The Will of God
All human beings are hard-wired to have needs fulfilled in order to live in a state of comfort. Christians in particular are those called to have faith, see God’s hand, and believe Him in the context of their lives. They too need a form of “comfort” (or at least sense of purpose, etc.) in the context of their spiritual lives.
The Bible says the highest purpose of the Gospel is that all glory goes to God. All of God’s creation is in rebellion. The more thoroughly we obey Him, the higher glory He receives in the overarching will of His plan of redemption and the kingdom of God.
Do you say, “loving God,” and “loving one another” is the highest purpose? That certainly is God’s will and command – the fulfillment of the whole law in fact – but this love ultimately gives glory to God, so there is no contradiction.
Do you say the Great Commission and saving lives is the highest purpose? This, God’s will, also brings glory to God, so again there is no contradiction. Do you say turning back the works of darkness, and defeating the kingdom of Satan is the highest purpose? This, God’s will, also brings glory to God, so without contradiction for this and any other stated cause under the general umbrella of the gospel and will of God, they all stand to bring glory to God.
We live first for God’s good pleasure. It is God who deserves all glory!
In heaven, we shall worship and praise God, forever giving Him glory in a feast of mutual love far beyond this cold, sinful world. Even now, all creation is called to do nothing that does not give Him glory; all of our works done in Him can do nothing but give Him glory.
Works of fleshly humans however, done outside His will, do not bring glory such as He would have it. It is only His working in among the mixed deeds of fleshly humans that brings Him glory – in spite their wayward ways and motives.
God’s Will
In the post-Reformation Christian world, Christians like to comfort themselves with thoughts of their lives fitting into the will of God. The promises of God were actually written to those on the narrow way, and living according to the model and spirit of the apostles’ doctrine, but human nature is what it is.
Common sayings that become truisms such as “God is in control,” and “God works in all things,” and “greater is He that is in you, than He that is in the world,” etc. hearten believers, but let’s get clear about how this actually works.
God has given man a free will thus man can work against the will of God. The evil spirits also have a free will, and it is certain they are working against God. It has become a truism that God, who works in all things, is working His plan to usher in the end of the age.
If anyone thinks it is God’s express and perfect will that human history or church history went precisely according to God’s will, then they surely have a nearly Calvinistic predestination sensibility, as though God is the puppet master.
Such a viewpoint can hijack the scripture behind its meaning that God “lifts one up, and puts another down, as it pleases Him,” and lay at His feet responsibility for all man’s doing – but the scripture does not bear this mythical, confused perspective out.
Psalm 78:40,41 – How often they provoked Him in the wilderness, And grieved Him in the desert! 41 Yes, again and again they tempted God, And limited the Holy One of Israel.
Matthew 23:37 – “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
It is absurd to suggest that all is God’s perfect will, as though He premeditated it, and made it happen like one giant theater. The Word says God’s people may “limit the Holy One of Israel” and the cry of Jesus, as God on earth, was one of lament over such doings.
Flash forward to today: The circumstances we in the Christian world have of divisions, strife, carnality, and conflicting doctrines of strong-willed people deeply programmed with opposing and uncomplimentary views, was not God’s will.
They got to this state against God’s full will. We know this because the Bible is clear on what God’s full will for His people in this age was:
Matthew 16:18 – And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
John 13:34-35 – A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Ephesians 2:19-22 – Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:7 – But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?
John 17:20-23- “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
If Christians want to set their perspective aright, they ought to understand that God’s actual will was the fulfillment and full effect of a “better covenant with better promises.”
God sent His precious Son to form His Bride – a holy people as testimony to all. He did not let Jesus go to the cross for the intent of creating mediocrity, defeat, and failure.
The Lord lived, died, and rose again to usher in the New Covenant. God gave His best as a free will love offering, and if men and women of faith had returned in kind, THEN His will in full would have been fulfilled.
A Church God Would Build
This was God’s actual will: The testimony of people surrendered to Christ in them, the hope of glory – to those who obeyed Him, and ultimately all glory goes to God in a glorious cycle of glory.
God’s will was these people would love Him and one another with His own love. They would be “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone.” They would be “fitted together” and “built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”
“How will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?” asked the apostle Paul in the inspiration of that same Spirit.
The “glory” of the church that Jesus would build – remember the prime dictate of “glory” – would be greater than when Moses came down from the mountain after seeing God face to face. That is very glorious!
This holy people, called out to God because the great God by His Spirit enabled and guided them would be all of one, said the Lord, “as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.”
“And the glory which You gave Me I have given them,” said the Lord – again repeating the theme of glory to God – “that they may be one just as We are one.”
Jesus’ will was His prayer: “I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”
If God’s people had followed His will as revealed in the one reliable revelation of His will, the New Testament, the above realities and other aspects the Word speaks of would have changed church history and be in play today.
It would be of love, unity, and God would be glorified.
Now, ask yourself: Does this describe a common church experience? Does this describe how the world sees Christianity – as more glorious than Moses where the presence of God is evident by the character of a holy people all united in one?
Reality Check
It should be plain to anyone spiritually honest that God’s whole will was not performed over the past 2,000 years. To say otherwise would lay at God’s feet the responsibility for countless martyrs who became so at the hands of those who called themselves “Christians.”
But some will say God’s will is always done. True, but that’s a qualified statement. If it is the case that God’s will cannot be opposed, then at best this is true in that it was “His will” that man be permitted to exercise his own will. It was not God’s first desire that man not love, obey, and believe Him, but He abides by the laws he set up.
What we have is not plan A, but rather some other plan and God does and is doing damage control to bring people to a place where they can hear and obey Him.
Let no one be deluded: If God were “in control” as today’s Christians who’ve not thought it through may loosely say, it would lay at God’s feet responsibility for millions who went to hell because God’s people through the centuries lived carnal lives below what the Bible calls for.
To say God was “in control” as some may presume to would also lay at God’s feet so many other things: “holy wars,” individual lives and whole geographical regions lost to darkness. It would make Him the One responsible for so many atrocities and sad occurrences right on up to the present fact of today’s divided, defeated, lukewarm Christians who have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof.
Ezekiel 33:11 – Say unto them: ‘As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?’
If God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but many wicked die, how can anyone suggest that was God’s will in any absolute sense?
Revival
Now take note: Any would-be reformer should get really clear on this before cavalierly casting about truisms about God being “in control” and “working in all things” in the absolute sense that can be implied. God needs the will of man to cooperate with His will. We are called “co-laborers” and this is His will.
Contrarily, the Bible says God’s people may “limit the Holy One of Israel” and they do! Is it true God works in all things? Absolutely, but get clear on any “plan” you think He is now working, all you who hope to see “revival” or “reform.”
God must work within the framework of laws He set up. He has made it so. So, without contradiction, God IS “in control,” and He DOES “work in all things,” but let us not accept fallacies about how this plays out.
Fact: Much defeat, loss, failure, and death has happened for 2,000 years to the present. God has had to work within the macrocosm of sinful people He permitted to have free will and a measure of control themselves – and of course the evil spirits aiding and abetting the whole state of affairs.
Do you want to see the glory of God in your neck of the woods? Do you have faith? Indeed, it is God’s will, but let us not kid ourselves about the inevitability of anything, nor does order arise naturally out of chaos.
Since God changes not, and the covenant promises and commands are not revocable, it remains His will to create these conditions to those who obey Him, are surrendered and vessels through whom God can move.
God’s prescription for the kingdom to come in our midst depends upon us getting on plane with His agenda – truly, not in presumption, delusion, or with shallow minded optimism. The Spirit must be given His proper place! Jesus is the builder of the church.
Although we may want the conditions of love and unity and Christ having the preeminence, and need it so badly, we must step back and be real about where we are, how we got here, what’s keeping us here. We must know what God will really do among the disobedient.
God has let them stay disobedient and leave a trail of death and failure!
In recap: what we have today is NOT God’s first will, but He allowed it. What would make anyone think this is so easy to fix unless people can have a clear vision and leadership of anointed, yielded followers of Christ filled with His Spirit?
Although we be desperate for revival, love, and unity – and indeed we were made for these conditions – we must embrace the Word of truth in its entirety, let God open our eyes, and if perchance we may find repentance, let God lead us step by step. He is the builder. It is for Him, His glory. He has a vested interest that started with the one investment of His Son, who wants a ready bride, and glory for Himself.
2 Chronicles 7:14 – If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
Summary
May God have mercy. May His full, actual will be done by one obedient follower of Jesus at a time. May we not be deluded by pie-in-the-sky.
God’s will in the absolute sense therefore was not done, and WON’T be done unless we obey Him!
Get clear: Things today are BROKEN. Not all is as it should be! Much was NOT the will of God who said, “I came that they may have life, and that more abundantly.”
If people had obeyed Jesus from the first century onward, history could have been very different. Who knows? The Lord might have already been able to come.
But none of this caught God by surprise.
1 Timothy 4:1 – Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
Luke 18:8 – I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?
Jesus knew from the beginning man would mess things up, and evil spirits would be in back of it, prodding willful man along.
The problems and strongholds we face today are actually almost 2,000 years old. Understand what you are up against, you who would see God’s will come through in truth.
May God have mercy. Seek the Lord while He may be found. Seek repentance! Lament and mourn and weep. Obey Jesus today.
The good news is God still wants His actual will which is the same as it ever was, and can still perform it one person as a time. Let it start with you.
May the Lord bless you!
