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What is God’s Will?

The question of what is God’s will specifically for a particular individual arises fairly often. However, as much as some would like specific individual instructions (like who to marry, what job to take, or where to live) we at this time only have what might be called guidelines that we are left to apply. The nation of Israel was given ten commandments and approximately 600 laws which rabbinical scholars expanded to thousands of laws in the Mishnah and Talmud. Regardless of their best efforts, not every life contingency can be covered by a law. If it could, God would have created robots.

We know that God created two types of beings, humans and angels. The angels were created all at once and with what we might assume to be full understanding. Both groups were given free will. We can infer that about a third of the angels rebelled (Rev 12:4). Humans were to come into being sequentially each born in ignorance. We do not have any indication of a plan to redeem lost angles, but we can know that God had a plan to redeem lost humans from before creation (Eph 1:4). Jesus told the Samaratin woman that God seeks those who worship him in spirt and truth.

We might assume that by giving us and the angels free will, God had hoped that we would chose to be faithful to his way of running the universe, selflessness. One can observe in Satan and his angles as well as with most humans that the pursuit of selfish interests is a consumptive hunger that is never satisfied. Rockafeller was once asked how much money was enough. He answered always just a little bit more.

The opposite of the darkness of selfishness is the light of selflessness which we see in God (1 John 1:5). Light is an example of selflessness as it radiates outward giving illumination (showing truth and reality) as well as warmth (vitalizing energy). Christians are specifically called to this (2 Cor 5:15).

We can learn quite a lot about God’s will by extracting principles from the law for Israel (such as don’t kill, steal, or covet) and Paul’s exhortations (such as love one another, pray without ceasing, and walk by the Spirit). However, if we take a step backwards and look at a bigger picture, we can get a context in which to place what we can learn about God’s will from his word. The law given to the nation of Israel was useful in, not so much obtaining correct behavior, but in showing that we were not intended to be perfect by the law. Truth shows us we cannot keep laws (Gal 3:24, Rom 7:21). This is similar to human development in that a child needs the restrictions of rules, but as an adult has to be able to govern his own behavior.

We find an extraction of principles (reflecting the will of God) in the bible (Matt 22:37-40). As Christians, we have the advantage of the work of the Holy Spirit of truth within us. This allows us the grow in our understanding God’s will (Rom 12:1-2) (although this can be hindered by pride (Rom 12:3), we can reduce the selfish influence of the flesh (Gal 5:16), and become more open to seeing what we can do for others (Phil 2:2-5).

By looking at the ten commandments we can see how important it is to put God highest in our life, that coveting is very harmful to us, and that we shouldn’t hurt others. This alone helps us be able to apply God’s will on a daily basis. God’s will is not so much found in specific instructions, but rather in the selflessness of love (1 Cor 13:4-7) and the reflex of a heart in which his Spirit dwells and has the freedom to work.

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