The Will to Do

The Will to Do

“Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord,
will enter into the kingdom of Heaven,
but the ones who do the will of My Father…”
Matthew 7:21 (LITV)

The Will To Do

To be a people who do His will our will must be captured by His beauty. Mere approbation of the words of the covenant of grace, without walking in its inspiration, is vanity. We are exhorted:

“Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling… For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure”
Philippians 2:12-13

Any life lacking the will to do of His good pleasure is one that is not allowing God to work. Our willingness is the revelation of the effect of God’s grace moving upon our hearts. Paul knew well this wonder moving within. His will was “bound” to the Will of God. There was no deviation, for the purpose of God was paramount and his heart was fixed regardless of the outcome.

“I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem”
Acts 20:22

The Holy Spirit has been sent into our hearts to produce the same consuming desire as that which motivated and held the Son of God to the will of the Father.

Paul pleaded with the people of God throughout his epistles with an overriding theme of obedience which springs from the love of God beating within our hearts. The singularity of the Son’s heart is to be our inheritance: “Not my Will but Thine be done”.

“For let this mind be in you
that [is] also in Christ Jesus”
Philippians 2:5 (LSV)
(is: present tense parsing in the Greek)

What is the revelation of this singularity in the purpose and mind of Christ?

“My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me,
and to finish His work…”
John 4:34

There is a glaring inconsistency in those who declare faith apart from the resulting works of faith. The validity of His mind being formed in us is revealed in our preoccupation with doing His Will.

“I must work the works of him that sent me”
John 9:4

Works do not save us, we are saved “unto good works” (see Ephesians 2:8-11) where works are the evident influence of Him working in us to DO His good pleasure.

The Truth of the Parable of the Sower

The Parable of the Sower reveals a startling truth: the fruitfulness of the seed is determined by the soil into which it falls. The same seed fell upon the hard ground, the weed-infested soil, and the good soil with varying degrees of fruitfulness.

Let us reexamine the temperature and attitude of our hearts in how we conduct our lives before Him.

“Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling…”

Apathetic hearts are unaware of the reverential fear they are to hold in their walk before God.

True Humility

It is the proud and ignorant who fail to see how essential our obedience unto Him is. A strong will to do His Will is the revelation of a humble heart.

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus… (who) humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross”
Philippians 2:5,8

The depth of our humility is revealed
by the depth of our obedience.

Knowing these things, we cry out for new dispensations of grace to fill the void of our own hearts where pride has deprived us of the fullness He has called us unto.

That we “might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God”
Colossians 1:9-11

May our daily walk be worthy and pleasing unto Him, so that we are being fruitful in every good work and are increasing and abounding in our relationship with Him!

Related Article: Abandonment

Brian Troxel