god's will

By Elizabeth Prata

“For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. “This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:38-40).

The word of God is so rich, isn’t it? Let’s focus on what Jesus said about His will and the Father’s will.

First, we see that Jesus has a will independent of the Father. He said ‘not my will.’ In no way are the members of the Trinity at odds with each other, Jesus is making the statement here that He is 100% submitted to the will and plan of the Father. But the other indication is that they are one Being in essence but three separate persons. And those persons, God, Jesus, Spirit, do have independent wills.

Gill’s Exposition on verse John 6:38 says,

It is readily granted that they are not one and the same person; they are two distinct persons, which sending, and being sent, do clearly show; but then they are one in nature, though distinct in person, and they agree in will and work. Christ came not to do any will of his own different from that of his Father’s; nor do these words imply a difference of wills in them, much less a contrariety in them, but rather the sameness of them. (Gill’s Exposition on verse John 6:38).

As interesting and mind-bending as that is, let’s take a look at what the will of Jesus IS. From The Will of Christ! at GraceGems, by William Nicholson, 1862:

The will of Christ refers,

1. To the place of happiness. “Where I am.” This, doubtless, refers to Heaven, the dwelling-place of the great King. There he sits at the right hand of God, angels, etc., being made subject unto him. It is there, that his divinity shines through the humanity with ineffable brightness, and there he is beheld in all the moral grandeur of the only begotten Son of God!

It is a Heaven of unspeakable grandeur. It is a house, in which there are many mansions. It is a building of God — it is a kingdom — it is an inheritance. The gates of the celestial city are pearls; its streets are pure gold; it has no need of the sun, Revelation 21:21, 23, 25. Of the glory and beauty of every other part of the universe, compared with the magnificence of Heaven, it may be truly said, that “even that which was made glorious, has no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excels.”

It is a Heaven of perfect purity. The “Holy One of God” dwells there, and no sin can exist where he resides. It is the “habitation of his holiness.” Revelation 21:27. O glorious Heaven, where sin will never enter to contaminate!

It is a Heaven of perfect happiness — of pure, boundless, and unmingled delight. Sin will be forever excluded; and as sin is the great source of every kind of misery, there will never be the least apprehension of the happiness of Heaven being interrupted.

It is the Heaven of immortality. The inhabitant will never say I am sick. Death will never depopulate that kingdom. Revelation 21:4.

In this glorious place, Jesus designs his people to dwell. There he lives and reigns. “Father, I will those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory!”

“Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will also write on him my new name!” Revelation 3:12

“To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne!” Revelation 3:21.

end William Nicholson

The Thanksgiving holiday here in the United States is coming up. There is much to be thankful for. When I ‘count my blessings’ I usually thank Jesus for the things He has given me; my car, apartment, job, friends… but He is so much more than the ‘thing-deliverer’. During this season of thanks, let us focus on who Jesus is, His attributes, and His person to cultivate a right perspective of the second Person of the God-head.

By Elizabeth Prata

A reader asked the question in the title. I appreciate questions like this, not only because it glorifies God to seek His will, and not only because I enjoy ministering to my sisters, but because questions based on the Bible drive me TO the Bible and researching helps me grow as well. The more we ask questions of the word of God, the more that the Spirit through His word will minister to us. Ask questions of your pastor, an older sister in Christ, and directly to the Word. The Spirit won’t answer back audibly, but the word IS living and active, and He will lead you toward holiness and sanctification because He leads us to and points to Christ always.

God’s will is that we strive toward holiness all the time, every day. He wills – commands – that we kill our sin and obey His holy precepts.

“We do not usually hear about a God who commands obedience, who asserts His authority over the universe and insists we bow down to His anointed Messiah.”
~RC Sproul, “Does God Control Everything?”

So often, Christians who want to obey become paralyzed with indecision, thinking if they go to this college, or join the Army instead of the Marines, or marry this woman and not that woman, they will destroy the path God has set out for them to follow. First, we puny humans can’t do anything to thwart God’s will for us. Second, His will is spelled out in Scripture.

Let’s begin with a simple assumption. Since God has a will for us, He must want us to know it. If so, then we could expect Him to communicate it to us in the most obvious way. How would that be? Through the Bible, His revelation. Therefore, I believe that what one needs to know about the will of God is clearly revealed in the pages of the Word of God. God’s will is, in fact, very explicit in Scripture. ~John MacArthur, Found: God’s WIll.

Be saturated with the things of Christ, absorb His Word, be consumed with His person.

That pamphlet explains 5 duties of Christians to follow His will, then a sixth (I’ll reveal it at the end!). As long as we are saved, submitted, striving along the road of sanctification, and periodically suffering, you’re in God’s will. After that, just decide.

Decision making is not a partnership, really, but we do decide things and at the same time, God is providentially ordaining it. We don’t understand exactly how this works, only that all the decisions made, for example, in the case of Joseph and his brothers, the brothers MEANT for evil but God MEANT it for good. He doesn’t just clean up the aftermath of any poor decisions, He ordains them…yet we also freely decide. Joseph’s brothers decided what to do with Joseph. Kill Him? No. Put him in a pit? Maybe. Sell him? Yes. They went through a decision making process, and came to a conclusion about what to do. (Bad decisions, obviously, but here, I’m just remarking that we freely decide what to do on a day by day or moment by moment basis, while God ordains it all for His glory and His plan).

Look in the Bible at how many times Paul said “I decided,” or “I resolved to”. In Titus 3:12 he decided to spend the winter in Nicopolis, he decided between Tychicus or Artemas as Titus’ replacement, he decided to send Onesimus back to Philemon. Paul decided to take Timothy with him (Acts 16:3). He was minutely directed by the Spirit to an exceptional degree as an Apostle, yet Paul still decided things. In 1 Corinthians 7:39 women decide to marry ‘whom they will’ (only in the Lord).

My best advice is to be in the word of God, every day or as nearly every day as you can be, keep praying for God’s will to be done, which includes us making the best, most moral, God-honoring decisions possible based firstly on biblical precepts but also on the best information we can find.

Wherever true religion is, there are vigorous exercises of the inclination and will towards divine objects…
Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections

God slowly aligns our desires with His will. At the end of MacArthur’s book Found: God’s Will, after spending a short amount of ink describing five principles for the Christian in decision-making, the sixth is “Do whatever you want!”

“If the five elements of God’s will are operating in your life, who is running your wants? God is!” he said.

Pursue holiness, seek Jesus, slay sin, and you ARE in God’s will. He will align your desires with His plan. We can’t know His specific plan for our lives, unlike Peter whom Jesus told that martyrdom awaited. But we can know He is ordering our lives according to His plan which will bring Him the most glory.

So otherwise, just decide on that life change, marry that woman, accept that job, and so on. Joseph had no idea that being in the pit, sold as a slave, languishing in jail, and being Pharaoh’s right-hand man would yield saving of the Egyptians and surrounding nations, and the return of his family safe and sound. But Joseph did know who was ordaining Joseph’s steps day by day, and he knew God always has a bigger plan. In his case, he discovered after, it was to keep many people alive.

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to do what has happened on this day, to keep many people alive. (Genesis 50:20).

Job never knew what the plan was or why the terrible things happened to him, but he still trusted God for the outcome. Despite his many tribulations, he never sinned against God with his mouth. After it was all over we know that God increased Job’s holdings again and gave him and Mrs. Job more children. Along the way, Job must have decided where to build his new house, and which cattle to breed, and so on. But God was ordaining it from above.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28).

HE knows His purpose. We’re just called to do His will in the generalities. Leave the specifics to Him, decided for yourself what’s best, and rest easy. And keep on truckin’!