...fulful God's will...

We believe God publishes his manifesto for our lives in many ways: through Creation, through human history, through our consciences, through everyday circumstances and an inner sense of guidance.  But there are two supreme ways he has revealed his character and his purposes for us:-

• The Bible, a collection of 66 books written by divine inspiration over a period of more than two thousand years, and speaking about life from the dawn of history to the end of time.
• The teachings, character and life of his only Son, Jesus; particularly his death and resurrection.

Through these we can know both God’s overall plan and purpose for the world, and his individual will for each of our lives; indeed we can come to know God himself.

Knowing is the easy bit.  Living it is a different matter.  Many a modern-day atheist will claim that they live by the Ten Commandments - conveniently forgetting the first, that we must love God above all else, committing our hearts, minds, and physical resources to serving him.  Many a Christian aspires to live by the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’ ruthless exposure of the hypocrisies of his own day: not noticing that we are just as hypocritical.

Given our blindness and deafness, what hope is there of us fulfilling God’s will?  The starting point, says Jesus, is to repent and believe: 

• repent: to accept God’s verdict on our character, and surrender ourselves to his justice; and to stop singing “I did it my way”, and as an act of will, turn from our own ways to God's way.
• believe: to trust his mercy and love, and believe that when Jesus was crucified, it was as our scapegoat - that his death was a sacrifice which satisfied in full the universal law that sin leads inexorably to spiritual death.

When we do so, we receive from Jesus the Holy Spirit.  He becomes in us a wellspring of the water of life, cleansing and refreshing us.  He leads us into the truth and reshapes our thinking.  He enables us to let go of our pride, take up our own personal crosses, and follow Jesus.  He gives us special gifts and insights, and replaces our natural selfishness with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-discipline.  We find ourselves naturally fulfilling the will of God, not because we are specially virtuous or holy, but because Jesus himself is living in us.