Doing The Will of God

Doing the will of God is incredibly important.  In fact, its necessary to enter the kingdom of heaven.  Jesus said this in Matthew 7:21: Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  But to do the will of God we have to know what the will of God is.

Knowing the will of God
I've often heard people talk about knowing the will of God for their lives, and they're usually talking about specific stuff: going to college or not, what man to marry, going on a mission or not.  Along with that they seem to add an element of mysticism.  They'll talk about interpreting this sign or that.  I have heard people talking about some voice in their head.  I have heard people say "God spoke to my heart".  Now I can't rule out the possibility of signs, or the possibility of a person sensing God's will, and I think it has happened in some cases, but most of the time I'm skeptical.  But besides the fact that I think most of this stuff is phony baloney, I believe the will of God that Jesus speaks about is not the specifics mentioned above.  The will of God is obeying the commands of God.  To know the commands of the Father we must look at the commands of Jesus.  Jesus said: For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it (John 12:49).  And in John 14:24 He said: He who does not love me will not obey my teaching.  These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.  So the Father's will is that we obey the commands of the Son.  Now lets look at some of those commands

Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God will all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."  Matthew 22:37-40

So we must love God with all our heart and soul and mind (Mark's gospel includes strength).  I think this means that we show our love through worship, service, prayer, trusting and, very importantly, reverence (of course there's other stuff that I can't think of right now).  The second command involves our interaction with other people.  We must love others - treat them as we would like to be treated.  This, I believe, does not always mean simply being nice or kind, but wanting the ultimate good of the other person, even if it may be painful in the short run.  Jesus gives us an excellent example of loving our neighbor with the story of the good Samaritan, and along with that another command

Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"  The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."  Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."  Luke 10:36-37

That means that we look for every opportunity to help other people, especially those people who we would otherwise avoid: strangers, poor, different than us, etc etc.  Here's another command from Jesus

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."  Matthew 28:18-20

This is the great commission.  The first part of this is making disciples and that requires sharing the gospel - the word of truth - with people.  We cannot make disciples by being silent; that whole "relationship evangelism" nonsense is completely ineffective.  We must speak up about God's word.  Then, after a person accepts the gospel, we are commanded to baptize them.  Then we are commanded to continue teaching them; continue discipling, a process that never ends.

Now I realize that I did not cover everything that Jesus commanded, and of course there are teachings/commands from the apostles as well, which convey the will of God.  So a person must read the Bible to find everything else, but there is a selection of God's will.  Now I want to point out something else.  A person may be thinking that we do the will of God as a fruit of the Spirit, meaning that we get the Holy Spirit first and doing God's will follows.  That is true, but I believe its only half of the truth.  One way for us to get the Spirit (if there is anything we can do to get the Holy Spirit, and I believe there is) is to do the will of God.  We know, based on Matthew 4:4, that the word of God gives us spiritual nourishment, but that is not all that gives us spiritual nourishment. In John 4:34 Jesus said: My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.  So if Jesus is nourished, just as He replied to Satan in Matthew 4:4, by doing the will of God, then wouldn't we also be nourished by doing the will of God?  I submit to you that I believe that doing God's will is actually one way (among others, like reading the Bible) to gain the Holy Spirit.  Of course some will argue that there is nothing we can do to gain the Holy Spirit, and in a sense they're right, the Holy Spirit comes and goes as He pleases, but certainly the things we do have a major impact on our spiritual life.  So there are two reasons for doing the will of God: 1) The obvious reason, which is that its the will of God, and He has the power to send us to heaven or hell; and 2) as a way for us to nourish and strengthen our spiritual being.