We need to understand and know what is the will of God, realizing that God’s will is what He wants and what He intends to accomplish, that is, to work Himself into us to gain His corporate expression consummating in the New Jerusalem.
This week we come to a new series of morning revival book based on the 2020 spring International Training for Elders and Responsible Ones (2020 spring ITERO) with the general subject of, The Will of God.
And in particular this week we want to get deeper into the topic of, The Mystery of God’s Will in the Universe Ultimately Being to Head Up All Things in Christ through the Church as the Body of Christ.
When God called Paul, when a light brighter than the sun shone upon him and he had a vision of the resurrected, ascended, and glorified Christ, God told him to go into the city and it will be told him what to do.
According to Acts 22:14, God told Paul through Ananias, The God of our fathers has previously appointed you to know His will and to see the righteous One and to hear the words from His mouth.
God clearly appointed Paul to know His will a long time ago, in eternity past.
We all need to turn our hear to the Lord, open our being to Him, set our mind on the spirit, and exercise our spirit to be lifted above the common thought concerning “the will of God”, focusing not mainly on “God’s will for me and my life” but what really is God’s will, His eternal will.
Rev. 4:11 tells us that the source of the entire universe is the will of God; every positive thing that exists in creation has its source in God’s will.
God’s good pleasure, His eternal purpose, and His economy, all flow out from God’s will. God’s will is such a simple expression, but it is so profound.
The Lord Jesus said in John 6:38 that He came down from heaven not to do His own will but the will of Him who sent Him.
In John 4:34 He said that He has food to eat that the disciples don’t know about, for His food was to do the will of Him who sent Him.
When the Lord was praying in agony in Gethsemane regarding the cup of death that he tasted on our behalf, he was struggling in prayer to have the deep realization that the cup was God’s will.
He prayed, Father, if possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not My will but Your will be done.
Our Lord was governed by the will of God; He wasn’t governed by the cup itself or the work God sent Him to do, but by the will of God – for this He came down from heaven, and He lived and died for this.
In John 7 He referred to this saying, If anyone wills to do God’s will, he will know the source of My teaching.
The Lord Jesus Himself in His person and work, His God-man living, His crucifixion, His resurrection, His ascension, and His enthronement, all are the manifestation of God’s will.
We need to know what is the will of God; we need to have a revelation of God’s will, and have an understanding of what God desires to do.
In Col. 1:9 Paul prayed for the Colossian believers, whom he has never seen but he heard of their faith, that they would be filled with the full knowledge of God’s will, in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
He himself must have been a person filled with the full knowledge of God’s will, and he prayed for the believers to also have this.
We were predestinated unto sonship according to the good pleasure of God’s will (Eph. 1:5), and the mystery of God’s will has been made known to us (v. 9).
We need to Understand and Know what is the Will of God – God’s Eternal Will
The universe is a mystery: why is there a heaven and why does the earth exist? Why are there so many millions of items in the universe, and why is man here on earth?
Many people have asked themselves these questions, and these have given rise to many different philosophies. The mystery of all these things is the will of God.
God’s will has a mystery, a mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages (Eph. 3:5; Col. 1:26). This mystery – which is the will of God – has been made known to the church through the apostles.
God created the universe to fulfill His eternal purpose based on His will; however, none of the Old Testament saints know what it was – they really didn’t know why they were here for…but today in the New Testament this has been revealed to us!
God is operating all things according to the counsel of His will. As believers in Christ and as sons of God, we need to know and understand what the will of the Lord is.
May we receive mercy from the Lord to be poor in spirit, emptied and unloaded from anything that will hinder the Lord’s fresh shining, and may we come as seekers to receive the Lord’s light.
May we be the Lord’s loving seekers who come emptied out, with a wide open spirit, to receive light, life, spiritual understanding, so that we may advance personally and know what the will of the Lord is, what is God’s will.
Especially during this covid-19 pandemic, during this universal crisis, it is no accident that we are on the matter of God’s will.
This whole situation is inexplicable, but there is a sovereign God with a will.
The God-man Jesus is the Lord on the throne, and with Him there are NO accidents. We need to know this in the middle of this crisis.
God’s will in this universe is vast, yet it reaches us personally; God’s will is ultimately to head up all things in Christ through the church.
In Col. 1:9 the will of God is to know and enjoy the all-inclusive, extensive Christ as the constituent of the new man.
In Rom. 12 Paul admonishes us to not be shaped or fashioned according to this age but be transformed by the renewing of the mind to prove what the will of God is; this will is related to the church as the Body of Christ.
The will of God, the eternal will of God, is focused on Christ and the church as the Body of Christ.
God’s will right now is to head up all things in Christ; He will address the satanic chaos, the darkness, the confusion, the death, the fear, the panic, and He will negate all that the enemy has done – and He will bring in an organic order in His creation. Amen!
We should therefore not be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is (Eph. 5:17).
We need to redeem the time, for the days are evil (v. 16), and know what is the will of God, for God’s will – though eternal – is fulfilled in space and time.
The time allocated to us for our journey on earth is time for us to live for and in the will of God.
How sad to see that billions of people on earth are wasting their life, being unwise!
May we not let the enemy rob us but be happy with the Lord’s arrangement and seek to be filled with the full knowledge of God’s will, in all spiritual wisdom and understanding!
Lord Jesus, we want to know what is the will of God and be filled with the full knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding! Amen, Lord, we want to redeem the time, for the days are evil; we don’t want to be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is. May we realize that God’s will is related to Christ and the church, and may we cooperate with God’s heading up of all things in Christ. Amen, Lord, may You get through in us and head up all the believers in Christ so that You may have a way to head up all things in this universe through the church!
God’s Will is Christ and the Church; He works Himself into us to gain His corporate expression
God’s will is what He wants and what He intends to accomplish (Eph. 1:5, 9, 11).
God created the universe, the galaxies, our solar system, our galaxy, the earth, the continents, you and me, and the billions of items; He surely has an intention.
God has an eternal will, which is the source of His eternal purpose (Eph. 1:11; 3:11).
We shouldn’t try to have a successful work or ministry in and of itself; rather, we need to realize that we are here because the God whom we love with our whole being wants something, and He intends to accomplish something.
The enemy may delay Him a little, but our wise God will use this delay to accomplish what He intends!
Since God is eternal, without beginning or ending, His will is also eternal; it lies at the heart of the origin of the universe (Rev. 4:11).
When we speak of God’s will we are not mainly focusing on our little self; yes, God cares for us, He wants us to care for our spouse and our family, but the eternal God has an eternal will, and this will is at the heart of the origin of the universe and of us all!
We were created for God’s will, we were redeemed and regenerated for God’s will, and we were led into the church life for this. God created all things for His will so that He might accomplish and fulfill His purpose.
Why did God create us in His image and according to His likeness? Because He has a will. Why did God give man the responsibility to express Him and subdue the earth with His delegated authority?
Because God has a will.
We were saved not according to what we have done, but God saved us according to His own will (2 Tim. 1:9).
This will of God has to become our purpose (3:10), and our life has to contribute to the accomplishment of God’s will and the fulfillment of His purpose.
The will of God is concentrated in Christ and is for Christ to have the first place in all things, for Christ is everything in God’s eternal will (Col. 1:15-18; 3:4, 10-11).
God wants to have Christ with the church; the will of God is to obtain the church as the Body of Christ (Eph. 5:32; 1:9, 22-23; 2:21-22; 4:16).
God wants to gain the church as the Body of Christ, the one new man, the bride of Christ, and the kingdom of God consummating in the New Jerusalem.
God in Christ as the Spirit is now working within us to accomplish His eternal will to have the New Jerusalem – the wife of the Lamb filled with the glory of God for His eternal expression in the new heaven and new earth (Phil. 2:13; Eph. 3:14-21; Rev. 21:1-2, 9-11).
God is working Himself into us to obtain a corporate expression of Himself; this is the church as the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem.
The New Testament clearly shows us that God is working Himself into us; the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are all in us (Eph. 4:6; 2 Cor. 13:5; John 14:17), and we are in God and God is in us (1 John 4:15).
We abide in the Lord, and He abides in us (John 15:4). As we enjoy and experience Christ, for us to live is Christ (Phil. 1:21) and it is no longer us who live but Christ lives in us (Gal. 2:20).
God is working Himself into us to saturate us with Himself; He has become man like us to make us God-men, the same as He is in life, nature, expression, and function, but not in the Godhead, so that we corporately may be the expression of God.
We will never become God in His Godhead as an object of worship, but the New Testament shows us clearly that we become the same as Christ to match Him as His bride, His wife.
We are becoming the New Jerusalem, which looks the same as God – both God on the throne (Rev. 4:3) and the entire city of New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:11) have the appearance of jasper.
May we know the mystery of God’s will, which is to be the church as the Body of Christ, an entity constituted with those who have been saturated with God and mingled with God.
What God wants today is not that we would have a happy life; He wants to work Himself into us to produce the church as the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem as His corporate expression.
So God is dispensing Himself into us to produce the church for Himself; such a mystery was hidden through the ages but it was revealed to us in spirit.
Thank You Lord for revealing to us the mystery of Your will, which is God working Himself into man to obtain a corporate expression of Himself through man in this universe. Hallelujah, we as believers in Christ are under the divine dispensing, and God is mingling Himself with us to gain the church, the Body of Christ, and produce the Bride of Christ to match Him! Amen, Lord, we open to You and we want to be more and more mingled with God, saturated with God, and constituted with God for the corporate expression of God!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ephesians, msg. 7 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Will of God (2020 spring ITERO), week 1, The Mystery of God’s Will in the Universe Ultimately Being to Head Up All Things in Christ through the Church as the Body of Christ.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Christ is the mystery of God; / God is invisible, unshown, / His image man hath never seen, / But Christ the Son hath made Him known. (Hymns #818)
– In His Christ to head up all things / Is our God’s economy; / Taking Christ as Head and Center, / All is one in harmony. (Hymns #981)
– The secret of the universe / In ages past a mystery / Hidden in God but now made known / By revelation’s six-fold key, / Which opens and unlocks the plan / Of His economy / To gain a wife, His counterpart, / And match eternally. / The Triune God, tripartite man; / A universal pair. / The Spirit processed, bride transformed; / One married nature share. (Song on, The secret of the universe)
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