God's Guidance And Self Will

by Hilmar von Campe

The enemy's strongholds St.Paul speaks about from which the enslavement of people are directed are inside all human beings and not only make them act very often against their better knowledge but confuse their sense of right and wrong. The guidance of God leads to the liberation from self, from what enslaves a person. God speaks in the silence of the humble and contrite human heart. He speaks to everybody who tries to listen to Him. His guidance is not producing a saint, somebody who always does the right thing and knows all the answers. But searching for the guidance of one's creator and applying it in one's daily life certainly produces a more Christ like person, who other people might not only find easier to deal with but might want to ask for advice. God's will deals with the self-will of a person, God wants to get into the center of a person and direct his life from there.

There are many people who believe in God, there are many who have faith in God in the sense, that they expect Him to help and guide them through the difficulties of the daily struggles of life, and there are millions who have a set of moral values which they apply for instance to the way they bring up their children and behave in their private and professional life. Most of these people go to church on Sunday, try to refer to God in what they do and try to make Him a part in their and their family's life. Naturally these kind of human beings are very much to be preferred to those who consider greed, impurity and selfishness to be normal democratic rights.

But all of that does not necessarily touch the self-will of a person. With all the religion and moral values a person might have he or she may still be set on his or her own ways,"no matter what, it is going to be my way". Normally such a person does not listen, or only little, to the opinions of others. And there is of course a fundamental difference between running my life and trying to draw God into it and being a property of God which He can move according to His criteria. I know enough preachers and Christian leaders who have the right words but are so full of themselves that it is them what gets across and not God. Only when a person conscientiously gives his or her life to God in order for Him to move and direct it can His reality replace our self-importance and misguided ways which very often are wrapped into religious concepts. The natural consequence of making God the master of one's life is to replace self-will with God's will and ask Him on a regular basis for instructions and directions, for His guidance.

Self-will is located in the center of a person where his motivation for whatever he thinks and does originates. It is a mixture of likes and dislikes, loves and resentments, good and bad experiences, good or bad education, national and regional customs, moral criteria or lack of them, ideas about self, God and others, concepts of how to do things and above all the definition of what is important for a person and how to satisfy the desire for it, which defines the direction and purpose for the life of that person. In order for God to get into the center of a person, into the command post, it isnecessary to make room for Him. That means throwing out what would offend Him - like resentments, hatreds, exaggerated ideas about self, concepts based on lies, contempt of others, impurity or plain selfishness.

With other words, in order for God to be able to take command of a person, that person has to bring everything hidden inside to the open and weed out what does not match the truth of God, His absolute moral standards. How can that be done? Look not just at what you have done and are doing but at the "why" of it, call a spade a spade, claim the blood of Jesus Christ for cleansing you and decide to live differently under the direction and guidance of God. ("When the Lord comes He will bring into the light of day all that at present is hidden in darkness, and He will expose the secret motives of men's hearts." 1 Corinthians, IV, 5) One of the defenses men erect against the true knowledge of God which St. Paul speaks about is the idea that it is only in the life to come that this exposure is going to happen. But Christ is already here knocking at your door all the time so that His spirit can settle inside you.

Often it is not difficult to identify a self-willed person. There is a small Hitler in all of us. Selfimportance, lack of interest in others, always concerned with self, constant lack of patience, intolerance, irritations and annoyances with other people,angry reactions and impolite answers to questions, bad moods are signals of self-will which always wants to control other people. It is interesting to note that these are characteristics widely encountered in totalitarian societies especially among the leaders. It is a lack of character not the desire for justice which leads to police states.

Free people on the other hand are meant to be free of their lower instincts, and very often are. It is the freedom from ourselves in order to serve others and humanity to which God wants to lead us if we let Him. The fact that every self-willed person can change and become a God-controlled person indicates a hopeful road into the future: totalitarian societies like any other society can be changed into societies of free people. A free society does not grow out of economic abundance but out of moral change based upon the character in people. The result will be abundance. All politicians get it wrong, they want to start with the abundance. But there is no reason why the Clintons, Bushs, Gingrichs, Gephards, Kohls, Chiracs, Jelzins, Mandelas, Gorbachovs of this world and their likes cannot or should not clean out what is against God inside them and be guided by Him. The battle to achieve that is for every patriot who is willing to begin with himself. What if their deceptive fantasy and imposing defense could be torn down? The effort to separate character from political leadership combined with the ridiculous attempt to make "issues" and the economy the decisive factor is one of those deceptive fantasies.

God's guidance is available on different levels. Self-centered people might ask for direction whether to drink coffee or tea in the morning. If they have a heart condition the answer might be: orange juice. If somebody would ask whether to abort a baby or keep it I don't think that God's answer could be abortion. A head of state, for instance, might ask for guidance on how to deal with China, South Africa, or France - after of course having decided not to lie any more; a businessman might want guidance on how to best run his business and serve his country at the same time. However, a person absorbed with self - religious or not religious - will dry up very soon since God wants everybody to be concerned with others, with his nation and with the world. Also people who avoid the painful cleaning-out process will not get very far. People who don't know where they are going better start asking God to show them what they are meant to live for, what their task in this world and what their destiny is. That could lead to a complete change in direction and purpose. God speaks to everybody who listens. Therefore, listen and write down your thoughts.

The decisions to listen and to obey by leaders and led are the key for the future of humanity. More about this in my book Connecting With The Power Of God.

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