Understanding The Nature Of God's Will.

[Annie12]

Does God's will ever change? Can it? Can his will evolve? For example, lets say Jack kills Jill. Was it God's will that Jill die? Was it His will that Jill die before Jack decided to sin? How can we know if going against Gods will, not in a sinful way (for example, joining religious life when you are called to family life) is really going against his will? I hope I haven't confused you! Thank you in advance.

[BarbTherese]

I think that the commandments and the precepts of The Church, as well as The Gospels, reveal to us what is God's Indicative Will - meaning to what God calls us to obey.  The more we strive to prayerfully grasp and understand these three areas, then the more insight we will get into what is sin, what sin is not etc. etc.  The more we will understand our Faith and to what it consistently points and leads - i.e. to The Lord.  The deeper we will enter into the Mystery of God and allow God to be just that - Mystery.  That may sound quite paradoxical and our Catholic beliefs and spirituality are full of paradox.

 

Vocation in life is never a command of God's Indicative Will - it is God's Invitation.  There can be many reasons why a person might not take up God's Invitation - including particular lights at the time.  That is, I may not have been seeing things back then as clearly as I do now.  Certain aspects of character and personality may have developed after deciding to take another way of life.   If a person does not take up God's Invitation but chooses another path in life, God does not at all abandon them.  They will have in this other path just as much Grace to become saintly as if they had taken up the initial Invitation.  God is not a mean and demanding Lord, rather the Gracious, Understanding and Loving, Merciful One - and without conditions or unconditionally so.  Our God is not moralistic - i.e. constantly seeking out where we are going wrong.  Rather He is constantly madly in love with each one of us just as we are - and eager to experience our Love of Him in return.

 

To understand God's Indicative and His Permissive Will (hence your Jack killing Jill example), this article is ideal : http://rcspiritualdirection.com/blog/2011/06/20/how-can-i-know-the-will-of-god-in-my-life-part-i-of-ii

 

Another helpful read is Therese: Spirituality of Imperfection(Carmelite Article)

[Annie12]

Thanks for such a comprehensive answer!

[BarbTherese]

:)