What is God's will for me? What should I do in a situation of choice? What should be my path in this life? These questions, in essence, are the most important for any believer. After all, if I did not come into this world by my own will, if God called me into existence, then He did it for a reason. This means that I have some kind of mission that God expects me to fulfill. And only by learning the meaning of this mission can I make my life meaningful and pleasing to God.
This is a very reasonable reasoning, and a benefit to those people who at least ask such questions: after all, an answer is possible only where the question is asked. However, a system error may be built into such reasoning, which makes the answer impossible in principle.
Thesis one
People think that God has some ideal plan that they can live up to if they know what that plan is. In fact, there is no plan and there cannot be.
To avoid misunderstandings, I would like to clarify right away: the absence of a plan does not mean a lack of knowledge about how we will act at each stage of our life. God, as omniscient, knew absolutely everything about each of us even before the creation of the world. And as strange as it may sound, this is precisely why He does not have an ideal plan for people.
To understand why such a plan for each of us does not make sense, let us give the following analogy. Let's say a plant produces some products, for example cars. And on the assembly line, each worker, according to the plan, performs a certain operation: one hangs the doors, another mounts the headlights, the third installs the engine, the fourth installs the gearbox. Everything is thought out to the smallest detail, the functions of each employee are described step by step, the process is debugged and optimized. But what will happen to such a plant if its manager suddenly, by a separate order, gives the workers the opportunity to act not according to a clearly verified production plan, but at their own discretion - to do only those operations that they like best, or not to do anything at all if they are not in the mood to work? The answer is obvious: the conveyor will stop, the plant will stop producing products, the plan will be disrupted and will generally lose its meaning in such conditions. Even without being a management specialist, you can see that the behavior of such a manager, trying to combine strict planning with freedom to execute it, can hardly be called reasonable.
But this is precisely the behavior we unconsciously try to attribute to God when we believe that He has some ideal plan for each of us. Having created man in His image and likeness, God endowed him with an amazing gift - the freedom to choose between good and evil. It sounds beautiful and poetic. But if you think about it, the meaning of such freedom lies precisely in the potential opportunity to go against God’s plan. Knowing God's will for himself, created man could decide at his own discretion whether to follow this will or violate it.
Adam and his wife knew for sure that God told them not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But God did not surround this tree with three rows of barbed wire and did not place armed guards near it. He only warned man about the consequences of violating His will: in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die (Genesis 2:17). People had to make the decision themselves. And we know from the Bible what that decision was. Further, the entire history of mankind developed around this tragic confrontation between the free will of man and the will of God about him. Where man accepted God's will, the history of human holiness flourished. Where he rejected, the story of sin, suffering, and death broke out.
If we return again to the example of the factory mentioned above, it would turn out that instead of producing products, the workers would spend their days doing nothing but violating safety regulations, sticking their arms and legs into machines to see what would come of it, beating up each other friend with adjustable wrenches and other tools, and even tried from time to time to storm the director’s office, where the one who came up with such an “ideal plan” would be hiding from them, instead of replacing wayward workers with trouble-free robots. But the fact of the matter is that this example is absolutely wrong.
Word of God
Jesus is called the Word incarnate. What He spoke and what is recorded in the gospels is spirit and life. Therefore, the most important thing is to study the Word. How to know God's will in any matter? First, find EVERYTHING, I repeat, EVERYTHING that the Bible says about your question. Very often the answer is obvious when you delve into the teachings of Christ.
Thesis two
For God, man is not a means of production, not an instrument for achieving some external, non-human goals. God's goal is man himself.
God did not create us for anything else, except for one thing - to give us the joy of the fullness of being in His love. St. John of Damascus writes: “God first of all wants everyone to be saved and to achieve His Kingdom. In fact, as good, He created us not to punish, but so that we could be partakers of His goodness.” God created man for his participation in the bliss of existence. The whole world was arranged in such a way that the existence of people in this world filled their lives with joy and fun, and the main joy of existence for a person was God’s love for him. But only those who are free in their choice can respond to love.
And God gave man this amazing opportunity - to love or not to love his Creator. So in the huge world He created, which was completely subordinate to its Creator, a territory suddenly appeared over which He had no power. This was the heart of a person, which only he himself could fill with love for God. But he could just as freely refuse this love.
If God deprived them of this freedom, then people would cease to be people and would turn into zombies, into automata, rigidly programmed to be good and obedient to God. And then there could be no talk of any love, because robots cannot love.
And where there is freedom, there can be no plans: after all, it is impossible to plan the behavior of another if he is free. Therefore, God does not have any ideal plan for each of us. God has prepared for us something immeasurably better - a living relationship with Him that is not interrupted for a moment, no matter what happens to us and no matter how we use our freedom. The Church calls this relationship the Providence of God. Here is how Saint Philaret writes about this in his “Long Catechism”: “Divine Providence is the unceasing action of the omnipotence, wisdom and goodness of God, by which God preserves the existence and strength of creatures, directs them to good goals, helps every good, and what arises through removal from good suppresses evil and turns it to good consequences.”
Revelation.
As you study the Bible, you will receive REVELATION. What does it look like? Some places will look brighter, more important, more understandable to you at the moment than others. Some truths that you knew before and talked about will open up for you in a new light. If you are seeking to know the will of God, revelation from the Word is the primary source.
As we read above – the Holy Spirit speaks to ALL born again Christians. And His task is to remind us of everything that is written in the Word, that Jesus said. And what is very important is that it is not YOUR MIND, not flesh and blood that reveals the Word to you. Therefore, there is no need to strain or consider yourself unable to hear and understand. This ability has nothing to do with your human capabilities.
Thesis three
There is no perfect plan because we are not perfect. God acts providentially in our lives, directing our weaknesses and even sins towards our salvation. And this too is the will of God.
Here's a simple truth: we are not perfect. And it would be strange if the omniscient God, knowing about this fact, made some ideal plans for us. God knows much more about our weaknesses and our imperfections than we do ourselves. Calling us to perfection, He always takes into account the current state in which we find ourselves. No matter what dead end we run into as we walk our own paths through life, God will always find a path for us that leads us out of this dead end. And sometimes He can turn such a deadlock situation itself into good not only for us, but also for many other people.
In the life of Saint Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky), an Orthodox bishop and at the same time an outstanding doctor, there was a moment when he deviated from the will of God. Moreover, this happened when the saint was already a fearless confessor of Christ in the face of the most cruel persecutors, and survived two convictions, exile and imprisonment. In 1933, the saint decided to finally retire from his episcopal ministry and devote himself entirely to medicine. He was going to found a clinic for purulent surgery, in which he could expand and systematize his scientific research in this area.
From that moment on, he clearly felt that the grace of God had left him. Things were not going well, nothing was working with the clinic, all his actions did not bear any fruit. However, even after obvious admonitions from God, the saint, by his own admission, could not immediately admit the error of his choice:
“In saving me, the Lord God sent me a completely extraordinary prophetic dream, which I remember with perfect clarity even now, many years later.
I dreamed that I was in a small empty church, in which only the altar was brightly lit. In the church, not far from the altar, against the wall there is a shrine of some saint, covered with a heavy wooden lid. In the altar, a wide board is placed on the throne, and on it lies a naked human corpse. On the sides and behind the throne stand students and doctors smoking cigarettes, and I lecture them on anatomy on a corpse. Suddenly I flinch from a heavy knock and, turning around, I see that the lid has fallen from the saint’s shrine, he sat down in the coffin and, turning, looks at me with silent reproach. I woke up in horror...
It is incomprehensible to me that this terrible dream did not bring me to my senses. Upon discharge from the clinic, I returned to Tashkent and continued working in the purulent-surgical department for another two years, work that was often associated with the need to conduct research on corpses. And more than once the thought occurred to me that such work was unacceptable for a bishop. For more than two years I continued this work and could not tear myself away from it, because it gave me one after another very important scientific discoveries, and the observations collected in the purulent department subsequently formed the most important basis for writing my book “Essays on Purulent Surgery.”
In my prayers of repentance, I earnestly asked God for forgiveness for this two-year continuation of work on surgery, but one day my prayer was stopped by a voice from the unearthly world: “Don’t repent of this!” And I realized that “Essays on Purulent Surgery” were pleasing to God, because they greatly increased the strength and significance of my confession of the name of Christ in the midst of anti-religious propaganda.”
This is how the Lord skillfully wove the thread of His will into the fate of the saint, even where the saint himself so stubbornly refused to fulfill this will. And in the life of each of us, there is also bound to be a thread through which God can lead us out of the most dense forest of our own ideas about how we should live. You just need to be able to discern it in this bizarre interweaving of our current circumstances.
God's Actions Should Glorify Christ
What will be revealed to you, God’s will, should glorify Christ, for it will be revealed by the Spirit. Everything we talk about should have a purpose - to glorify Christ. Knowing the will of God without the goal of glorifying Christ is doomed to error. Therefore, if you are looking for an answer on how to know the will of God, and are not sure that this will glorify God, it is better not to continue.
Dreams
A dream, as a prophetic act, very often becomes part of a revelation, part of God's answer, or a complete answer. I can have visions in dreams. This does not say that every dream is God's vision. Dreams also come from vanity.
We in the congregation experience dreams, prophecies, visions directed at a specific person. We believe that revelation alone is not enough to make a decision, and therefore we pose a secret need and ask God. We also do not welcome people passing on visions or dreams to each other. Gifts must be tested in the congregation and interpreted by the Spirit.
In one case the word “the lame walk” may refer to healing, and in another case it may refer to spiritual restoration.
Through the Believers
By listening to the revelations of brothers and sisters, you can get answers to your questions when you want to know how to know the will of God. We are called to serve one another. But going SPECIFICALLY to others for answers is, in principle, wrong. A true minister should lead you to God, teach you to listen to Christ, and not become the Holy Spirit for you.
We have already considered several ways when God should have the advantage of choosing a way to tell us. I CANNOT lead God and tell Him how to speak to me. My job is to offer myself to God.
Another example
One brother could not find a wife for a long time. For different reasons. And he was disappointed, or even offended, at God. Like, I pray, but there is no answer. I invited him to pray and find out the will of God in this matter - to ask God about his wife. He agreed. But I asked him about what we talked about above - does he agree to accept the will that the Lord will reveal?
He didn’t understand at first, he said that of course he would accept. But further conversation showed the opposite thoughts. He was not going to accept something that did not suit him. In other words, he pictured an ideal woman for himself, and now he expected this from God. Then I asked him - why are you asking God for a wife if you are not ready to accept the sister that the Lord can give you, because she, most likely, will not meet his requirements.
Why did I write this? I would like to emphasize once again that the will of God is GOOD, PLEASANT and PERFECT. If you can't trust God, don't ask.
Obstacles
Very often, various obstacles in any business are attributed both to God, who does not want us to do certain actions, and to the devil. There is a prayer when people say to God: “I will go, but if it is not according to Your will, then You will stop me, put obstacles in my way.” Here the question arises - if you DO NOT KNOW whether God’s will is for this, then why did you go? And we need to set our priorities correctly. Jesus is the Master and we are the servants. But sometimes it turns out that God is like a waiter for us, to whom WE tell him what, how, and where to say.
When obstacles arise, it is important to KNOW the source. And please note that the obstacles in Paul's life were NOT related to a new job or buying a house. That is, not with carnal desires and needs.
Gifts of the Spirit.
Very often, people turn to prophecies to pray and ask God about the situation that worries them at the moment. I would like to point out that prophetic gifts are not designed to do this. They are given for edification, admonition and comfort.
There is not a single instance in the new testament where people turned to ministering prophets for answers. Examples in the Word show that the prophets themselves came and spoke the Word. Although in the Old Testament the practice of turning to prophets was natural. And this is because only certain people could hear God before.
Today everything is different. We have the anointing and know everything. In order to tell us something, to guide us, God gave gifts to the Church. If believers are not zealous for them, then they limit themselves in understanding the will of God. If they serve each other with their gifts, knowledge of the will of God becomes a common and natural thing in the congregation.
Self-will as a consequence of sin
And how often does it happen with us: we read “Our Father”, we know about the will of God and the goodness of the Lord, and when it comes down to it: “Lord, I know that You always want only the best for me, but I want to do it my own way.” .
And then we wonder: why did God punish me like that? Yes, it was not the Lord who did this, but our actions. Therefore, one must be very careful with such a complex tool as free will.
On the one hand, it benefits us, and on the other, if used irrationally, it makes us a slave to certain situations and events.
If our free will coincides with the divine, it means that we are moving in the right direction, the ultimate goal of which is salvation.
