river flooded the dry ground, leaving no place untouched.

I knew instinctively that those cracks in the wall represented “broken” men and women. They are those who have surrendered their lives to God, praying with Jesus, “Not my will, but Thine, be done.” Suddenly I knew how the glory of the Lord would cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. In fact, it is through these people that, even now, the kingdom of God is invading the fallen world.

God’s eternal glory will penetrate the natural world through broken men and women. And when the kingdom of God comes into contact with the fallen world, we begin to see heavenly effects: the sick are healed, the dead are raised, bondages are broken, and the supernatural begins to happen.

This is exactly what Jesus demonstrated when He was on earth. “Not my will, but Thine, be done” was not just a prayer Jesus prayed one time before His crucifixion. This was the unvarying posture of His heart. He was always living and walking in perfect submission to the will of God. Everywhere Jesus went, He taught about the kingdom, but He didn’t just talk about it—He demonstrated it!

First, the kingdom was inside of Him because He was perfectly submitted to His Father’s will. And consequently, the kingdom was manifest wherever He went: the sick were healed, the dead were raised, and demons fled. “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” was not Jesus’ hopeful musing for an imaginary utopia.

Jesus fulfilled His own prayer and showed us how it will be answered. Through Jesus, God’s will was being done on earth as it is in heaven, and this is what God desires to do through our lives as well. But it all begins when we come to a place where our will is submitted to God’s—“Not my will, but Yours, be done.” It is in this place of submission that we will discover and fulfill God’s will for our lives.

The Greek term seek is an action word. It is ongoing and continuous. This is important to understand because discovering God’s will for our lives is not simply a destination to be reached; it is a posture of the heart. It is not simply a matter of choosing the right career path or marrying the right spouse. It is an ongoing stance of submission to God’s will above our own. It is a lifelong prayer: “Not my will, but Thine, be done.”

As long as we live, we must continue to follow and obey. Discovering God’s will for our lives happens daily as we constantly and faithfully seek to know and to do His will.

As we travel on the journey of discovering God’s will, the narrow road cuts through a dark valley where God tests our hearts and breaks us. The breaking process is uncomfortable but very important to endure if we want to see God’s will done in our lives.

The valley of brokenness is where we learn to say, “Not my will, but Yours, be done.” This brokenness, while painful, releases amazing power and makes us useful to God. When a cowboy wants to harness the potential of a beautiful and powerful stallion, he sits on the horse’s back. This is very uncomfortable to the animal. It has always been its own master. It has always done what it wanted to do. And when the cowboy begins to exert his will over the horse’s, a desperate struggle ensues. The horse begins to kick and thrash and buck in an attempt to throw the cowboy off its back. But the trainer will keep getting back on the horse and keep riding it until it stops kicking and bucking. The cowboy knows that until the horse’s will is broken, it is of little use.

So it is with God’s people. Until we are broken, we are of little use to God’s kingdom.

When God told Gideon he would become a mighty deliverer of Israel—and Gideon finally believed Him—the once-fearful warrior may have pictured himself riding on a noble steed, commanding a legion of soldiers in glorious battle array.

But God had something very different in mind. Gideon would not have a legion of warriors at his command, only a ragtag gang of 300 roughnecks. There were no archers, no cavalry and no infantry. They were not outfitted with the latest battle equipment—no swords, shields or spears. Instead, they carried curious trumpets and jars of clay.

Finally the moment came for Gideon and his men to face the innumerable hordes of the Midianite army. In obedience to God’s command, they broke their jars of clay, in which were hidden fiery torches. They blew their trumpets and began to shout. The Bible says the Midianites were thrown into confusion, and Israel won an unlikely victory. (See Judges 7.)

Paul, speaking about the power of God, says in 2 Corinthians 4:7, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” (NIV). Before the great power that is inside us can be unleashed, we must be broken like Gideon’s clay jars.

This Bible study has been taken from chapter 7 of Daniel Kolenda’s new book, Live Before You Die, which is not only a wake-up call for you, but also offers practical, scriptural insights on how you can discover and fulfill God's will for your life.

Daniel Kolenda is a missionary evangelist who has led more than 10 million people to Christ face-to-face through massive, open-air evangelistic campaigns in some of the most dangerous, difficult and remote locations on earth. He is president and CEO of Christ for All Nations and hosts an internationally syndicated television program.

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