Whose Will?

If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed. (See John 8:36). I don’t think some of us as Christians recognize our freedom in Christ. Some of us actually put ourselves in slavery as we have taken on the bonds of legalism, following man-made teachings that are not in the Bible and so is not the truth. We must not forget that the truth sets us free and Jesus Himself is the truth and the Word. I love how Gotquestions.org explains that Jesus is the Word.

By starting out his gospel stating, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” John is introducing Jesus with a word or a term that both his Jewish and Gentile readers would have been familiar with. The Greek word translated “Word” in this passage is Logos, and it was common in both Greek philosophy and Jewish thought of that day. For example, in the Old Testament the “word” of God is often personified as an instrument for the execution of God’s will (Psalm 33:6; 107:20; 119:89; 147:15-18).

The Word executes God’s will and that is exactly what Jesus did. He was clear that He was not doing His will, but God’s will and so He was never seeking His glory, but rather His life was to glorify the Father.

So Jesus answered them and said, “My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. John 7:16-18

Before Jesus said this, His brothers had earlier wanted Him to go to Judea to show off His works as they thought that He should not be doing anything in secret but should seek to be known. His own brothers did not understand who He was and that He was not seeking His glory, but all that He did was to glorify His Father in heaven. Jesus walked in His Father’s will and in His Father’s appointed time.  

I look at my heart and see how opposite I am of Jesus, because my inclination is to want to be known and honored. This comes from pride in my heart, which God hates. And because He loves me, He has been working on killing the pride in me, which comes the hard way for me. God disciplines those He loves, and even though we may not like His type of discipline, it is necessary. He disciplines us to shape us into His image and to transform our minds and hearts so that we will know His will and be ready to do it. But this is not easy. Even, Moses, the friend of God, stepped out of His will.

“Take the rod; and you and your brother Aaron assemble the congregation and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it may yield its water. You shall thus bring forth water for them out of the rock and let the congregation and their beasts drink.” So Moses took the rod from before the Lord, just as He had commanded him; and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. And he said to them, “Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?” Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation and their beasts drank. But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.” Numbers 20:8-12

Although, God had told Moses to strike the rock with his rod to bring forth water earlier in the Israelites journey to the Promised Land, that wasn’t the instructions to Moses this time. Moses had the rod, but he was supposed to speak to the rock. However, Moses was overcome by his emotions and struck the rock twice. Water may have come, but Moses disobeyed God and God was angry. Because of this, Moses never got to enter the Promised Land although he led the Israelites 40 years through the wilderness to get there. This brings us to another manner in which we enslave ourselves, that is by doing things our own way. God does give us free will because He wants our obedience to come out of love for Him. However, when our will is not aligned with God’s will then we will have problems. And we can’t let our emotions lead us as Moses did, because we may go against God’s Word.  If we are to follow Jesus and do what He did by obeying the Father’s will explicitly, then we will have to deny ourselves.

And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. Luke 9:23

Following Jesus doesn’t mean that we are in church every time its doors are open and doing all that we believe are righteous acts of service. True holiness is obeying God with a willing transformed heart which may not necessarily be like what conforming to church rules look like as we may be following man-made doctrines, but not Jesus. Don’t forget that He was the enemy of the self-righteous religious elite Pharisees with their rules that entrapped men. I think it is important to go before God and let Him show us the truth about whose will we are following. Is it our will, man’s will or His will?

And how do we know that we are in God’s will?  Well, it’s quite simple. If we are doing what Jesus did, then we will be in God’s will as He did only what the Father wanted and His food was to do the will of the One who sent Him, and to finish His work. He brought Good News to the poor, proclaimed that captives would be released, that the blind would see, and that the oppressed would be set free. When we are giving the hungry food, the thirsty drink, inviting strangers into our lives, giving clothes to those in need and visiting prisoners with the right heart then we are doing God’s will. God is not about self-aggrandizement by doing good works and putting Jesus’ name on it. He wants us to take care of the most vulnerable – the poor, the widows, the orphans, and the foreigners because we love Him hence, we are obeying Him. When we do this, we will please the Father as Jesus did even when it was to His own discomfort at times having no place to lay His head and being led by the Holy Spirit into a wilderness with no food and drink for forty days, while overcoming temptations from the devil. Following Jesus is not easy. It can be quite uncomfortable and even dangerous, but it is the Father’s will.