We all want to do God’s will. We talk about the will of God for our lives, but we often struggle to know what His will for us is. We perhaps think that God’s will has to do with where we live, what we do, who we marry etc. It can and it does, but these are all details and peripheral to the perfect will of God. In His Word, God’s will has more to do with who we are and how we live than the “where” and “what” details in which we do His will.
Is God’s will the same for everyone or does His will differ from person to person? Let’s see what the Bible says.
Living according to God’s will or not, first, has eternal significance, according to John. He said that loving this world cancels out loving God. If we love the world and follow its dictates, everything we run after is transient. It will disappear. Only those who love God and do His will, will live eternally.
1 John 2:15-17 NLT
[15] “Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. [16] For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. [17] And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.”
My second consideration, then, is…do I want to do God’s will? If so, then I must cut ties with the world and its ways. The culture and practices of the world must never intrude into the way my faith in Jesus directs my life. I cannot serve two masters. I must choose my master and stick with my choice.
God’s perfect will is always done in His realm where His angelic hosts live in perfect union with Him, obedience to Him, and in harmony with one another. They have specific roles in His kingdom which they fulfil without question.
Psalms 103:21 NLT
[21] “Yes, praise the Lord, you armies of angels who serve him and do his will!”
So, Jesus taught His disciples to pray that God’s will be done in this realm, on earth, just as perfectly as it is done in heaven.
Matthew 6:9-10 NIV
[9] “This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, [10] your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
We know that His will is good, acceptable and perfect. We enter this awareness through our willingness to entrust ourselves entirely to Him, body, soul, and spirit, because of His mercy to us.
Romans 12:1-2 NIV
[1] “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. [2] Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Only as we entrust our lives to God and learn to think like He thinks, do we realise that what He wants for us is the best.
Once we have accepted that God’s will is always the best for us, regardless of what it is, thirdly, we are ready to carry out His requirements because we know He is sovereign and directs our lives towards His goal.
Let’s examine one of His clear directives.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 NLT
[18] “Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.”
This instruction teaches us that God wants us to pay attention to our hearts. When stuff happens, good or bad, we must decide who is responsible and what our attitude to our circumstances must be. If we are convinced that God supervises every detail of our lives, we can thank Him even in the difficult times because He has a plan. A thankful heart is one that trusts Him even in the dark because He is good and He knows where He is taking us.
There are many references but few specifics in Scripture relating to God’s will. We must deduce the details from His character and requirements. The best way to find out what He wants is to examine His commandments and His promises.
If God tells us to do something, it must be His will. In the Old Covenant, He gave detailed instructions to His people, 613 of them, to teach His people about His holiness, and their utter inability to satisfy His holy standards by their own efforts.
Romans 3:20 NLT
[20] “For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.”
Most of the time, they gave up on trying and went their own way with terrible consequences. God did not change His standards to meet them half way. He cannot, because He is God.
Instead, He sent Jesus, His Son, to pay for their failure, to restore them to His family as sons and daughters, and to provide help in the person of His Holy Spirit. He reduced all His 613 laws to two simple instructions that cover everything in principle that His Old Covenant laws had given them in detail.
1 John 3:21-24 NIV
[21] “Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God [22] and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. [23] And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. [24] The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.”
This is God’s will for His redeemed children in a nutshell. His will is expressed in two simple commandments and made do-able through His Spirit.
Believe in the name of His Son…faith in Jesus, entrusting ourselves uncondionally to Him, takes care of our past present and future. We give Him absolute allegiance and no longer go our own way. We lean all our weight on Jesus.
Love one another…living our lives by working out our faith in Jesus in the way we treat one another through the Holy Spirit, “Christ in us”. He wants us to show who owns us by the way we treat each other.
Not only does God tell us what He wants, He also provides the means by which we can do what He wants.
2 Peter 1:3-4 NIV
[3] “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. [4] Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”
God’s promises are a declaration of what He intends to do in us, so that we know where He is going when we hit rough patches. His destiny for us is nothing less than to perfectly resemble His Son.
Romans 8:28-30 NIV
[28]”And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. [29] For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. [30] And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”
God’s will is all about becoming like Jesus…and, from God’s perspective, it’s already done.
So, in actual fact, although we are the players in this game of life, God is the one who acts for us and in us to move us towards His goal. For example,
Ephesians 1:4-5 NIV
[4] “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love [5] he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will…”
Philippians 2:12-13 NIV
[12] “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, [13] for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”
This is the marvel and mystery of God’s will. He not only tells us what He wants us to do, but He also does it in us as we obey His Word and trust His Spirit who works in us.
Ephesians 1:11 NLT
[11]”Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.”
How wonderful is our God! He not only wants us to do His will and tells us what He wants but He also gave us His promises through which He does His will in and through us as we choose to obey Him. This is His guarantee that He will carry out His will on earth just as it is done in heaven.
So, although He directs us to where we should live, what we should do, who we should marry etc., in all these details He is using our circumstances to conform us to character of Jesus.