Walking in the Will of God

It is most important for the Lord’s children to recognize 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 6:38. “I have come down from heaven not to do My own will, but the will of Him that sent Me.” In John 5:30, the Lord Jesus said “I can do nothing of My own self”—this means that He never acted apart from His Father—“As I hear I judge and My judgment is just, because I seek not My own will but the will of the Father which has sent Me.”

Although He had a separate will, the principle of His life was not independent action, but a co-operation 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 understand that God does not desire us to be passive, like a creature with no will of its own that He leads here and there, or like a ball that He kicks around bouncing it off the walls. On the contrary, the words of the Lord Jesus show that He used His own will in distinct action: He said: “I seek not my 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 self-denial aspect of the Lord’s Walk with God the Father—He did not seek to do His own will.

Christ’s goal was to do the will of God. In John 4:34, we find the positive aspect—that is how He did the Father’s will. “My food is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work.”

Here is the active choice to make. 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 food 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, we see His propensity to His own separate will. But He denied Himself and set His own will to God’s will.

As you set your will to do God’s will, God can work with you. Your part is to continually make God’s will the principle of your life. You say: “I choose God’s will in this.” You should not be will-less and put your will aside, but rather have a determined will that is an absolutely aligned will with God’s will, asking God to reveal His will to you. Christ’s will was so set to the will of the Father that it never lost co-operation with God’s will for a moment. He perfectly and entirely did the will of God. “Behold, I have to do your 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. 8:3: “I will, be made 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 made 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 made . . .” 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 what is God’s will!

Then there will come a time, when, in the endowment 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-operation with His will, and enabling you to speak the word of authority over the enemy in His Name.

God’s will in suffering.

In Luke 22:42, we read: “Not My will, but Yours be done.” These words, spoken in Gethsemane, indicate that Christ put His will on God’s side in the terrible anguish He was going through. The pressure was so strong that His sweat became as great drops of blood. “Not My will, but Yours,” 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 Your Name.” Christ brought His will on side and didn’t seek His own but sought God’s glory. And as He put His will on God’s side, an angel came and ministered to Him. If you, too, will make this the central principle of your 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 did the Lord know the will of God?

The Lord Jesus knew the will of God in His spirit. See John 4:4: “He had to go through Samaria.” The literal rendering is that “It was necessary for Him.” It was God’s will that He should go, and He knew it because His spirit was flexible.

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; 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 tomorrow, 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 if God so desires. You will not walk continuously in the will of God until you have learned how to be flexible to His will. How did Jesus know God’s will? You must have a flexible mind. That is one of the first principles of progress in God. A meeting that cannot become adaptable 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 just as ready a response. 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 assistance needed, and its product is very poor. When you are in the spiritual plane and know the Holy Spirit in your spirit, you recognize there are grave consequences attached to all you do. 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 you but everyone with whom you have had to do with. 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 to maintain that you will be obliged to live up to the highest point you have attained and be satisfied with nothing less. 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 attack 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. 3:16.

Shrinking from doing God’s will.

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 accordingly, 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 cease co-operating? A little hesitation will push you below the point. Then you say, “Lord, I am going to do what You desire!” Then the power of God comes in, and you continue in your walk.

The enemy will endeavour to knock you off balance and hide from you the fact that you are in a lower spiritual 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, 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 4:34 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 food is to do the will of Him that sent me . . . .” In John 7:3, 6, His brethren said to Him, “Depart from here . . . .” Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready.” Here is the restraining power of the Spirit, so that He is not moved by His brethren. Again, in John 11:5, 6, we read, “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. When He had heard therefore that he was sick He stayed two days still in the same place where He was.” He was bound by the Holy Spirit. 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; 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 is enslaved by Satan, is capable of choice. The invitation to the unsaved soul is; “Whosoever will, may come and take of the water of life freely.” “Whosoever will”!

In Phil. 2:13. “It is God that works in you to will . . . .” He does not “will” instead of you. Man’s will needs God’s power to energize it. Apart from it, it is sluggardly and driven about aimlessly. Paul said, “To will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I know not.” Here Paul is describing himself, that is, his flesh. Rom. 7:18.

Many who have set their will against God’s will, just as the servant that knew His will and did not do it, shall be beaten with many stripes.

(To be continued)