Thursday Brew with Gwen: A Matter of the Will

Over a pie, honey log cake and custard slice, I and my family sat in a café after church, discussing the sermon we had just heard.

The question arose about revelation of truth, that moment when a camera flash went off in the mind and you thought, wow! So that’s what that means. That truth is so real, you never forget it and the Christian walk becomes an afternoon rest instead a tiredness that’s hard to keep your eyes open. The position of being a child of God becomes a whole new ball game. Each of the family had had that camera flash moment that changed our lives forever.

Bruce, my husband, declared that for him the camera flash went off and he saw that he had been made good, that God had clothed him in Christ’s goodness, that he was the righteousness of God through Christ.

For me, when the camera flash went off, I blinked and said, ‘Wow! I’m always in the Will of God!’ For many years I had struggled with how to know the will of God. I read, I prayed, ‘I want to know your will, Lord, please show me your will for my life. I want to do your will, walk in your will, but I just seem to do what I think is right. How do I know I’m doing your will? Please show me.’

I can’t remember where I was or what I was doing when the camera flash went off in my mind and across my mind flashed the thought, ‘You are always in the will of God. Ever since you became a Christian you have been in the will of God. You are never out of it.’

‘Whew, that’s a bit radical,’ I thought, ‘it can’t be that simple. What about all the decisions I made that seemed to lead me up the garden path to nowhere, and what about the self defensive attitudes, and the planks of grudges that I carry? How can I be in his will with all this baggage?'

‘You are saved and forgiven, aren’t you? Your sins are taken from you as far as the east is from the west?’ The question flashed across my mind.

‘Yes, I’m saved and forgiven,’ I agreed.

‘You are a new creature in Christ and it’s no longer you that lives but Christ in you, right?’ The question was a statement as well.

‘Yes, that’s right.’

‘Do you not realise that your body is the home of the Holy Spirit God gave you, and that he lives within you?’ The words echoed in my mind.

‘Ye-e-es’ I agreed, but… I felt there had to be a ‘but’ in there somewhere.

‘Well then, you are in the will of God and you can’t be out of it ever,’

‘What about the wrong decisions I had made thinking God had led me and were proven to be lemons? Or the decisions I make to seemingly please myself?’ I argued.

‘You are still in the will of God. God has given you a free will to exercise, if you make a supposedly wrong decision you will wear the consequences. I am not going to wave a wand and save you but use the circumstances for your growth. Never-the-less, you are still in my will, you can’t be moved.’

I was in awe of such a simple truth that carried such a powerful light of revelation of who I was and where I was living. The knowledge was like a cleansing wind. It meant I never had to pray again or worry about being in the will of God; I was there all the time. The amazing thing was I didn’t make so many mistakes or wrong decisions because I knew I was in the will of God. I was free to pray and serve, not having to look over my shoulder to see if I was still in his will.

The camera flashes of revelation were stored away again in the computers of our minds. The pies and honey log cake and vanilla slice were tucked away as well. We went our separate ways for another week.