The Will of God Part I


	The Will of God Revealing the Eternal Desire of God's Heart Every Christian must have one fundamental realization: God has a will. God is not miscel-laneous, whimsical, or random. Instead He is full of purpose and desire. In eternity past, before the foundation of the world, God had a deep longing in His heart. This longing became God's will. God's will is simply His heartfelt desire. When the Bible speaks of the will of God it is referring to something which reflects the desire of God's heart. Perhaps you have never considered that God has a will. Yet this is the wonderful revelation of the Word of God (Eph. 1:4-5). Our Christian life must have this perspective. Without a vision of God's will we may live a Christian life full of many activities that are scattered and unrelated. We may respond to exhortations to preach the gospel and feed the Lord's sheep. However, without a view to God's eternal will these activities may easily become ends in themselves, and we may still find ourselves without a clear goal. Fortunately we have the Bible, which is simply the unveiling of the divine will of God. Every book, every chapter, and every verse of the Word of God is a product of, and sheds light upon, the eternal will of God. Why was there a creation? Because God has a will. Why was there the giving of the law? Because God has a will. Why must God become a man? It is because God wants to carry out His eternal will. What is the reason Christ needed to accomplish redemption for us? It is not just because we are sinners and need to be redeemed, although certainly this is true. But redemption was for a much higher purpose: God wants to carry out His eternal will. To Know God's Will, We Need to Grow Up Then what is the will of God? We need to open our hearts to the Lord in order to know His will. We should pray, "Oh Lord, I thank You for Your wonderful salvation. But now I want to know Your eternal will. I ask You, Lord, to unveil Your will to me. Dear Lord, grant me a spirit of wisdom and revelation so that I may know Your heart's desire." Many dear brothers and sisters plan and consider what to do with their Christian life. They ask, "What is God's will for my life. How is God leading me?" This is a very healthy response to the Lord, yet such a consecration is that of a very young Christian. It is pure, but it lacks the revelation that God has a will. Each of us needs to grow up and seek to know what is God's unique, eternal will. To many Christians, God is simply the One who blesses them abundantly. If they attend Christian services, tithe, and are considerate of their fellow man, they expect God to bless them with material benefits. They want God to help them with their needs. We could never deny that God will supply our material needs, but God wants much more than this. We must grow up in Christ to see that God has an eternal will. Even when He supplies our material needs He has His eternal will in view. Furthermore, some Christians, once they are redeemed and have tasted the sweetness of their salvation, mistakenly respond, "Now I will do something for God." This reaction seems noble. In fact, if we recall our initial experience of salvation we probably had a similar response. This reaction shows that we touched something real of Christ. However, the thought of doing something for God is still just a natural, religious concept. It is actually apart from God's will. God does not want us to return Him a favor. Yes, He desires us to consecrate ourselves to Him. However, our consecration is not to do something for Him, but to be one with Him for His eternal will. Coming to the Bible to Know God's WIll To know God's will we must come to His Word, the Bible. Throughout the sixty-six books of the Bible there is one central thought, around which every other thought revolves. This central thought is the will of God. Every page of the Holy Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation is an unveiling of His will. What is the will of God? In the Bible God has shown that He desires to impart His divine life into man. Everything God has done is with the intent that He could live in man. God wants to indwell man so that He may have many sons just like His firstborn Son, Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:29). Therefore, the will of God is that He would impart His life into man. Have you ever considered why God created man? It was for this purpose. In Genesis 1:26 the Triune God determined to make man in His image and after His likeness, as a kind of "photograph" of Himself. Then when God created man He put him in the Garden of Eden before the tree of life (Gen. 2:7-9). This action indicates God's will. God wanted man to be His expression. In order for man to truly express God he needed to be filled with the life of God Himself. God did not create man to do something for Him, but He created man to partake of the tree of life. When man fell by partaking of the tree of knowledge of good and evil he not only came under God's judgment but he was barred from the tree of life (Gen. 3:24). This is the real significance of man's fall. Man was forbidden to partake of the tree of life, which meant that he was separated from God's will. Although man fell, God would never give up His eternal will. He had determined to put His life into man. Therefore, God planned to redeem man. God became a man, Jesus Christ, so He could redeem man back to Himself. Jesus Christ bore all of our sins and offenses on the cross, thereby reconciling us back to God. He did not merely save us from hell, but He reconciled us to the Father so that we could receive His divine life. The Lord Ministering and God Being Triune to Give Life Throughout His earthly ministry the Lord Jesus brought the life of God to people. All of His labor, speaking, and prayer was so that man might have eternal life. Jesus declared, "I have come that they may have life and may have it abundantly" (John 10:10). He told His disciples that He was the bread of life, and that He needed to be eaten by them so that they could have life (John 6:48, 51, 57). Jesus also described Himself as the water of life. He said that He would become a spring of water within the believers gushing up into eternal life (John 4:14; 7:37-39). He likened Himself to a grain of wheat which needed to fall into the ground and die. His death as the grain of wheat was to produce many grains, the believers, who would possess the same life (John 12:24). When Jesus prayed in John 17, He recognized that He was to give life to those whom the Father gave Him (John 17:2-3). Throughout His ministry Jesus took every opportunity to unveil the will of God to those around Him. This will of God is for man to have God's life. It is for this reason that God is Triune. The Bible unveils to us not only God's will, but also the Triune God's operation to accomplish His will. The Lord Jesus came to bring the life of God to man. However, as a man with a physical life He could never dwell within His believers. Those who were around the Lord, such as His disciples, could touch Him, see Him, and talk to Him. But as a man Jesus Christ could not live inside of them. Therefore the Lord Jesus took on a new form. Through death and resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). "Now the Lord is that Spirit" (2 Cor. 3:17). And this Spirit is the Spirit that gives life (2 Cor. 3:6; John 6:63). Now, as the life-giving Spirit, Christ can live in us. We as His believers can receive eternal life through the Spirit. Our Savior Jesus Christ is presently at the right hand of God the Father (Acts 7:56; Eph. 1:20). But at the same time He is also the life-giving Spirit. Through this Spirit God has now come to reside in man as life. God, who became a man, is now the Spirit to indwell all those who believe in Him. All that He is and all that He has accomplished is now in the Spirit, and this Spirit has come to live inside of us. This is truly marvelous! God Creating Man as a Vessel to Receive His Life We have seen that God created man for the very purpose of imparting His life into man. Each step of God's creation of man was so that He could have the perfect container to receive and contain His life. God made man as a vessel (Rom. 9:21-23) to contain His divine life. God put a human spirit in man (Zech. 12:1; Prov. 20:27) whereby man could contact and receive God who is Spirit (John 4:24). This is the real significance of regeneration, or being "born anew" (1 Pet. 1:3; John 3:3). At the moment we believe, we receive the life of God in our spirit and become children of God (John 3:6; 1:12). Our receiving of God's life should not be limited to when we first believe. God's desire for us as believers is that we would always be receiving His life. The Lord Jesus charged us to abide in Him, which means to be constantly in the flow of the divine life (John 15:4). We can daily receive the divine life by eating and drinking Christ, who is our spirit bread and our spiritual drink (John 6:48; 4:14). The more we eat of Him, the more we have life (John 6:54-57). All of God's promises are related to His desire to give us life. Even John 3:16, a verse which is familiar to every Christian, shows us not only God's provision to save us from eternal punishment, but much more His desire to give us eternal life. This is the unique will of God. Testing Our Life and Service by the Will of God Now that we know the will of God, we must apply this to our own Christian life and service. Today, with so many Christian works and activities, we must always ask ourselves, "Is this work according to the will of God?" For example, some Christians focus on feeding the poor. This service is certainly Biblical, but is it fully according to the will of God? Some Christians struggle for peace among mankind. This desire is noble, but again, is it according to the will of God? There are numerous works and ministries that are done in God's name, and are even based on God's Word, but ultimately their value is tested by only one matter: are they truly according to the will of God? In other words, is God's life being imparted into man? How inadequate it is for us to try to do so many things for God! How mistaken it is for us to try to reciprocate God for His favor! We should only care for one thing: God's eternal will. We need to continually ask ourselves, "Are people, through my labor, being filled with God's life? Am I saturated with God's life through the Spirit? Am I flowing this divine life to others around me?" Apart from such a dispensing of life we know that our labor is not according to God's will. The Lord must uplift our vision, and give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him (Eph. 1:17). We all must learn to pray, "Lord, I want to care for Your divine will. I want to receive Your life through the Spirit. I want to impart Your life into others. For this cause I give my entire life to You. Lord, use me for Your eternal will." Under such a heavenly vision and desire we will be saturated with God's divine life. Our life and our living will be a testimony of the living God, for God Himself will live out from us. Then we will be able to dispense His life into others. How wonderful! How glorious! This is the will of God for us.