Satan’s society today sends powerful messages uniquely designed to appeal to our human nature. Satan’s societal messages cry out: “Obey your thirst” and “Pamper yourself.” They encourage people to worry only about the self because, “after all, you are worth it!” Trends and personal spending patterns illustrate that Satan’s “self-focused” messages are hitting their mark, as more and more people face the consequences of debt incurred to satisfy their lustful desires. Works of the flesh abound and social norms reflect increasing self-centeredness, hedonism, lusts of the flesh and virtually everything that is anti-God.
Also ever-present throughout society is the powerful lie that the Bible and Christianity are obsolete. The theory of evolution is broadcast far-and-wide by the media, the education establishment, and scientists alike. Why? Because, if we are truly “a bunch of lonely molecules” that accidently combined to form life billions of years ago, there must not be a creator or a purpose for life. And, if there is no creator, no life-giver, no law-giver, and no purpose for life, then there is no over-arching moral code to guide that life and we can all do whatever we please—guilt free!
Satan is as rebellious and deceitful as he is crafty and brilliant. He orchestrated a society that increasingly rejects the concept of a purpose for life. It increasingly rejects the possibility of a supreme Sovereign who created perfect and immutable laws to govern the universe and human beings alike. And even so-called Christianity basically rejects the scriptural admonition to overcome and deny one’s self, in favor of the popular yet unbiblical mantra, “Come to Christ just as you are.”
But what is God’s perspective on all of this? Does He really call us to His truth “just as we are,” without any expectation for us to change? What is your attitude regarding the will of God in your life? Whose will usually takes precedence in your life, yours or God’s? When you make important decisions, do you even consider the overly used but extremely important question: “What would Jesus do in this situation?”
God’s will in our lives is at the heart and core of what it means to be a true Christian! In this self-absorbed society, it is all too easy to make decisions according to “our own will.” Even some in God’s Church today rarely consider whether their will, desires and perspectives fail to reflect God’s will. Because of the subtle nature of the Satan-influenced society around us, even God’s people may sometimes be deceived into thinking that their carnal will, desires and perspectives—unchallenged by people around them—may fully reflect God’s will. They may even be disappointed at the idea that God’s will would direct them to go against society’s expectations.
How Important Is God’s Will?
How important is it that we live our lives according to God’s will? Does it really matter? After all, we see in the parable of the two sons that even the son with an imperfect attitude was rewarded with his inheritance for obedience to his father (Matthew 21:28–32). Even the Apostle Paul struggled in his mind and heart. He sincerely wanted to fulfill God’s will, but perpetually wrestled against his own will. Because Paul’s self-will won out all too often, he lamented, “O wretched man that I am…” (Romans 7:17–24). Later, in the same letter to brethren in Rome, Paul admonished them to “prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:1–2). Paul personally prayed that the brethren at Colosse would be “filled with the knowledge of [God’s] will” (Colossians 1:9). And, he taught that God works in us “to will and to do” (Philippians 2:13). The Apostle John concluded that if we do God’s will, we will abide forever (1 John 2:17)! Finally, we are reminded that the world and its society are deceived by Satan (Revelation 12:9). If we do not fight to bury our carnal human self-will, and if we do not strive to live by God’s will instead, we will be deceived.
Jesus Christ’s Example
Many today talk about “loving the Lord,” yet virtually ignore what He taught and the example He set. Whose will ruled Christ’s life on the earth? It is amazing to consider that Christ, the One who spoke and earth existed (Colossians 1:16; John 1:3), taught powerfully and clearly that we must all work to make God’s will our own. Christ’s life demonstrated that His will was insignificant when compared with that of the Father. Recall how Christ taught His disciples (and all of us) to pray: “Our Father in heaven… Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9–10). Many today recite what they call “The Lord’s Prayer.” However, how many truly desire God’s will instead of their own? When we deeply examine Christ’s life and example, we see that He clearly adheres to the Father’s will!
Christ came to the earth in order to fulfill the Father’s will (John 6:38)! He clearly taught that His doctrine was not His own, but “His who sent Me” (John 7:16–18). Christ also taught that merely calling on His name is insufficient to enter God’s Kingdom! Entering God’s kingdom requires one to “do the will of the Father” (Matthew 7:21)! Calling on Christ’s name without obeying the Father’s will is nothing more than paying “lip service” to Him. Perhaps Christ’s most powerful example in this regard was His garden prayer the night before He was crucified. Knowing the gruesome and painful end that soon awaited Him, Christ prayed three times to the Father in emotional agony. In prayer, Christ showed that His fleshly desire was for the Father to find another way to fulfill His plan to save mankind. However, Christ’s more earnest desire to fulfill His Father’s plan moved Him to pray an emotion-filled prayer: “not My will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42). This powerful principle of allowing God’s will to rule our lives was taught and lived by the Son of God Himself.
Living in Satan’s world, it can be difficult to conduct our lives according to God’s will. To do so takes focus, self-examination, determination and perseverance. There are two powerful actions we must take in order to help ensure that God’s will, not our own, rules our lives.
Identify and Bury Self-Will
The first action we must take is to identify and then bury our self-will. There are two ways of life—God’s way and Satan’s way. Because we are all products of this world, society and Satan have greatly influenced who we have become. Because of this, Christ said to the Pharisees, “You are of your father the devil” (John 8:44). The Pharisees lived their lives according to Satan’s will! Ultimately, our will either mirrors God’s will or Satan’s will. Because of the pulls of the world we live in, our will naturally follows the course of this world and Satan, unless we work to break free. Only through our conscious choice, strengthened by God’s Holy Spirit, can we succeed in conforming our will to God’s will instead of Satan’s. If we cannot recognize our self-will as distinct from God’s will, we can expect that the will we follow—our own will—will ultimately lead us to live according to Satan’s will.
Choosing self-will is really rebellion against God! It occurs because we deceive ourselves into thinking that our will really is God’s will. Jeremiah showed how, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9). Solomon, a man clearly familiar with the results of self-will warned, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 14:12). We must understand that our carnal intentions and motivations are naturally contrary to God’s will. Because of this, Paul warned the Church not to be self-willed (Titus 1:7)! Peter also later warned about self-willed false teachers who would infiltrate God’s true Church and deceive His people (2 Peter 2:10).
As we examine ourselves, trying to uncover our often-hidden self-will, we must ask, “Do I hate every false way?” Truly hating false ways, including our self-will, can motivate us to overcome as King David did (Psalm 119:104). Ask yourself, “Do I truly hate going against God’s will? Do I recognize how often I do my own selfish will?
I once had a conversation with a Church member who was in the midst of self-examination. Referring to himself, and admitting his own spiritual weakness, he observed, “If we would be willing to put our carnal human will aside as we study the Bible, God could teach us so much more....” What an incredible insight into human nature! Have you ever known people who do their Bible study with the intention of supporting their own will and own ideas? Have you ever done this? How many people do deep topical Bible studies with the goal of proving their own point, or even deceiving themselves by proclaiming. “Look what God has revealed to me alone”? We must always remember that Satan also knows Scripture well (Matthew 4; Luke 4)! As the “prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2), Satan will even attempt to direct our Bible study if we are not humble, careful, and continually asking God to reveal His will as we study!
One of Satan’s fiery darts (Ephesians 6:16) is to convince people to believe that, as a result of their personal Bible study, “I understand this subject better than anyone else, including God’s Church and His ministry.” If our Bible study on a topic leads us to develop feelings and attitudes that reflect the “works of the flesh” (read Galatians 5:19– 21), we need to reassess our conclusions immediately. As a rule of thumb, we should adopt the principle, “If my study leads me toward a doctrine or practice that God’s ministers disagree with, I should take extra care to remain humble, even to assume that I am wrong and need to study further.” Of course, God commands us to grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ (2 Peter 3:18), but at the same time, we must have the humility and teachability of little children (Matthew 18:3). We must also temper our growth by “holding fast to the traditions” taught through Scripture and God’s true Church (2 Thessalonians 2:15). Of course, if our study has led us to an accurate and truthful insight, we should humbly share it with God’s ministry, and then remain confident that God will bring about any necessary change in His own time and through His leadership. This is how God corrected His Church, for example, when Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong came to understand his earlier mistake regarding how to count Pentecost. Some others had the “idea” first, but pridefully left the Church when their idea was not accepted “quickly enough”—and in leaving they cut themselves off from the Work of the true Church.
In a similar manner, we must examine ourselves to see whether we are self-willed. Ask yourself, “How important to me are my will, my goals and my ideas?” If we meet with God’s ministers, and ask God to guide the advice they give us—but we then choose to go against the advice we prayed that God would inspire—what should this tell us about our own will? What does it tell God about us? Are we willing to follow God’s will only when we agree with it? Or, will we follow it wherever it takes us? No, we should not follow a minister’s will just because he gives us some counsel. If a minister’s counsel goes against God’s word, we must remain true to God’s will. But we must not deceive ourselves into thinking that God’s ministers are right only when they agree with us, and wrong when they disagree with us. We must trust God’s word, and live by it.
Ask yourself, “Am I willing to go in a completely different direction with my life if God shows me I need to?” “Am I willing to see and look for God’s will even if I feel He might want me to do something different than what I desire?” For those who are baptized, we must remember that our old, self-willed person was to be crucified at baptism (Romans 6:6). A big part of what we were to leave behind at baptism was our own will, as we “surrendered” it to God! For those who are yet to be baptized, coming to true repentance involves being willing to “give up” your own self-will and instead make God’s will your own.
Pray to SEE and WANT God’s Will
Secondly, how do we distinguish God’s will from our self-will? In the midst of hard decisions, how can we be sure that we really see God’s will? God gave us a tremendous key through His servant Jeremiah. “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). You see, God’s will does not always stand out if we do not seek it. Half-hearted attempts to seek or follow God’s will often result in misunderstanding it, or deceiving ourselves into thinking that our will really is God’s will.
As noted earlier, Jesus Christ taught us to pray for God’s will (Matthew 6:10). King David, a man after God’s very own heart (Acts 13:22), gave us a powerful example of prayer for God’s will: “Teach me your way, O Lord…” (Psalm 27:11). Later David recorded, “Make me walk in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it” (Psalm 119:35). How often do we pray to God in this manner? Can we honestly say that we delight in walking in God’s path? Certainly, even if we do not yet delight in walking in God’s path, we still must do so—because we know it is right. But our goal, as we grow, should be not just to endure walking in God’s path, but to learn to love His path and His ways.
Some will object, saying, “Christ commanded us to ask for our desires, didn’t He?” This is partially correct, but we need to understand the context. Christ several times repeated the command, “Ask [in prayer] and you will receive” (Matthew 21:22; Mark 11:24; John 16:24). However, to understand the full will of God, we need to study this concept further.
The Apostle John taught that we receive whatever we ask of God because we keep His commandments and do what is pleasing in His sight (1 John 3:22). The Apostle James clarified this point further, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures” (James 4:3). Finally, John clearly taught that God hears our prayers when “we ask anything according to His will” (1 John 5:14). And Christ gave us the ultimate example of how to pray in this manner, “Father, if it is your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42). Christ shared His desires with the Father, but prayed that the Father’s will be done.
Do we truly and deeply realize that God’s will is far better than anything we can want or imagine? As we pray, do we recall that our hearts have been “deceitful and desperately wicked”—even at times influenced by Satan—and that we must work to conform our will, instead, to that of the Father? God wants us to learn to pray for His will, and really want it!
The Apostle Paul encouraged Church members to become “instruments of righteousness” rather than instruments of sin (Romans 6:12–13). Do we deeply desire to serve God as His instruments? Are we able to pray regularly, “God, use me in whatever way you want!” If God asked you, would you be willing to do as Abram did, for example, and leave your family behind to go to Canaan—or wherever God would want you to go? If it were God’s will, would you be willing to move, or to sell your home or property, or to quit or change your job? Can you honestly say that you want God’s will to be done in your life, instead of your own will? Do your primary life goals reflect a self-focus, or have you developed them in conjunction with the will of God? If God’s timing differs from yours, are you willing to abandon your desires and follow His lead instead?
Paul plainly admonished Church members to let their minds become the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5). As we work to apply this command in our lives, we must pray to God to remove our self-will and our inherent desire to avoid His will. We must pray for God to help us desire His will above all else. We must also pray for God to help us recognize the source of our desire to do our own will. Finally, we must pray for the faith to follow God’s will—even when, intuitively, it may seem strange.
Have you ever had the thought, “I understand that it is God’s will, but I just cannot see how it will work out for the best if I do it that way”? This is where faith fills the gap. We must “become as little children,” and have absolute trust that our Father in heaven is never wrong and will never lead us astray. When we choose our will over His, we show our arrogance—our belief that we understand a better way than God does. Choosing God’s will over our own demonstrates that we trust God and know His way is best!
Conclusion of the Matter
We live in a time when Satan, through society, pressures us to “do our own thing!” Satan worships himself, and esteems his will above all else. And he broadcasts these thoughts and motivates us to do the same with our will. Society teaches that if we do not “think of our own interests” we are weak-minded “followers.”
Christ, by contrast, gave us a powerful example of putting God’s will ahead of our own—a practice essential for all true Christians. When we put our will before God’s will, we can expect difficulties and heartache, because we are following the reasoning of a faulty, fallible human being—and ultimately Satan. But even though putting God’s will before our own may not always look or feel right initially, it will lead to life and blessings.
We must recognize how very important it is to live our lives according to God’s will. As we identify and rid ourselves of self-will and as we pray for God’s will to permeate our lives, our decisions will be full of wisdom and our lives will be greatly enriched. This action will also greatly increase unity within God’s Church. As we make decisions according to God’s will individually, we will automatically become of the same mind collectively! We will become one as Christ and the Father are one (John 17:21).
To be in God’s kingdom, we must truly strive to make His will our own. We must work hard, continue to bury our self-will, and follow God’s lead into His Kingdom. As we do this, we will arrive there one day soon, together! Above all things, we must do God’s will, always!