What is God’s Will?

Is it what happens; that is, what already transpired, with or without our acceptance or agreement to it? Or is it what we want to happen with God’s help and does come to pass? Or, perhaps, it is all of that.

The greater question might be: Are we at all party to the things that occur in the Universe? Or are humans caught in a cosmic maelstrom in which they only have infinitesimal control over a few paltry things, mostly physical and sometimes moral, but that in the entire spectrum of existence we are as helpless as animals and as inconsequential as the atoms that form our bodies?

Certainly, this is a tough matter to tackle with so much of history that we still do not truly understand, let alone know the exact manner in which any particular event took place. Take for instance the Great Flood. Did it really occur? And if it did, did it happen the way the Genesis writer described it in so much detail – from the kind of wood used, the exact number of days it rained, the particular bird Noah sent to search for dry land and the name of the mountain on which the Ark landed?

We now know that several ancient civilizations had a similar Great Flood tradition. The names had somehow changed but the essential story remained. Have we accepted as real history a tale conceived by ancient poets perhaps or is it a well-preserved record of what truly transpired according to Divine will? Are we to say that only modern, scientific people have the skills to deduce or produce reliable historical records?

Or did Noah truly live – an upright man with a wife and three married children? Did he hear the voice telling him to build that Ark and, putting his trust on that voice, did in fact spend the next 120 years building that Ark according to precise specifications which science has somehow proven to be feasible? This explains perhaps why a few over-eager believers have dedicated their lives to hunting the remains of the Ark on a mountain in Turkey. All in the hopes of obliterating all doubts about the story and, it must necessary follow, God’s omniscience?

But why put all burden of the proof on one story or one man alone when we have hundreds of others? Archeology has, for good measure, proven much of biblical history to be valid. Enough to give us a clear view of God’s will.

Hence, the important thing is that one man – whether it was Noah or not -- did hear God reveal a plan – His will – and made it his own and thus “made things happen” according to that plan and, thus, according to God’s will.

Apparently, Noah must have felt a bit embarrassed from having to cut those many trees and building a vessel on top of a hill. More so from the fact that it had never rained on the Earth until that time! What rain is this foolish man talking about? What is a flood? It was apparently a case of a man inventing a concept to justify a future event that did not make any sense to normal-thinking people. Back then, as it is now, Noah would have been the craziest person alive to come up with such a plan.

God’s will, at that point, did not make sense either to Noah or to other people around him. This is probably the main reason why Noah stands among the great Fathers of Faith. He was a man who saw and understood God’s will, made it his own and worked to fulfill it in his life.

In a much smaller scale, we can all be like Noah. With the amount of faith given to us, we all can know what God’s will or plan is in our lives. The difficult task of recognizing and understanding that may take years and years and may even frustrate us eventually. Moses knew what God’s will was – that is, for the Israelites to receive the Promised Land – but ended up spending 40 years in the wilderness and not being able to set foot on it himself. Not because of unbelief on his part but because the other part of God’s will was to teach the Israelites the same principle He was teaching Moses: Trust totally in Me and I will lead you across all difficulties. His will is not something He hands over without preparing us for it. We don’t become responsible adults without passing through proper childhood training.

The Israelites failed miserably. But the good news is: We don’t have to fail.

God’s will is to give us life, to prosper us and to lead us into triumph. Thus, Moses cried to the people between the charging Egyptians and the billowing Red Sea: Fear not and see the salvation that the Lord will do for you today!

Not Pharaoh, not nature, not hunger, not thirst and not despair will cause those who truly trust in God to feel abandoned. Well, perhaps, like Moses, the attitudes of others may lead us to anger and even failure. But that will never prevent God’s will from being fulfilled. A young Joshua will come along to carry the baton forward.

Hence, with or without our faith in God’s will, with or without our acceptance of His terms and with or without our active participation in fulfilling it, God’s will cannot be prevented. Even the rocks will shout and praise God if no one else will!

Yes, so many will merely stand and watch God’s will being fulfilled in the lives of others. They may even participate in trying to prevent it from happening. THAT, is not God’s will. Pharaoh’s army drowned in the sea – THAT, is God’s will. We call it judgment.

Ah, but we now go back to what we said earlier: Are we in control or is God in control? If we believe we are in control, then we deceive ourselves.

God’s will, as some claim, may be predetermined or predestined – whatever that may mean – but it is knowable and doable. He created the Universe for our benefit and not the other way around. God’s will is precisely to bless us with His entire creation that is why we do exist. Scientific knowledge may be good and desirable but it will not tell us God’s will. His ultimate will, therefore, is for humans to come to know the Divine Nature and for us to strive to attain that high calling.

How God worked out the way for us to know and to fulfill His will has been revealed through Jesus Christ. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. If we listen, we can be like Noah or Moses knowing exactly what needs to be done. And, finally, we can be like the Apostles knowing how things should be done.

God’s will then, if we notice, is essentially to give us Life and that we might have it so abundantly.

(Photo above: Did the Sun simply come as a result of some cosmic accident? Did it suddenly find a way of synthesizing plants to produce fruits? Did the banana result only to be itself or to feed humans and animals? Certainly all these did not come by chance but by the will of a Creator.)