What is the will of God and how do we know It?
The will of God is not just a passive plan or the blueprint for His creation. Rather, it is as vast as God’s entire plan for creation and from the standpoint of objective content, it seems to be settled and unchanging. That means, it does not change.
Every Christian is interested in knowing God’s will in their life. But the question is, what is God’s will and how can we know it? The will of God is not meant to be a secret, it is something that we need to seek out and uncover. God wants us to understand His will far more than we want to understand it but the point is that we always want to impose our will on God.
“Before we were born, in fact, right at the inception ” God had planned our route on “Earth” and how He wants us to achieve it however, as humans, we usually want the easy way out of everything. But God always makes His will clear to those who seek it with an obedient heart. Remember that the will of God is not simply a passive plan, rather very often the old testament describes God as accomplishing His will in our life. Like we read in Psalms 115:3 & 135:6, “Our God in heaven does whatever pleases Him” and whatever He has planned (His will), He Himself will bring to pass.
God’s will, is something that will surely happen no matter what and consequently, the development in understanding of the will of God is at the guidance of the Holy Spirit and as it is revealed in the old testament, God in one sense may be seen as the initiator in the execution of His will. This is reinforced in Matthew 6:10 “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”.
Jesus’s life and teaching as recorded in the Gospels bear witness to the importance of the concept of the will of God for His understanding of His own place and that of His followers in the redemptive history. Jesus modeled for His disciples a life lived in perfect conformity with God’s will and demonstrated that this life did not always take the easy course.
As Jesus prayed to the Father, he acknowledged both the strength of His own will and His commitment to Gods. “My Father, if it is possible, take this cup of suffering from me. Yet not what l want , but what you want .”My Father , if this cup of suffering cannot be taken away unless l drink it, your will be done ” (Matthew 26:39, : 42 ).
The Bible tells us that it is God’s will that none would perish (2 Peter 3:9), and we understand this to mean that salvation for everyone is what God wants. So let us seek the will of God through prayer so that He can reveal it to us for throughout history, we see that God reveals His will to all who truly seek Him.
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