The will of God, Christian sermons. What is the will of God
God's will
Today we will talk about the will of God.
When I talk about this, I mean two main questions:
1. What does God want from man?
What is God's will regarding people, you and most importantly regarding myself. This will of God, is it the same for everyone or different for you and me?
Maybe you or I are special, so God wants us to do something special?
2. How should a person act and live so that this life is pleasing to Christ our Lord?
Here are two very important questions that we will try to sort out today.
Speaking about faith, undoubtedly, faith is the most important question, what God wants from a person, but the question of faith turns out to be not so simple, because there are a lot of misconceptions in the matter of faith. We see how many varieties of faith there are in this world—hundreds, maybe thousands. Is this what God wants or does God have only one way?
From the creation of the world, God has plans for man, and man is not abandoned by the Lord, and God wants every person to seek and find the Lord and live in harmony with him.
(Acts 17:27)
27 so that they may seek God, lest they sense Him and find Him, although He is not far from each of us:
In order for man to know who God is and what God’s will is in relation to man, God manifested himself, declared Himself through his prophets and left us in the Holy Scriptures all the necessary instructions and laws sufficient for man to know who is God and what does He want from man?
(Deut.30:15-20)
15 Behold, today I have set before you life and good, death and evil.
16 [I] commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to do His commandments and His statutes and His laws, then you will live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land where you are going to take possession of it;
17 But if your heart turns away, and you do not listen, and you go astray, and you worship other gods and serve them,
18 Then I declare to you today that you will perish and will not remain long in the land to take possession of which you are crossing the Jordan.
19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses before you today: I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live,
20 loved the Lord your God, listened to His voice and clung to Him; For this is your life and the length of your days, that you may abide in the land which the Lord promised with an oath to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to give them.
We read:
Firstly, God for a person is not some kind of annex in his life, as if saying: “if you want to live as God wants, but if you want to live on your own.” The Lord immediately warned us people that this was not about some minor issues, but it concerns life and death, good and evil.
God said that I will give you, man, My commandments, laws and instructions. If you, a man, fulfill these commandments, then God will bless you and your descendants. Here we are talking not only about the promised land, for us it is a question of eternity.
If a person does not follow God’s instructions, then the Lord says: “you will perish and will not stay long on earth” Thus, the question of obedience to God is not a question of insignificant or secondary importance, but it is a question of life and death, good and evil, blessing and curse. This Man's decision whether or not to do the will of God has eternal consequences.
Second question, what are God’s requirements for man? What should a person do?
What did the Lord say to this:
16 ...to love the Lord your God,
20 ... listened to His voice and clung to Him – believe, trust
Third question Is it possible to fulfill the will of God if you only know the law and try to fulfill it?
We see that this is only one of God's requirements - walk in His ways and do His commandments, but there are still two points - love and believe.
Why did the Pharisees become the first enemies of Christ? After all, they knew the law perfectly and tried to fulfill it. Then why could they not understand and do the will of God? Because they could not fulfill two more conditions that the Lord established - love and believe they could not, abandoned these instructions, did not seek or ask for it. Therefore, answering the question, is it possible to fulfill the will of God - knowing and fulfilling the law? Christ answered.
(Matt. 23:23-26)
23 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you tithe mint, anise, and cumin, and they left the most important things in the law: judgment, mercy and faith; this had to be done, and this should not be abandoned.
24 Blind leaders, straining out a gnat and devouring a camel!
25 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you cleanse the outside of the cup and the platter, while inside they are full of robbery and unrighteousness.
26 Blind Pharisee! First cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, so that the outside of them may also be clean.
You and I must understand that God wants to see his creation similar to Jesus Christ, who has a soul, a spirit, and a body perfect, not defiled. We must be sincere in the matter of doing God's will. We cannot please God if we follow any part of His instructions. This doesn't work with God because God cannot be deceived.
When Christ began His ministry, He immediately declared the main Will of God:
(Mark 1:15)
15 And saying that the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent and believe in the gospel.
The brother said in previous sermons that faith itself is a component of a person’s personality. God created man in His image and likeness - a personality, and put faith into the basis of human personality. The entire worldview and mind of a person, his principles, morals, way of thinking and other components of a person are built on a person’s faith. If a person’s faith is taken away, he will have no personality, he will be a person with a disorder of consciousness and psyche, he will be lost. Therefore, it becomes clear when in a conversation with a person about faith, as a rule, 90% of the time we will hear: “I believe.” And these people are not deceiving, they really have faith.
Then the second question should be asked: “If you are a believer, what is God’s will for your life? How should you act to please God? Those. is your faith the faith of God? Will there be a clear and precise answer from such a believer? – as a rule, no.
Because if a person does not know God, then he does not know the will of God, and he begins to believe in anything: rituals, fortune telling, ceremonies, traditions, signs, miracles, luck, success, healthy image life, vegetarianism, UFOs, aliens, humanoids, rebirth, reincarnation and other nonsense. A person fills his inner emptiness with anything and begins to sincerely believe in it. Thus, the result is such a mixture of all kinds of human errors that Christ was indignant about it.
(John 5:43,44)
43 I came in the name of My Father, and you do not receive Me; but if another comes in his own name, you will receive him.
44 How can you believe when you receive glory from one another, but do not seek the glory that is from the One God?
The path of salvation is the same for all people through repentance and faith in the Gospel. If a person wants to find another way, or he considers himself special, that God should do something special for him, then this is not the faith of God. This is not the path that Christ pointed to. And the path of such a person is not the path of fulfilling the will of God, is not the path of the Gospel, such a person does not fulfill the will of God, but fulfills some other will. As a rule, one’s own, human, selfish will, in other words, one’s own lusts, and this has nothing to do with Christ.
(1 John 2:17)
17 And the world passes away, and its lusts, but he who does the will of God abides forever.
The question of salvation is the same for everyone, and the path is the same for everyone, through the knowledge of the truth, which is Christ.
(1 Tim. 2:4)
4 Who wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
There is a path of salvation shown to us in the Gospel, shown to us by Christ. This is the way to fulfill the Will of God for every person.
In our Christian life There are situations when we have a choice to do this or that, and we don’t know what to do correctly. Living in this world without God, what did we do? In our own minds, we made a decision quickly so that the problem would be solved as soon as possible, and it seemed that we were moving forward. But it turned out that they were going nowhere because they did not take into account God, His will.
But in Christ we no longer act like this, we do not make hasty decisions, but turn to Christ, and He shows us the way.
(Jer.29:11-13)
11 For [only] I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
12 And you will call upon Me, and go and pray to Me, and I will hear you;
13 And you will seek Me and find Me, if you seek Me with all your heart.
(Ps. 24:12)
12 Who is the man who fears the Lord? He will show him the path to choose.
In this case, temptation may arise among those who are looking for other paths, special paths, who do not want to part with their “wealth”: sins, views, opinions, selfishness. A person who has not gone through the path of repentance and faith does not have forgiveness of sins; he is a sinner:
(John 9:31)
31 But we know that God does not listen to sinners; but who honors God and does His will, listens to him.
For a person who does not have peace with God, whose conscience condemns, there is one only path in accordance with the will of God - the path of repentance and faith in Christ: repent and believe in the gospel.
It often happens that a person imagines that he has received some special revelations - this, as a rule, is deception, conceit, a manifestation of pride, and the person falls into delusions and snares.
For you and me, Christ is an example of fulfilling the will of God. Let's look at the Scriptures to see how Jesus acted to do the will of God. Christ came precisely to point out this path of fulfilling the will of God, the path of salvation. And here we move on to the second question of our sermon today:
What must a person do to fulfill the will of God?
(Matt. 6:9,10)
9 Pray this way: Our Father who art in heaven! Hallowed be Thy name;
10 Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven;
Brothers, the will of God is good, is it good, is it for good? In heaven, the will of God is fulfilled, there is His kingdom, and He is the king and everyone listens to Him and does His will - the will of God. Christ wants me, and you, and all people here on earth to do the will of God. Christ wants this to be in our hearts constantly, so that His will will be in our lives here on earth.
(Matt. 7:21)
21 Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord!” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but fulfilling the will of My Heavenly Father.
The Lord clearly says that it is not enough just to know and be able to speak and reason about God. What you have learned about God must be realized in your life, otherwise this knowledge will be a source of additional condemnation, greater severity and punishment by God in relation to those who knew and did not fulfill it.
(John 4:31-34)
31 Meanwhile the disciples asked Him, saying: Rabbi! eat.
32 But He said to them, “I have food that you do not know.”
33 Therefore the disciples said to one another, “Who brought Him anything to eat?”
34 Jesus said to them: My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to complete His work.
(John 6:38)
38 for I Christ came down from heaven not to do My will, but the will of the Father who sent Me.
Christ came to earth with one purpose - to fulfill the will of the Father. And this is an example for us, how we should live on this earth fulfilling the will of God.
(John 7:16-18)
16 Jesus answered them and said, “My teaching is not Mine, but that of Him who sent Me;
17 who wants to do His will, he will know about this teaching, whether it is from God, or I speak from Myself.
18 He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of Him who sent Him is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.
Whoever wants to do the will of God will learn that the Gospel that Christ proclaimed is from God. Let's remember when we came to Christ, how the Lord convinced us - With your truth.
Christ pointed out that our life was not going right, we ourselves understood this, but we could not change our life ourselves and make it right. But when we turned to God, Christ illuminated all our darkness and showed us the way. And we decided to no longer live according to our personal human will, which was destroying our lives, but to accept and do the will of God, because we understood that His will is for our good. And when we accepted the will of God, our whole life changed, everything fell into place: relationships with God, relationships with others, relationships with ourselves.
How to distinguish human will from God's will? The Lord said: 18 He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory. The human will always, I emphasize always, seeks glory for itself. Selfishness is nothing more than the human will, my will which egoism will never yield to anyone, and will not give honor to anyone except itself.
But He who seeks the glory of Him who sent Him is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. And whoever seeks the glory of God will fulfill the will of God. How is it possible to give glory to God? Only on one condition - if you transgress your Self, your desires and interests, if you do not give glory to yourself and observe your will, but accept God’s will for yourself.
(Luke 22:41-42)
41 And He Himself departed from them a stone's throw (some distance), and knelt down and prayed,
42 saying: Father! Oh, that You would deign to carry this cup past Me! however not my will, but yours be done.
The example of Christ, when he understood that suffering, humiliation and death awaited Him ahead. As a man He experienced fear, His flesh feared and did not want to suffer, and His human will resisted what awaited Him. And the worst thing is that Christ knew that the wrath of God would be poured out on Him for all the sins of people, including my and your sins. The Righteous One, who was without sin, and He bore the punishment for all the sins of the world - this was the most painful thing in the suffering of Christ.
Therefore, knowing about his suffering, Jesus said: Father! Oh, that You would deign to carry this cup past Me!
But Christ knew that He had to go through this, otherwise the will of God would not be accomplished, otherwise your and my salvation would not be possible, and in the end God would not be glorified. And knowing this, Christ directed all his will towards accepting and going to fulfill the will of God. And that’s why he said: “ however, not My will, but Yours be done.” Christ, despite the upcoming suffering, directed His will to fulfill the will of God.
Where a person directs his will, that will will be fulfilled by him, because a person always, I repeat always, has a choice:
A person has the choice to say no to sin, this is in the will of a person;
Man has the choice to turn to God and bow his knees before Him;
A person has the choice and opportunity to humble himself, not to desire glory for himself, but to desire glory for God.
The choice of a person determines whose will a person will carry out: your human will and your desires or the will of God.
These decisions of a person determine whose will he will carry out. Therefore, such statements from a person as:
- “I am waiting for something to happen in my life”
- “maybe God will give me some revelations and finally I can believe”
No, that's not the point. The fact is that you have not yet made the decision to renounce your own will and have not accepted the will of God. Christ has already said everything for you: repent and believe in the Gospel. There is nothing more to say - either you accept it, or go and do your will.
(John 6:39,40)
39 Now this is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I should lose nothing, but raise it all up at the last day.
40 This is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
From these verses we see how God cares for us and what Christ's responsibility and care is for us. To don't destroy anything but to bring us all to the end, to eternity.
Accordingly, how important and responsible is our turning to Jesus, how grateful we should be to Jesus, love Him, do His will, and keep ourselves holy. I repeat, this is not a secondary issue, we see what Christ’s concern for us is, because this is a matter of eternal life and death.
(1 Thess. 4:3-7)
3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification that you abstain from fornication;
4 so that each of you knows how to keep his own vessel in holiness and honor,
5 and not in the passion of lust, like the pagans who do not know God;
6 So that you do not deal with your brother in anything unlawful or selfishly: for the Lord is the avenger of all these things, as we told you and testified before.
7 For God has not called us to uncleanness, but to holiness.
God has freed us from the power of sin. The will of God is that we, having received forgiveness of sins at the beginning of our journey, should maintain holiness. Holiness is an undeserved gift to us from Christ, which became possible when Jesus overcame fear and rejected the will of man, turning His will to do the will of God.
(Heb. 10:36-39)
36 You need patience so that having fulfilled the will of God, to receive what was promised;
37 For yet a little while, a very little, and the Coming One will come and will not tarry.
38 The righteous will live by faith; but if [anyone] hesitates, My soul has no pleasure in him.
39 But we are not of those who hesitate to destruction, but [we stand] in faith to the salvation of the soul.
RESULTS. Today we considered two questions:
1. What is the will of God regarding man.
We are convinced that the will of God is the same for all people: through repentance and faith in Christ we get the opportunity to fulfill the will of God. To fulfill the will of God, we must know it entirely, be sincere towards ourselves, so as not to leave something behind. Not to have a religious approach, which is hypocrisy, which divides the will of God, and allows one not to fulfill some part of God’s will, which Christ condemned through the example of the Pharisees.
This is not how it works with Christ - we must completely fulfill the will of God.
2. How a person should act.
This is to direct your will towards the path of fulfilling the will of God, i.e. to use your free human will correctly. Do not fulfill your own, selfish, sinful will, but fulfill the will of God, choose the Gospel path of salvation, which Christ showed us:
Man must seek God, turn to the Word of God;
A person must believe in Christ;
Through the Word God's Spirit The saint convicts a person, and repentance becomes possible;
A person repents of his sins before Christ, and God forgives the person and gives him the opportunity to live a new holy life in communion with the living God;
THE ELDER said: “It is good to always and in everything seek instruction from God on what and how to do or say.” In other words, in each individual case one must seek knowledge of the will of God and ways to implement it.
The search for the will of God is the most important matter of our life, since, falling on its path, a person is included in eternal divine life.
Knowing the will of God is possible in various ways. One of them is the word of God, the commandments of Christ. But in the commandments of the Gospel, with all their perfection, or better to say, because of their perfection, the will of God is expressed in its final general meaning, and a person in his life, encountering an infinite variety of situations, very often does not understand what to do in order to act he was in the flow of God's will.
In order for an action or deed to have a good end, it is not enough to know only the general expression of the will of God in the commandment, namely, to love God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength, and your neighbor as yourself; you still need to have enlightenment from God about the way to implement these commandments in life; Moreover, we need power from above for this.
He who has acquired the love of God in his heart, moved by this love, acts on impulses that approach the will of God; however, only approaching, not perfect. The incomprehensibility of complete perfection makes it obligatory for everyone to continually turn to God with prayer for admonition and help.
Man lacks not only the perfection of love, but also the perfection of omniscience. An action that seems to come from the best intentions often has undesirable and even unkind consequences. This is because the means or mode of implementation was unkind or simply wrong for the occasion. We often hear that someone justifies themselves by saying that they had good intentions, but this is not enough. And it's filled with such errors human life. That is why he who loves God always seeks admonition from above, constantly listening within himself to the voice of God.
In practice, this is done like this: every Christian, and especially a bishop or priest, who is faced with the need to find a solution in one case or another in accordance with the will of God, internally renounces all his knowledge, preconceived thoughts, desires, plans and, free from everything “of his own,” ”, he prays carefully in his heart to God, and accepts the first thing that is born in the soul after this prayer as an instruction from above.
Such a search for knowledge of God’s will through direct appeal to God with prayer, especially in need and sorrow, leads to the fact that a person, as the Elder said, “in his soul hears the answer from God and learns to understand God’s guidance... So we all need to learn to know the will of God; and if we don’t study, we will never learn this path.”
Doing this in a more perfect form is preceded by the skill of constantly praying, keeping attention in the heart. But in order to more reliably hear the voice of God in himself, a person must strip away his own will and be ready for every sacrifice, like Abraham, and even, according to the commandment of the Apostle Paul, like Christ Himself, Who “obedient to the Father even unto death” (Phil. 2, 8).
Anyone who has embarked on this path will succeed if only he has learned from experience how the grace of the Holy Spirit works in man, and if wrathful self-denial has taken root in his heart, that is, a decisive renunciation of his small “individual” will, for the sake of achieving and accomplishing the holy the will of God. To such a person the true meaning of the question asked by Elder Silouan to Father Stratonik will be revealed: “What do the perfect say?”; the words of the Holy Fathers will become familiar to him: “It pleased the Holy Spirit and us”; he will more clearly understand those places in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments where such direct conversation of the soul with God is spoken of; he will come closer to a true understanding of what the Apostles and Prophets spoke.
Man was created in the image and likeness of God and called to the fullness of direct communion with God, and therefore all people, without exception, should follow this path, but in the experience of life it turns out to be accessible “not to everyone.” This is because most people do not hear the voice of God in their hearts, do not understand it, and follow the voice of passion that lives in the soul and drowns out the meek voice of God with its noise.
In the Church, the outcome from such a deplorable situation is another path, namely, asking the spiritual father and obeying him. The Elder himself loved this path, walked it, pointed to it and wrote about it. [ See his wonderful chapters “On Pastors and Confessors” and friend. ] He considered the humble path of obedience generally the most reliable. He firmly believed that for the sake of the faith of the questioner, the confessor’s answer would always be kind, useful, and pleasing to God. His faith in the effectiveness of the sacrament of the Church and the grace of the priesthood was especially strengthened after he saw his spiritual father, Elder Abraham, transfigured, “in the image of Christ,” “inexpressibly radiant,” during Great Lent at Vespers in Stary Rusik.
Full of grace-filled faith, he lived in the reality of the sacraments of the Church, but, we remember, he found that even “humanly,” that is, on a psychological level, it is not difficult to see the advantage of obedience spiritual father; he said that the confessor, performing his ministry, gives an answer to the question, being free at that moment from the action of passion, under the influence of which the questioner is, and because of this he sees things more clearly and is more easily accessible to the influence of God's grace.
The confessor's answer in most cases will bear the stamp of imperfection; but this is not because the confessor is deprived of the grace of knowledge, but because the completed action exceeds the strength of the questioner and is inaccessible to him. Despite the imperfection of spiritual guidance, if it is received with faith and truly fulfilled, it will always lead to growth in goodness. This path is usually perverted by the fact that the questioner, seeing a “man” in front of him, hesitates in his faith and therefore does not accept first words of the spiritual father and objects to him, opposing his opinions and doubts.
Elder Silouan talked about this important subject with the Hegumen, Archimandrite Misail († January 22, 1940), a spiritual husband whom God favored and clearly patronized.
Father Silouan asked the Hegumen:
How can a monk know the will of God?
He must accept my first word as the will of God,” said the Abbot. - Whoever does this, the grace of God rests on him, and if anyone opposes me, then I, as a person, will retreat.
The word of Hegumen Misail has the following meaning:
The spiritual father, when asked, seeks admonition from God through prayer, but as a person, he answers to the extent of his faith, according to the word of the Apostle Paul: “We believe, therefore we speak” (2 Cor. 4:13), but “we are partly we know, and we prophesy in part” (1 Cor. 13:9). In his desire not to sin, he himself, giving advice or making instructions, remains at the judgment of God, and therefore, as soon as he encounters an objection or at least internal resistance from the questioner, he does not dare to insist on his word, does not dare to assert it as an expression the will of God, and “like a man, he retreats.”
This consciousness was very clearly expressed in the life of Hegumen Misail. One day he summoned the novice monk O.S. to him and entrusted him with complex and difficult obedience. The novice readily accepted it and, making the required bow, headed to the door. Suddenly the Abbot called him. The novice stopped. Bowing his head to his chest, the Hegumen calmly but significantly said:
Father S., remember: God does not judge twice, so when you do something for obedience to me, then I will be judged by God, and you are free from answer.
When someone objected to the instructions or instructions of Hegumen Misail, even in the slightest, this generally courageous ascetic, despite the post of administrator, usually answered: “Well, do as you want,” and then did not repeat his words . And Elder Silouan, meeting resistance, also immediately fell silent.
Why is this so? Because, on the one hand, the Spirit of God does not tolerate violence or dispute, on the other hand, the will of God is too great a matter. In the word of the spiritual father, which always bears the stamp of relativity, it cannot be contained, cannot receive perfect expression, and only the one who perceives the word as pleasing to God, without subjecting it to his judgment, or, as is often said, “without reasoning,” only he found the right path, for he truly believes that “with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).
This is the path of faith, known and confirmed by the thousand-year experience of the Church.
To talk about these objects, which constitute the unsecret mystery of Christian life, but which, however, go beyond the limits of lazy everyday life and usually little spiritual experience, is always not safe, because many can misunderstand the word and incorrectly apply it in practice, and then instead of benefit, harm is possible, especially if a person begins the feat with proud self-confidence.
When anyone sought the Elder’s advice, he did not like and did not want to give an answer “from his own mind.” He remembered the words of St. Seraphim of Sarov: “When I spoke from my mind, there were mistakes,” and added that the mistakes could be small, but there could also be big ones.
The state about which he spoke to Father Stratonik, namely, that “those who are perfect say nothing of themselves... They say only what the Spirit gives them,” is not always given even to those who have approached perfection, like the Apostles and the other Saints did not always perform miracles, and the Prophetic Spirit did not act equally in the Prophets, but sometimes with great power, and sometimes departed from them.
The elder clearly distinguished “the word from experience,” from direct inspiration from above, i.e., the word that “is given by the Spirit.” The first is also valuable, but the second is higher and more reliable (Cf. 1 Cor. 7:25). Sometimes he confidently and definitely told the questioner that it was God’s will for him to do such and such, and sometimes he answered that he did not know God’s will for him. He said that the Lord sometimes does not reveal His will even to the Saints, because the one who turned to them turned to them with an unfaithful and wicked heart.
According to the Elder, someone who prays fervently experiences many changes in prayer: a struggle with the enemy, a struggle with oneself, with passions, a struggle with people, with the imagination, and in such cases the mind is not pure and everything is not clear. But when pure prayer comes, when the mind, united with the heart, silently stands before God, when the soul tangibly has grace within itself and has surrendered to the will of God, free from the darkening effects of passions and imagination, then the one praying hears the inspiration of grace.
When someone who does not have sufficient experience, who cannot “by taste” reliably distinguish the effect of grace from the manifestation of passions, especially pride, begins this work - seeking the will of God through prayer - then it is absolutely necessary to turn to the spiritual father, himself, when meeting with any spiritual phenomenon or suggestion, until the mentor decides to strictly adhere to the ascetic rule: "neither accept nor reject".
By “not accepting,” a Christian protects himself from the danger of a demonic action or suggestion to consider it Divine, and thus learn [not] to “listen to seducing spirits and the teachings of demons” and render divine worship to demons.
“Without rejecting,” a person avoids another danger, namely: attributing the divine action to demons and thereby falling into the sin of “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit,” just as the Pharisees attributed the casting out of demons by Christ to “the power of Beelzebub, the prince of demons.”
The second danger is more terrible than the first, since the soul can get used to rejecting grace and hating it, and so acquire a state of resistance to God that it is so determined in the eternal plan, thanks to which this sin “will not be forgiven either in this age or in the next” (Matt. 12, 22–32). Whereas at the first error the soul sooner recognizes its untruth and through repentance achieves salvation, because there is no unforgivable sin except unrepentant sin.
Much should be said about this extremely important ascetic rule - “neither accept nor reject”, and how it is applied in the life of an ascetic, but since in this work we are faced with the task of presenting only the main provisions, and not details, then we will return to the previous topic.
In its more perfect form, knowledge of God's will through prayer is a rare phenomenon, possible only under the condition of long work, extensive experience in the struggle with passions, after many and difficult temptations from demons, on the one hand, and the great intercessions of God, on the other. But fervent prayer for help is a good deed and necessary for everyone: superiors and subordinates, elders and juniors, teachers and students, fathers and children. The elder insisted that everyone, without exception, regardless of their position, or condition, or age, always and in everything, everyone, as best they can, ask God for admonition, in order to thus gradually bring their path closer to the paths of the holy will of God, until they reach perfection .
23. ...Apostles and Holy Fathers...
24. ...which is not difficult...
“he who has achieved the cutting off of his will has reached a place of peace”
The words of the Lord that not even a hair will be lost from the head without the will of God refer to those who live according to His holy will. The Lord protects such people by His special Providence, and nothing happens to them without the will of God. God's providence protects - this must be understood to mean that the Lord protects every person so that he can live. The Lord provides everything for life: clothes, food. The Lord preserves a person’s life so that he has time to turn to God and repent.
But we must correctly understand the will of God: the action of God’s will is one that promotes, and one that allows. These concepts must be distinguished and should not be confused. The cooperative will of God promotes everything that serves for salvation. But the will of God has a permissive action. People live according to their passions and lusts. This is not God’s will; She does not cooperate with this, but allows it.
This can be expressed figuratively like this: one wants to do good, and the other helps him in this - this is how the will of God works, cooperating. And in another case: one does evil, and the other neither helps nor forbids, stands as if on the sidelines, and does not participate in this - this is how the permissive will of God acts.
God's providence protects everyone. But with the righteous, everything happens only by the will of God. With those who do not live according to the will of God - according to God's permission. The Apostle Paul said: “..all things work together for good to those who love God”(Rom. 8:28).
The Holy Fathers claim that Christians should have three main qualities:
Our will must unite with the will of God so that we can be one with God in the likeness of the Son of Man - Jesus Christ. That's what Jesus said to Thomas “Do you not know that I am in the Father and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you, I do not speak from myself: the Father who abides in me is the one who does the works.”(John 4:1).
If, in this likeness, we abide in Christ and Christ in us, this unity, together with the unity of the Father and the Son, unites us with the will of God. We surrender our souls and bodies to the will of God. This is how we read: “Finally, my brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if there is any excellence or if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Whatever you have learned, received, heard, and seen in me, do it, and may the God of peace be with you” (Phil. 4:8).
The will of God is what God requires from people. But, at the same time, the will of God is not only a requirement standing “above” a person or “in front of” a person, but also a mysterious internal influence by which God helps a person to accomplish what he must do. When a person fulfills the requirement of God's will, he does it not only with his own own strength will, but also that mysterious power, or action of God, which is called grace. It follows that the will of God is not only an absolute moral requirement, but also a good gift, achieved in unity, harmony and interaction of the human will with the will of God.
When God reveals His good will, man should not “to consult with flesh and blood” (Gal. 1:16), but must follow what is required of him by his Divine calling. “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Rom. 6:9).
“...knowing that Christ, having risen from the dead, no longer dies: death no longer has power over him, for what He died, He died once for sin (having atoned for the sin of Adam, author), and what He lives, then lives for God. So consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore, let not sin reign in your mortal body, so that you should obey it in its lusts...” (Rom. 12:1).
The Orthodox Church teaches and confesses that God’s pre-eternal predestination about the world and man does not exclude or eliminate the personal freedom of the individual. At the same time, God's predestination, understood as God's absolute foreknowledge of everything that happens in time, does not in any way limit the moral freedom of the human person.
“For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that each of you should know how to keep his own vessel in holiness and honor. For God has not called us to uncleanness, but to holiness” (1 Thess. 4:3).
The Lord is omnipotent, loves us and wants to lead everyone to salvation. “And the world passes away, and its lusts, but he who does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:17).
The Holy Fathers use the theological concept of synergy (Greek synergos - acting together). We cannot be saved without God's grace, and it is given only to those who act according to the will of God.
God gave free will and does not save us by force. If everyone fulfilled the will of God in everything, then an ideal state of the world would come: there would be no sinners and no spiritually perishing people. That is why so much is said in the patristic works about fulfilling the will of God.
Theologians distinguish two aspects in the will of God: God's desire and God's permission. The desire of God is the absolute will of God, which wants eternal salvation for His creation - man. God wants good for us more than we want it ourselves. But the absolute will of God meets an obstacle in the free will of man, which fluctuates between good and evil.
Free will is given to man as the image and likeness of God. Without the possibility of freedom of choice, good as such would not exist, and a person’s actions and even his internal actions would be guided by necessity. Free will is one of the main advantages of a person, and at the same time, a huge responsibility for him. Without free will, human salvation itself cannot be realized, since salvation is communion with God - life with God, eternal approach to God, illumination and enlightenment of the human soul with divine light. A person must voluntarily choose the path of salvation - to have God as the main goal of his life. Salvation itself is the love of the Creator for His creation and the creation for its Creator. Therefore, salvation is deeply personal. Theologians use the term synergism here, that is, the interaction of two wills - divine and human.
The conflict between the divine and human will gives rise to that relative will of God, which is called assumption. God allows the direction of human will not only towards good, but also towards evil. If God physically stopped evil, then freedom would become a fiction, moreover, all of humanity would be doomed to destruction: after all, each of us committed serious sins, where he was saved only by God’s long-suffering.
Because “there is none righteous, not one...all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:10,23). Only by faith in Jesus can we become righteous: “But to him who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness” (Rom. 4:5). For our faith to be counted into righteousness, works are needed, since “faith without works is dead” (James 2:26). These are the essence of these things: not to sin, to obey God, to seek His face, His Kingdom.
Not to sin is not to have the works of the flesh: “...adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, quarrels, envy, anger, strife, disagreements, (temptations), heresies, hatred, murder, drunkenness, disorderly conduct and the like..." (Gal. 5:19-21). And we need things to do: “...love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control...” (Gal. 5:22,23)- fruits of the spirit.
St. John Climacus, in his famous “Ladder,” writes “that which is from God pacifies the human soul, that which is against God confuses the soul and brings it into a restless state.”
Jesus teaches us to seek the only thing - this is the will of God: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). The Kingdom of God is the will of God: “For the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17).
The freedom of the God-man Lord Jesus Christ in those manifestations as it is described in the Holy Gospel appears before us in a double aspect: it is freedom in obedience Heavenly Father and freedom of domination over natural necessity.
The free will of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the will of a perfect Man, followed the Divine will of the Father in everything: “Not what I want, but what You want” (Mark 14:36); “not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). Through His teaching, His deeds and His entire life, Christ did not create His will, but the will of the Father who sent Him, which contains the secret of the future general resurrection (John 6:38-39). The Gospel testifies that Christ was in the feat of struggle: the Gethsemane prayer was the triumph of the moral-volitional victory of the human nature of Christ over its natural weakness, dynamically acquired by Adam in the Fall and potentially adopted by the Son of God in the Incarnation, so that what was defeated in Adam would triumph in Christ. In obedience to the Heavenly Father, the human freedom of Christ manifested itself and realized itself in all its ideal completeness.
The freedom of the God-man in dominion over natural necessity was manifested in His voluntary submission to the laws of the life of the world. By His infinite mercy, voluntarily, God the Word became incarnate and entered the sphere of specific natural and historical conditions. And although at every single moment of His earthly life the Son of God had the power to remove Himself from the influence of these historical social influences, in His incarnation He did not want to exceed the boundaries of created nature with His Divine omnipotence, and did not remove from Himself the inevitable death for every person.
Christ shared to the end the fate of man, who had lost his pristine freedom and inherited physical doom and death. By subordinating Himself to natural necessity, the Son of God overcame the limitations of freedom imposed by it. Having entered the world, He entered the realm of existence poisoned by evil, taking on the flesh of a fellow man who was under the burden of sin. The triumph of Christ over natural necessity was the supernatural miracles He performed, which preceded in time His victory over death and His glorious Resurrection. The absolute completeness of power over natural necessity was revealed by the God-man in that He was free to lay down His life and free to take it up again (John 10:18). The prerequisite for His Resurrection was the victory of freedom of love over the horror of suffering and death, which declared His human nature in the terrible hour of the Gethsemane night. In the possession of love and freedom, He followed the will of the Heavenly Father.
A. Sokolovsky
Throughout our lives, we more than once find ourselves faced with a choice of what to do, which path to take, and not just to follow, but to ensure that this path corresponds to God’s will for us. How can we find out the will of God? How do we know that the choice we make is the right one? The pastors of the Russian Church give their advice.
The question of how to find out the will of God is perhaps one of the most important in our lives. Agree that the will of God is the most accurate and true measure of how we should act.
To know or feel the will of God in a particular case, many conditions are needed. This is a good knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, this is leisurely decision-making, this is the advice of a confessor.
To understand correctly Scripture, firstly, it must be read prayerfully, that is, read not as a text for discussion, but as a text that is understood by prayer. Secondly, in order to understand the Holy Scriptures, it is necessary, as the apostle says, not to be conformed to this age, but to be transformed by the renewing of your mind (see: Rom. 12:2). In Greek, the verb “not to be conformed” means: not to have general scheme with this age: that is, when they say: “In our time everyone thinks like that” - this is a kind of scheme, and we should not conform to it. If we want to know the will of God, it is necessary to deliberately discard and ignore what one of the sages of the 17th century, Francis Bacon, called “the idols of the crowd,” that is, the opinions of others.
All Christians without exception are told: “I appeal to you, brethren, by the mercies of God... do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, acceptable and perfect will of God” (Rom. 12:1-2 ); “Do not be foolish, but understand what is the will of God” (Eph. 5:17). And in general, the will of God can only be known through personal communication with Him. Therefore, a close relationship with Him and serving Him will be a necessary condition to find an answer to our question.
Live in accordance with God's commandments
How to find out the will of God? Yes, it’s very simple: you need to open New Testament, First Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Thessalonians, and read: “This is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thess. 4:3). And we are sanctified by obedience to God.
So there is only one sure way to know the will of God - this is to live in harmony with the Lord. And the more we establish ourselves in such a life, the more we seem to take root, establish ourselves in God’s likeness, and acquire real skill in understanding and fulfilling the will of God, that is, in the conscious and consistent fulfillment of His commandments. This is general, and the particular follows from this general. Because if a person in some specific life situation wants to know God’s will about himself and, let’s say, learns it from some spirit-bearing elder, but the disposition of the person himself is not spiritual, then he will not be able to understand, accept, or fulfill this will... So the main thing is, without a doubt, a sober, spiritual life and attentive fulfillment of God’s commandments.
And if a person is going through some important period in his life and he really wants to make the right choice, to act Godly in this or that difficult situation, then based on all that has been said, the first way to find out the will of God is to strengthen his church life, then there is to bear special spiritual labor: to speak, to confess, to receive communion, to show greater than usual zeal in prayer and reading the word of God - this is the main work for someone who really wants to know the will of God in this or that matter. And the Lord, seeing such a sober and serious disposition of the heart, will certainly make His holy will clear and give strength to fulfill it. This is a fact that has been verified many times and by the most different people. You just need to show constancy, patience and determination in seeking the truth of God, and not in pleasing your dreams, desires and plans... Because everything mentioned is already self-will, that is, not the plans, dreams and hopes themselves, but the desire for everything to be exactly the way we want. Here is a question of real faith and self-denial, if you like, readiness to follow Christ, and not your ideas about what is right and useful. It is impossible without this.
Prayer of Abba Isaiah: “God, show mercy to me and, whatever pleases You about me, inspire my father (name) to say it about me.”
In Rus', it is customary to ask for advice at especially important moments in life from the elders, that is, from experienced confessors endowed with special grace. This desire is deeply rooted in the tradition of Russian church life. Only, when going for advice, we need to remember, again, that spiritual work is required of us: strong prayer, abstinence and repentance with humility, readiness and determination to do the will of God - that is, everything that we talked about above. But in addition, it is also imperative and earnest to pray for the enlightenment of the confessor with the grace of the Holy Spirit, so that the Lord, by His mercy, through the spiritual father, will reveal to us His holy will. There are such prayers, the holy fathers write about them. Here is one of them, suggested Reverend Abba Isaiah:
“God, do mercy on me and, whatever pleases You about me, inspire my father (name) to say it about me.”.
Desire God's will, not your own
The will of God can be known in different ways- through the advice of a confessor or, through reading the word of God or with the help of lots, etc. But the main thing that anyone who wants to know the will of God must have is the willingness to unquestioningly follow it in his life. If there is such a readiness, the Lord will definitely reveal His will to a person, perhaps in an unexpected way.
You need to internally prepare for any outcome, not get attached to any of the options for the development of events.
I like the patristic advice. As a rule, we long to know the will of God at the moment when we stand at a crossroads - before a choice. Or when we prefer one option for the development of events over another, less attractive to us. Firstly, you need to try to set yourself up equally in relation to any path or development of events, that is, internally prepare for any outcome, and not become attached to any of the options. Secondly, sincerely and fervently pray that the Lord will arrange everything according to His good will and do everything in a way that will be useful for us in terms of our salvation in eternity. And then, as the holy fathers claim, His Providence for us will be revealed.
Be attentive to yourself and your conscience
Be careful! To yourself, to the world around you and your neighbors. The will of God is open to a Christian in the Holy Scriptures: a person can receive an answer to his questions in it. By thought St. Augustine When we pray, we turn to God, and when we read the Holy Scriptures, the Lord answers us. The will of God is for everyone to come to salvation. Knowing this, strive to direct your will in all events of life towards God who saves.
And “in everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess. 5:18).
It is quite simple to find out the will of God: if the conscience, when tested by prayer and time, does not “revolt,” if the solution to this or that issue does not contradict the Gospel, and if the confessor is not against your decision, then God’s will is for that decision. Each of your actions must be viewed through the prism of the Gospel and accompanied by a prayer, even the shortest one: “Lord, bless.”
