How Does The Will Of God Get Accomplished?
We’ve all been in a situation where we felt hopeless – maybe you feel that way even now. Seemingly insurmountable obstacles stack higher and higher in front of us and we don’t see any way forward. We cry out to God but it seems as if we get no answer. What did we do wrong?
God isn’t ignoring you. He hasn’t decided to help someone else instead of you that day. His heart breaks for His beloved child and He wants to show His faithfulness to you. He can and will act, but there is actually something we can do on our end to access God’s will in our lives.
Let’s take a look at a portion of the Lord’s Prayer. This passage in Matthew chapter 6 is arguably one of the most famous sections of scripture and holds a lot of hidden depths involving how we relate to God. Verses 9-13 say,
Pray, then, in this way:
‘Our Father, who is in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.’
Let’s focus on the bolded section. This verse is making a comparison between heaven and earth.
Bringing Heaven Down To Earth
Heaven is the perfect accomplishment of God’s will. Everything happens exactly how He ordains it and everyone there lives in perfect fellowship with Him. Before the fall of man into sin, the earth functioned the very same way – a genuine paradise created by God and curated by man to accomplish God’s will. God originally gave the authority to rule in the earth to Adam and Eve after their creation, but when they allowed the devil to deceive them, they transferred over that authority to him.
The devil maintained this authority over the earth until Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross. When our Savior conquered death, He also won back our authority over the earth. After we accept His salvation, we can walk in that same authority originally given to Adam and Eve. However, it’s important to know that our part to play is active, not passive.
God’s Will is Not Automatic
God wants us to be active participants in accomplishing His will in our lives and building His kingdom on the earth. He wants us to be His partners as He moves on our behalf. So how do we participate?
The first step is finding out what God’s will actually is. Romans 8:26-29 says,
In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.
There are two main takeaways I want you to receive from this passage: 1) God causes all things to work together for your good, and 2) God’s end goal is for us to become like Jesus and conform to His character. When we’re in the midst of a challenging situation and we find ourselves wondering what God is doing, we can return to these two points and remember to trust God’s process.
God Doesn’t Have To Be A Stranger
We don’t have to feel helpless and in the dark when God is working. God wants us to know His will and He’s given us the tool we need to find out: His Word. God’s heart can be found in Romans 8:31-39, just after the passage we read earlier:
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written: ‘For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God is on our team! He wants to fight on our behalf, not against us. He has already given us the ultimate victory through Jesus and every other battle afterward is minor compared to that. When we think about the incredible lengths He went to – moving heaven and earth for us – just to have unlimited relationship with us again, how can we doubt His goodness in every other situation? We are totally free from condemnation and death through sin, today and every day! But God didn’t stop there, He wants to continue to give us every good thing here on the earth.
God’s Grace Lasts Forever
There is nothing we can do to change His love for us, or our complete, justified, sin-free nature before Him. Nothing can separate us from His love – not the devil, not our own actions or the actions of others, not angels or demons, not even death. We never have to be alone again.
God fought so hard, He gave up His own Son, a part of Himself, to die for every sin we would ever commit just so He could be with us again. What amazing, unimaginable, incomprehensible love He has for us. That’s His heart for you today. That’s Who He is and will always be towards you.
God’s Word Is Real In Your Life
Now that we have an understanding of how God sees us and His heart for us, let’s talk about the power of His Word. Even after 2,000 years, this book is still alive and still true. The principles God reveals through its pages can unlock incredible transformation in your life, but it remains powerless unless you believe what it says. John 6:26-29 says,
Jesus answered, ‘Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.’ Then they asked him, ‘What must we do to do the works God requires?’ Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.’
There is power in your belief. The key to salvation, what starts it all, is your belief in Jesus’s sacrifice and resurrection. God knows that once you believe, He can start working in your life. The devil knows this too, and he will do everything he can to erode your faith and plant seeds of doubt in your heart.
The key to recognizing doubt is bringing all your beliefs back to the Word. Does what you believe line up with what God says? If not, it’s time to weed that belief out and throw it away. God talks about the importance of belief many times in His Word, including Romans 4:4-5:
Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.
Believing is all we have to do to open the door and let God in so He can work in our lives. But what exactly do we believe in?
Working Vs. Believing To Receive
Have you ever heard the saying, “God helps those who help themselves?” This may sound Biblical on the surface, but it’s actually a dangerous mistruth and not supported by scripture. God isn’t waiting for you to pitch in first before He helps you. Jesus’s sacrifice has already paved the way for our ability to receive everything we need from God for free. When we try to earn it through our “righteous” behavior, we are really telling Jesus that His sacrifice wasn’t enough.
The truth is we could never earn God’s favor – there simply aren’t enough good deeds on Earth that could overshadow our sin debt. That’s why salvation is called “good news”! It’s good news that we don’t have to do a certain number of good deeds before God will work in our lives. He’s ready to work right now!
Exercising Your Faith
Okay, so we know God’s heart, we’ve read His Word, and we’re ready to ask Him to act in our life. We know what He wants for us and what He wants to do in our life, so we’re ready to pray and ask Him to move on our behalf. 1 Corinthians 2:12-13 says,
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.
The Holy Spirit comes to be with us when we accept salvation and it’s through Him, along with God’s Word, that we can know God’s will. Once we know God’s will, it’s our job to stand in agreement with Him.
For example, we know that God has promised to meet all of our needs. So, if we have a bill we don’t have the money for, we know that we can trust and agree with God that He will meet that need. Instead of spending our time worrying about the bill and trying to scrounge up the money for it, we can rest in the knowledge that God knows about the need and He will make sure it’s taken care of. If He wants us to do anything about it, He will tell us, but we leave meeting the need completely in His hands.
This behavior will not come naturally to you at first. Faith is not natural, it’s supernatural – which means it supersedes the natural. You might even have friends and family call you crazy or stupid for not trying to meet the need yourself, but remember that God’s ways are higher than man’s ways. Trust that He knows what He’s doing and His timing is perfect.
Faith and Prayer Go Hand-In-Hand
James 5:13-16 says,
Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises. Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.
Because we are righteous before God, our prayers are effective! We can trust that God hears us and will act on our behalf. By praying in faith, you are verbalizing your trust in God and your desire to see His will accomplished in your life. Supercharge your prayers by finding scriptures that support what you’re praying about and agree with those scriptures out loud.
Don’t Let Your Faith In God Waver
All that’s left to do is continually thank God for His faithfulness, even if you haven’t seen your breakthrough yet. Very rarely does God’s timing align with ours, but that doesn’t mean He’s not working. We know that God’s will is always for our benefit and He never makes mistakes. We can’t let what our circumstances look like on the surface shake our faith in His love for us and His desire to prosper us. Hebrews 11:1-2,6 says,
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval…. And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
God delights when we have faith in Him. He rewards us by showing us our breakthroughs in His good timing. Keep that in mind when the devil tries to get you to doubt His goodness. Because you have His Word, you know better! Keep thanking God for His faithfulness every time you think of your challenging circumstance and you will see Him come through for you.
Sharon Fletcher
Author, Teacher, Speaker
Sharon is a Texas-born woman of God who has a passion for Jesus and sharing His love with everyone who will listen. Together with her husband, Greg, she has co-authored several books and studies including Powerful Peace, Tools for Living, and Obtain the Promises. Sharon also acts as a mentor for ladies who want to grow into their purpose and walk with Christ. She is a mother of 4 beautiful children and considers motherhood her finest calling, even above ministry.