That many people suppose themselves to have a knowledge of God’s will, who, at the same time, are mistaken in their supposition, is not to be doubted. History abounds with instances of such errors. Perhaps we shall never be wise enough in this world to know the will of God always, but we may have understanding enough to avoid serious errors in regard to it. Many errors have been made, and are being make, that need not be made, and would not be made, if common sense and sound judgment were displayed in determining what his will is. His will is always consistent with his divine wisdom and his majestic dignity. It is, therefore, always consistent with good common sense. The extremist and fanatic are ever setting up false and impossible standards, and calling them God’s will. Men of sober sense are not misled by such errors.

We shall note a few of the more common types of mistakes concerning God’s will. First, people come to the conclusion that certain things are God’s will which are contrary to, or inconsistent with, his revealed will as expressed in the Scriptures. Nothing is ever God’s will, which is contrary to the principles of righteousness revealed in the Bible, nor which is inconsistent with his expression of his will as found therein. The unchanging God does not declare one principle of truth today and a contrary one tomorrow. God is righteous; so his will is always righteous. Therefore, it can never be his will to do any unrighteous thing, nor to have man do any unrighteous thing.

Men have often argued that it was right to use almost any sort of means to accomplish a desired and good end. It is never right to do wrong, no matter what the purpose. Paul condemned very strongly those who said he taught people to do evil that good might come. We are not authorized to set aside, even temporarily, any principle of righteousness, and to act contrary to it. Therefore, to consider anything to be God’s will which involves setting aside the principles of righteousness, or requires the deviation from right in any degree, is erroneous. Some religious teachers say that it is all right to lie to others if we have mental reservations. They also say that it is according to the will of God that one should lie in order to promote a good end. Speaking on this point, Paul said, “If the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner?” (Rom. 3:7). He makes it plain that even though good should come from his act, the condemnation of God would rest upon him for the unrighteousness of that act. The righteous God can never justify unrighteousness. The use of wrong methods is never acceptable with God.

Doing anything contrary to his Word can never be doing his will. Whatever we may suppose to be God’s will, should be tested by his Word. If it is contrary to his Word, or to the principles of righteousness therein revealed, it is not according to his will and should be rejected. It matters not how sincere people are, if they are mistaken concerning God’s will, their sincerity will not justify them in wrong-doing. Sincerity in a wrong never makes the wrong right---it makes the act less culpable, but it does not make it righteous. Since God has given us his Word as a revelation of his will, we should use it to test all things that we suppose to be his will, rejecting all things that do not agree with it. We should never adopt any plan, purpose, or method that is not consistent with the revealed will of God.

Being too zealous, or being unwisely zealous, often causes people to mistake the will of God. There is a class of zealous persons who are continually making themselves ridiculous, or obnoxious, with their blunders and inexcusable errors concerning God’s will. I have seen persons who had read in the Scriptures that “all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” Therefore, they sought and welcomed persecution, and many times brought ridicule and opposition toward themselves through their unwise conduct from people who had no thought of opposing the true principles of righteousness or real Christian conduct. The opposition was not opposition to real Christian service or Christian work, but to the folly of the zealot, who, in his zeal, had lost his senses, and no longer carefully weighed his principles of conduct. When opposition comes to such a person, he does not realize he is only being buffed for his faults, but glories in it as being persecution which he bears for Christ’s sake.

Persecution which is really for Christ’s sake may be gloried in, but the glorying in opposition that comes to us because of our own folly is glorying in our own shame. How much of this there is in certain sections of the religious world today! Such persons delight to play the martyr. They have much to say about their persecutions. If they would behave themselves in a way becoming to the gospel of Christ, if they would rid themselves of their mistaken zeal, and use good common sense, they would avoid persecution. Of course, this would leave them nothing in which to glory. This would rob them of their inspiration and make life tame for them. The consistent, sane Christian does not rejoice in persecution from this stand point at all. He pities his persecutors and prays for them. He does not rejoice that he is persecuted, though he may rejoice that he has grace to bear with patience the persecution when it comes, and in quietness to rest in the will of God.

Blind zeal often causes people to have very perverted ideas of the will of God in relation to their conduct toward others. It makes them suppose his will to be exactly the opposite of what it really is. Jesus told his disciples how this blind zeal would work among the Jews. He said that the time would come when “Whosoever killeth you will think he doeth God’s service” (John 16:2). We see this manifested a short time later in the murder of Stephen, recorded in the eighth chapter of Acts. We see it characterizing Saul, in his persecution of the Christians, as related in Acts. 9. He verily thought that he was doing God’s service, but he was working directly contrary to God’s purpose and will. The same disposition has been manifested in various religious bodies down through the ages. The Roman Catholics have persecuted millions of true Christians, and martyred tens of thousands of them. Protestants have likewise been guilty. They have persecuted Catholics, and even other Protestants. Today (1925) the Mohammedan thinks it is an act of great merit to kill a Christian, and supposes himself to be acting in complete harmony with God’s will in doing so. No one need make such a mistake as this, for God’s character, as he reveals it, is justice and love, and a just and living God will have a just and loving will. Persecution can never be the outgrowth of such a will. He who does God’s will, will be acting in harmony with God’s character. Whatever, therefore, is contrary to God’s character is contrary to his will.

Another common mistake is to confuse our own ideas with God’s will. An idea may become so fixed in the mind that it comes to have the force of truth, is accepted and taught as truth, and is made the standard for all Christian people, when in reality it has no foundation in the will of God and no support in his Word. We shall note a few errors of this sort, out of a multitude that prevail in the world. I have received a number of letters from persons who teach Christian communism, or the idea that Christians should have all things in common and that there should be no private property among them. This idea is based on the fact recorded in Acts concerning the early Christian’s selling their property and while, perhaps, it was in harmony with the will of God at that time under those particular circumstances, we have no intimation that it is God’s will under ordinary circumstances. In fact, the contrary idea prevails throughout the New Testament. Another similar teaching is common; namely, that it is wrong for Christians to own homes. This is taught in the face of the fact that the early Christians owned their own homes so far as they were able, and no word was raised in opposition to it.

Again, there are those who teach that we should sell all property and give it away because the Bible, in a certain place, tells how Jesus said to one man, “Sell that thou hast, and give.” We must use discretion in our application of the Scriptures. A command may be perfectly proper under certain circumstances which would be altogether out of place under other circumstances. Jesus saw many other men to whom he gave no such command, and he never expressed it as a general principle. It is the utmost folly to take a command meant to fit only a certain set of circumstances, and try to compel all, under any and all circumstances, to apply it to their lives. There are others who will have no photograph taken, and will allow no decorations in their homes---no pictures, curtains, nor musical instruments. Not content with such extremism in their own personal conduct, they try to bind similar principles upon all other Christians, and they cannot have confidence in these other Christians unless they subscribe to their principles and follow them out. Such teaching is not based on any Biblical principle. It is simply the private idea of a fanatic read into the Scriptures and supposed to be the will of God.

A few years ago I met some men who took the test, “Be not ye the servants of men,” and applied it literally. They would not enter the employment of any man, holding it to be a sin to do so. This was of course, a very convenient doctrine for men who do not like to work. Perhaps many of my readers will remember when certain teachers went through the country, years ago, teaching people to kill their hogs, and to destroy all there meat and lard, saying that it was a sin to eat pork. Such people were quite unaware that the division of animals into clean and unclean, from a religious standpoint, is not brought over in the New Testament. It has no relation to Christians. Jesus made all meat clean, Mark tells us (Mark 7:18, 19, R. V.). (Compare also 1 Tim. 4:4-5; Rom. 14:14). There are others who go even further than this, and teach that it is God’s will that all of us should be vegetarians, eating no meat whatever. Others imagine it to be God’s will that they dress in an outlandish fashion, or in some peculiar way, or that they wear long hair and beard, refraining from shaving. Others use a peculiar form of speech. Almost countless things of this sort are supposed to be God’s will, when they are many times not even consistent with common sense. It is not God’s will that makes us extremists and fanatics if we are such, but our own ideas, and our failure to use the intelligence God has given us.

Many times people mistake their own desires for the will of God. They come to desire something. That desire increases, until presently they become convinced that it is God’s will. The stronger their desire becomes to do a certain thing, or to have a certain thing, the more they are convinced that it is God’s will that it be so. God’s will and our desires may run parallel or contrariwise; so it is needful for us to consider matters quite apart from our own desires. However, desire is often so strong that reason is not allowed to function. To illustrate: Sometimes persons desire to preach, or to go as missionaries when they are utterly without qualifications for such work, having neither the judgment nor the ability required and perhaps being even without a settled religious experience. In fact, this is a frequent characteristic of those who are unsettled in their experience. On the other hand, it is sometimes the reason why the experience is unsettled. God does not call people for such work who have not the necessary fundamental qualifications. They may lack many things, but they must have the background, or the foundation---those qualities that may be developed so as to qualify them for the work. God can add to what we already have, but unless we have the natural foundation he will not build up and develop other abilities.

Sometimes a person gets the idea that he or she could do wonderful things for God if it were not for his or her family. The author knows of at least two cases where individuals got an idea of this sort, and being married, they prayed God to let their companions die so that they might be free for his work. Such a prayer is an insult to God, and reveals an utterly wrong disposition of heart. Jesus said he came to save men’s lives, not to destroy them. His will has not changed in this matter since that time. I have known others who desired to be freed from their marital relation by divorce, so that they could do something for God. They felt that it was God’s will that such should be, when God in his Word plainly condemns divorce, except for one cause. Personal desire lay back of the idea of separation, and led directly contrary to the will of God.

We may get our desires so set on something that we want to come to pass, that we decide it is God’s will for it thus to be. There is a test by which we can measure our desires in order to determine whether they are merely selfish desires or whether they are according to the will of God. This is the test: Are we just as willing to have things some other way, if that other way is God’s will? Are we willing to lay our desires in God’s hand and say, “Do with this desire as thou wilt; if thy wisdom sees a better way, do that way”? If the heart draws back, or rebels and objects to it being some other way, and demands that the desire be carried our, then we may rest assured that our desire is not according to the will of God. If I am desirous of having a thing God’s way, my desire is submitted to him, and I am willing that his wisdom should choose how it will be. When desire points the way and says it must be thus. It is self, not God, that is directing. Strong desire that a thing be as we think it ought to be is not inconsistent with God’s will, if it be submitted to him. So, strong desire of itself is not wrong. It is wrong only when it rebels against God, and demands its own way. When desire says, “Thy will be done,” it may distinguish that will. If it does not distinguish it, it will be submissive to it anyway, and instead of being rebellious it will choose God’s way.

We often miss God’s will by getting into a rut and doing things according to an established custom. God works in an infinite variety of ways. He adapts his working to the need He who takes God’s will for granted and follows out the customs of others, is very likely to become formal, and his worship and service will lose that individual quality which gives it real value. Custom often becomes law and stands between the soul and God so that it often hides God’s will from the individual. Let us not be so bound by custom that we fail to inquire for his will. Let us not take God’s will for granted, nor suppose that we shall find a revelation of God’s will for us and go in his path when we are merely stepping in the footsteps of others.

Then, too, we often take God’s will for granted just because we were led in a certain way before, or because some one else had been led in a certain way, or because they followed a certain course. If God did lead us in a certain way at on particular time, under certain circumstances, he may lead us quite differently next time. If, instead of seeking special guidance, we merely repeat what we have done before, we may easily miss his will and perhaps make a serious mistake. We may learn from our past leadings, or the leadings of others; we may take lessons from the example of others. But none of these things will take the place of direct leadings for today. The Holy Spirit’s guidance will attend our feet today. His voice will sound in our ears today, if we listen. Perhaps we shall not always have definite leadings. We may not always be perfectly conscious of God’s will, but we shall, nevertheless, have divine guidance if we trust him for it. We shall return to this phase of the subject later on.

Some persons fail to distinguish between God’s will and the impressions that come to them. God does impress the mind, but all impressions are not from God. Many impressions we have, come from our subconscious mind. A thought is forcibly projected into the conscious mind. This thought may be very impressive, but such a thought is not necessarily from God. It may be, or again, it may not be. We must discriminate and distinguish---not merely follow an impression because we have an impression. God has given us a safer guide than mere impressions. Many impressions arise from suggestions. These suggestions may come from individuals or from things. Some may come from Satan as temptations. Very frequently he impresses one to do something which, when we come to examine it carefully, we see would be unwise, or improper. In such a case, the suggestion may be a temptation to us. When we have an impression, the first thing to determine, if possible, is its source. If we cannot determine its source, then we should judge the wisdom and propriety of following it, before acting. “Men who simply act on untested impulses, even the most benevolent, which spring directly from large Christian principles, may be making deplorable mistakes.” Wisdom and judgment are given us to guide us in determining what should be done. An impression is often the dynamic which will stir reason to attention and arouse zeal. Thus it may serve a good purpose, but we should never act lightly and without consideration on impression.

The fanatic takes his impressions as being the will of God, and acts without regard to considerations or results. The wise man ponders. He takes time to consider. He looks forward to the result of his actions. “The difference between a fanatic, who is a fool, and an enthusiast, who is a wise man, is that the one brings calm reason to bear and an open-eyed consideration of circumstances all around, and the other sees but one thing at a time and shuts his eyes like a bull in a field and charges at that.”

As examples, some of the impressions which actuate people and which illustrate their mistakes are here noted. A lady of intelligence felt deeply impressed that she should leave home and go to a city some distance away in order to do gospel work. Believing this impression to be the will of God, she left her home, left her children in the care of her husband, and spent some weeks going from place to place trying to do “good” by teaching people the gospel. She went to a number of places, but things did not work out as she supposed they would. Later she found that she had only followed an impression, and on which was not the will of God. Another instance: A gentleman was awakened in the middle of the night and strongly impressed that he should get up and go to the house of a neighbor. He arose, dressed, and went, but when he arrived he found no one at home. Of course, such an impression did not come from God.

Many impressions are from God. However, we should never act hastily, although we may sometimes need to act without understanding why we act. As an illustration of an impression that came from God, note the following incident: A lady, the wife of a minister, was going to the store to purchase a pair of boots for herself, when she felt strongly impressed not to do so then, but to send the money to another person. She prayed over the matter and sent the money as she felt impressed. When the money reached the other lady, she took it and purchased a pair of boots for herself, which she needed very much. She wrote back to the first lady, thanked her for the money, and told her of the use that she had made of it. Meanwhile, the first lady had receive a present of a pair of boots from another source; so by following her impression both she and the other lady were supplied with the needed boots.

Another instance: A young minister was very much in need of some money. An old lady came to him and said, “I have fifty cents that I feel God wants me to give to you.” The young minister took the money very reluctantly, and went his way. Sometime later he returned to the same place and the same lady said to him on day, “Do you remember that fifty cents I gave you when you were here before?” “Yes,” he answered. “Well,” she said, “that was fifty cents I had saved to buy some peaches, but I felt impressed to give it to you instead; so I gave it so you, and that same afternoon a man brought me more peaches than I could have purchased for that amount of money.” Just by following her impression, both her need and the minister’s were supplied. God will help us to discriminate between those impressions which come from him, the following out of which will glorify him, and those impressions if followed out would lead to evil consequences. Impressions are sometimes one step in the way of divine guidance. We may rest assured that divine guidance will always be in harmony with the Word of God.

We are not to fall into the error of supposing that a conviction of duty or a conception of truth is of divine origin because it is strong, but the true test of the divine origin of either is its correspondence with the written Word, the standard of truth and life. Impressions which are not of divine origin may often be followed with profit, and disregarded with serious consequences. We must carefully determine which are wise to follow.

We note also that dreams and visions often cause people to fall into error. Some dreams and some visions may come from other causes and have nothing divine in them. In fact, divinely given dreams are probably much more-rare than people suppose. Dreams usually arise from natural causes---they come from the functioning of certain parts of the mind while other parts are asleep. One may also see visions with which God has nothing to do. Optical illusions are by no means rare. People see things in the mind, and suppose they see them with their eyes. An instance of this appeared in the press just a few days ago: a number of individuals declared they saw a man moving about near the top of the Soldiers’ Monument in Indianapolis and tried to point him out to others, when there was no man upon the monument. Visions, also, are often seen when people are under the influence of narcotics or anesthetics. They are also very common among Spiritualists, and others, even unsaved people, whose mental temperament is favorable to such manifestations. It is not so much what people dream or the visions they see, as the interpretation they give to these dreams and visions, which leads to errors. Many times people have dreams and interpret them to mean certain things, or have others interpret them for them, and they lay out a line of conduct from such interpretations. The sequel often proves them to have been mistaken, and their course of conduct to have been unwise. Just because a dream is vivid does not indicate that it is from God, for often the most striking dreams have no meaning whatever.

Divinely given dreams and visions have some definite characteristics that need not be mistaken. First, the message conveyed is definite. Note Peter’s vision of the calling of the Gentiles, and Paul’s vision of the call to Macedonia. We see by these that the visions and dreams that God gives, whether by day or by night, are definite, having a definite message to guide the individual in a plain path, and that the revelation is just as plain as the revelation given with some other method. In Peter’s case, the symbolism of his dream was explained by the Spirit, so that its meaning was clear and unmistakable. So if God sees fit to communicate a revelation of his will to us in this way, it will not be left in obscurity---the interpretation will not be far fetched. I have been asked to interpret a number of dreams for individuals when they were of such a rambling nature, though perhaps very striking, that it was evident God had nothing to do with them.

God will not give us a dream when he desires to convey a message in order to reveal his will, or give a warning to us, or tell us something else that he desires to get to us for our profiting, without making the dream understandable. To do so would be contrary to God’s wisdom. We may be assured that whatsoever God does is consistent with his wisdom; so he will not leave us in the dark concerning the meaning of any dream or vision that he may give us. Perhaps not more than one dream in ten thousand has any signification; so it is unwise to trust in dreams. If we pray God to give us a dream, we may have a dream, but the fact that we dream then is no indication that the dream is of God. It is unwise to trust in dreams. God can convey truth to the mind much more readily when it is in a state of normal activity than he can through dreams. So he generally uses the ordinary method, and speaks to our intelligence when we are awake and in a state to understand, to reason intelligently, and to draw rational conclusions. Sober, sane, solid individuals give little heed to dreams, while the enthusiast, the fanatic, and the extremist dote on them.

To dream about some person is never sufficient grounds upon which to judge him. In hundreds of instances people have been condemned because some on dreamed something about them, when there were no grounds whatever upon which to condemn them. Serious errors have occurred by following such unwise methods, and souls have suffered severely and unjustly. We need something more definite than dreams upon which to base our dealings with souls. We must know facts. There must be no guesswork.

The way to avoid making mistakes concerning God’s will is to live close enough to him so that he can communicate with our souls directly. We can then have that spiritual feeling and hold that spiritual attitude that makes us responsive to God and gives us an understanding of spiritual things. When we are not sure of God’s will we had better wait until the assurance comes before acting. If action is necessary and the will of God is not known, we may go ahead, trusting him, using our best judgment, and relying upon him to keep us from going astray. When we do this, he is under obligation to guard us from going astray. Thus, we need not be always hesitating. The trusting, obedient soul who is seeking to do God’s will, will no be permitted to go astray, and to act contrary to his will for lack of knowledge of what it is, for God will not be derelict concerning his duty---he will reveal to us and make plain our path before us so far as he sees that it is necessary. However, he guides sometimes when we do not know that he is guiding us. The result is the same, though, and if we avoid making those errors that are commonly made, by using our intelligence and good judgment and by seeking earnestly to know God’s will, we shall be able to walk securely in a safe path.

Chapter 10
THWARTING GOD’S WILL

“I would…Ye would not.” These words make clear the fact that God’s will may be frustrated, and his purpose thwarted. The history of the children of Israel stands out as a series of examples of thwarting God’s will, and the consequences that follow. Submitting to and carrying out God’s will always brought them prosperity and happiness. Resisting God’s will, always led them to dire consequences. Sometimes when they turned away from Jehovah they seemed to prosper for a time, but their very prosperity led to their undoing. It tempted the kings about them to make war upon them, and to take from them the riches that they had gathered together. In times when they served Jehovah, he protected them from their enemies, granting them wonderful deliverances. When they turned away from him, they had not protection from these enemies; therefore, their territories were laid waste, and they were brought into the greatest misery.

God would have led the Israelites directly into the Promised Land, but they listened to the fearsome tales of the ten spies, disbelieved God, and refused to obey him. Consequently they had to take the long, dangerous, and distressing circuit around by way of the Peninsula of Sinai, with its desert waste; its burning sand; its dearth of water; its serpents and scorpions. There was no other way for them to reach the Promised Land when they refused to go by the way God would have led them. Many a soul is now in its Sinai Desert because it resisted God’s will, and would not be led in the shortest way to peace and happiness. Many persons looking back over their lives, can see where by resisting God’s will they brought upon themselves unhappiness and weary toils, and had to travel in a desert way, when they might have had a fair and pleasant way had they been content to submit to God.

It was God’s purpose to give the children of Israel a home free from foreigners, who, being pagans, would be a constant temptation to them. Instead of making a full end of the inhabitants of the land, as they had been commanded to do, Israel left many of them still alive and settled in the land. Israel resisted God’s purpose, and chose her own way. Israel’s history from this time forward is a record of the evils that came upon her, many of which had their root in this one refusal to obey God. Israel was a wonderful nation, yet it was only at rare intervals that she arose to the heights where she might have dwelt all the time had she not resisted God’s will

This same fact may be stated of the nations of today. How glorious might be their heritage if they would submit themselves to the will of God! Their wars, their calamities, their internal strife, and their multiplied miseries, all come from resisting God, whose purpose it is to make all men happy by making them holy. Every prison, ever gallows, every electric chain, every policeman, every soldier, every book of criminal law, is an open declaration that men are resisting God’s will; and not only that men resist his will, but that they successfully resist it and that their resistance has consequences that man himself must take steps to limit and control. This world might be as the garden of God if its inhabitants would submit to God’s will and put in practice the principles that he has revealed as his will. They will not do so; therefore, they are reaping the consequences in wretchedness and misery, in unhappiness and sorrow, in suffering and death.

How Men Resist God

First, they resist him willfully. The charge made against Israel was, “Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye” (Acts 7:51). Again and again the children of Israel were charged with being stiff-necked and stubborn. These are not characteristics that belonged only to Israel, for they characterize the generality of mankind throughout the world. God gave man a will in order to enable man to cooperate in God’s plans for the race, but straightway man assumed kingship of his own life, ruled God out, and began to use his will in a way to thwart God’s purpose. To this day the majority of mankind has not ceased so to act. They know the kind of life God would be pleased for them to live. They know the attitude that they ought to hold toward God, but notwithstanding the fact that this knowledge is clear to them to a considerable degree, they go on living lives that are inconsistent with this knowledge, like the Jews, who are represented in the parable as saying, “We will not have this man to rule over us. We will rule our own lives. So they are going on in rebellion, trampling upon the rights of God, and reaping in themselves the fruits of their doings. Yet so perverse is man that even though he is perfectly conscious that his life in not what it might be, that he might be better, and happier, and nobler, that he might have a conscience at rest, and a soul at peace if he would serve God, still he will not do it, but rebels more and more. What stupendous folly! Can the end be anything but disaster?

Men will not submit to God. They will not do his will. Even many professed Christians know that they are coming short of his will. They are conscious within themselves that they are unwilling to do some things that god desires that they do. They shrink, they draw back, they resist. Still, they call themselves Christians. They may delude themselves into believing that they are acceptable to God, but it is a vain delusion, and one from which they will awaken with a start of terror to realize that by their own resistance to God’s will they have separated themselves from him, have unfitted themselves for his society, and have rendered themselves incapable of enjoying the things of his kingdom. They act contrary to God’s will, shutting their eyes to the consequences. What will their reaping be?

Men resist God’s will, not only in refusing to submit to it, and in doing things contrary to it, but in doing nothing. “The Pharisees and lawyers rejected [margin, frustrated] the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him” (Luke 7:30). They frustrated God’s purpose in not being baptized; that is, in doing nothing. And so it is in this age---men know the will of God and yet they do nothing. They ignore his commands; they are not interested in his purposes; they treat them as though these purposes did not concern them; they act as though they themselves were exceptions, and do not come under God’s laws.

There are people who like to see others become Christians. They approve of people living right. They criticize those who do not live right, but they themselves are making no effort to live right. They do not conscientiously make one effort to be obedient to God or to carry out his will in any way. Their hearts are stubbornly rebellious, but they do nothing. It will not be charged against them that they have committed murder, or similar things, if they have not done so. Their condemnation will be, “I would…but ye would not.” When we hold back from God’s will and do nothing, we are not less guilty than we should be if we did something that he strongly condemns. Willfully to refuse to do is as bad as willfully to do what is contrary. “To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”

Again, people resist God ignorantly. Paul says that when he persecuted the Christians, and when he blasphemed the name of Christ, he “did it ignorantly in unbelief” (1 Tim. 1:13). He does not excuse himself for his action, but calls himself the chief of sinners. His ignorance was inexcusable, because it came from unbelief. Had he believed the promises of God in the Old Testament, with which he was familiar, had he earnestly sought to know the truth concerning Christ, he would not have been ignorant. He might have learned the truth as well as those who accepted Christ, but his unbelief shut him out from learning. It kept him from making any attempt to learn, or having any disposition to learn. Thus, many people are willingly ignorant today because they have no desire to know. They have no desire to know God’s will because they have no disposition to carry it out if they did know it. Therefore, they are as guilty as though they did know it and refused to obey it.

Paul’s description of the Gentile world is a true picture of the world in this age. He says that they walked “in the vanity of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness [ margin, hardness] of their hearts; who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.” The people of the present age have their understanding darkened because of the hardness of their hearts. As a consequence, they are alienated from the life of God and having no conscientious scruples to obey God, because they have seared their consciences in unbelief and rebellion, they give themselves over to all forms of evil.

But it is not only the non-professing class who are thus ignorant of God’s will, and who resist his will ignorantly in unbelief. There are many who call themselves Christians, who follow the forms of religion, and who consider themselves very respectable Christians, yet who willingly remain ignorant of God’s will. The Bible is left unread. There is no seeking for the revelation or God’s will or for divine guidance. There is no earnest desire to know his will, in order to carry it out; there is no inner yearning to please God. When they hear the Word of God preached, they give little heed to it.

When they might be enlightened, they remain in darkness. No one need remain in ignorance of God’s will. No one need resist God ignorantly, for the submitted heart is ready to be led. It seeks direction. It delights in obedience. It is well enough acquainted with the operations of the Spirit of God to be easily guided. It is sensitive enough to the will of God instinctively to realize when it is going contrary to his will; therefore, the submitted heart will no go contrary to it.

There are many persons who thwart God’s will in neglecting to know it; not because of enmity toward his will, but because they allow themselves to be too occupied with carrying out their own wills, or in allowing their attention to be centered upon other things to such an extent that they do no sufficiently seek to know God’s will. Therefore, they often ignorantly go counter to it. They prevent the operations of God’s Spirit in their lives and hearts, and live upon a much lower plain than it is their privilege to occupy. Many real Christians are thus careless about seeking to know God’s will. They let their daily cares and responsibilities, their interests and their activities, come between them and a knowledge of his will. They neglect the Bible, and prayer, and often do not even thoughtfully ask themselves, “What is God’s will?”

They often consult their own wills, lay their own plans, make their own decisions, and order their own lives without bringing God in the matter. They seem to forget that he is to have a part in everything and that nothing can be a success unless he does have a part in it. They seem to forget the constant responsibility to do God’s will, that rests upon them. So, in their careless, heedless way they often ignorantly resist God’s will. The consequences of such conduct cannot be avoided. Even if they should continue to make a profession of religion, their profession and their lives will lack the qualities that give them true worth and genuine spirituality. The blessedness that comes from walking close to God will not be realized by them. They may be largely ignorant that they are resisting the will of God, and thwarting it in their lives, but when they come to look back over their lives from the standpoint of eternity, they will realize what they have done and what they have missed.

Men also resist God in desiring their own ways. They thwart his will by coming to mistake their wishes and plans for his will. It is very natural for us to judge how things ought to be done, and to set up our judgment as a standard, thus hindering God from directing in a better way. Our plans and our judgment seem adequate. We are so satisfied with our ideas of how things ought to be that we neglect to seek to know whether God would be pleased to have things some other way. And often this very desire to have our plans carried out, and to do as we think best, stands in the way of God’s leading us into the better things which he wills for us.

If we should look down into the bottom of our hearts, we might sometimes find that we do not wish to have God’s will differ from our plans. We might find a disposition to carry out our plans whether or not they are God’s plans. This disposition often makes men unconsciously resist the will of God. The need for us to submit our plans to God cannot be overemphasized. The need of care lest we should resist his will and thwart his purpose should be ever before our minds, leading us to the fullest submission and the most earnest seeking of his will. How many good things we shut out from ourselves with our own plans and purposes, and through seeking our own way! Many times we rob ourselves, thinking we are benefiting ourselves. God’s way is always best. Choosing our own way often shuts out joy and blessing. Setting up our will or desire against God is the surest way to misery---self-will always leads us out of the land of blessing, for the land of blessing is bounded by God’s will. God knows what is bread for us and what is a stone, although oftentimes we may not be able to discern between the two. What we think to be an egg may be a serpent that will fill our being with poisonous virus. Our desires often clamor, so that we cannot hear God’s voice. We want our own way so much; we do not desire his will if it is something contrary. So we resist his will, consciously or unconsciously, but with the unavoidable consequences that we choose for ourselves less than the best. Men often maintain relations with God, that are less blessed, and less near, than it is their privilege to maintain. Resisting God’s will is the source of a thousand evils, and of not a single good.

Again, men thwart God’s will in shrinking from what seems hard in it, in fearing to do it, and through doubting God. Instead of ignoring all of the consequences that may come as a result of following God’s will, and going ahead trusting…they timidly draw back, fearing both the real and unreal difficulties that their minds present and picture before them. So while they are partly willing to do God’s will, and partly submissive to it, they lack that whole-hearted submission which leads to true blessedness and to the full doing of God’s will.

Sometimes people resist God’s will by following the advice of others, contrary to their own convictions. When we have inner convictions of right, we should not let ourselves be persuaded to go contrary to them. No matter how many arguments nor how plausible arguments may be presented to us, we should never act unless we set in good conscience. We should never act contrary to that inner monitor which warns us against the impropriety of a certain course. The voice of our conscience is to us, the voice of God. It is not only the voice of conscience that speaks within us, but often the Spirit of God checks us through the inner voice from going in a certain direction, or from adopting a certain attitude. We may not know clearly just what course to pursue, but that intuitive consciousness that we should not go in a certain direction should not go unheeded. It is God’s way of safeguarding our souls. We should not follow the advice of another person unless we can do so conscientiously and freely, or unless we are fully convinced that it is the proper thing for us to do. It is true that the conscience, where it has been wrongly taught, sometimes holds one back from a proper course of activity, but where it is rightly instructed, it is a safe guide. That other inner guide that, perhaps none of us can explain, speaks as the voice of God, and should never be silenced nor ever disregarded.

We may sometimes resist God’s will by becoming so satisfied and contented in some good thing that we are not willing to change. God can only get us into or lead us on to better things, in some cases, by first taking away the lesser good. We may sorrow and pity ourselves because of our loss, not realizing that we are resisting God. God’s providences are always manifestations of his love. Therefore, when we resist his providences we are resisting him. It is a blessing to us when God takes away the lesser good, in order to replace it with the greater good. So, when we resist the taking away of the lesser good, we are resisting to our own hurt, and hindering God in his leading us into greener pastures and into fuller enlightenment and blessing.