What is God's will? Prayers. Worships

priest Mikhail Shpolyansky

It must be said unequivocally: the will of God is the only final criterion of good and evil in this world. The commandments of God are not absolute, the commandments of God are in a certain sense statistical. So, in the overwhelming majority of cases, in millions, billions of cases to one, killing from the point of view of Christianity is unacceptable, but this does not mean that one should never kill. We know that our holy leaders, the noble princes Alexander Nevsky and Dmitry Donskoy, acquired the Kingdom of Heaven, despite the fact that their swords were stained with the blood of many enemies of the faith and the Fatherland. If they had mechanically adhered to the letter of the Law, Rus' would still have been an ulus of Genghis Khan’s or Batu’s empire, and Orthodoxy on our land would most likely have been destroyed. It is also known that Venerable Sergius Radonezh blessed the Battle of Kulikovo and even sent two schema-monks to the army.

These are the most striking and obvious examples, but one can say about almost any commandment of God that there are cases when it is God’s will to break this commandment in this particular situation. Here is the commandment: “Thou shalt not bear false witness,” that is, do not lie. Lying is a dangerous sin precisely because it is somehow little noticeable and little perceptible, especially in the form of deceit: to keep something silent, to distort something, so that it is beneficial either for oneself or for someone else. We don’t even notice this deceit, it passes by our consciousness, we don’t even see that it is a lie. But it is precisely this terrible word that the devil is called in the only prayer given by the Lord Himself to the disciples, “Our Father.” The Savior calls the devil evil. Therefore, every time we deceive, we seem to identify ourselves with an unclean spirit, with the spirit of darkness. Scary. So, you can’t lie, it’s scary. But let us remember the chapter with the remarkable title “about what should not lie” from the teachings of one of the pillars of Christian asceticism. It says, among other things, that sometimes you have to tell a lie not for the sake of self-interest, but out of love, out of compassion. But, it is true, the saint makes such a wonderful reservation (remember that this reservation was made in the 4th century after the Nativity of Christ for Palestinian monks): “he should not do this often, but only in exceptional cases, once in many years.” This is the measure of the saints.

Thus, we see that the two-thousand-year experience of the Church, the experience of life in Christ, places the final criterion of good and evil not on the letter of the law, but on the fulfillment of the will of God (“the letter kills, but the spirit gives life” -). And if there is the will of God to take the sword and go to defend your people, your loved ones, then fulfilling this will of God is not sin, but righteousness.
And so the question arises with all its severity: “How to know the will of God?”

Of course, knowing the will of God is a matter of all life and no brief rules it cannot be exhausted. Perhaps, Metropolitan of Tobolsk illuminated this topic most fully among the holy fathers. He wrote a wonderful book, “Or on the conformity of the human will with the Divine will.” "Iliotropion" means sunflower. That is, this is a plant that, turning its head behind the sun, constantly strives for light. This poetic title Saint John gave his book about knowledge of the will of God. Although it was written more than a century ago, it is nevertheless surprising modern book, both in language and in spirit. She is interesting, understandable and relatable to modern man. The advice of the wise saint is quite applicable in conditions of life that have radically changed compared to recent times. The task of retelling “” is not set here - this book must be read in its entirety. We will try to offer only the most general scheme solution of this most important issue for the salvation of the soul.

Let's consider this example: here in front of us is a sheet of paper on which a certain dot has been placed invisibly. Can we immediately, without any information, by “pointing a finger,” so to speak, determine (essentially guess) the location of this point? Naturally - no. However, if we draw several visible points in a circle around this invisible point, then, based on them, we can with a high probability determine the desired point - the center of the circle.
Are there such “visible points” in our lives with the help of which we could know the will of God? Eat. What are these dots? These are certain methods of turning to God, to the experience of the Church and to our soul on the path of man’s knowledge of the will of God. But each of these techniques is not self-sufficient. When there are several of these techniques, when they are combined and taken into account to the necessary extent, only then we - with our hearts! - we can know what the Lord actually expects from us.

So, the first “point”, the first criterion- this, of course, is Holy Scripture, directly the Word of God. Based on the Holy Scriptures, we can quite clearly imagine the boundaries of God’s will, that is, what is acceptable for us and what is completely unacceptable. There is a commandment of God: “thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind... thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (). Love is the final criterion. From here we conclude: if something is done out of hatred, then it automatically falls outside the bounds of the possibility of God’s will.

What are the difficulties along this path? Paradoxically, what makes divinely inspired Scripture a truly Great Book is its universality. A reverse side universality is the impossibility of unambiguously interpreting Scripture in each specific everyday case outside the colossal spiritual experience of life in Christ. And this, sorry, is not said about us... But, nevertheless, there is a point...

Next criterion- Sacred Tradition. This is the experience of the realization of the Holy Scriptures in time. This is the experience of the holy fathers, this is the experience of the Church, which for 2000 years has been searching for the answer to the question of what it means to live, fulfilling the will of God. This experience is enormous, priceless and practically provides answers to all life’s questions. But there are problems here too. Here the difficulty is the opposite - discreteness of experience. Indeed, precisely because this experience is so enormous, it includes many various options solutions to spiritual and everyday problems. It is almost impossible to apply it in specific situations without the grace-filled gift of prudence - again in modern life exceptionally rare.

Some specific temptations are also associated with the book teachings of the holy fathers and elders. The fact is that in the overwhelming majority of cases, the advice of the elders relates to a specific person in the specific circumstances of his life and can change as these circumstances change. We talked about the fact that God's providence for the salvation of man can be different. And why? Because, as a rule, a person does not follow the direct path - the path of perfection - due to his weakness (laziness?). Today he did not do what he was supposed to do. What can he do? Die? No! In this case, the Lord provides for him some other, perhaps more thorny, long, but equally absolute path of salvation. If he has sinned, and violation of God’s will is always a voluntary or involuntary sin, then this path of salvation necessarily lies through repentance. For example, today the elder says: “You should do this and that.” And a person avoids fulfilling a spiritual order. Then he again comes to the elder for advice. And then the elder, if he sees repentance in him, says what he should do in the new situation. Says perhaps the opposite of the previous word. After all, the person did not follow the previous advice, he acted in his own way, and this radically changed the situation and created new - primarily spiritual - circumstances. Thus, we see that the individuality of the advice of the elders in specific cases of life is an objective obstacle to the fact that one can simply say: “Read the advice of the elders, follow them - and you will live according to the will of God.” But this is the point...

The third criterion is the voice of God in a person's heart. What is this? Conscience. The Apostle Paul said surprisingly and comfortingly that “when the pagans, who do not have the law, by nature do what is lawful, then, not having the law, they are a law unto themselves, they show that the work of the law is written in their hearts, as their conscience testifies... " (). In a sense, we can say that conscience is also the image of God in man. And although the “image of God” is a complex concept, one of its manifestations is the voice of conscience. Thus, the voice of conscience can to a certain extent be identified with the voice of God in a person’s heart, revealing to him the will of the Lord. So, it is very important for those who want to live according to the will of God to be honest and sober in hearing the voice of their conscience (the question is how capable we are of this).

Another criterion, the fourth (of course, not diminished in importance, because all points in the circle are equal) is prayer. A completely natural and obvious way for a believer to know the will of God. I'll tell you an example from my life. There was a difficult period for her: there were so many problems concentrated, so much thinking - it seemed that life had reached a dead end. There is some kind of endless labyrinth of roads ahead, where to step, which way to go - it’s completely unclear. And then my confessor said to me: “Why are you wise? Pray every evening. There is no need for any extra effort - say a prayer every evening: “Lord, show me the path, and I will go there.” Every time before going to bed, say this with a bow to the ground - the Lord will definitely answer.” So I prayed for two weeks, and then an extremely unlikely event happened in the everyday sense, which resolved all my problems and determined later life. The Lord answered...

The fifth criterion is the blessing of the confessor. Happy is the one whom the Lord allows to receive the blessing of the elder. Unfortunately, in our time, “the elders are taken away from the world” is an exceptional rarity. It’s good if you have the opportunity to receive the blessing of your confessor, but this is also not so easy, not everyone now has a confessor. But even in the first centuries of Christianity, when people were rich in spiritual gifts, the holy fathers said: “Pray to God to send you a person who will guide you spiritually.” That is, even then, finding a confessor was a definite problem, and then it was necessary to especially beg for a spiritual leader. If there is neither an elder nor a confessor, then you can receive a blessing from a priest. But in our time, a time of spiritual impoverishment, one must be quite sober. You cannot follow the principle mechanically: everything that a priest says is necessarily from God. It is naive to assume that all priests can be confessors. The Apostle says: “Are all Apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are everyone miracle workers? Does everyone have gifts of healing?” (). One should not assume that the charisma of the priesthood in itself is automatically the charisma of prophecy and clairvoyance. Here you must always be careful and look for such a spiritual leader, communication with whom would bring obvious benefits to the soul.

The next criterion is advice from spiritually experienced people. This is the experience of the life of a pious person and this is our ability to learn from a good (and maybe negative - also experience) example. Remember how in the movie “The Shield and the Sword” someone said: “Only fools learn from their own experience, smart people learn from the experience of others.” The ability to perceive the experience of pious people, communication with whom the Lord has given us, the ability to listen to their advice, find in them what is necessary for oneself and rationally use it - also a way of knowing the will of God.

There is also a very important criterion for determining the will of God. The criterion that the holy fathers talk about. So, the monk writes about this in his famous “Ladder”: that which is from God pacifies the human soul, that which is against God confuses the soul and brings it into a restless state. When the result of our activity is the acquisition of peace in the soul about the Lord - not laziness and drowsiness, but a special state of active and bright peace - then this is also an indicator of the correctness of the chosen path.

The eighth criterion is the ability to feel the circumstances of life; perceive and soberly evaluate what is happening around us. After all, nothing happens for nothing. A hair from a person’s head will not fall without the will of the Almighty; a drop of water will not roll down, the twig will not break; no one will come up and insult us, and will not kiss us, if this was not allowed by the Lord for some kind of admonition of us. This is how God creates the circumstances of life, but our freedom is in no way limited by this: the choice of behavior in all circumstances is always ours (“... the will of man that chooses...”). We can say that living according to God's will is our natural response to circumstances created by God. Of course, “naturalness” must be Christian. If the circumstances of life develop, for example, in such a way that in order to provide for the family it seems necessary to steal, then, of course, this cannot be the will of God, for this contradicts the commandments of God.

And further the most important criterion, without which nothing else can exist - patience: “... with your patience save your souls” (). Everything is received by the one who knows how to wait, who knows how to entrust to God the solution to his problem, who knows how to give the Lord the opportunity to Himself create what He has provided for us. There is no need to impose your will on God. Of course, sometimes it happens that you need to decide on something in an instant, do something in one second, accomplish something, respond. But this, again, is some kind of special providence of God, and even in these circumstances there will definitely be some kind of clue. In most cases, the most optimal way is to give the Lord the opportunity to reveal His will in our lives through circumstances so obvious that there is no escape from it. Pray and wait, being, as long as possible, in the state in which the Lord has placed you, and the Lord will show you His will for the future of life. In practice, this means not to rush into making responsible decisions (for example, Fr. I.K. advises newlyweds to “see the four seasons of the year” in the state of the bride and groom) and not to change their everyday position without a clear need: “Everyone remain in the rank in which whom he is called to" ().

So, we have outlined those criteria, “points” - Holy Scripture and Tradition, conscience, prayer, blessing and spiritual advice, a peaceful state of soul, a sensitive attitude to the circumstances of life, patience - which give us the opportunity to know God’s providence for our salvation. And here a completely different, paradoxical question arises: “Are we aware of it - why do we need to know the will of God?” I remember the words of an experienced priest, the fraternal confessor of one of oldest monasteries Rus': “It is scary to know the will of God.” And in this there is deep meaning, which is somehow frivolously overlooked in conversations about knowing the will of God. It is indeed scary to know the will of God, for this knowledge is a colossal responsibility. Remember the words of the Gospel: “That servant who knew the will of his master, and was not ready, and did not do according to his will, will be beaten many times; but whoever did not know and did something worthy of punishment will receive less punishment. And from everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required, and to whom much has been entrusted, from him more will be demanded” (). Imagine: coming to the Court of God and hearing: “You knew! It was revealed to you what I expected from you - and you deliberately did the opposite!” - that’s one thing, but to come and humbly pray: “Lord, I’m so unreasonable, I don’t understand anything. I tried as best I could to do good, but things didn’t work out right.” What can we take from this! Of course, he did not deserve to be with Christ - but still, “there will be fewer beats.”

I often hear: “Father, how to live according to the will of God?” They ask, but they don’t want to live according to His will. This is why it is scary to know the will of God - because then you need to live according to it, and this is often not at all what we want. From a truly gracious elder, Fr. , I heard such sad words: “They are trading my blessings! Everyone asks me: “What should I do?” Everyone says they live by my blessings, but almost no one does what I tell them.” This is scary.

It turns out that “to know the will of God” and “to live according to the will of God” are not at all the same thing. It is possible to know the will of God - she has left us with a great experience of such knowledge. But living according to the will of God is a personal feat. And a frivolous attitude is unacceptable here. Unfortunately, there is very little understanding of this. Wailings are heard from all sides: “Give it to us!” Show us! Tell us how to act according to God’s will?” And when you say: “God will bless you to do such and such,” they still act in their own way. So it turns out - “Tell me the will of God, but I will live the way I want.”

But, my friend, the moment will come when God’s justice, burdened by our indolence in sins, will be forced to overcome God’s mercy, and we will have to answer for everything - both for indulging passions and for “playing with the will of God.” This issue must be taken very seriously. In essence, this is a matter of life and salvation. Whose will - the Savior or the tempter - do we choose every moment of our lives? Here you need to be reasonable, sober, and honest. You should not “play at knowing the will of God” by running around priests for advice until you hear from someone the “will of God” that pleases you. After all, in this way one’s self-will is subtly justified, and then there is no room for saving repentance. It’s better to say honestly: “Forgive me, Lord! Of course, Your will is holy and high, but due to my weakness I do not achieve this. Have mercy on me, a sinner! Grant me forgiveness for my weaknesses and grant me a path on which I would not perish, but could come to You!”

So, there is God’s providence for the salvation of every person, and there is the only value in this world - life according to the will of God. The Lord gives us the opportunity to understand the universal mystery - the will of the Creator to save His fallen creation. We just need to have a firm determination not to play at knowing the will of God, but to live according to it - this is the path to the Kingdom of Heaven.

In conclusion, I would like to say a few words about prudence - without it, knowledge of the will of God is impossible. And indeed, we talked about the fact that in specific life circumstances, only spiritual reasoning can correctly interpret both the truths of Holy Scripture, and the experience of the holy fathers, and everyday collisions. Mechanical adherence to the letter of the law outside of spiritual reasoning - for example, giving away property for the sake of achieving perfection (without ripening the soul for achievement; in fact, outside of humility) - is a direct path either to spiritual delusion or to falling into despondency. But the spirit of reasoning is not a criterion, it is a gift. It is not “mastered” by consciousness (like, for example, the experience of the holy fathers) - it is sent down from above in response to our prayer and, like any gift of grace, rests only in a humble heart. Let us proceed from this - and enough is enough.
And again let us listen to the words of the Apostle Paul: “Therefore, from the day we heard about this, we have not ceased to pray for you and ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you may walk worthy of God in everything pleasing Him, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God...” ().

Maria Gorodova spoke with Bishop John of Belgorod

– Vladyka, let’s talk about what the will of God is. We pray “Our Father...” and, repeating after Christ, we say: “Thy will be done...” Every believer would like to measure his actions, his life with His will. The meaning of human life is to fulfill His will. But how to recognize it? It is clear that there is general plan God about the world and about us, there are commandments that the Lord gave us. But, on the other hand, every day a person faces a choice of what to do, the decision is not always obvious, so it is very important to understand what it is, the will of God, in relation to you?

– We live in a world where everyone relies only on themselves, moreover, we live in a world where a cult exists and is imposed strong people who crush everything, conquer everything, and are always successful. But if we look closely at this promoted image of a successful, strong person who meets all the standards of the time, we will see that behind all this there is emptiness, because no matter how strong, powerful and successful a person is, he can lose it all in one moment, everything will crumble if there is no God behind it. Jesus compared such people to a man who built his house on sand: “...everyone who hears... My words and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand; and the rain fell, and the rivers overflowed, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and he fell, and his fall was great.” And vice versa, the one who listens to His words and fulfills them will be like “a wise man who built his house on the rock” (Matthew 7:24-27).

God's will for man is that God wants no one to perish, but everyone to have eternal life; God's will for man is to save man. And at the same time, it is love towards him, although often this love is not even clear to a person, because he has his own ideas about what this love should be. The will of God towards man is both God’s favor and gracious mercy towards him. Previously, in Rus' they used the following phrase: “God takes pity on him,” and this meant simultaneously both that God takes pity on a person, and that He pities a person by His participation in his fate, by His visit to him.

The will of God is always good, and this is what we often forget when we grumble about what is sent to us.

– It is difficult not to grumble when it is illness or sorrow. Although here you can remember the answer of the old woman crying at the temple. When the priest asked her: “What is she crying about?” - she said: “God probably completely forgot me: this year I was not sick, and no sorrows happened to me.”

– Grief and suffering cleanse a person. Through sorrow a person becomes stronger, he begins to perceive differently the world and yourself in it. This is also a manifestation of the will of God when the Lord grants something to a person. And even though at first this may not be understood by a person, but after going through such trials and being cleansed, a person can perceive others differently, become different.

We always have a problem - coordinating our will with the will of the Lord. God manifests His will independently of ours; no one can interfere with its fulfillment. I will say it more harshly: man, as a creation, cannot even enter this sphere, he cannot intrude there. On the other hand, man is the creation of God, and, naturally, he depends on his Creator, and in a certain way participates in His plan, carries it out. Moreover, as God’s beloved creation, he possesses such a gift from God as free will. And very often a clash arises in a person between the will of the Lord and his by one's own will, at the same time, even the freedom of choice given to him by God is understood by a person in his own way. Free will is, first of all, will free from the burden of sin. And a person perceives this gift most often in the sense: I do what I want.

– So it turns out that free will is a gift from God, and we are using it incorrectly?

– Of course, because it is given to man to know the truth. Our freedom, free will is always a choice. For holy people it is a choice between lesser and greater good, for ordinary person is a choice between sin and virtue. But even people who are in sin are also not deprived of this gift - free will, they also have a choice - this is a choice between a greater sin and a lesser one.

– Vladyka, I would like you to stop at the fact that man cannot interfere with the fulfillment of God’s will. It seems to me that a lack of understanding of this often leads to the fact that we resist the inevitable just because it is inconvenient, unpleasant, etc.

– There is the Book of the Prophet Jonah in the Bible, it takes up a little more than a page – read it. It tells how to Jonah “the word of the Lord came” to rise and go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach in it, because his atrocities had reached God (Jon. 1:1). The Lord, by virtue of His mercy, desired the salvation of these people, “more than one hundred and twenty thousand people who do not know how to distinguish right hand from the left” (Jon. 4:11). But Jonah is trying to avoid fulfilling the will of God, he does not want to go and preach, he is not ready to be a prophet. By the way, many people mistakenly believe that prophets are predictors of the future; in fact, prophets are those who proclaim the will of God. So, Jonah, despite the fact that he was called by God to fulfill His will, tries in every possible way to avoid this - he even boards a ship that was heading in the other direction, as it is said, to “flee ... from the presence of the Lord” (Jon. 1.3 ). When we read the book, we understand the character of Jonah, it’s all similar to us, to our actions, although it happened in the 700s BC. Jonah did not manage to evade fulfilling the will of the Lord; he finally came to Nineveh, preached there, and the Ninevites believed in God and repented. God's will for the salvation of Nineveh was fulfilled.

– That is, you cannot evade fulfilling God’s will, otherwise the Lord will punish you?

- Well, this is not a punishment. “You did not choose Me, but I chose you” (John 15:16), says Jesus. It’s just that a person who goes against the will of God, like King Saul, finds himself outside the grace of God, he begins to live outside of it. I would like to give an example from the life of St. Innocent, the first bishop of Kamchatka, Aleutian and Kuril. In 1823, Bishop Mikhail of Irkutsk received a decree Holy Synod, which ordered to send a priest to the colony of the Russian-American Company on the island of Unalaska, to the Aleuts. The lot fell on one priest, who, citing the illness of his wife, refused. But twenty-six-year-old Father John, the future saint (in the world he was Ivan Popov), suddenly, feeling a calling within himself, he himself asked to go to this remote corner Russian Empire. And together with his wife and one-year-old child on the ship “Constantine”, having passed through a lot of hardships and dangers, he reached the Aleutian ridge. Subsequently, he will translate the Catechism, prayers, Gospel, Acts of the Holy Apostles for the Aleuts and write it in the Aleut-Lisev language famous book: “Indicating the way to the Kingdom of Heaven.” This book will go through dozens of editions and will be translated into many languages. The children of Saint Innocent will graduate from the St. Petersburg Academy, and during his lifetime he himself will be called the Apostle of America and Siberia. But the fate of the priest, who evaded the lot that fell to him, turned out differently: he divorced his mother, and there were canonical violations, and ended his life as a soldier.

– So, a person who fulfills the will of God also receives relief?

– I would not pose the question in this way, because in this case there is a moment: “You - to me, I - to you.” The point here is about calling: if a person feels a calling within himself, he will go to the end, he will begin to fulfill this calling, no matter what he is. Because it is an internal motivating relationship between the creation and Its Creator. How to explain this when a person feels called? God called, and man cannot help but go. Although it requires strength from him. After all, every time a person begins to do the will of God, he enters into an invisible battle.

– Vladyka, explain that this is “invisible warfare”?

– In order for even unchurched people to understand what this is, let’s remember how difficult it is sometimes to get up in the morning and go to church for service if you have firmly decided to do this in the evening. A lot of obstacles of various kinds arise, which - and a believer will immediately understand this - are not just of an everyday nature. This is what has to do with spiritual world- after all, you are going to go to God, and not to the theater, for example. All these are obstacles, no matter in what form they appear, against our good desire to become closer to God. This example makes it clear what “spiritual warfare” is. And we must understand that everyone who does the will of God condemns himself to a certain spiritual feat. But a person must perform it, look, the word “feat” has the same root as the word “movement,” and a person must move spiritually.

– But how to recognize the will of God? What are the signs that can be interpreted as a manifestation of the Lord's will for you?

– This happens in different ways: sometimes these are life circumstances, sometimes something comes to us during prayer, sometimes in a dream or even through friends. But it will always be through the word. Everything goes through the word: a person can hear one phrase, and it will change his whole life, as it happened with a not very church-going person, who is described in the book “Frank Stories of a Wanderer to His Spiritual Father.” Having entered the temple, he heard the words read from the apostolic epistle: “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17) - and suddenly this phrase became defining for him - it determined his entire future life. He wanted to know what it means to pray unceasingly. It happens that a person does not even understand what is happening to him, but he is simply ready to hear the will of God and fulfill it.

– When Bishop Vasily (Rodzianko) was asked about the coincidences that sometimes lead us through life, he answered: “As soon as I stop praying, the coincidences stop.” Apparently, he had these signs in mind?

– Probably, although for a person who is in search of the will of God, there is a danger of falling into false mysticism, when in everything that happens to him, he begins to look for some sign of God. Contacting a confessor protects a person from this.

– Master, is recognizing the will of God a dialogue with God?

– Of course, but prayer is also a dialogue, and calling, which we talked about today, comes from the word “call”: God calls. After all, when we turn to God, we hear an answer, and this answer is internal: a state arises in a person when he feels the ability and strength to solve some problems. All these are states of internal dialogue that a person conducts with the Creator.

– Vladyka, how to cultivate in yourself this ability to hear the will of God?

– Only one thing: first the child learns to hear and obey his parents, then this leads to obedience, first to the parents. Then he goes to the temple and learns to listen there. After all, what is obedience? This is the ability to listen. And then comes the execution. And here it is very important to dwell on the motives of obedience, on the motives of fulfilling His will. So, a person who does the will of God, who listens to God, must love Him and trust Him in everything.

– Yes, these are completely different motives: not out of fear, but out of love. A person, loving God, trusts Him and relies on Him in everything. Vladyka, what does it mean to “rely on the will of God”? Do nothing? Not trying to change the course of events?

– Relying on the will of God means showing and higher love, and supreme courage. Because you don’t distance yourself from life, you don’t switch off from it, you don’t shirk responsibility. On the contrary, you demonstrate the highest responsibility - to be a conductor of the will of God, whatever it may be.

There is such a prayer written by St. Philaret (Drozdov), Metropolitan of Moscow - it was his daily prayer. Read her words carefully.

Daily prayer of St. Philaret (Drozdov)

Lord, I don’t know what to ask of You? You alone know what I need. You love me more than I can love You. Father, give to Your servant what I myself cannot ask for. I do not dare to ask for either a cross or consolation, I only appear before You, my heart is open; You see needs that I don’t know. See and create according to Your mercy; strike and heal, overthrow and raise me! I am in awe and silent before Your holy will and Your destinies, incomprehensible to me. I sacrifice myself to You; teach me to pray. Pray within me yourself.

Maximilian Voloshin

Readiness

Didn’t I choose the hour of birth myself?

Age and kingdom, region and people,

To go through torment and baptism

Conscience, fire and waters?

To the apocalyptic beast

Thrown into the gaping maw,

Fallen deeper than it is possible to fall,

In the grinding and stench - I believe!

I believe in the correctness of the supreme powers,

Unchained the ancient elements,

And from the depths of charred Russia

I say: “You’re right to judge that way!”

It needs to be diamond hardened

To calcinate the entire thickness of existence,

If there is not enough wood in the smelting furnace,

Lord, this is my flesh!

Very often we have to deal with passive fatalism in people when they feel unable to resist the current circumstances. Then, without thinking about the content and meaning of their words, they seem to brush aside reality with the remark “for everything God's will».

Moreover, the most paradoxical thing is that this remark is heard most often by people who are either almost completely unbelievers, or even completely non-church. And it sounds - oh, labyrinths of hypocrisy and stupidity - like an attempt to justify one’s own reluctance to fight sin. So I had to hear from people who committed theft and even murder that “since this happened, it means everything is God’s will.” This statement, in the context of the sin they committed, is not only inappropriate, but also blasphemous: Here God Himself is declared to be the ultimate culprit of their sin.

What does Scripture say about the will of God?

So after all, how Christian worldview refers to this issue? Does it declare absolutely everything that happens in the world, in the history of mankind and of each individual person, to be an unconditional manifestation of the will of God? – The answer can only be absolutely negative! Yes, it cannot be otherwise in the plane of human freedom and in a world where there is still room (and, oh, so much space) for sin. After all, every sin is a deviation from God and His holy will! And here we will have to resort to careful reading of the Holy Scriptures, to hearing the Word of God. So!

1. (Rom. 2:24) “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles”

In the Lord's Prayer, we ask God “Thy will be done,” thereby we recognize that the fulfillment of God’s will is our desire, our goal (at least without a person’s real desire to fulfill God’s will, and not his own, these words lose meaning in the mouth praying). We express a desire, which means we also recognize that in the realities of our world, not everything is carried out according to God’s will. After all, the fact that in the same prayer we ask “hallowed your name”, does not exclude the fact that because of our wickedness and sins, “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles” (Rom. 2:24)! In words we ask “hallowed be the Lord,” but in deeds we bring blasphemy. The situation is similar with the will of God.

2. (Ezra 10:11) “Repent to the Lord and do His will.”

Denouncing the systematic violation of God's commandments, the priest Ezra concludes his speech to the people: “Repent therefore to the Lord God of your fathers, and do His will, and separate yourselves from the nations of the earth and from the foreign women” (Ezra 10:11). So, accordingly, before this, people who lived in sin did not fulfill the will of God?

3. (Isa.58:2-3) “On the day of your fast you do your will and require hard work from others.”

The words of God from the prophet Isaiah to the fasting people are very relevant: “They seek Me every day and want to know My ways, like a people who do righteousness and do not forsake the laws of their God; they ask Me about the judgments of righteousness, they want to get closer to God: “Why do we fast, but You don’t see? We humble our souls, but You don’t know?” “Behold, on the day of your fast you do your will and require hard labor from others” (Is. 58:2-3). This is the eternal spiritual problem of a person who has not yet really accepted the Light of Christ into his heart: we seem to be “looking” for God’s path, and we even convince ourselves that we are following this path, but real self-will ruins everything. “Behold, you ... take comfort in the law, and boast in God, and know [His] will, and understand the best, learning from the law, and are confident in yourself that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in darkness, a teacher of the ignorant, a teacher of babes, having in the law an example of knowledge and truth” (Rom. 2:17-20). “Confident,” and this self-confidence is deceptive.

4. (Matt. 7:21) “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’…”

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 7:21). And again, clear and clear evidence that not everything we do in the world (and this constitutes events, the history of mankind) is the “will of God.”

5. (Luke 7:30) “But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law rejected the will of God for themselves.”

In speaking about the Pharisees, the Lord directly says: “But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law rejected the will of God for themselves” (Luke 7:30). Accordingly, a person still has the opportunity to reject the will of God and live “in his own way.” Some people incorrectly call this opportunity a “right.” A person does not have the “right” to sin, but there is a real opportunity to commit any sin and thereby reject the will of God.

6. (2 Timothy 2:26) “The devil has ensnared them to his will.”

The Apostle Paul, listing the duties of a bishop, says that he must also take care of those who today still resist the gospel, “so that they may be freed from the snare of the devil, who has ensnared them into his own will” (2 Tim. 2:26). Those. "on currently“These people are still fulfilling the will of the enemy of God and man.

7. (Matt. 23:37) “How often have I wanted to gather your children... and you did not want to!”

The Savior’s speech addressed to Jerusalem is also very significant: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to you! How often have I wanted to gather your children together, as a bird gathers its chicks under its wings, and you did not want to!” (Matt. 23:37). How much pain there is in the words of Christ! But He speaks here not only as a man, but as the very God who over the centuries sent prophets and righteous people to Jerusalem. But the desires of God and the citizens of this city did not coincide: “I wanted,” but “you did not want.” This is very shining example real conflict two wills in historical reality - the will of the All-Good God, and the will of sinful man. And this conflict cannot be written off with remarks about the “omniscience and omnipotence” of God. The fact remains obvious that the actions of God (“behold, I leave your house empty”) are the result of the sinful actions of people.

8. (Matt. 10:29-30), (Matt. 10:1-42), (Matt. 10:19-20) Are the hairs of everyone’s head numbered and through whose mouth does the Holy Spirit speak?

And now you should especially read and think about the words of the Lord, which supporters of fatalism most often like to refer to: “Are not two small birds sold for an assarium? And not one of them will fall to the ground without the [will] of your Father; But even the hairs of your head are all numbered” (Matt. 10:29-30). Firstly, it is no coincidence that the Lord takes an example from nature, and not from human society. As Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom) noted in his “Steps,” nature is inert, obedient to the Word of God, and man has the opportunity to say “no” to God. Neither birds nor the elements have this freedom, and therefore this example was not used by Christ by chance, because this is the only possible parallel.

Secondly, you should carefully read these words in context: to whom and when they were said. After all, these words were not the “gnomes” that ancient oracles gave out. They are part of Christ's speech addressed to the apostles before they went out to preach (Matthew 10:1-42). It is for them, people who have given themselves into the hands of God and gone obediently to do the will of God, Whom they came to know as their Heavenly Father, that they are promised such care from God for every hair. So, in the same speech, a few words above, it is said: “When they betray you, do not worry about how or what to say; For in that hour it will be given to you what to say, for it is not you who will speak, but the Spirit of your Father who will speak in you” (Matt. 10:19-20). It would probably be a manifestation of arrogance and pride to attempt to declare that through all people in general (or at least through all Christians) “the Spirit of the Heavenly Father always speaks.” Knowing our sins, everyone can say that very often a completely different “spirit” speaks through our lips.

So if we have enough sense to understand that this promise applies exclusively to preachers who have given themselves up to selfless service to the Gospel, why don’t we have enough common sense to understand that from the same speech of Christ the words about “hair on the head” also refer to these same preachers? I do not want to say that these words cannot apply to anyone else except those apostles who were their first and direct addressees. Of course no! In the history of the Church we know examples of holiness when the Spirit of God “spoke and acted” through the saints (not only the apostles). Thus, in the divine services of the Church, many fathers and teachers of the Church (Basily the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, Gregory Palamas, Maximus the Confessor, etc.) are glorified as “divine organs” and “speakers of the words of the Holy Spirit.” But this does not mean that everyone who called themselves a Christian (and even took orders) spoke with the Holy Spirit.

And a few more words about vanity and cleanliness

Likewise, words about God’s exclusive care are not spoken about all people. The lesson from the Ancient Patericon may be relevant here, when the Abba said to the fussy monk: “This means that we no longer need God’s care for us as children, because we consider ourselves both wise and capable of taking care of ourselves.” Ashamed of these words, the monk stopped fussing. In the history of the Church there are many examples of this kind of holiness, when Christians really merged so much with the will of God that they were, in the words of the already mentioned Metropolitan Anthony, “transparent, like pure glass, which reflects the ray of God’s will, and does not distort it,” as it distorts ray of light glass is dirty. But can each of us say that he is so pure and transparent to God that his life is completely given (in reality, not in words) into the hands of the Almighty Creator and is no longer guided by human self-will?

So we can summarize:

1. The will of God is the source of life, holiness, purity.

2. Every sin is a deviation from the will of God.

3. Man - unlike inert nature - can both fulfill the will of God and reject it.

4. The unconditional and absolute triumph of the will of God is only the desired perspective, proclaimed by the ministry of the Church. This is the perspective of the “non-evening day” of the Kingdom of God. And in the time-spatial continuum, “through man there is death, and through man the resurrection of the dead” (1 Cor. 15:21).

5. In the Church, every member, every Christian is called to comprehend the will of God (through prayer, careful reading and the study of the Holy Scriptures, participation in the Sacraments) and its implementation in one’s life, through one’s behavior. To the embodiment of God's will in our deeds! But this is a task, not a given.

6. Only a very talented confessor and the person himself (to the extent of his spiritual growth) can understand what in his life was according to the will of God, and what was the result of his personal willfulness and self-deception. Thus, it is hardly worth attributing to the “will of God” those diseases that a person acquires as a result of conscious neglect of his health and violation of doctor’s orders. It is unlikely that failures or successes in scams and other “affairs of this world” are the subject of God’s care. These are the very “works of the flesh” and “the works of this world.” And a person, invading this area, must understand that both success and failure in these matters are the result of the processes themselves, in which a person has become a participant. Yes, of course, there were cases of special “intervention” of God in such matters, but they always had a soteriological (i.e., relating to the eternal salvation of a person) meaning: As a result of this “intervention” (assessed nothing less than a miracle), a person saved by God , as a rule, “left the path of lies and the works of the flesh,” and became a real Christian!

7. Alas, often a person passes off “wishful thinking” and declares the will of God to be what he himself would like to consider as such. It is well known that during religious wars each of the warring (and often co-religious) parties considered itself a “bearer of the will of God”, and its “enemy” – an enemy of God.

8. The words of the biblical psalm are very relevant for us, which should become our prayer and the desire of our hearts (and not just words): “Teach me, O Lord, to do Thy will, for Thou art my God; Let Your good Spirit lead me into the land of righteousness” (Ps. 143:10). With this we will finish our work for the glory of God.

I knew one priest, quite a dean. He had just been ordained and received a parish. I have to say it’s a completely run-down parish, well, just no parish. A crumbling church in some village, three crippled cripples, that's the whole parish. So what have I come from? But the priest was young and seething with enthusiasm. He began to conduct educational work among the local population. To somehow attract the flock. He went to hospitals there, dedicated the office of the head of the local administration, and even spoke on television on the dangers of drunkenness. Which of course did not gain popularity. All this helped little. That is, of course they listened to him with pleasure, treated him with respect, nodded their heads, but no, no, going to church. They don’t want to go, that’s all. And then one day, as usual, having eaten a hearty meal, he went to work. And right during the service, something went wrong with his stomach. Some kind of wrong food combination, probably. In short, gases began to be produced inside him. B disproportionately large quantities. It started to swell, to put it simply. He endured and endured and endured and endured, but at some point, involuntarily, unexpectedly even for himself, he farted. Quietly, but plentifully. Of course he was embarrassed. I was embarrassed inside, but didn’t show it on the outside. He quickly made the sign of the cross and began to sniff himself carefully. In fact, farting in church is not a big sin. Especially if it’s involuntary and unnoticeable. This is a normal physiological process. And if a person is created in the image and likeness, then the little God sometimes allows herself a little of that. Blow. That's not the point. An incident can occur if the smell, if any, reaches the sense of smell of the congregation. This can distract from good thoughts and direct them to finding the source of the smell. And this is already undesirable. But no matter how much the priest sniffed, to his satisfaction he did not smell anything. Which made me extremely happy. And tired of restraining himself, he increasingly began to allow himself to release harmful gases from the body. And the secret to the absence of odor was actually simple. The cassock, made of dense fabric, did not allow air to pass through well, and turned out to be a kind of bell for the outgoing gases. And the gas slowly accumulated there, and accumulated, and accumulated. Not yet reached critical mass. And while reading a prayer to the glory of the Lord, when the choir of singers once again sang “Halleluujaa!”, the priest accidentally touched his vestment with a smoking censer, gas escaped and ignited. And suddenly the whole flock, all these three and a half cripples, saw how the priest was suddenly covered with a blue radiance all over, from head to toe! With such a blue divine flame you know! It didn’t last long, but quite clearly, so as not to cause anyone to doubt what they saw. Some morally unstable people even thought at first that God had decided to burn the priest to his mother for his sins right in the middle of the service. But when the blue flame subsided, and the priest appeared before the arrival, slightly frightened, of course, but safe and sound, everyone simply fell on their faces in shock. And the priest, coughing embarrassedly into his slightly singed beard, continued the service as if nothing had happened. * * * The next day the church was crowded. We came from nearby villages and distant provinces. Human word of mouth works better than any warning system of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Everyone wanted to join in the new-found miracle. The press, greedy for sensations, also did not pass by. Articles in newspapers, analytical programs on central television channels. In short, the parish soon ceased to accommodate everyone, and God's help I had to lay the foundation of the new temple. Fortunately, fees were now allowed. The new flock donated a lot and generously. Hoping for a repeat of the miracle. And only one problem. No matter how hard the priest tried, no matter what experiments he performed on himself, he never again managed to repeat the combination of products that led to such a miraculous result. And that's probably right. All the will of God. Because there are never too many true miracles.

It's all in God's hands

(continuing the topic “Is there freedom of choice”)

This idea is difficult for a person to accept because there is ego. What is it saying now?

Ego (mind, personality) is a set of identifications, ideas and beliefs about oneself (including complexes), accumulated experiences and desires. Ego is the feeling of being a separate independent (autonomous) unit of Life; a feeling of being an author, creator, doer, performer, which is often expressed as “I thought,” “I decided,” “I did,” etc. In fact, a thought simply arises, decisions are made by the mind, and decisions are made by the body (see).

A thought arises in the mind and, a moment later, the ego says: “I thought that.” The mind solves problems, and the ego says: “what a wonderful solution I found!” Based on the decisions of the mind, the body performs actions, and the ego says: “I did this” (see).

This is how it should be, it is the Will of God. It is God's will that there be identifications and that they disappear when working on oneself. It is God's will that you come to this site, or didn't hit. It is God's will for you to start taking care of yourself, or not to start. It is God's will that you have this understanding now, or not now. It is God's will whether you achieve enlightenment in this life or not. Even yours completely and unconditionally submits to the Will of the Almighty.

Some force forced you to take up the issue of self-inquiry, and this force will bring its work to the end - to (enlightenment), sooner or later.

Under the word God implied Unified Consciousness, which is divided into manifested and unmanifested. The Manifested Consciousness, in turn, is divided into Light Forces and Dark forces(one of the biggest dualities of our world), but in fact everything is one. All processes occurring in the Unified Consciousness are closely interconnected and built on cause-and-effect relationships, therefore. To avoid confusion, I will say it again: God is all there is, and further the word God means the Unified Consciousness. The division of the One into parts and dualities is an illusion necessary for the existence of our world.

As for , we can also add that the Will of God is all that there is, and there is nothing except the Will of God. This is a high level of understanding. This understanding lies beyond the mind, and it cannot be understood with the mind. However, this is why all kinds of techniques have been created - to comprehend the Supreme Truth.

As long as a person is strongly identified with the body, mind and many other things, knowledge of the truth is impossible: illusions prevent one from seeing and realizing. That's why strong effect gives disidentification (for example: “I am the body - I am not the body”, “I am the mind - I am not the mind”, etc.). When identifications go away, the truth is revealed (Unified Consciousness, God, Will God), but for this you need to work hard on yourself.

Think about this now: “On All God’s will,” and you will feel how much your . The ego cannot accept God's Will (this is also God's Will). Continue to hold the thought “On All God’s will,” and you will find beliefs to work with. Make a list of these beliefs, disagreements, and work through them with suitable techniques (see level one).

If a person could easily accept God's Will, it would be , because it total acceptance as is . Accepting God's Will means ; and in this acceptance the receiver himself disappears, since there is no longer a need for him. What remains is pure present consciousness (witnessing, observer, true Self), which is accompanied by a feeling of endless freedom and: there is nothing more to worry about, nothing to do, nothing to think about - everything happens on its own- according to God's Will.

The ego cannot trust Life (God’s Will) because it is afraid that something will go “wrong”; there is beliefs how everything should happen, how the world should be, how I should be, - and these beliefs need to be gotten rid of just like identifications, because they do not provide the opportunity to achieve enlightenment.

Look at life from the point of view All God's will." Some event, albeit unpleasant, happens - and you understand that this is the Will of God. You have a reaction to this event, you scream, swear, blame another - this is God’s Will. Something seems unacceptable to you - that is the Will of God. You accept yours rejection situations and calm down - and this is the Will of God - you “unstick” yourself from what is happening, cease to consider yourself a participant and turn into an observer (impersonal witness) of God’s Will.

This is accompanied by the disappearance of the illusion of self, involvement and illusion disappear personal expressions of will. The illusory feeling of oneself as an autonomous (independent) entity, the author (source, creator, performer) of what is happening disappears. It also disappears. All that remains is the testimony of the Will of God, it dissipates, and enlightenment occurs. This is complete freedom.

“God’s Will for everything” is not easy interesting theory, this is useful practical tool, which accelerates the path to enlightenment. Judge for yourself. When you assume that everything is God's Will and that you have absolutely no freedom of choice, you relax. According to any moment in time occurs only what should be happening at this moment, so why bother? If nothing can be changed in what is happening, then the best state that can take place is the state of presence and observation of these Games of Consciousness.

It's like translucent morning dream: you are almost awake, but the remnants of the dream are still floating before your eyes. You are no longer involved in it, there is no identification with the dreaming character, there are no claims to causality (authorship, expression of will) in this dream, there is no concern about the future events of this dream. You understand that this dream is nothing more than a mind game, and you allow it happens without trying to change anything in it, accepting everything as it is. The same is true in “real” life, in the waking state, which is not much different from a night dream.

You can simply observe this Game of Consciousness (dream, lila, illusion, maya, matrix, etc.), without involvement, identification and all other consequences of this, without (outside)