Scripture Reading: Rev. 4:11; Matt. 7:21-23; Col. 1:9
Ⅰ
“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”—Rev. 4:11:
A
God is a God of purpose, having a will according to His own pleasure:
１
He created all things for His will that He might accomplish and fulfill His purpose.
２
The book of Revelation, which unveils God’s universal administration, shows us the purpose of God.
３
In the twenty-four elders’ praise to God concerning His creation, His creation is related to His will.
B
God’s will is God’s wish; it is what He wants to do—Eph. 1:9:
１
God’s good pleasure is of His will and is embodied in His will, so His will comes first—v. 5.
２
God has made the mystery of His will known to us through His revelation in Christ, that is, through Christ’s incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension—v. 9; 3:9.
３
God works all things according to the counsel of His will.
４
God’s will is His intention, and His counsel is His consideration of the way to accomplish His will, or intention—1:11.
C
The will of God is concentrated in Christ and is for Christ; Christ is everything in the will of God—Col. 1:9:
１
In 1:9 God’s will refers to Christ; the will of God is profound in relation to our knowing, experiencing, and living the all-inclusive, extensive Christ, who is God, man, and the reality of every positive thing in the universe—2:9, 16-17.
２
Christ is the preeminent One, the One who has the first place in everything—1:18.
３
The all-inclusive, extensive Christ is the centrality and universality, the center and circumference, of God’s economy—vv. 15-17; Eph. 1:10:
ａ
In God’s economy Christ is everything; God wants Christ and Christ alone—the wonderful, preeminent, all-inclusive Christ, who is all and in all—Matt. 17:5; Col. 3:10-11.
ｂ
God’s intention in His economy is to work the wonderful, all-inclusive, extensive Christ into our being as our life and everything so that we may become the corporate expression of the Triune God—1:27; 3:4, 10-11.
４
The will of God is that the all-inclusive, extensive Christ would be our portion—1:9, 12.
５
God’s will is that we know Christ, experience Christ, enjoy Christ, be saturated with Christ, and have Christ as our person and our life—3:4, 11.
D
God’s will is to have the church as the Body of Christ—Eph. 1:9; Col. 1:18; 2:19; 3:15:
１
The will of God is to obtain a Body for Christ to be His fullness, His expression—Rom. 12:2, 5; Eph. 1:5, 9, 11, 22-23; 4:16:
ａ
To live the Body life is to “prove what the will of God is”—Rom. 12:2, 4-5.
ｂ
If we are proper members of the Body, acting and functioning in the church life, we will be persons in the will of God—1 Cor. 1:1-2; Eph. 1:1; 5:17; Rom. 12:2, 4-5.
２
The church is the Body of Christ, which is an entity constituted with the Triune God and His chosen and redeemed ones—Eph. 1:22-23; 4:4-6.
３
Christ is the Head of the Body, and we are the members of His Body—Col. 1:18a; 2:19; Eph. 4:15-16:
ａ
To live in the Body is to live corporately with the members under the Head—v. 15; Col. 2:19.
ｂ
To live the Body life, we must be under the Head and take the Head as our life, the principal object, and the center of our whole being—1:18a; 2:19.
４
The Body grows with the growth of God; the growth of the Body depends on the growth of God, the addition of God, the increase of God, within us—v. 19; Eph. 4:16.
E
Whoever does the will of the Father is a relative of the Lord Jesus—Matt. 12:50:
１
Christ, the heavenly King, always submitted to the Father’s will, taking God’s will as His portion and not resisting anything—11:28-30; 26:39.
２
Whoever does the will of the Father is a brother who helps the Lord Jesus, a sister who sympathizes with Him, and a mother who tenderly loves Him.
F
The kingdom is absolutely a matter of God’s will and completely fulfills God’s will; in fact, the kingdom is God’s will—6:10:
１
The ultimate issue of the constitution of the kingdom of the heavens is the will of the heavenly Father—7:21.
２
As kingdom people, we are on the earth to do God’s will—12:50.
G
The kingdom people need to pray for the Father’s will to be done on earth as in heaven; this is to bring the kingdom of the heavens to the earth—6:10.
Ⅱ
“Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but he who does the will of My Father who is in the heavens”—7:21:
A
To call on the Lord suffices for us to be saved, but to enter into the kingdom of the heavens, we also need to do the will of the heavenly Father—Rom. 10:13; 12:2; Matt. 12:50; Eph. 5:17; Col. 1:9.
B
Since entering into the kingdom of the heavens requires doing the will of the heavenly Father, it is clearly different from entering into the kingdom of God through regeneration—John 3:3, 5.
C
The entrance into the kingdom of the heavens is gained through the living of the divine life—1:12-13; 3:5-6; Matt. 7:21; 12:50.
D
The Lord Jesus rebuked those who prophesied, cast out demons, and did many works of power in His name, because as “workers of lawlessness,” they did these things out of themselves, not out of obedience to God’s will—7:22-23:
１
There are two principles in the universe—the principle of God’s authority and the principle of Satan’s rebellion—Acts 1:7; Isa. 14:13-14.
２
We cannot serve God on the one hand and take the way of rebellion on the other hand.
３
We must turn away from the principle of lawlessness and reject the way of rebellion—Matt. 28:18; Jude 11.
４
Serving God is directly linked to His authority.
５
If we do not settle the matter of authority, we will have problems in all the areas of our service.