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Is "finding the will of God" really a pagan notion?

...Many Christians talk about "the will of God" as though it were a version of the old con man's ruse, the three-shell game. You remember the game: A pea is hidden under a walnut shell; two other walnut shells are placed on either side of the first, then all three are quickly moved around the table. The con man then asks you, the spectator or "mark," to guess which shell the pea is under. No matter which shell you guess, you are always wrong. You can watch as carefully as possible, trying to unlock the secret of the manipulations, but you can never quite keep up with the manipulator.

When I hear Christians talking about the will of God, they often use phrases such as "If only I could find God's will" as though He is keeping it hidden from them, or "I'm praying that I'll discover His will for my life, " because they apparently believe the Lord doesn't want them to find it, or that He wants to make it as hard as possible for them to find so that they will prove their worth.

Unfortunately, these concepts do not mesh with the balance of Scripture. Isaiah tells us that "there is no one worthy," and the story of the Old Testament is that man, no matter how hard he tries, can never attain to God. If we really believe in God as the perfectly loving Father, we can do away with our notion of Him as an almighty manipulator and con man. ...

...The word "finding" we normally use in the sense of learning or obtaining or attaining to God's mind. When we seek to "find" God's will, we are attempting to discover hidden knowledge by supernatural activity. If we are going to find His will on one specific choice, we will have to penetrate the divine mind to get His decision. "Finding” in this sense is really a form of divination.

This idea was common in pagan religions. As a matter of fact, it was the preoccupation of pagan kings. Most of our texts from the ancient Near East pertain to divination. The king would never act in something as important as going into battle until he had the mind of the god as to whether he should or should not go to war. Many Christians follow this same path in seeking the divine mind in decisions. I have talked with people who perform certain rituals before going to God with an important request, as though they could make themselves more acceptable to God and therefore be more likely to get an answer. But that sort of pagan behavior is what Christ saved us out of. We don't have to slaughter lambs or make great promises or offer special sacrifices as a means of bargaining our way into the presence of God. Christ, with His death on the cross, tore apart the veil in the Holy of Holies. Access to God is no longer limited to one human priest providentially born to the right family, who came to the Lord on behalf of the chosen people. You now have access to God through Jesus Christ. You now have guidance from God through the Holy Spirit. Perhaps the problem is that not enough Christians are walking in close relationship with the God who loves them.

The New Testament gives no explicit command to "find God's will," nor can you find any particular instructions on how to go about finding God's will....