Over the centuries, people have wondered what it means to do “the will of God.” In this post we’ll try to explain what this refers to.
Let’s start by talking about the difference between an idea and an ideal.
When pondering the will of God, always be on the lookout for opportunities to clarify our reflections about the difference between an idea and an ideal. When we think of an ideal day or an ideal relationship or an ideal world we understand that what we are thinking about is a future hope for something that is the highest concept we can imagine.
Then think of the word idea. An idea is something that can be acted out. We can create an ideal if we put together the ideas that will lead to its accomplishment. If we have the dream to host an ideal dinner party we’ll need to come up with many, many steps, which are ideas, to accomplish that ideal party.
Many people, when thinking about the state of the world can envision an ideal society. They become frustrated and even angry when the world doesn’t live up to these expectations. They want to apply ideals (their expectations and hopes) directly to the world and make things change overnight. But just as with your dinner party example, it can’t happen without all of those ideas (steps) that will slowly bring society into the ideal that we might imagine.
How foolish it would be to imagine the dinner party could just happen with no effort, no ideas, no planning. It’s the same with the society. It takes creative ideas, implemented in the right time and place, with wisdom, insight, and foresight, to move the society gradually into an ideal state. Patience is key when there are many people who have an ideal and want it implemented now. Imagining that it should be a certain way when it is not, is a waste of time. We simply must face facts and adjust them to our ideals. Then make a plan based on small bite-sized ideas.
When it comes to our relationship with God the ideal is that we want to be completely consecrated to doing His will. We want to have a relationship with him. And to feel as though He is by our side at every moment. Knowing this is our ideal, what are some ideas that can be used as stepping stones to that end.
Things like:
- Living as though in the presence of God
- Sharing our inner lives with God
- Knowing that my mortal body is only the servant of my immortal soul
- Remembering that my hold on my own physical body is uncertain
- Realizing this life is but a brief stay, a time for testing and training
- Being in this world but not of it
- Remembering to live as though I have nothing and yet possess everything
- Understanding the vanity of what is time-bound and juxtaposing it with the glory of the eternal
- Remembering to center my world not on myself, but on God.
These are ideas that are informed by the higher ideal. Remember, it’s not the high spiritual idea of being consecrated to doing the Father’s will; it’s the high spiritual ideal of being consecrated to the Father’s will. Think of an ideal as something outside our reach that we yearn for but are patient about waiting for.
This has been the problem with interpreting doing the Father’s will throughout all of human history. People have always thought that doing God’s will is an idea that THEY DO (steps that they take) instead of an ideal that they hold in their heart. They have always considered it an act, rather than a frame of reference. To put it a different way, we all have considered it something we do rather than an overriding motive (ideal) that guides our lives, a mode of living.
Think about the difference between potentiality and actuality. Put ideal and idea, respectively, in parallel to potentiality and actuality. Potentiality is in ideals, actuality is in ideas. This is not a complete clarification but a contrasting point of reflection that we may use. But imagine saying “I will consecrate my potential to the perfect potential of God the Father.” That is a prayer that can be spoken and lived.
In other words, potentialities are ideal-like.
Actualities are idea-like.
So when we talk about consecrating our will to the perfect will of God the Father, think about will as potential. God’s creating our potential (ideal) to the perfect potential (ideal) of God the Father. That may seem difficult to understand as an idea. But try to move away from thinking in terms of ideas and move towards thinking about it in terms of an ideal or potential. Our potential.
From 11:5.1 we learn “The doing of the will of God is nothing more or less than an exhibition of creature willingness to share the inner life with God…” See how it says the “willingness to share”? It’s not the actual doing, it’s the willingness to share. If you’ve thought you memorized this but noticed that you left out the part where it states “creature willingness” you’ve been thinking about it as an idea. The willingness to share the inner life with God is an ideal.
God might say, “Do not seek to work for me. Never make opportunities. Live with me and for me. I do the work and I make the opportunities.”
If you have that willingness to share your inner life with God, you are doing the will of God. It’s that simple.
Question to stimulate conversation:
In 187:3.6 we learn that “Jesus had purposed to live without resort to his supernatural power, and he likewise elected to die as an ordinary mortal upon the cross. He had lived as a man, and he would die as a man—doing the Father’s will.” Can we think of that in the new way that we have discussed above?
