by Ivan Maddox
Atlanta, GA


What is the will of God?

All too many of us were taught that everything that happens is God's will. If someone got sick, God was teaching them something; if someone got well, God had healed them; if someone got rich, God gave them the money; if someone went bankrupt, God took the money from them; if someone died, God called them home. In short, God's will was whatever God did, or whatever God caused or allowed to happen.

This all sounds very logical, and gives us a convenient explanation for why things happen the way they do; but is this what the word of God teaches? Is it true?

"For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior;
Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth."
I Timothy 2:3-4.

"The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."
II Peter 3:9.

It is God's will that all men be saved, and that all men come unto the knowledge of the truth. It is God's will that no one should perish, but that all should repent. Yet not all have repented; not all have come unto the knowledge of the truth; not all have been saved. Clearly, not everything that God wants automatically happens.

Because we were taught that whatever happened was God's will, God's will was always a mystery to us until it happened. Because of this, we were usually in doubt about what we should pray for.

In the church I grew up in, we were taught to pray conditionally, to ask God to give us what we were praying for "if it be Thy will". If we received what we prayed for, then it was God's will for us to receive it; if we didn't, it was because it wasn't God's will for us to receive it. Always there was an element of doubt when we went to God, because we had no way of knowing what God's will was.

"And this is the confidence that we have in him [Christ], that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him."
I John 5:14-15.

When we pray, we are supposed to ask according to the will of God. How can we do that if we don't know what His will is? When we pray, we are supposed to have confidence that we will receive what we are praying for. How can we have this confidence if we have no idea what God's will is, or what we are supposed to be praying for?

The problem has been in our understanding of what the will of God is. The will of God is not something that happens to you; the will of God is what God wants you to DO.

"Not every one that saith unto me, `Lord, Lord', shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven."
Matthew 7:21.

"For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother."
Matthew 12:50.

"And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
Luke 12:47.

"I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgement is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me."
John 5:30.

"For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me."
John 6:38.

"Jesus answered them, and said, `My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me.
If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.'"
John 7:16-17.

Clearly God wants us to do His will. But how do we find out what God's will is? Do we look inside our own hearts?

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desparately wicked: who can know it?"
Jeremiah 17:9.

Do we look to other men to tell us what the will of God is? "...if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch."
Matthew 15:14b.

Do we look to the spirit to tell us what the will of God is? Yes; but we are warned:

"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world."
I John 4:1.

If none of these sources is completely trustworthy, how can we find out what the will of God is?

God's word is God's will! If something is specifically addressed in God's Word, you need look no further to find God's will. If it is not, ask God; He'll tell you.

To the extent that what your heart says, or what your church says, or what other men say, or even what the spirit says, agrees with what God's written word says, to that extent we can follow them, confident that we are doing God's will. To the extent that we follow any of these other sources of guidance without first checking their direction against the direction given by the word of God, to that extent we have allowed that source to take the place of God in our lives.

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths."
Proverbs 3:5-6.

God has promised that if we seek His guidance and direction in everything we do, He will direct us. That direction comes first and foremost from God's written word.

It is God's word that is a lamp to our feet, a light to our path (Psalm 119:105). We can choose to walk in its light, or we can rely on "alternative light-sources", which are guaranteed to lead us into a ditch.

God's will is no longer a mystery to us, if we want to know it. God has given us His word. God's word is God's will.

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