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(The following is an article by Jessie Penn-Lewis, "Walking in the Will of God." It originally appeared in The Overcomer, Vol. 6, published by The "Overcomer" Office, Leicester, England, June 1914.)
It is most important for the Lord's children to recognise that they have, and must use, their individual personal will. That the Lord Jesus had His own separate will is clearly set forth in John vi. 38. "I am come down from heaven not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me."
In John v. 30, the Lord Jesus said "I can of Mine own self do nothing" — this means that He never acted apart from His Father — "As I hear I judge: and My judgment is just, because I seek not Mine own will but the will of the Father which hath sent Me." Although He had a separate will, the principle of His life was not independent action, but a co-action in harmony with the will of God. His was not a passive will, but an active one, deliberately set to do the will of His Father.
It is important to know that God does not desire us to have a passive will for the Father to impress His will upon it, and move us apart from our own volition. The words of the Lord Jesus show that He used His will in distinct action. He said: "I SEEK NOT Mine own will," which shows that He was free to will and act in another direction to that which He deliberately sought and chose to follow.
Here we see the negative aspect of the Lord's walk with God the Father — He did not seek to do His own will.
In John iv. 34, we find described the positive aspect — that is how He did the Father's will. "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work." Here is the active choice to do. There was the choice not to seek His own will, and the choice to do the will of God. There is no trace of passivity here. Moreover, He found Divine sustenance in doing God's will; not in talking about it, but in doing it. "My meat is TO DO..." There must be the doing of God's will as well as the seeking of it, and until you have done the will of God as you know it, you cannot expect to be taken a step further in God's plan for you.
In the life of Christ you will see the exercise of His own separate will. But His will was set. We need to understand the setting of the will like the helm of a ship. As you set your will to do God's will, God can work. Your part is continually to make God's will the principle of your life. You say: "I choose God's will in this." You do not put your will aside, but on God's side, asking God to reveal His will to you. Christ's will was so set that it never lost co-operation with God's will for a moment. He perfectly and entirely did the will of God. "Lo, I come to do Thy will..." Not only was there the setting of His will to God's will, but the active use of it in that setting.
In Matt. viii. 3: "I will, be thou clean" — is an example of His vital co-operation in will with the Father's will. When the man came to Christ the Lord knew God's will, and said: "I WILL, be thou clean." God bore witness, and the man was cleansed. It was God's will manifested toward the man, through the exercise of Christ's will saying "I will, be thou..."
When the will is brought into complete co-operation with God as the principle of life, every moment the one question concerning everything is: "What is God's will?" You have no other question. Not "What do I like? What do I want?" but "God's will." Then there will come a time, when, in the enduement of the power of the Holy Spirit, you may turn to an evil spirit in another, and say, "In the Name of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out." Under such circumstances, the Spirit of God will bear witness to what is done in faith, and it will be God's will manifested through you. This shows what the devil has to gain by making you believe you are to have no "will of your own." Understand that God works His works through you, by bringing your will into co-action with His, and enabling you to speak the word of authority over the enemy in His Name.
GOD'S WILL IN SUFFERING. In Luke xxii. 42, we read: "Not My will, but Thine be done." These words, spoken in Gethsemane, indicate that Christ put His will on God's side, in the awful anguish He was going through. The pressure was so strong that His sweat became as great drops of blood. "Not My will, but Thine," was the declaration of His attitude as He set His will. He had come to the same choice just before — "Now is My soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour?"
"Shall I say, `Father, save Me'?" "No," but "Father, glorify Thy Name." Christ put His will for God's glory. And as He put His will on God's side against this awful pressure, He was heard, He was sustained. Then an angel came and ministered to Him.
If you too will make this the central principle of the spiritual life, and set the helm of your will unvaryingly to choose God's will because it is God's will, then He will apply to your life Christ's victory on Calvary in such a way, as to endue you with power, for the deliverance of others from the power of evil spirits.
HOW THE LORD KNEW THE WILL OF GOD. The Lord Jesus knew the will of God in His spirit. See John iv. 4: "He must needs go through Samaria." The literal rendering is that "It was binding upon Him." It was God's will that He should go, and He knew it, because His spirit was pliable. If you are to know the will of God you must not have a hard or unbending spirit. You need a spirit so flexible that it can move whichever way God wants, and I do not see how we are going to know and walk in the will of God, in harmony with God's Word, unless we consent to this walk in the spirit. If you insist that such and such a course must be taken to-morrow, you have not left yourself open to the will of God to effect any change. The Lord does not seem to have had inflexibly fixed plans. "But are we to make no plans?" you ask. Yes, but they should be made in such a way that you can drop them, if necessary, in a minute. You will not walk continuously in the will of God until you have learnt how to be pliable to His will.
You must have a flexible spirit. That is one of the first principles of revival. A meeting that cannot become elastic and subject to the movements of God, becomes a dead block in the way of the Spirit. The human spirit must be so sensitive to the Holy Spirit that just as He spoke to Philip, and said "Join yourself to this chariot," so He may make known His will to you, and get as ready a response.
An adaptable spirit is essential to fulfil the will of God. Christ's spirit was adaptable enough to respond to the needs and questions of Nicodemus. The will of God will be known in your spirit according to the attitude of the person who comes to you. If your spirit is closed, you can pass on no living truth to that person, probably because they are not ready.
If you traced and followed the delicate sense of your spirit it would become acute, and God could then make His will known to you — all in harmony with the written Word, for the Holy Spirit revealing in your spirit God's mind cannot contradict Himself in God's Word. It would mean a great deal if we all walked in the spirit and knew when we were speaking from the spirit and when merely from the mind, and therefore empty of spiritual power.
The spirit should illuminate the mind, but when the spirit drops out of co-operation with the Holy Spirit, the mind is left without the needed assistance, and its product is very poor. When you are in the spiritual plane and know the Holy Spirit in your spirit, you recognise there are grave consequences attached to all you do. You cannot go back from the spirit life without stepping into a pathway of failure. The moment you drop from the plane that you have reached you begin to lose spirit strength, and if you do not recover your place quickly you will ultimately sink into deeper failure. The loss not only affects yourself but everyone with whom you have to deal. You may wrongly interpret or reject the words of a servant of God, and that would cause you to go back without knowing it. This hindrance to your spirit life will be maintained while that wrong thought or attitude is held.
If the Holy Spirit has once had the quickening of your mind so that your mind becomes capable of doing what it could not accomplish naturally, then in order to maintain that you will be obliged to live up to the highest point you have attained, and be satisfied with nothing below.
If, after reaching an altitude in the spirit life, you descend, even without knowing it, you will find yourself in the realm where the powers of darkness can buffet you almost as they like. God only manifests His Divine power when you are living and acting at the point to which you have already attained (see Phil. iii. 16).
When you find yourself defeated, you may ask what is the meaning of the interference of the enemy? Why cannot the stream of the power of God go on? You think it is this and that, and deal with it, but there is no change. Then, after asking God for light, you discover that you were shrinking from what you know you ought to do. How can the Holy Spirit work when you thus cease from co-operation? A little hesitation will push you below the point. Then you say, "Lord, I am going to do what Thou dost desire!" Then the power of God comes in, and all goes well.
The enemy will endeavour to hide from you the fact that you are in a lower plane, by dulling the conscience and giving all sorts of excuses to account for what is going on, until you are in such a state as to be almost powerless. Then he inflicts his suffering, and you have the greatest difficulty in getting on your feet again. Live up to the hilt of the spirit life to which God has brought you, then you will have the power of God to do the will of God at the highest point God seeks from you.
See a few more examples of how Christ walked in the will of God:
John iv. 34 shows the Spirit of God guiding the Lord at the well, when, in answer to the disciples who were anxiously inquiring about His food, He said, "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me..." In John vii. 3, 6, His brethren said to Him, "Depart from hence...Jesus saith to them, My time is not yet come, but your time is alway ready." Here is the restraining power of the Spirit, so that He is not moved by His brethren.
Again in John xi. 5, 6, we read, "Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. When He had heard therefore that he was sick He abode two days still in the same place where he was." His were spiritual bonds. It was God's will first. Though misjudged by those He loved, He did not move. How did He know God's will? He was never moved from outside; never moved by a family taunt, by sarcasm and unbelief; never moved even by the calls of love. He was in spiritual bonds to do God's will.
It is important to remember that both GOD AND SATAN REQUIRE THE CONSENT OF THE WILL. The will of the unsaved, even though it be enslaved by Satan is capable of choice. "Whosoever will may come and take of the water of life freely." So man must put his will on God's side for Him to work. "If any man will to do..." God's part in giving you power to "will" is referred to in Phil. ii. 13. "It is God that worketh in you to will..." i.e., He works in you up to the point of your "willing" — He does not "will" instead of you. Man's will needs God's power to energize it. Apart from it, it is mere will-worship (Col. ii. 23). Paul said, "To will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I know not." Man may also set his will against God's will" — This they willingly are ignorant of" (2 Peter iii. 5). The servant that knew His will and did it not, shall be beaten with many stripes (Luke xii. 47).
Now as to the danger of THE WILL OUT OF ACTION.
Passivity of will arises through a wrong conception of surrender. Romans xii. 1, gives the true meaning of surrender. "Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service...that ye may prove what is...[the] will of God." To walk after the will of God the spirit requires a voluntary act of the will. Your will must guide or CONTROL your spirit. "The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets (1 Cor. xiv. 32). For instance, your spirit may go out into an ecstasy, or a strain, beyond the volitional control of your will. Then it goes too far.
YOUR SPIRIT MUST ALWAYS BE KEPT WITHIN THE CONTROL OF YOUR VOLITION. Reference has been made to the spirit being lifted, but when the spirit is liberated and buoyant, then the new plan of the powers of darkness is to drive your spirit, and drive your body. Some people are simply being driven on by the enemy — they are always in a strain, always on the stretch, running after something. It means that the spirit is being drawn out by the powers of darkness.
The Lord Jesus knew the will of God in His spirit because it was always in perfect poise — never strained, never crushed, never elated, never driven, never slow. When He was going to raise the girl from the dead, He was stopped on the way, and He had time to stay and attend to the needs before Him. The ideal is a spirit in perfect poise. It is in that condition you learn how to watch and resist the powers of darkness coming against your spirit, and forcing you on, or, more often, forcing you down.
The relationship of the will to the spirit may be illustrated by that of the string to the kite. The string of a kite, which holds it steady, is its power. The moment it is let go it is lost, and drops. The Lord Jesus walked in the will of God, by knowing it in His spirit and in His intelligence.
The reverse to the action of the will is passivity. When you find your will passive and slow in action you can bring it into action by saying "I have a will." Then having a will of your own, the principle to safeguard its action, is the Lord's own attitude and choice, "I seek not Mine own will."
May the Spirit of God teach us how to follow the steps of our Pattern, and like the Son of God so walk with God in seeking and doing His will, that we stand perfect and complete in all the will of God (Col. iv. 12).
