Scripture Reading: John 15:7
God's children need to know God's will, and they should know His will. It is not right for us to be ignorant of His will. Our Lord said, "He who follows Me shall by no means walk in darkness" (John 8:12). This means that those who follow the Lord will have light; they will see and they will know. In other words, if a man does not have light and if he does not see anything or know anything, it means that he is not following the Lord. We must be very careful before the Lord. Whenever we do not see, it means that there is a problem with our following the Lord.
However, the problem with some people is not that they do not want to do God's will but that they do not know God's will. The matter of knowing God's will is a big subject among God's children. Those who zealously seek after the Lord surely want to please Him and carry out His will in everything. In every move that they make, they ask whether it is God's will. This kind of desire and attitude is good and correct, but this is quite confusing to many people. On the one hand, they want to do God's will, but on the other hand, they do not know God's will. They feel guilty about everything they do, yet they feel equally guilty if they do not do anything. It seems as if God's will is so far away that they do not know how to obey it. For this reason, we want to consider the matter of understanding God's will.
It is true that God's will is objective and that it is on the throne. We must seek after it before we can understand. We often need to fast, pray, and wait in His presence a great deal before we can understand His will. In order to know His will, we must also drop our own will and deny the activity of the flesh. These are very important, but I will not speak about them now. I would like to briefly mention another aspect, which is the fact that God's will is revealed many times through man's wishes. Let us consider how man's wishes are related to God's will.
John 15:7 says, "Ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you." The word "will" here in Greek means an active wishing in the will. According to this verse, when our will actively wishes something by asking, it shall be done for us. Some may ask, "What happens if this asking is not according to God's will?" They seem to be more careful than the Lord Jesus in His wording. They would rather say, "If it is according to God's will, and you ask by actively wishing, it shall be done for you." Yet our Lord said, "Ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you." In other words, the Lord trusts some people to wish according to God's will. This is why He can say, "Ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you."
Paul said the same thing in 1 Corinthians 10:27, "If any of the unbelievers invites you and you wish to go, eat everything that is set before you, asking no question for conscience' sake." It is interesting that Paul did not mention God's will here. He only mentioned man's wish.
Do the above two passages mean that man can act any way that he pleases? Does it mean that man can do anything that he wishes? No, these words are not for everyone; they are for Christians, those who are regenerated, who have the mind of Christ, who have been dealt with by the cross, who abide in the Lord, and in whom the Lord's word abides. Let us consider the subject under two separate points.
Paul said, "For who has known the mind of the Lord and will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ" (1 Cor. 2:16). The will of God is objective, whereas the mind of Christ is subjective. The will of God is on the throne, whereas the mind of Christ is within us. The will of God is outside of us, whereas the mind of Christ is inside us, continually revealing His will to us. Once we are regenerated, God's life is clearly planted into us, and we have the mind of Christ. The minute we receive life, we receive the mind of Christ as well, which gives us new thoughts, new inclinations, and new wishes.
The Lord Jesus said, "If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you" (John 15:7). As a result of abiding in the Lord and His word abiding in us, whatever we will, that is, whatever we actively wish and whatever our will reaches for, we need only ask for, and it shall be done for us. The important thing, however, is the expression "if you abide in Me and My words abide in you." Only this kind of people have reliable wills, and only they will not have a problem with God's will.
If a man has life, if he abides in the Lord, and if His word abides in him, he will know what God wants and also what God does not want. In other words, he will not only be regenerated, but also be in constant fellowship with the Lord; he will only want what God wants. Here we immediately see the cross. There are those who have passed through the cross, who have been dealt with by the Lord; they abide in the Lord, and the Lord's word abides in them. The Lord's word is living in them. To these ones the Lord says, "Ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you." Therefore, the problem does not lie in God's will but in the kind of persons we are.
We can say that some Christians have reached the stage where God can trust them. They abide in the Lord and the Lord's words abide in them to the extent that the Lord trusts their will. He trusts that the wishes emanating from their will are according to God's will. This is why the Lord said, "Ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you."
Some may say, "How can God's will be that simple?" Brothers and sisters, I am not saying that God's will can be understood without pursuing it. I am saying that God's will is in us also; it is in us together with His life. This word is not for everyone but for those who are regenerated, who have the mind of Christ, and who know in a serious way the meaning of abiding in the Lord and having the Lord's word abide in them. Their will is the will of God. If they wish to have something, God will want it too. If they want something which is contrary to what God wants, they will feel like a deflated tire within. There will be no response within, and they will not be able to pray at all. If it is a wish that they cannot justify in themselves, can it be something that God wants? One day, when all of our self-motives are removed, our will will be one with God's will. When we will, God will will, and when we do not will, God will not will.
Romans 14:23 says, "All that is not out of faith is sin." This is the principle of the Christian life. The faith mentioned here is different from the faith mentioned in other places in the Bible. In other places, faith refers to one's faith in God. Here faith refers to one's faith in himself in doing the right thing. "All that is not out of faith is sin." This means if you have condemned yourself already, how can you expect God to justify you when He is so much greater than you? If our heart condemns us, we must be wrong. If what we do is right, God will give us the faith to believe that it is right. If what we do is wrong, we will not have this faith. Even after we have done it, we will still not be able to say with certainty that we have done the right thing, and we will feel empty within. When this happens, we will be certain that we are wrong. Since our heart has condemned us already, and since God is greater than our heart, surely He will condemn us also.
Paul said that if anyone invites us to a meal, we can go if we wish to go. This word is not for irresponsible Christians. Needless to say, it is not for unregenerated ones. But even a regenerated person who has never done God's will and has never lived for God is not qualified to take this word. One must abide in the Lord, and the Lord's word must abide in him before he can go as he wishes. If he should not go to a certain place, his inner being will not be able to muster enough strength to wish to go. If he tries to go anyway, something within will weaken him, advise him, and tell him that he cannot go. He is controlled by the law of life, and his will becomes a reflection of God's will. His wish becomes God's wish. We often want to do something by ourselves, and there is often the opportunity to do it by ourselves. But strangely, the minute we try to do it according to our own will, our inner being does not respond. The minute we do it, we feel squelched. The more we go on, the unhappier and weaker we become. In the end, we can only give it up because something within us is stronger than our own will.
God often directs us according to the willingness in our heart. For example, a person may invite us to a certain place, and we may desire to go. But strangely, even though we want to go, we cannot muster enough strength to say that we want to go. Our inner being is cold and unresponsive. Outwardly we want to go, but inwardly everything is cold. We cannot go, and if we do, every step we take brings more complaints and protests from within; something within will not let us go. This is God's will manifested through our will. But this word does not apply to everyone; it only applies to those who have God's life, who abide in the Lord, and in whom the Lord's word abides.
Consider the case of Paul casting out the spirit when he was in Philippi. A slave girl was possessed by a spirit, and following after Paul, she cried, "These men are slaves of the Most High God." Paul did not do anything for a few days. Should not Paul have cast out the spirit? He should have cast out demons the minute he saw them, yet Paul did not! His mouth could not move because his inner being had not moved. When his inner being was not moved, it meant that God was not moved. One day Paul became disturbed, and he said to the spirit, "I charge you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." Immediately the spirit came out of her (Acts 16:16-18). For Paul to be disturbed meant that God was disturbed. He spoke only when his inner being moved. Once he spoke, the spirit was cast out. God's word was in him; therefore, what he spoke was God's will.
The experiences of many believers testify to this. Sometimes someone suggests that we go and visit a brother, but nothing within us moves. If we go, we find it very awkward. But when our inner being moves and we have the word, a visit to our brother will bring in very good fellowship. We must wait until our inner being moves before we move in any outward way. If our inner being does not move, we should not move in any outward way.
While Paul was waiting for Silas and Timothy, he saw a whole city full of idols, and "his spirit was provoked within him" (17:16). Some may think that it is not a good thing to be "provoked." But Paul's provocation was a good thing. He was provoked by what he saw, and he went to preach at the Areopagus. The words he preached became an important part of the holy Scripture. On that occasion in Athens, Paul gave a good testimony. It was something that came from his heart, and he was constrained to speak it.
Another example can be seen in Paul's determination to pass Ephesus (20:16). He made the decision to do this. The Bible does not say that God decided, but Paul decided. Some Christians often say, "God's will has led me here. It is God's will that I should do this." They seem to be more spiritual than Paul. We do not see Paul speaking in such spiritual terms. Yet his decision fully corresponded with God's will because he was a person who knew the cross and feared God.
Some may ask, "Wasn't there the danger of Paul making a mistake when he made his decision that way?" There is not a simple answer to this. In Acts, after Paul set out from Antioch, there was no clear record of the leading of the Holy Spirit. Yet the Bible clearly records the forbidding of the Holy Spirit. Other than the vision at night (16:9), we see very little leading of the Holy Spirit in Paul on the positive side. We mainly see the forbidding of the Holy Spirit on the negative side.
If we abide in the Lord and His word abides in us, whatever decision we make will be God's will. But there is still the possibility of mistakes. If we make a mistake, the Holy Spirit will forbid us and not let us go. Paul's experience tells us this.
Brothers and sisters, we do not have to be passive. Many Christians want to do God's will, yet they are too passive. God's will does not make a person passive. A man is passive because he does not understand God's will. If we are genuinely dealt with by the cross and are abiding in the Lord with His word abiding in us, God's will will become manifest in us, and we can act according to such a will within. If we are wrong, the Holy Spirit will stop us. He will make us indecisive; we will feel like a deflated tire, and we will sense that something is wrong, that it is meaningless to do such a thing, and that we cannot do it anymore. May the Lord deliver us from all misunderstanding and foolishness and save us from passivity. May He grant us an active attitude, and may He make us those who follow Him all the way.
