17 October 2021
Our Father portrays Himself as an Ancient Near Eastern potentate. It is the image He prefers for revealing what He wants us to know about Him and His ways.
As such, we should understand that His will is not detailed and iron-clad. That's more like a computer. Rather, He is our tribal head, a wilderness sheikh who has His main concerns, things He will do one way or another. He is our Daddy, and wants to include His children, but will seldom force the the issue. The sweetness of parental attention and fellowship requires that we spend time in His lap -- portrayed as private moments of prayer.
So there is always some give and take in areas of our experience. We would typically misjudge these issues until we spend enough time with Him and His Word to get a feel for what really matters to Him. It takes a significant amount of time in prayer and contemplation to get there.
He is a real Person, someone who made us and knows each of us intimately, better than we know ourselves. And because no two of us will experience Him in precisely the same way, there must be variations in how we know Him. The key is not to understand His will for the world, but to understand His will for you. His will for you is all you need to know about His will for the world.
The only reliable way to do that is to find the imprint of His character in your heart, in your convictions. The key to that is your driving devotion to His desires. As you turn your commitment more fully to Him (the definition of "faith"), it exposes greater depths in your convictions. Those convictions are written by His finger on Your soul. It's the stamp of your own moral character derived from His. It was there before your birth; it's the eternal part of you already burned into your being. It always reflects His character in you, in terms of His will for your life.
You will get to know your convictions first in terms of imperatives, what you must and must not do. You'll read them initially in your conscience. But beware: Your conscience is part of you mind, part of your fallen nature. Your conscience is variable and can be manipulated if you don't seek the Lord's Presence in your soul. You conscience has to learn, and it takes time. It will change as you seek to expose more of your convictions through prayer and the Word. But start with the conscience you have now, and know that God can lead you to a better place to stand so that you can see His will.
So, obey the conscience you have, and pray more than your flesh likes. Bring it under the discipline of the heart. The heart is the faculty in you where faith resides, and where your convictions are found. Live by your conscience, and the living interaction between you and your Father will change you into something much closer to His own character. You'll get to know Him better, and you will be more like Him.
If you really want it, He will grant it.
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