What Is God’s Will?

We’ve probably asked God at some point, “What’s Your will for my life?” Maybe we wanted to know God’s will regarding what we should study in school, the kind of job we should have, or who we should marry.

It’s human nature to be intensely focused on our own affairs and not on God’s. After all, since God is all-powerful and divine, what could He want or need?

God created the heavens, the earth, and all mankind. Why? The Bible gives us the answer in Revelation 4:11:

“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power, for You have created all things, and because of Your will they were, and were created.”

This verse clearly tells us that God created everything for His will. When we compare our personal affairs to God’s creation of the heavens, the earth, and all humanity, we have to conclude that God’s will must be something much more significant than merely where we should go to school or what job we should have.

So now that we know all things were created for God’s will, what is God’s will?

Our God is a God of purpose

First, we have to realize that God is very purposeful. The idea that God would do something in an aimless way, without a purpose, doesn’t make sense. Even we wouldn’t spend our time and effort to construct something with no reason or purpose in mind.

Let’s look at Ephesians 1:5 and 9, paying attention to some key words in these verses:

“Predestinating us unto sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.”

“Making known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself.”

These verses speak clearly of God having a good pleasure, a will, that He purposed in Himself. In eternity past, before anything existed, in God’s heart was a desire, something He wanted. To obtain this desire, He made a plan. This plan is God’s will, His eternal purpose. His creation of the universe and of mankind is part of that purpose.

God does everything with that particular purpose in mind. So what is the good pleasure of God’s heart?

God wants many sons

We probably have our own ideas about what God’s purpose is. But what does the Bible say?

Ephesians 1:5 tells us God predestinated us “unto sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will.”

The good pleasure of God’s will is to have many sons, begotten by Him through regeneration to share His divine life and nature. By growing in the divine life, they would express God, and God would be seen through them.

But that’s not all. The book of Ephesians shows us even more of what God’s purpose is and what will fulfill His heart’s desire.

God wants the church

God desires to have sons who have His life and nature. But He also desires that these many sons collectively would be His church. We can see this in Ephesians 3:10-11:

“In order that now to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenlies the multifarious wisdom of God might be made known through the church, according to the eternal purpose which He made in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

According to God’s eternal purpose, His multifarious wisdom would be made known through the church, which is composed of all the regenerated sons of God.

Individually we may express God to a certain extent, but no one person can express Him fully. Our God is so great and so rich, He needs a great and rich expression through His church. God wants to have His many sons built up together in His life as the church. This church would be a testimony of who He is to the universe and His full expression on earth, both today and for eternity.

How can we become such a church? Note 3 on church in Ephesians 3:10 in the New Testament Recovery Version explains:

“As revealed in v. 8, the church is produced from the unsearchable riches of Christ. When God’s chosen people partake of and enjoy the riches of Christ, they are constituted with those riches to be the church, through which God’s multifarious wisdom is made known to the angelic rulers and authorities in the heavenlies. Hence, the church is God’s wise exhibition of all that Christ is.”

This is why it’s so important for us as sons of God to consistently read the Bible. As we take Him in as nourishment in the Word, we’re actually partaking of Christ and being reconstituted. Just as the food we eat constitutes our physical body, the riches of Christ we enjoy in the Word constitute us to be the church. Then we can express Him both individually in our daily lives and together with our fellow believers as the church. This is how God can obtain His heart’s desire.

If you’d like to understand more about God’s purpose and the church, we heartily encourage you to download our free e-book The Glorious Church here.

And if you live in the US, you can order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version here to read all the verses mentioned in this post with their enlightening notes.