God’s Will
We generally talk about three major aspects of the will of God: his sovereign will, his moral will, and his personal will.
- Sovereign will. This is his will for the destiny of the human race, and the salvation of all those who believe in him. This is why I’m not too worried about governments by the way; God is sovereign, and we all have our part to play. His sovereign will never changes.
- Moral will. This is his instruction for acting on his holy will. His instructions can change; not because he does, but because cultures do. Slavery was accepted in Biblical times; the Bible did not pronounce the institution as a sin. As world culture evolved over the next 1700 years or so, we came to recognize slavery for a terrible institutional evil. And where God commanded Joshua and the Israelites to conquer Canaan (and kill most of the Canaanites while they were at it), when Christ came, he replaced the physical nation of Israel with the church, who is both Christian Jew and Gentile.
- Personal will. This is God’s will and guiding for every individual who loves him and wants to follow him. This is what we mostly discover when we believe and know the Bible, and go on to understand how God is working with our individual lives, within the framework of his sovereign and moral will.
God’s Personal Will and You
God’s personal will is his specific guidance to an individual, often based on the talents he gave us, the skills he encouraged us to develop, the experiences we have, and the spiritual gifts that he gives his children.
You can see much of this in Romans 12:2. “Don’t be transformed by this world, but be restored by the renewing of your mind…” Lots of people stop there, but that’s only half of this verse! The verse goes on to say, ”…renewing of your mind SO THAT you will discover God’s will, his good, pleasing, and perfect will.”
And the way to do that is to read and study the Bible, listen to sermons, read Christian books, walk in nature, and PRAY.