Divine Communion

Part 3 – Sweet will of God

By David Woodbury

When Arthur Gullidge inserted the well-known chorus, Sweet will of God, into his selection, Divine Communion, it may well have been that he instinctively knew; that to enjoy meaningful communion with God, authentic self-surrender inevitably would lead to us being immersed in God’s will. When we have come to the place of meaningful self-surrender to God, we have placed ourselves is a position where we are sensitively attuned to His will for us.

However, doing God’s will is not always sweet for it requires a certain amount of commitment and diligent application. Knowledge of God’s will is not achieved on easy street or in a bargain basement, end of year sale; it will require a conscious and focused, personal undertaking. In the final analysis, knowing that you are in the centre of God’s will is not only sweet; it is also secure and fulfilling.

The reality is that knowing and doing the will of God is no easy task. It may well be that God’s will is more easily ascertained in hindsight than at the moment of decision making. When Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome he had some sound advice regarding knowing and doing God’s will: Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2 - NLT)

Many of us truly struggle over doing the will of God and sometimes it is not the sweet will of God. All too often we load ourselves with false guilt because we have not gone rushing off to do God's will with the enthusiasm of a child going to their first circus. But rather we have trudged off, dragging our feet in obedient reticence, but have sighed, like Jesus, nevertheless, not my will, but yours to God. Even in all our reticence and unwillingness, there is a kind of perverse delight in knowing that we have been faithful to God’s will.

To truly know the will of God requires a transformed mindset, i.e. changing the way you think, and we cannot just assume that because we come to the place of self-surrender that this is somehow an automatic process, far from it. No matter where we are on our Christian pilgrimage God never overrides our free will and Paul makes the point that any transformation in our mindset is a matter of our willing participation; we must let God transform us. No sense of coercion or autopilot here; God will only transform our mindset as we allow Him.

The first thing to note is that we have to actively resist the behavior and customs of this world; no easy task in the information age with the overwhelming influence of social media. The reality is that we are living in an age where even the most bizarre and extreme of viewpoints can be promoted at a moment’s notice to a wide, and sometimes gullible, audience to digest. As much as we might like to think we are impervious to their influence, the fact is, as they are continually reposted they develop a sense of authenticity and legitimacy around them and we find it increasingly difficult to discern the truth. It was the Nazi propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels who said: If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. Social media has the innate capacity to do exactly that.

It takes a conscious and intentional effort to step back and try and discern the truth from the avalanche of information being heaped on us. Much of it is trying to shape us into the behavior and customs of this world. Social norms and community acceptance are not the arbiters for the Christian seeking to know and do the will of God, and the reality is that because we do not accept these standards we will be ridiculed and derided as stuffed-shirts or wowsers. The Christian, seeking to centre their life on God’s will needs to be strong enough to resist the raucous voice of social norms and community acceptance.

Changing a mindset is no small thing and it will take determination, courage and a high degree of ruthless self-examination and self-confrontation to trigger any significant change. One has only to observe the utilisation of the AA 12 step program to realise that entrenched mindsets are not reversed overnight. There is a high degree of personal participation necessary to effect change.

Not only is there a high degree of human participation needed in changing a mindset, but there is also a distinct education process in knowing God’s will; you will learn to know God’s will. Too many Christians have fallen into the trap of thinking that once they have turned their life over to God, it will all just fall into place. To get the most out of the kingdom lifestyles requires equipping ourselves for the journey. This process of learning to know God’s will is best progressed by allowing the Bible to be our primary courses of enlightenment and education. While devotional aids etc. may be useful helps, they all need to be filtered through the lens of the Bible.

When we have reached the point of some comprehension of God’s will for us we begin to realise that it is indeed, sweet. We begin to understand that God’s will for us is in our best interests. God wants us to live a fulfilled life, A life in all its fullness (John 10:10). It may well be that at times God’s will may seem restrictive and difficult to understand. However, we cannot see the end results of our lives; only God can do that and we have to trust Him even when we don’t fully comprehend His way.

In the centre of Divine Communion, Is this thought; that nothing brings us closer to intimate communion with God that endeavouring to place ourselves in the centre of His will.