Knowing the Will of God

Mr. Jacob Mathew (Pramod)

Perhaps one of the most widely asked question in the Christian faith is 'How do I know the will of God for my life.' May it be big decisions like whom should I marry? What career should my children choose? Is this the job for me? Or may it be small decisions in our daily life; we all know that in life when we come across such questions, the best thing to do is - seek the will of God, because He has the best for us. Some people think that God does not want us to know His will, some think He only reveals it to a few, whereas some think the will of God is some kind of mystical experience. Irrespective of the ideas of different people, we can be sure of one thing - God has a will for each one of us and He wants us to know it.

But before we talk about knowing His will, we need to know something fundamentally. In Matthew 6, Jesus taught us how to pray everyday and in that magnificent prayer, He said 'Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven'. We have to be concerned that His name is honoured, His kingdom is advanced and His will be done. This does not mean only on the general level - encompassing the whole world, but also at a personal level which means, I want your will to be done in my life, in my family, in my church and among the people I interact. We also have to be concerned that His will be done through us - for others too. This is where we start - praying that His will be done in us and through us. Jesus himself set this example for us when He prayed in the garden of Gethsemane "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will" (Mathew 26:39). So we see that, He wanted to do the will of God, irrespective of whether humanly He himself wanted to do it or not.

This is the most important mindset we need to have - Doing the will of God no matter what it costs me. If you are still obsessed with your will, your ambitions, your plans and your desires, you have little or no hope of knowing or fulfilling the will of God. In Ephesians 6:6, we see another expression which sums up our first point. The end of that verse says "doing the will of God from your heart". You do the will of God not reluctantly, not by grumbling or complaining but doing it with all your heart, no matter what price you may have to pay. You should be able to lay aside your own plans, your dreams, your longings and your ambitions to do the will of God. If you cannot do it, your will shall always conflict the will of God. In short, you can choose to live according to your own will or according to the will of God.

Keeping that fundamental point in mind, let us talk about the will of God. Biblically, the will of God can be divided into three distinct elements. The first element is - the will of purpose. This encompasses the eternal plan of God for this world. Bible talks about it in many places and one example is Jeremiah 51:29 (KJV) says "For every purpose of the Lord shall be performed." There is a will of God which He purposes and He makes it happen. He purposed to create this world, He purposed to create man, He purposed to elect Israel to be a nation through which He chose to bless mankind, He purposed to redeem mankind through the death of Jesus and His resurrection, He purposed to send the Holy Spirit and establish His church, He purposed the church to go to the ends of the earth and preach the gospel, At the end of the age, He has purposed the rapture , He has purposed the Great Tribulation, He has purposed the second coming of Christ to establish a thousand year millennial kingdom, He has purposed the destruction of all ungodly men, Satan and his demons in hell, He has purposed the establishment of the new Heaven and the new earth and the eternal state of His people. This eternal redemptive plan of God is His will of purpose and every purpose of the Lord shall be performed.

The second element of God's will is - His will of desire. This means He wills things which do not happen. There are things which are unpleasing to Him. Ezekiel 18:23 says "Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?" In Luke 13:34 Jesus desired that Jerusalem be saved, but that did not happen. Jesus desired that his own people accept Him, but that did not happen, instead they hated Him so much that they crucified Him. So there is a part of God's will that does not get fulfilled. Hell was created for Satan and his demons. God does not desire that men end in hell, but people who hate God and refuse to obey the gospel will ultimately end up in hell. So first, there is a will of purpose which He always accomplishes and second there is a will of desire which happens against His pleasure.

The third element of God's will is - His will of command. God has revealed a written will for us in the bible. He desires that His written will is manifested in our lives. This element of His will is what specifically concerns us. If you belong to God, if you desire to know and do His will, no matter what the price, then you first need be in His written will. If you are in His written will, you will surely know His will, which specifically concerns your life. On the contrary, if you are not in His written will, you have no hope of knowing His will. So let us look at His written will.

First - it is God's will that you be saved. 2 Peter 3:9 (KJV), says "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is patient towards us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance". God does not want you to perish eternally in hell, but God wills that you be saved by coming to repentance. God has revealed to us His eternal plan of final judgment in the book of Revelation and we should not think that He is slow in fulfilling that plan. He is extremely patient towards us, so that we all repent and live our lives pleasing unto Him. Therefore, if you are not saved, there is no way of experiencing the will, which God has for the saved. A parallel to the 9th verse above is 1 Timothy 2:3-4 which says "God our Saviour, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth". How are we saved? Ephesians 2:8 says "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast". So being saved is a gift from God. If you are saved, then some of the characteristics of your new life will be the absence of pride, an ever increasing love for God, greater love for all people, people you love and people you did not love, an ever decreasing love for money and material possessions in this world, a greater desire to know God and His word, a greater hatred for sin, a greater desire for holiness and a greater desire to be useful for the kingdom of God. So to know the will of God, you first have to be saved.

Second - it is God's will that you be filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 5:17-18 says "Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit." This produces communion with God, this produces intimacy with God, and this produces the knowledge of the mind of God. All truly saved believers have the Spirit of God. If you do not have the Spirit of Christ, you do not belong to Christ. (Romans 8:9). You are not a Christian if the Spirit of God does not live in you. The idea here is to be filled. We have heard terms like "filled with sorrow", "filled with anger", "lost his temper" and "filled with fear". All this terms mean that the person at that moment was driven to act by the emotion which controlled them. They did not have any control over themselves. It means total loss of your own ability to control your own self. So to be filled with the Spirit means, you no longer have any control over your own life, but the

Holy Spirit drives your life. You don't have a will of your own, you don't have any goals or ambitions of your own, expect those that belong to the Spirit of God. It means your life is totally dominated and controlled by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God controlled men who wrote the scriptures. Ephesians 5:19-33 to Ephesians 6:1-9 tells us about the effects of being filled with the Spirit. You start speaking to each other in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, you sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, you praise Him every moment, and you give thanks and acknowledge God in everything you do. Then you submit to each other in reverence for Christ. If you are a wife, you submit to your husband, if you are a husband, you love your wife, if you are children, you obey your parents, if you are parents you do not provoke your children to anger, but you will raise them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, if you are an employee you are obedient to your employer and if you are an employer, you will take care of your employees. All relationships and all areas of life are affected by it. A parallel passage to this is Colossians 3:16-23. Verse 16 says "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly...." This passage has all the effects described above in Ephesians 5, but the cause is the word of Christ. So we can conclude that if the effects in both the passages are same, then the cause in the both the passages should also be the same. So in short, to be filled with the Spirit also means, the Word of Christ should dwell in you richly. The Word of God controls and dominates your life. Everything you do, in personal life, in your family, in your social life, in your church life is controlled by the Word of God. Evaluate your own life and see if it is controlled by the word of God, because if it true, then the effects described here should be visible in your life.

Third - it is the will of God that you should be sanctified. 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 says "It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality". Sanctified means to be holy, pure, separated from sin. It is God's will that you keep yourself away from sexual sin. How far - Far away to be holy, far away to be unspotted, unstained, far away from any illicit thought coming to your mind, far away from any of its influences. That is the first principle here. Secondly, handle your body, your thoughts and your emotions so that it honours and glorifies God. Do not do anything which dishonours Him. Third principle here is - do not operate in lustful passions like godless people or the culture around you who do not know God. Do not fall into those traps which Satan uses to tempt you. Do not behave like they behave, because that is not the will of God for you. The culture around you says, if you want it, have it and then they will justify it. Stay away from any form of influences which tempt you into sexual sin. James 1:13-15 says that God does not tempt anyone, but man is tempted by his own evil desires. Most temptations in our life are the result of where we spend most of our time physically or emotionally. Pray when you are tempted and God will deliver you. The fourth principle here is - Don't ever take advantage of another person sexually. Never cross that line. Do not deprive that person of their virtue, of their holiness, of their purity. Do not do that. That's God's will. It is very serious because God will punish men for such sins (verse 6). God called us to live holy lives. And if you reject this instruction, you are rejecting God himself (verse 8).

Fourth - it is the will of God that you obey the Government. 1 Peter 2.13-15 says "Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God's will...". Romans 13:1-7 says "...they are ordained by God". Even though the government is not a God honouring government, you still obey it because by doing this you will silence the people who criticize Christianity. We need to live godly lives in an ungodly society, because that is the will of God. Fifth - it is God's will that you suffer for doing what is right. 1 Peter 3:17 says "It is better, if it is God's will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil." This is really important because if you are saved, filled with spirit, sanctified and submitting to the authorities, then your life will collide with people around you, who do not live such a kind of life. Some level of persecution will come; some level of suffering will come. God uses suffering in our life to perfect us, to mould us, to humble us and help us to grow spiritually and have complete dependence on Him. The point here is that we do not compromise. If it is difficult to live our Christian life in school, we compromise, if it is difficult to live our Christian life among friends, we compromise, if it is difficult to live our Christian life in our job, we compromise. But the will of God is that we do not compromise. Please God rather than pleasing men. Keep doing what is right, believing and proclaiming what is right and if you have to suffer, you suffer. Do not retaliate but keep Jesus as your model and suffer patiently and silently (1 Peter 2:20-23).

When we are saved, God gives us His Spirit. When He gives us His Spirit, He wants us to be holy and we can be holy, not by our own ability, but by the power of the Spirit who lives in us. He directs our lives as He pleases. So we see that the will of God for us is to be saved, filled with Spirit, sanctified, submitting to the authorities and to suffer for doing right. You may ask "what about the will of God for my life?" Psalm 37:4 says "if you delight in the Lord, he will give you the desires of your heart. Here it does not mean that He will give you all that you want. It means He will cause you to desire what He wants and you will end up knowing and doing His will.