The non-mystery of knowing God's will

I love how people are always so excited to know God's will for their lives. Who does God want me to marry? I can't wait to find out what college God wants me to go to and what my career will be (cha-ching...$$$). For many people, God's will is like a Christmas present; we don't know what's hidden in the box but we can't wait to find out what good things God is going to give us! And so our version of God's will is that it is primarily about US...and OUR comfort.

Now what is interesting here is that this is not how God's will is discussed in the Bible. God's hidden/masked/sovereign will (you know, the will that is so mysterious to us) is not talked about very much in the Bible. Nope. God's masked will is not the main entree in the Bible (which makes sense in light of its name). Rather, it is God's missional and moral wills that get the most press. Hmmm. Why would this be? Well, maybe because God is desiring something to happen in this world and he wants us to be about the business of joining HIM and HIS cause to bring HIS good kingdom back to HIS world.

But why are people so obsessed with God's masked will and not nearly as concerned about God's missional and moral wills? Well, might it be because God's masked will (or at least our version of it) is primarily about US while God's missional will is primarily about GOD? Might it be that we are more concerned about building OUR personal kingdoms than building GOD'S kingdom? I'll let you decide!

One of the many things I love about Jesus is that he was about the business of doing his Father's work (i.e. God's missional will). Jesus was concerned about God's will being done on earth as it is in heaven. This is evident when Jesus said, "Not MY will but YOUR will be done." We find out very early on in the story of the Bible what God's missional will is all about. Let me explain.

So Adam and Eve ate from 'the tree of the experience of good and bad' (that's my NLT interpretation of the tree) and God brought curses on the earth. But why would a good God do a thing like that? If God loves us so much then why would he introduce bad stuff into our lives? Well, this is God's way of drawing people back to Himself. When stuff is going well (let's be honest) our first instinct isn't to think about God and give Him credit...we often forget God (just take Jessica Simpson as a case study on the issue). But when things are going poorly and are out of our control that's when we dial up God, is it not? This pattern is what we see in the Bible too.

Adam and Eve get kicked out of the garden and things just go from bad to worse. Cain tries to short-change God on his sacrifice by offering God only 'some of the fruit of the soil' whereas Abel offers God the "fat portions" from the "firstborn" of his flock. God accepts Abel's sacrifice but not Cain's sacrifice (because God doesn't like to be short-changed). So Cain does what any brother would do in this situation...he kills Abel. God disciplines Cain but things just keep getting worse. An axe-murderer named Lamech is born into the family and he takes up the weekend hobby of murdering people (Gen. 4:24). This episode provided a small sliver of the turmoil that existed on the earth. Murder was the trend on the earth back then just like Justin Bieber is the unfortunate trend in our world today. What was the result?...people began to call on the name of the Lord (Genesis 4:26). The evil in the world had caused people to place their focus and affections back on God. And so we see that God's mission is to draw people back to Himself!

But isn't it crazy that God is at work using even evil (through his divine permission) to draw people back to Himself? But it works! And Jesus picks up on this when he says in John 4:34, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me (a.k.a. God) and to finish HIS work." God has been into outreach mode since way back in Genesis and now he wants us to join Him in HIS work. And Jesus even says in the next verse, "The fields are ripe for harvest." Now this doesn't mean that a majority of people will embrace and respond positively to Jesus (we know from Jesus' life and teaching that this is not true!). What Jesus is telling us is that the season has arrived where God wants us to bring his message of love to an unloving world and bring in a harvest of God-fearing, kingdom-focused people. The church is called to complete Jesus' work because "now's the time for us to rise, to carry hope to hopeless lives and show this world that mercy is alive." Sure Jesus came to die on the cross BUT he also came to spark a movement of people who would bring in the harvest (John 4:34ff).

So what is God's will for your life? In whatever you do, be about the business of bringing in the harvest and advancing God's kingdom and cause in this world! While the saying, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few" actually indicates that there are lots of people but few will accept Jesus' call, the fields, nonetheless, are ripe. We are in a time and season of harvest and this is the primary role of the church! So you have a choice...you can spend your life building YOUR personal kingdom and see how that works for you or you can join a movement sparked by Jesus to build GOD'S kingdom. The choice is yours!