The Will Of God

The Will of God

We have made the will of God into something mystical and foggy. Therefore we are always looking for it, guessing about it, worrying that we missed, etc. I believe that we miss the specific will of God in our lives because we are ignorant or disobedient to His general will. If to offend in one point, is to break the entire law, then we cannot expect God to give us specific directions if we are not following His general ones.

The first things required of all men are that they repent and be saved, as the following verses illustrate:

Matt 9:13 But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. (KJV)

2 Pet 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (KJV)

Rev 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. (KJV)

It is clearly evident that He is willing to forgive and save, if we are willing to submit to His will. Unless we obey His will here, we can never expect specific direction to our life. Every person is given the opportunity to fulfill this will when they hear the Gospel. Unless they receive Christ as their Savior they cannot look for any other guidance because they have not fulfilled the first will of God.

We who are saved readily believe this and accept it as His will along with Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, Church Attendance, Bible reading, prayer, giving and so forth. Indeed, the Bible is THE will of God. It is full of general and specific directions for our life. We claim ignorance of His will and plead diligently for it when it is clearly before us. One would have to read and exposit the entire Bible to do a proper study of God’s will. I can only touch on a few things in this short study.

John 7:17 If any man will do His will he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.

18 He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. (KJV)

So why are we so befuddled? It is because humans tend to demand the mystical or the deeply intellectual. If the truth is too simple we don’t believe it or we believe it halfheartedly. Somewhat like when we say that something is so easy that it is hard. The reason it is so hard is that we have muddied the waters. Christ said that we needed the faith of a child to be saved. We should also walk in that childlike faith to do His will. I believe He wrote His Word so children could understand it. We are at our most mature state when we return in childlike faith and obedience to that Word.

I Cor 1:22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: (KJV)

American Christians appear to have the characteristics of both Jews and Gentiles. We want to have twittering feelings or lightning bolts hit us to know that God is speaking to us. God is often the still small voice (I Kings 19:11,12). We want to find some deep hidden secret in the Word to astonish our minds to know that God has meant this verse for us. God does not want us to skim over His Word (Josh 1:8) and He does reveal deep things to us (Dan 2:19-23), but they are not to be our motive.

I Cor 6:19 What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. (KJV)

Our biggest problem is that we are just too willful in our flesh to see that we are to be slaves to Christ. Yes, joint-heirs and the sons of God, but slaves nonetheless when it comes to our present life. Do you see anything in those verses that speak of our inalienable rights or personal freedom? Not hardly! It is the language of slavery. There is not a race or people that have not been enslaved somewhere in history. Americans have enjoyed national and personal freedoms for so long that we have no concept of slavery and what it entails. We do what we want when we want to and no one can stop us. It’s our life, our money, our time, and our right to the pursuit of happiness. And no one can tell us differently.