PURPOSE

The purpose of this document, a follow up to The Will of God - How To Discern It (1), is to assist the Faithful in determining to what extent the Will of God rules their daily lives.


INTRODUCTION

To be able to discern the Will of God, so that we defer to It, is much simpler than it appears as we have shown (1) ; however, a complex situation arises when the Faithful tries to discern to what extent their lives is ruled by the Will of God. Complex because satan is the master of deceit and what better tricks to play on the unsuspecting Faithful than: (a) to make them believe that they are living the Will of God when they are not; or (b) to lead the Faithful to believe that they are not living the Will of God when indeed they are

Let us not forget that the perfect Will of God for Joe the Faithful may not be the perfect Will of God for Mary the Magdalen. If satan can snare Mary into thinking that if she lives as Joe, she is fulfilling the Will of God, the score would be: satan 10, Mary 0.

Thus, by developing a proverbial "litmus test" we may be able to assist the Faithful in avoiding either snare.

In a recent Divine Instructions (2) we hear Jesus speaking thus:


Such reassurances, from the only One Who can back them up, will provide the reference for the "litmus test".

False humility aside, this exercise will be as hard as explaining to someone who may have never seen the colors blue and red how they look like, and further, how the differ from one another.

Being that we are cognizant of the reality of the Holy Spirit of God and its Illuminating Power, we will do what is humanly possible to explain what we are attempting, and then, He will interpret it on a one to one basis as the willing Faithful prayerfully review our attempt to illustrate it.


DETAILS

Let us assume Joe the Faithful led a normal life (read : moderately sinful and away from the real God). Then, one day, he sees a flash of light and, in an instant, God has reprogrammed his soul. Joe's journey commences.

Up to this point Joe has enjoyed many, as we call them, pleasures of life. Some of them simple excesses (say, five ocean cruise vacations in two years, unnecessary lavish and expensive dinners, clothing, jewelry, etc.); others, actual sins (none mortal but pleasurable-to-the-flesh and very consistent with the state of Joe's soul at that time of "the flash").

Joe's brain has carefully recorded, with the helpful assistance of satan, the sensory pleasures experienced as he lived through those experiences. In an almost "magic" (guess whose magic?) manner any collateral damage derived from those pleasures has been carefully obliterated from Joe's mind. Therefore, even after his conversion, every time Joe's senses are faced with situations which brings flashbacks of those pleasures, the proverbial mouth starts watering while there is no memory of the collateral damage associated with the past events.

Joe should not panic - his psyche is "playing old tapes" . He must instead allow his soul to take over and, somehow, those tempting "pleasure tapes" will be neutralized. The Holy Spirit of God, Who is "the soul of Joe's soul" will change Joe's perspective and he would not fall into that situation - whatever it may be - for any amount of money in the world, even though he is totally cognizant of those "pleasure memory tapes playing softly in the background".

When that happens Joe knows that he is well into living in accordance to the Will of God.

Conversely, if Joe succumbs to the temptation of those "pleasure memory tapes" by justifying his actions on the basis of "the end justifies the means" (3) he is nowhere near living in accordance to the Will of God.

Of course - between those two extremes are graduations which vary depending on the "pleasure of the flesh" that is tempting Joe at any one point.

The old wives tale that a "sin is a sin" regardless of what it is, is just that - a manipulative "old wives tale". We cannot lump together a murder with a petty theft or with a lie, any more than we can lump together eating an extra serving of that mouth watering apple pie a la mode with seducing your best friend's wife. That is why we say that the gravity of the temptation depends on the type of temptation itself.

As Joe draws closer to God, whenever he has a doubt about the power of his soul over his flesh, he should allow the initial tempting thought to start playing out in his mind - without falling into the actual sin in a virtual manner. He will find out that, the moment he starts such virtual exercise, the soul would overpower the flesh and he would consciously reject the potential sinful situation. Amazingly and coherently enough - once Joe discovers that method to defuse what would be a temptation, satan stops bringing them on. Why should he bother if they no longer work by causing Joe to fall or feel great distress?

A key to achieve such transformation is to truly desire it out of sheer Love for God. Not for any material benefit; not for securing Eternal life; not for the sake of Holiness and certainly not for fear - simply for Love for Him and the consequential logical burning desire to serve Him, to please Him, to console Him, to thank Him for everything,... to be totally His. When you are His, all else will logically follow for our misery will simply dissolve into the infinite oceans of His Holiness.


CONCLUSION

Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things (*) shall be added unto you. [Matthew 6:33]


Therefore, anyone who wants to be sure and live the Will of God must: Establish and maintain an interactive and real relationship with God. Nothing else will achieve it.

Let us, then, continue to pray...












En Español:  La Voluntad de Dios - Cómo cuantificar Su Presencia en nuestras vidas

Published on November 15th, 2008