Volunteer Joy
“Not everyone saying to me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father” Matthew 7:21
Will – Do you want to enter into God’s kingdom? Then there is one question you must ask before all others. What is the will of the Father? If you don’t know the answer to this question, you have very little chance of hearing Jesus says, “Well done.” But before you try to answer, you must really understand the question. And for that, you will need to know the difference between thelema and boulema.
We have one word for “will”. Greek has two. The difference between thelema (the word in this verse) and boulema (see, for example, Romans 9:19) is this: thelema is the expression of desire that pleases and brings joy. When used of God, it always results in the completion of that desire. What God wills, happens. Boulema also means, “to deliberately will or desire.” In fact, boulema is even a stronger desire than thelema, but it is a desire that does not always result in a completed act. So, thelema is never used of the desires of men because those desires often do not occur. Thelema is a God word. Boulema is a word that can be used of both God and men. When it is used of God, it often means desire resulting in action while it has unknown consequences when it comes to human desires.
To do the thelema of the Father is not simply to wish it were the case or to have a fervent desire for God’s purposes. Thelema means to bring these desires into being, to cause what pleases and delights God to become a reality. Thelema erases all good intentions. It even erases doing what is good without the motivation and inspiration of the Spirit. After all, preaching, healing and doing mighty works are all good things. But Jesus tells us that unless they are acts of obedience directly in line with the will of the Father, they are useless for Kingdom purposes. Can you imagine that? Giving a cup of water as an act of obedience is more valuable than building the largest church in the world if the project is not saturated with the Spirit every step of the way.
Watchman Nee once said that human beings have the propensity to create sustainable good works without the anointing and on-going involvement of the Spirit. We know this to be all too true. Time and again we work with our own strength, accomplishing wonderful things – even God-inspired things – but without the necessary daily sufficiency of His grace. Good things do not please God. Obedient things do. Be obedient to the smallest request. Bathe your life in Spirit-saturated works. Then God’s joyful celebration in His completed desire will be yours too.
