Throughout our lives, we more than once find ourselves faced with a choice of what to do, which path to take, and not just to follow, but to ensure that this path corresponds to God’s will for us. How can we find out the will of God? How do we know that the choice we make is the right one? The pastors of the Russian Church give their advice.
– The question of how to find out the will of God is perhaps one of the most important in our lives. Agree that the will of God is the most accurate and true measure of how we should act.
To know or feel the will of God in a particular case, many conditions are needed. This is a good knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, this is slowness in decision, this is the advice of a confessor.
To properly understand Holy Scripture, first, it must be read prayerfully, that is, read not as a text for discussion, but as a text that is understood prayerfully. Secondly, in order to understand the Holy Scriptures, it is necessary, as the apostle says, not to be conformed to this age, but to be transformed by the renewing of your mind (see: Rom. 12:2). In Greek, the verb “not to be conformed” means: not to have a common pattern with this age: that is, when they say: “Everyone thinks like this in our time,” this is a certain pattern, and we should not conform to it. If we want to know the will of God, we must deliberately discard and ignore what one of the 17th century sages, Francis Bacon, called “the idols of the crowd,” that is, the opinions of others.
All Christians without exception are told: “I appeal to you, brethren, by the mercies of God... do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, acceptable and perfect will of God” (Rom. 12:1-2 ); “Do not be foolish, but understand what is the will of God” (Eph. 5:17). And in general, the will of God can only be known through personal communication with Him. Therefore, a close relationship with Him, prayer and service to Him will be a necessary condition for finding the answer to our question.
Live in accordance with God's commandments
– How to find out the will of God? Yes, it’s very simple: you need to open the New Testament, the First Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Thessalonians, and read: “This is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thess. 4:3). And we are sanctified by obedience to God.
So there is only one sure way to know the will of God - this is to live in harmony with the Lord. And the more we establish ourselves in such a life, the more we seem to take root, establish ourselves in God’s likeness, and acquire real skill in understanding and fulfilling the will of God, that is, in the conscious and consistent fulfillment of His commandments. This is general, and the particular follows from this general. Because if a person in some specific life situation wants to know God’s will about himself and, let’s say, learns it from some spirit-bearing elder, but the disposition of the person himself is not spiritual, then he will not be able to understand, accept, or fulfill this will... So the main thing is, without a doubt, a sober, spiritual life and attentive fulfillment of God’s commandments.
And if a person is going through some important period in his life and he really wants to make the right choice, to act Godly in this or that difficult situation, then based on all that has been said, the first way to find out the will of God is to strengthen his church life, then there is to bear special spiritual labor: to speak, to confess, to receive communion, to show greater than usual zeal in prayer and reading the word of God - this is the main work for someone who really wants to know the will of God in this or that matter. And the Lord, seeing such a sober and serious disposition of the heart, will certainly make His holy will clear and give strength to fulfill it. This is a fact that has been verified many times and by a variety of people. You just need to show constancy, patience and determination in seeking precisely God’s truth, and not in pleasing your dreams, desires and plans... Because everything mentioned is already self-will, that is, not the plans, dreams and hopes themselves, but the desire for everything to be exactly the way we want. Here is a question of real faith and self-denial, if you like, readiness to follow Christ, and not your ideas about what is right and useful. It is impossible without this.
In Rus', it is customary to ask for advice at especially important moments in life from the elders, that is, from experienced confessors endowed with special grace. This desire is deeply rooted in the tradition of Russian church life. Only, when going for advice, we need to remember, again, that spiritual work is required of us: strong prayer, abstinence and repentance with humility, readiness and determination to do the will of God - that is, everything that we talked about above. But in addition, it is also imperative and earnest to pray for the enlightenment of the confessor with the grace of the Holy Spirit, so that the Lord, by His mercy, through the spiritual father, will reveal to us His holy will. There are such prayers, the holy fathers write about them. Here is one of them, proposed by the Venerable Abba Isaiah:
“God, do mercy on me and, whatever pleases You about me, inspire my father (name) to say it about me.”
Desire God's will, not your own
- The will of God can be found out in different ways - through the advice of a confessor or the blessing of parents, through reading the word of God or with the help of lots, etc. But the main thing that anyone who wants to know the will of God must have is the willingness to unquestioningly follow it in his life. If there is such a readiness, the Lord will definitely reveal His will to a person, perhaps in an unexpected way.
– I like the patristic advice. As a rule, we long to know the will of God at the moment when we stand at a crossroads - before a choice. Or when we prefer one option for the development of events over another, less attractive to us. Firstly, you need to try to set yourself up equally in relation to any path or development of events, that is, internally prepare for any outcome, and not become attached to any of the options. Secondly, sincerely and fervently pray that the Lord will arrange everything according to His good will and do everything in a way that will be useful for us in terms of our salvation in eternity. And then, as the holy fathers claim, His Providence for us will be revealed.
Be attentive to yourself and your conscience
- Be careful! To yourself, to the world around you and your neighbors. The will of God is open to a Christian in the Holy Scriptures: a person can receive an answer to his questions in it. According to St. Augustine, when we pray, we turn to God, and when we read the Holy Scriptures, the Lord answers us. The will of God is for everyone to come to salvation. Knowing this, strive to direct your will in all events of life towards God who saves.
And “in everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess. 5:18).
– It is quite simple to find out the will of God: if the conscience, when tested by prayer and time, does not “revolt”, if the solution to this or that issue does not contradict the Gospel and if the confessor is not against your decision, then God’s will is the decision. Each of your actions must be viewed through the prism of the Gospel and accompanied by a prayer, even the shortest one: “Lord, bless.”
priest Mikhail Shpolyansky
It must be said unequivocally: the will of God is the only final criterion of good and evil in this world. The commandments of God are not absolute; the commandments of God are, in a certain sense, statistical. So, in the overwhelming majority of cases, in millions, billions of cases to one, killing from the point of view of Christianity is unacceptable, but this does not mean that one should never kill. We know that our holy leaders, the noble princes Alexander Nevsky and Dmitry Donskoy, acquired the Kingdom of Heaven, despite the fact that their swords were stained with the blood of many enemies of the faith and the Fatherland. If they had mechanically adhered to the letter of the Law, Rus' would still have been an ulus of Genghis Khan’s or Batu’s empire, and Orthodoxy on our land would most likely have been destroyed. It is also known that St. Sergius of Radonezh blessed the Battle of Kulikovo and even sent two schema-monks to the army.
These are the most striking and obvious examples, but one can say about almost any commandment of God that there are cases when it is God’s will to break this commandment in this particular situation. Here is the commandment: “Thou shalt not bear false witness,” that is, do not lie. Lying is a dangerous sin precisely because it is somehow little noticeable and little perceptible, especially in the form of deceit: to keep something silent, to distort something, so that it is beneficial either for oneself or for someone else. We don’t even notice this deceit, it passes by our consciousness, we don’t even see that it is a lie. But it is precisely this terrible word that the devil is called in the only prayer given by the Lord Himself to the disciples, “Our Father.” The Savior calls the devil evil. Therefore, every time we deceive, we seem to identify ourselves with an unclean spirit, with the spirit of darkness. Scary. So, you can’t lie, it’s scary. But let us remember the chapter with the remarkable title “about what should not lie” from the teachings of one of the pillars of Christian asceticism. It says, among other things, that sometimes you have to tell a lie not for the sake of self-interest, but out of love, out of compassion. But, it is true, the saint makes such a wonderful reservation (remember that this reservation was made in the 4th century after the Nativity of Christ for Palestinian monks): “he should not do this often, but only in exceptional cases, once in many years.” This is the measure of the saints.
Thus, we see that the two-thousand-year experience of the Church, the experience of life in Christ, places the final criterion of good and evil not on the letter of the law, but on the fulfillment of the will of God (“the letter kills, but the spirit gives life” -). And if there is the will of God to take the sword and go to defend your people, your loved ones, then fulfilling this will of God is not sin, but righteousness.
And so the question arises with all its severity: “How to know the will of God?”
Of course, knowing the will of God is a matter of life and cannot be exhausted by any brief rules. Perhaps, Metropolitan of Tobolsk illuminated this topic most fully among the holy fathers. He wrote a wonderful book, “Or on the conformity of the human will with the Divine will.” "Iliotropion" means sunflower. That is, this is a plant that, turning its head behind the sun, constantly strives for light. Saint John gave this poetic title to his book about knowledge of the will of God. Although it was written more than a century ago, it is nevertheless a surprisingly modern book, both in language and in spirit. It is interesting, understandable and close to modern people. The advice of the wise saint is quite applicable in conditions of life that have radically changed compared to recent times. The task of retelling “” is not set here - this book must be read in its entirety. We will try to offer only the most general scheme for solving this most important issue for the salvation of the soul.
Let's consider this example: here in front of us is a sheet of paper on which a certain dot has been placed invisibly. Can we immediately, without any information, by “pointing a finger,” so to speak, determine (essentially guess) the location of this point? Naturally - no. However, if we draw several visible points in a circle around this invisible point, then, based on them, we can with a high probability determine the desired point - the center of the circle.
Are there such “visible points” in our lives with the help of which we could know the will of God? Eat. What are these dots? These are certain methods of turning to God, to the experience of the Church and to our soul on the path of man’s knowledge of the will of God. But each of these techniques is not self-sufficient. When there are several of these techniques, when they are combined and taken into account to the necessary extent, only then we - with our hearts! - we can know what the Lord actually expects from us.
So, the first “point”, the first criterion- this, of course, is Holy Scripture, directly the Word of God. Based on the Holy Scriptures, we can quite clearly imagine the boundaries of God’s will, that is, what is acceptable for us and what is completely unacceptable. There is a commandment of God: “thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind... thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (). Love is the final criterion. From here we conclude: if something is done out of hatred, then it automatically falls outside the bounds of the possibility of God’s will.
What are the difficulties along this path? Paradoxically, what makes divinely inspired Scripture a truly Great Book is its universality. And the flip side of universality is the impossibility of unambiguously interpreting Scripture in each specific everyday case outside the colossal spiritual experience of life in Christ. And this, sorry, is not said about us... But, nevertheless, there is a point...
Next criterion- Sacred Tradition. This is the experience of the realization of the Holy Scriptures in time. This is the experience of the holy fathers, this is the experience of the Church, which for 2000 years has been searching for the answer to the question of what it means to live, fulfilling the will of God. This experience is enormous, priceless and practically provides answers to all life’s questions. But there are problems here too. Here the difficulty is the opposite - discreteness of experience. Indeed, precisely because this experience is so vast, it includes many different options for solving spiritual and everyday problems. It is almost impossible to apply it in specific situations without the grace-filled gift of prudence - again, extremely rare in modern life.
Some specific temptations are also associated with the book teachings of the holy fathers and elders. The fact is that in the overwhelming majority of cases, the advice of the elders relates to a specific person in the specific circumstances of his life and can change as these circumstances change. We talked about the fact that God's providence for the salvation of man can be different. And why? Because, as a rule, a person does not follow the direct path - the path of perfection - due to his weakness (laziness?). Today he did not do what he was supposed to do. What can he do? Die? No! In this case, the Lord provides for him some other, perhaps more thorny, long, but equally absolute path of salvation. If he has sinned, and violation of God’s will is always a voluntary or involuntary sin, then this path of salvation necessarily lies through repentance. For example, today the elder says: “You should do this and that.” And the person avoids fulfilling the spiritual order. Then he again comes to the elder for advice. And then the elder, if he sees repentance in him, says what he should do in the new situation. Says perhaps the opposite of the previous word. After all, the person did not follow the previous advice, he acted in his own way, and this radically changed the situation and created new - primarily spiritual - circumstances. Thus, we see that the individuality of the advice of the elders in specific cases of life is an objective obstacle to the fact that one can simply say: “Read the advice of the elders, follow them - and you will live according to the will of God.” But this is the point...
The third criterion is the voice of God in a person's heart. What is this? Conscience. The Apostle Paul said surprisingly and comfortingly that “when the pagans, who do not have the law, by nature do what is lawful, then, not having the law, they are a law unto themselves, they show that the work of the law is written in their hearts, as their conscience testifies... " (). In a sense, we can say that conscience is also the image of God in man. And although the “image of God” is a complex concept, one of its manifestations is the voice of conscience. Thus, the voice of conscience can to a certain extent be identified with the voice of God in a person’s heart, revealing to him the will of the Lord. So, it is very important for those who want to live according to the will of God to be honest and sober in hearing the voice of their conscience (the question is how capable we are of this).
Another criterion, the fourth (of course, not diminished in importance, because all points in the circle are equal) is prayer. A completely natural and obvious way for a believer to know the will of God. I'll tell you an example from my life. There was a difficult period for her: there were so many problems concentrated, so much thinking - it seemed that life had reached a dead end. There is some kind of endless labyrinth of roads ahead, where to step, which way to go - it’s completely unclear. And then my confessor said to me: “Why are you wise? Pray every evening. There is no need for any extra effort - say a prayer every evening: “Lord, show me the path, and I will go there.” Every time before going to bed, say this with a bow to the ground - the Lord will definitely answer.” So I prayed for two weeks, and then an extremely unlikely event occurred, which resolved all my problems and determined my future life. The Lord answered...
The fifth criterion is the blessing of the confessor. Happy is the one whom the Lord allows to receive the blessing of the elder. Unfortunately, in our time - “the elders are taken away from the world” - this is an exceptional rarity. It’s good if you have the opportunity to receive the blessing of your confessor, but this is also not so easy, not everyone now has a confessor. But even in the first centuries of Christianity, when people were rich in spiritual gifts, the holy fathers said: “Pray to God to send you a person who will guide you spiritually.” That is, even then, finding a confessor was a definite problem, and then it was necessary to especially beg for a spiritual leader. If there is neither an elder nor a confessor, then you can receive a blessing from a priest. But in our time, a time of spiritual impoverishment, one must be quite sober. You cannot follow the principle mechanically: everything that a priest says is necessarily from God. It is naive to assume that all priests can be confessors. The Apostle says: “Are all Apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are everyone miracle workers? Does everyone have gifts of healing?” (). One should not assume that the charisma of the priesthood in itself is automatically the charisma of prophecy and clairvoyance. Here you must always be careful and look for such a spiritual leader, communication with whom would bring obvious benefits to the soul.
The next criterion is advice from spiritually experienced people. This is the experience of the life of a pious person and this is our ability to learn from a good (and maybe negative - also experience) example. Remember how in the movie “The Shield and the Sword” someone said: “Only fools learn from their own experience, smart people learn from the experience of others.” The ability to perceive the experience of pious people, communication with whom the Lord has given us, the ability to listen to their advice, find in them what is necessary for oneself and rationally use it - also a way of knowing the will of God.
There is also a very important criterion for determining the will of God. The criterion that the holy fathers talk about. So, the monk writes about this in his famous “Ladder”: that which is from God pacifies the human soul, that which is against God confuses the soul and brings it into a restless state. When the result of our activity is the acquisition of peace in the soul about the Lord - not laziness and drowsiness, but a special state of active and bright peace - then this is also an indicator of the correctness of the chosen path.
The eighth criterion is the ability to feel the circumstances of life; perceive and soberly evaluate what is happening around us. After all, nothing happens for nothing. A hair from a person’s head will not fall without the will of the Almighty; a drop of water will not roll down, the twig will not break; no one will come up and insult us, and will not kiss us, if this was not allowed by the Lord for some kind of admonition of us. This is how God creates the circumstances of life, but our freedom is in no way limited by this: the choice of behavior in all circumstances is always ours (“... the will of man that chooses...”). We can say that living according to God's will is our natural response to circumstances created by God. Of course, “naturalness” must be Christian. If the circumstances of life develop, for example, in such a way that in order to provide for the family it seems necessary to steal, then, of course, this cannot be the will of God, for this contradicts the commandments of God.
And another most important criterion, without which nothing else can exist - patience: “... with your patience save your souls” (). Everything is received by the one who knows how to wait, who knows how to entrust to God the solution to his problem, who knows how to give the Lord the opportunity to Himself create what He has provided for us. There is no need to impose your will on God. Of course, sometimes it happens that you need to decide on something in an instant, do something in one second, accomplish something, respond. But this, again, is some kind of special providence of God, and even in these circumstances there will definitely be some kind of clue. In most cases, the most optimal way is to give the Lord the opportunity to reveal His will in our lives through circumstances so obvious that there is no escape from it. Pray and wait, being, as long as possible, in the state in which the Lord has placed you, and the Lord will show you His will for your future life. In practice, this means not to rush into making responsible decisions (for example, Fr. I.K. advises newlyweds to “see the four seasons of the year” in the state of the bride and groom) and not to change their everyday position without a clear need: “Everyone remain in the rank in which whom he is called to" ().
So, we have outlined those criteria, “points” - Holy Scripture and Tradition, conscience, prayer, blessing and spiritual advice, a peaceful state of soul, sensitive attitude to the circumstances of life, patience - which give us the opportunity to know God’s providence for our salvation. And here a completely different, paradoxical question arises: “Are we aware of it - why do we need to know the will of God?” I remember the words of an experienced priest, a fraternal confessor of one of the oldest monasteries in Rus': “It is scary to know the will of God.” And there is a deep meaning in this, which is somehow frivolously missed in conversations about knowing the will of God. It is indeed scary to know the will of God, for this knowledge is a colossal responsibility. Remember the words of the Gospel: “That servant who knew the will of his master, and was not ready, and did not do according to his will, will be beaten many times; but whoever did not know and did something worthy of punishment will receive less punishment. And from everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required, and to whom much has been entrusted, from him more will be demanded” (). Imagine: coming to the Court of God and hearing: “You knew! It was revealed to you what I expected from you - and you deliberately did the opposite!” - that’s one thing, but to come and humbly pray: “Lord, I’m so unreasonable, I don’t understand anything. I tried as best I could to do good, but things didn’t work out right.” What can we take from this! Of course, he did not deserve to be with Christ - but still, “there will be fewer beats.”
I often hear: “Father, how to live according to the will of God?” They ask, but they don’t want to live according to His will. This is why it is scary to know the will of God - because then you need to live according to it, and this is often not at all what we want. From a truly gracious elder, Fr. , I heard such sad words: “They are trading my blessings! Everyone asks me: “What should I do?” Everyone says they live by my blessings, but almost no one does what I tell them.” This is scary.
It turns out that “to know the will of God” and “to live according to the will of God” are not at all the same thing. It is possible to know the will of God - she has left us with a great experience of such knowledge. But living according to the will of God is a personal feat. And a frivolous attitude is unacceptable here. Unfortunately, there is very little understanding of this. Wailings are heard from all sides: “Give it to us!” Show us! Tell us how to act according to God’s will?” And when you say: “God will bless you to do such and such,” they still act in their own way. So it turns out - “Tell me the will of God, but I will live the way I want.”
But, my friend, the moment will come when God’s justice, burdened by our indolence in sins, will be forced to overcome God’s mercy, and we will have to answer for everything - both for indulging passions and for “playing with the will of God.” This issue must be taken very seriously. In essence, this is a matter of life and salvation. Whose will - the Savior or the tempter - do we choose every moment of our lives? Here you need to be reasonable, sober, and honest. You should not “play at knowing the will of God” by running around priests for advice until you hear from someone the “will of God” that pleases you. After all, in this way one’s self-will is subtly justified, and then there is no room for saving repentance. It’s better to say honestly: “Forgive me, Lord! Of course, Your will is holy and high, but due to my weakness I do not achieve this. Have mercy on me, a sinner! Grant me forgiveness for my weaknesses and grant me a path on which I would not perish, but could come to You!”
So, there is God’s providence for the salvation of every person, and there is the only value in this world - life according to the will of God. The Lord gives us the opportunity to understand the universal mystery - the will of the Creator to save His fallen creation. We just need to have a firm determination not to play at knowing the will of God, but to live according to it - this is the path to the Kingdom of Heaven.
In conclusion, I would like to say a few words about prudence - without it, knowledge of the will of God is impossible. And indeed, we talked about the fact that in specific life circumstances, only spiritual reasoning can correctly interpret both the truths of the Holy Scriptures, and the experience of the holy fathers, and everyday collisions. Mechanical adherence to the letter of the law outside of spiritual reasoning - for example, giving away property for the sake of achieving perfection (without ripening the soul for achievement; in fact, outside of humility) - is a direct path either to spiritual delusion or to falling into despondency. But the spirit of reasoning is not a criterion, it is a gift. It is not “mastered” by consciousness (like, for example, the experience of the holy fathers) - it is sent down from above in response to our prayer and, like any gift of grace, rests only in a humble heart. Let us proceed from this - and enough is enough.
And again let us listen to the words of the Apostle Paul: “Therefore, from the day we heard about this, we have not ceased to pray for you and ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you may walk worthy of God in everything pleasing Him, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God...” ().
The will of God - what is it? Here is the formulation given by Wikipedia: “The will of God consists in the complete passivity of the human soul, in the complete surrender of oneself into the hands of God, or in the final destruction of the human will.” Funny? Sad?
The will of God... To live according to the will of God... How often these words are put to us, Orthodox, as a reproach for our lack of independence, infantilism, laziness! How often do we Orthodox throw around these words to justify our own laziness and immaturity! How rarely do we think about their true meaning, about the influence of this very will in our lives...
Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov) said beautiful words: “It is a great good to surrender to the will of God. In the soul then there is only the Lord, and there is no other thought, and with a pure mind it prays to God, and feels the love of God, although it suffers in the body.” But how rarely does this happen... I remember the first time in my life when I consciously I called on the Lord to show me His will. I was just entering the Church. At that time I worked two jobs as a chief accountant. One company had a small salary, but a flexible schedule and people with whom I experienced many difficult moments and who helped me a lot. But in another they gave me an ultimatum: we will increase your salary to 20 thousand (it was 2001), but you will have to work only we have. The offer was very tempting. But something was tossing and turning inside - conscience, or what? And I, as best I could, began to ask: “Lord, tell me what is the right thing to do? What is more correct: to choose material wealth for the family or to stay where people simply do not have the opportunity to pay more, and it will be difficult for them to hire another accountant?.. “And so I prayed all day. By evening you have to go to your “money” job and give an answer. I’m riding in a minibus, praying and saying to myself: “Leave for a bigger salary?.. Stay in the old company?..” And suddenly, when I say “stay,” it’s as if a heavy lump in my chest bursts, my eyes brighten - and such unearthly joy!!! All doubts disappeared, I calmly arrived, refused the position, and quit. And I never regretted it later, although, I won’t hide, it was very difficult to reduce my requests to the level of my remaining income.
Later, when I came to the Church, to the Sisterhood, I realized that the will of God is always with us. It is spilled all around, the correct answer lies literally on the surface - reach out and take your hand. What's stopping you? Why do we get it wrong so many times?
Most likely because indulge We don’t want this very will. Or rather, I want this will to coincide with ours. For God to adjust under us Your will. Hence thousands of crippled destinies. How often, having failed to complete some assignment, we say, justifying ourselves: “That means it was God’s will.” We truly declare ourselves to be the conductors of this will! I didn’t sign the documents, as a result of which the homeless person is forced to go out onto the street? Well, that means this is God’s will for this homeless man... Can you imagine how scary it is? We completely forget that God's will is desire God and allowance God's. And your “jamb” with documents, of course, became God’s permission for this poor fellow, but you yourself did not fulfill God’s desire for this man to find shelter for himself!
Thomas Aquinas said it beautifully: “Pray as if everything depends on God, and act as if everything depends on you.” It is in this connection of our will and the Divine that we must live and work. Then we will be able to see the will of God, feel it around us, and take advantage of His help. In fact, no one has ever taken away our free will, but what if it is aimed at satisfying our “I”? If you are looking for any excuse not to serve your neighbor, if your first priority is own problems, how can you merge with the Divine will, how can you accept my life and desires and indulgences His? But first of all, we must accept all this precisely in his life. And often it turns out that you accept into your life wish God, but you sow Him generously according to strangers allowances...
By the way, I am sure that if the Lord deems it necessary to convey something to you, He will reveal His will through anyone he meets. Again, an example from my life. When my father died, who left us a long time ago and was not interested in either me or his grandson, our confessor said that now I must go to separation for forty days additionally for your father. That is, if everyone goes in the evening, I must also go in the morning, and vice versa. She walked and cried. Out of anger - at my confessor, at my father, at myself for obeying... And, as luck would have it, you can’t open a diaper - full... I’m almost sobbing out loud, and then I go up to the woman lying in a coma, and I hear from her: “Baby, what a holy thing you are doing now!” My hair stood on end, my legs gave way... That's all. The tears are gone, the anger is gone, there is quiet joy in my soul. And although it was still difficult and reluctant, I heard God’s will, she submitted, and the Lord gave her strength to endure.
Surrendering oneself to the will of God is, in my opinion, the greatest work and the most saving achievement. Because then the soul is calm. This is not “the destruction of human will,” but its increase, its improvement. Only then does the human soul achieve the perfection that God intended for it. How I want to overcome my laziness and carelessness, my anger and pride in order to receive this gift! But you understand that so far it’s like walking to the moon. Sometimes you grumble, sometimes you humble yourself - and say: “Everything is God’s will”...
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“Is it God’s will for me to marry this man?” “What about going to work in a specific organization in order to enter such and such an institute?” “Is God’s will for some event in my life and for some action of mine?” We ask ourselves questions like these all the time. How can we understand whether we act in life according to the will of God or on our own? And in general, do we understand the will of God correctly? Answered by Archpriest Alexy Uminsky, rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Khokhly.
–How can God's will be manifested in our lives?
– I think it can manifest itself through the circumstances of life, the movement of our conscience, the reflections of the human mind, through comparisons with the commandments of God, through, first of all, a person’s very desire to live according to the will of God.
More often than not, the desire to know God’s will arises spontaneously: five minutes ago we didn’t need it, and suddenly boom, we urgently need to understand God’s will. And most often in everyday situations that do not concern the main thing.
Here some life circumstances become the main thing: to get married or not to get married, to go left, right or straight, what will you lose - a horse, a head or something else, or vice versa will you gain? The person begins, as if blindfolded, to poke in different directions.
I think that knowing the will of God is one of the main tasks of human life, an urgent task every day. This is one of the main requests of the Lord’s Prayer, to which people do not pay enough attention.
– Yes, we say: “Thy will be done” at least five times a day. But we ourselves internally want “everything to be fine” according to our own ideas...
– Vladyka Anthony of Sourozh very often said that when we say “Thy will be done,” we actually really want our will to be, but so that at that moment it coincides with the will of God, is sanctioned, approved by Him. At its core, this is a crafty idea.
The will of God is neither a secret, nor a secret, nor some kind of code that needs to be deciphered; to know it, you don’t have to go to the elders, you don’t have to specifically ask someone else about it.
The Monk Abba Dorotheos writes about it this way:
“Another may think: if someone does not have a person whom he could question, then what should he do in this case? If someone wants to truly, with all his heart, fulfill the will of God, then God will never leave him, but will instruct him in every possible way according to His will. Truly, if someone directs his heart according to the will of God, then God will enlighten the little child to tell him His will. If someone does not want to sincerely do the will of God, then even though he will go to the prophet, and God will put it on the prophet’s heart to answer him, in accordance with his corrupted heart, as the Scripture says: and if a prophet is deceived and speaks a word, the Lord has deceived that prophet. (Ezek. 14:9).”
Although every person, to one degree or another, suffers from some kind of internal spiritual deafness. Brodsky has this line: “I’m a little deaf. God, I am blind." Developing this inner hearing is one of the main spiritual tasks of a believer.
There are people who are born with an absolute ear for music, but there are those who do not hit the notes. But with constant practice, they can develop their missing ear for music. Even if not to the absolute extent. The same thing happens to a person who wants to know the will of God.
–What spiritual exercises are needed here?
– Yes, no special exercises, you just need a great desire to hear and trust God. This is a serious struggle with oneself, which is called asceticism. Here is the main center of asceticism, when instead of yourself, instead of all your ambitions, you put God at the center.
– How can we understand that a person is really fulfilling the will of God, and is not acting arbitrarily, hiding behind it? So the holy righteous John of Kronstadt boldly prayed for the recovery of those asking and knew that he was fulfilling the will of God. On the other hand, it’s so easy, hiding behind the fact that you act according to the will of God, to do something unknown...
– Of course, the concept of “God’s will” in itself can be used, like everything in human life, simply for some kind of manipulation. It is too easy to arbitrarily attract God to your side, to use the will of God to justify the suffering of someone else, your own mistakes and your own inaction, stupidity, sin, and malice.
We attribute a lot of things to God. God is often on our trial, as the accused. The will of God is unknown to us only because we do not want to know it. We replace it with our fictions and use it to realize some false aspirations.
The real will of God is unobtrusive, very tactful. Unfortunately, anyone can easily use this phrase to their advantage. People manipulate God. It’s easy for us to justify our crimes or sins all the time by saying that God is with us.
We see this happening before our eyes today. How people with the words “God’s Will” on their T-shirts hit their opponents in the face, insult them, and send them to hell. Is it God’s will to beat and insult? But some people believe that they themselves are the will of God. How to dissuade them from this? I don't know.
The will of God, war and commandments
– But still, how not to make a mistake, to recognize the true will of God, and not something arbitrary?
– A huge number of things are most often done according to our own will, according to our desire, because when a person wants his will to be done, it is done. When a person wants God's will to be done and says, “Thy will be done,” and opens the door of his heart to God, then little by little the person's life is taken into God's hands. And when a person does not want this, then God says to him: “thy will be done, please.”
The question arises about our freedom, in which the Lord does not interfere, for the sake of which He limits His absolute freedom.
The Gospel tells us that God's will is the salvation of all people. God came into the world so that no one would perish. Our personal knowledge of the will of God lies in the knowledge of God, which for us also reveals the Gospel: “That they may know You, the only true God” (John 17:3), says Jesus Christ.
These words are heard at the Last Supper, at which the Lord washes the feet of His disciples and appears before them as sacrificial, merciful, saving love. Where the Lord reveals the will of God, showing the disciples and all of us the image of service and love, so that we do the same.
After washing the feet of his disciples, Christ says: “Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you speak correctly, for I am exactly that. So, if I, the Lord and Teacher, washed your feet, then you should wash each other’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do the same as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, and a messenger is not greater than the one who sent him. If you know this, blessed are you when you do it” (John 13:12–17).
Thus, God's will for each of us is revealed as a task for each of us to be like Christ, to be involved in Him and co-natural in His love. His will is also in that first commandment - “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind: this is the first and greatest commandment; the second is similar to it: love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37–39).
His will is this too: “...love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27-28).
And, for example, in this: “Judge not, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven” (Luke 6:37).
The Gospel word and the apostolic word, the word of the New Testament - all this is a manifestation of God's will for each of us. There is no will of God for sin, for insulting another person, for humiliating other people, for people to kill each other, even if their banners say: “God is with us.”
– It turns out that during a war there is a violation of the commandment “Thou shalt not kill.” But, for example, the soldiers of the Great Patriotic War, who defended their Motherland and family, did they really go against the will of the Lord?
– It is obvious that there is God’s will to protect from violence, to protect, among other things, one’s Fatherland from the “finding of foreigners”, from the ruin and enslavement of one’s people. But at the same time, there is no will of God for hatred, for murder, for revenge.
You just need to understand that those who defended their Motherland then had no other choice at the moment. But any war is a tragedy and a sin. There are no just wars.
In Christian times, all soldiers returning from war performed penance. All, despite any seemingly just war, in defense of their homeland. Because it is impossible to keep yourself pure, in love and in union with God when you have a weapon in your hands and, whether you want it or not, you are obliged to kill.
I would also like to note this: when we talk about love for enemies, about the Gospel, when we understand that the Gospel is God’s will for us, then sometimes we really want to justify our dislike and reluctance to live according to the Gospel with some almost patristic sayings.
Well, for example: give a quote taken from John Chrysostom “sanctify your hand with a blow” or the opinion of Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow that: love your enemies, beat the enemies of the Fatherland and abhor the enemies of Christ. It would seem that such a succinct phrase, everything falls into place, I always have the right to choose who is the enemy of Christ among those whom I hate and can easily name: “You are simply an enemy of Christ, and that is why I abhor you; you are an enemy of my Fatherland, that’s why I beat you.”
But here it is enough to simply look at the Gospel and see: who crucified Christ and for whom Christ prayed, asked his Father, “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34)? Were they the enemies of Christ? Yes, these were the enemies of Christ, and He prayed for them. Were these the enemies of the Fatherland, the Romans? Yes, these were enemies of the Fatherland. Were these His personal enemies? Most likely no. Because Christ personally cannot have enemies. A person cannot be an enemy to Christ. There is only one creature that can truly be called an enemy - this is Satan.
And therefore, yes, of course, when your Fatherland was surrounded by enemies and your house was burned, then you must fight for it and you must fight off these enemies, you must overcome them. But the enemy immediately ceases to be an enemy as soon as he lays down his arms.
Let us remember how Russian women, whose loved ones were killed by these same Germans, treated the captured Germans, how they shared a meager piece of bread with them. Why at that moment did they cease to be personal enemies for them, remaining enemies of the Fatherland? The love and forgiveness that the captured Germans saw then, they still remember and describe in their memoirs...
If one of your neighbors suddenly insulted your faith, you probably have the right from this person to cross to the other side of the street. But this does not mean that you are freed from the right to pray for him, to wish for the salvation of his soul and in every possible way to use your own love for the conversion of this person.
Is it God's will for suffering?
– The Apostle Paul says: “In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess. 5:18) This means that everything that happens to us is according to His will. Or do we act on our own?
– I think it’s correct to quote the entire quote: “Always rejoice. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess. 5:16-18).
God's will for us is that we live in a state of prayer, joy and thanksgiving. So that our condition, our completeness, lies in these three important actions of the Christian life.
– A person clearly does not want illness or trouble for himself. But all this happens. By whose will?
– Even if a person does not want troubles and illnesses to happen in his life, he cannot always avoid them. But there is no will of God for suffering. There is no will of God on the mountain. There is no will of God for the death and torture of children. It is not the will of God for there to be wars or bombing of Donetsk and Lugansk, for Christians in that terrible conflict, located on opposite sides of the front line, taking communion in Orthodox churches, and then going to kill each other.
God doesn't like our suffering. Therefore, when people say: “God sent the disease,” this is a lie, blasphemy. God does not send diseases.
They exist in the world because the world lies in evil.
–It is difficult for a person to understand all this, especially when he finds himself in trouble...
– We don’t understand many things in life, relying on God. But if we know that “God is love” (1 John 4:8), we should not be afraid. And we don’t just know from books, but we understand through our experience of living according to the Gospel, then we may not understand God, at some point we may not even hear Him, but we can trust Him and not be afraid.
Because if God is love, even something happening to us at the moment seems completely strange and inexplicable, we can understand and trust God, know that with Him there can be no catastrophe.
Let us remember how the apostles, seeing that they were drowning in a boat during a storm, and thinking that Christ was sleeping, were horrified that everything was already over and now they would drown, and no one would save them. Christ said to them: “Why are you so fearful, you of little faith!” (Matthew 8:26) And - stopped the storm.
The same thing that happens to the apostles happens to us. It seems to us that God does not care about us. But in fact, we must follow the path of trust in God to the end, if we know that He is love.
– But still, if we take our everyday life. I would like to understand where His plan for us is, what it is. A person stubbornly applies to a university and is accepted the fifth time. Or maybe I should have stopped and chosen a different profession? Or do childless spouses undergo treatment, spend a lot of effort to become parents, and maybe, according to God’s plan, they don’t need to do this? And sometimes, after years of treatment for childlessness, spouses suddenly give birth to triplets...
– It seems to me that God may have many plans for a person. A person can choose different paths in life, and this does not mean that he violates the will of God or lives according to it. Because the will of God can be for different things for one particular person, and at different periods of his life. And sometimes it is God’s will for a person to go astray and through failure to learn some important things for himself.
The will of God is educational. It is not a test for the Unified State Exam, where you need to fill in the required box with a tick: if you fill it out, you find out, if you don’t fill it out, you made a mistake, and then your whole life is going wrong. Not true. The will of God happens to us constantly, as a kind of movement of us in this life on the path to God, along which we wander, fall, are mistaken, go in the wrong direction, and enter the clear path.
And the whole path of our life is God’s amazing upbringing of us. This does not mean that if I entered somewhere or did not enter, this is God’s will for me forever or the absence thereof. There is no need to be afraid of this, that's all. Because the will of God is a manifestation of God’s love for us, for our lives, this is the path to salvation. And not the path of entering or not entering the institute...
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“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.”
(Prov. 3:5-6)
Believers understand well that God has a will for them, but usually they are afraid not to notice, to miss it. I remember how many funny stories I heard as a teenager about how to know the will of God. How greatly people were mistaken, believing that the methods of Gideon, lot or a calm heart were the most verified.
Here is one such striking example. During the fellowship, one preacher told how he found his wife. He asked God to make it so that when he comes to church and offers to sing a certain song in a duet, the sister who agrees is his betrothed. And so he did. And that sister even had a dream that her fiancé was the one who would invite her to sing just that song. This is such a bright story. We were delighted - for us it was the height of spirituality. We had no idea that this is the height of human subjectivity, weak spirituality, openness to self-deception and even satanic lies, that God would stoop (yes, God can do that) to such a level for the sake of his children. We were young then and didn’t understand much. Now I look back and see how many mistakes were made by many comrades through such a “handicraft” way of knowing the will of God.
1. The Lord has His will for us
God Himself is interested in doing His will. Let's remember at least the well-known prayer “Our Father”: “...thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” He did not give His will so that it would not be fulfilled. God is the ruler of the whole world and wants the world to follow His desires. We must emphasize the fact that God has a will for you personally. But without personal knowledge of God, without peace with Him, without a real relationship with Him, it is impossible to understand His will.
2. Source of God's will
The will of God is available to all people. Not just a few particularly spiritual and dedicated men of God. It is revealed in God's Book - the Bible.
First, God's will regarding moral character is clearly and clearly decided. For example, the Ten Commandments, the relationship between husband and wife, etc.
Second, from Scripture we derive principles for various situations in life. Life decisions must be made based on these principles.
3. Knowing the will of God
First, you must have a desire to fulfill the will of God. For example, the story of the people of Israel and the prophet Jeremiah: should they have gone to Egypt or not? Although people said that they would do the will of God, they wanted it to be the same as theirs, and therefore did not submit (Jer. 42-43 ch.).
Also, we must understand that the will of God is always specific, however, God nurtures our faith and reveals everything to us little by little. This also means that we need to move forward in knowing God. That is why it is worth collecting information and asking questions, studying the Bible, listening to mature people, noticing circumstances...
God always provides the necessary amount of information to make the right decisions. Therefore, when thinking about alternative options, you should not take everything to the point of absurdity and engage in mathematical calculations. But it is important to fill your mind with God's Word and keep your heart pure. You can't rely on feelings.
4. God's leading
We often ask the wrong questions of God in our efforts to know His will. For example: who should I start a family with, where to work or where to live. Yes, these questions are quite fair, but they are not the main ones, they are secondary. It is precisely because we lose sight of the main questions and direct our minds to secondary ones that we do not receive answers to either one or the other.
God has already revealed His will, we just want to hear something different. After all, when the Lord accepted us into His family, He had a specific mission and goal for us.
Knowledge of the will of God is carried out by the inductive method, that is, from the general to the specific - we fulfill what is revealed in Scripture, and God directs us in the right direction, resolving such questions as: where to work, with whom to start a family, where to live, etc. etc. If I do not fulfill the already revealed will of God, then I should not hope to solve the remaining issues of my life.
There are many things that do not require seeking the will of God, but involve us using the abilities already given by our Creator. For example, healthy logic. Or simply what we like best. For example, which car to buy - white or red, Lada or BMW.
“But solid food belongs to those who are perfect, whose senses are accustomed by skill to distinguish between good and evil” (Heb. 5:14).
It is necessary to subordinate all areas of your life to God, and begin to learn to apply and understand the will of God.
Good luck friend! God is already waiting for you in your future. He has His will for you. You personally!
