The Will of God? You decide..

The message this morning in church was about how to find the will of God. It certainly is the perennial question asked by all Christians, if not all the time, then at least at some point of their lives (and usually corresponding with some major event in their life like which job, marriage partner, and house, etc).

Everyone wants to know the will of God and as one would expect, countless of authors (each purporting to be an expert on the subject) have been ready to jump in on the bandwagon with the answers, resulting in hundreds of books selling thousands of copies. It’s definitely become big business.

The problem is that with many of these books offering different, sometimes conflicting suggestions, we are all left ‘none the wiser’. So here’s where today’s message comes in – to attempt to clear up some of the myths and mystique surrounding this area of the Christian life.

The preacher basically had 6 points to discovering and living within the will of God. I think there’re very sensible (although I agree with everything in principle, I would probably differ on some minor points).

First, in order for us to know the will of God we must be a Christian. This one sounds very obvious, but perhaps its basis needs to re-examined. Besides the fact that only a Christian will or should be asking that question, it is also because it is the most basic and clearest example of God’s will. His will, despite whatever the Calvinist might say to the contrary, is that God wants everyone, every human being, to be saved – to have a relationship with Him.

Second, we must be filled with the Holy Spirit. ‘Filled’ means ‘controlled’ and so the basic idea is that instead of trying to ‘get more of the Spirit’ which is what is taught in many Christian circles, we are to allow the Spirit to have more of us. It appears to be a subtle difference, one merely of semantics, but if you stop to think about it, it isn’t. Perhaps this story would help to illustrate this point. There was a famous preacher from days gone by named D.L. Moody who was a very sought after speaker. One day a church were discussing who to get in as their speaker for a conference, and when the name D.L Moody was brought up, someone spoke up and said ‘Why him? Does he have a monopoly on the Spirit?’ Another man at the table replied, ‘No, but the Spirit has a monopoly over him’. His life was completely surrendered and directed by God and that brought immense power.

Third, we must be set apart or sanctified. To this end, he said that we must abstain from sexual immorality. I know this one sounds a little out of place – I certainly thought so, but it is also one of the clear references in the biblical which uses the words ‘will of God’. Sexual immorality is defined as (1) premarital sexual relations; (2) post or extra marital sexual relations; and (3) anything which is likely to lead to (1) and (2) above. I think its stretching it quite a bit, but that ‘s just my opinion.

Fourth, we must be submissive. To the laws of the land, but also to all those who have authority over us. To be honest, I’m really glad that he specifically mentioned the employer/employee relationship. As you may have read in my previous entries, I do think that Christians use and misuse their Christianity as a licence to skive during work and rebel against their employers. Whether it is to use office time and/or equipment for their own use or to show their face to their bosses when instructed to do something by the boss (perhaps its to work overtime). Verses in support of this are contained in 1 Peter 2:13-18.

Fifth, we must suffer. What he means here is that if we do all of the above, we will inevitably experience persecution.

Now, here’s one area where I find myself disagreeing with his assessment. I do not necessarily believe that we will experience persecution. Of course this depends on your definition of persecution. If you refer to people pre-existing misconceptions or gripes against Christianity which will inevitably come out during conversations with them (even though they may know that you’re a Christian) then ‘yes’ we will inevitably face persecution. But if, as I would, understand persecution to be something far worse than that – where they will ostracise and hate you, then I think its usually (in my personal experience) not necessarily a natural or direct result of being a Christian. It seems to me that in most cases of such persecution, its because Christians go further than is necessary to ‘stand up for’ what they believe.

We need to realise, first of all, that much of Christian ‘convictions’ are not based on the bible. They are personal interpretations and/or applications of biblical principles and teaching. Some of them, as one would expect, are stretched way beyond the logical limits that were intended or possible. Next, being a Christian does not excuse or exempt us from being sensible and tactful when interacting with other human beings. There is a time and place for everything. Even if we disagreed with someone on any topic, it may not be the most appropriate thing to lodge our disagreement and differences in opinion or even to correct that person in the presence of everyone there. Furthermore, there are ways and there are ways to express differences. People, especially in this day and age, are able to appreciate differences in opinion, just as long as they can see that you still respect them as human beings and do not treat whatever they think or have to say as stupid. In other words, people tend to be quite tolerant of those who are also tolerant of others views and beliefs.

This I think is fair enough. After all, if you are not prepared to listen, understand, respect, and ‘agree to disagree’ with others, why should they give you that courtesy? Naturally, after a while, they would seek to exclude you from their company – hence you become ostracised. Its got nothing necessarily to do with the Christian faith, just some Christian’s stupidity, inflexibility, and intolerance (not to mention, their ‘holier than thou’ attitude).

Sixth and finally, we have to follow our desires. Wait a minute. Did you read this right?

Yes. He said that in order to find out the will of God, we have to follow our own desires. Of course this is not to be function independently of any of the points highlighted above. His rationale, which is supported by biblical principles and express provisions, is that if we have and maintain a close relationship with God, then He will put His desires in our heart. In this way, we are perfectly safe to rely on our desires. In other words, rather than seeing it written in the clouds or relying on coincidences, we can move forward on those things which we desire to and if God doesn’t want us to proceed, He’ll let us know. I guess this is to prevent the majority of Christians approach to not do anything unless and until they receive express and verified confirmation that it is exactly what God wants them to do. These people normally end up not doing anything at all!

I do believe that the substance of the message is very important and often missed by many. I would certainly agree with everything that was said in principle, although I would personally rather keep it a little more general.

Essentially, as I understand it, as long as we are following or attempting or struggling to follow the express will of God ie His word. We are able to find the ‘specific’ will of God in any and every situation in life. One way that would have a practical affect on our lives is that we are able to make decisions quickly, efficiently and accurately – by following our desires. The only thing I would add to this is that we are given the mental capacity to assess information and to make decisions. If we use that correctly, applying biblical principles along the way, we can have the confidence that it is God’s will for us in this area. Furthermore, it seems quite typical for us to only be able to know for sure that something is God’s will for us, in retrospect. Bottom line: if it wasn’t within His will, it wouldn’t have happened!

For me it simply means that if I know the bible reasonably well and I apply and follow those precepts, bearing in mind that they are high standards that cannot be met all the time, then we have the ability to carry on in life, knowing that God’s will is discoverable and that we are living within it, relying on our knowledge of His word, our mental facilities that He has equipped us with and by relying on our own desires.