But everything is God's will. Everything is God's Will

THE WILL OF GOD AND THE WILL OF HUMAN When we are faced with the need to make a choice, how much right decisions God provides in everyone special case? One or more? We pray for wisdom to know God's will in matters of choosing a life partner,

Chapter 39: About the fact that whoever makes judgments according to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, even if he is not a priest, God’s will is on his side, and this cannot be ignored; and that God allows not only priests to teach, but also those who are spiritually pure; and about what the “mental priesthood” is and

Our will and the will of God 153. “The most luminous teaching of our Savior is this: “Thy will be done” (Matthew 6:10). Whoever sincerely says this prayer leaves his own will and places everything on the will of God... And the will inspired by demons is to justify us

The human will and the will of God The main problem of freedom is the question of the relationship between the human will and the will of God. If the will of God is the salvation of man, and God Himself is omnipotent, omniscient and omnigood, how can this be combined with human freedom giving to a person

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. Among other things, it says that not for the sake of self-interest, but out of love, out of compassion, sometimes you have to tell a lie. 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. Saint John gave this poetic title to his book about knowledge of the will of God. Although it was written more than a century ago, it is nevertheless a surprisingly 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 for solving 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 high probability determine the required 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 of the colossal spiritual experience 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. Why is that so? 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 the person avoids fulfilling the 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 to 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” - this 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 another 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 your future 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, 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’s scary to know the will of God.” And there is a deep meaning in this, which is somehow frivolously missed 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, burdened by our indolence in sins, God's justice will have to overcome God's mercy, and you will have to answer for everything - both for connivance to 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 by spiritual reasoning can one 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 deed and growing in the knowledge of God...” ().

I was driving along an empty highway, and suddenly a man appeared right in front of the hood of my car...

Accident? Evil fate? God's will? I still can’t accurately classify the incident that happened to me several years ago. Although, after long conversations with Father Peter, I believe that this was the desire of the Almighty. Perhaps at that moment I was daydreaming and lost my vigilance, perhaps the wet track played a cruel joke on me, perhaps... Many questions have haunted me since then also because one second turned the life of a successful and, I will not hide, cold and a calculating businessman turned upside down. Not only life, but also worldview. That day I was scheduled to sign a contract with a new partner, and then I could finally go out of town - there, in a quiet hotel, my beloved girl was waiting for me. The business meeting dragged on. At the end we celebrated our collaboration with a glass of whiskey.

I left the restaurant and got into the car. He turned on the engine and slowly moved away. I took out my mobile phone and decided to call my beloved.

Kitty, where are you stuck? - my girlfriend purred in a gentle, slightly capricious voice. - I'll be there soon! - I turned off the phone and involuntarily thought: “How many times have I said that I can’t stand all her “cat, bunny, baby”!

Come on, Milka is still just a girl, she’ll outgrow her stupid habits!” - I thought to myself, but gloomy thoughts continued to creep into my head: “Is this the person I need? Will he come out of it? faithful wife and a caring mother? The rain that had been drizzling all day turned into an autumn downpour. The wipers did not have time to cope with the streams of water flowing down the glass. Somewhere in the distance the lights of a small village were burning, the road to it went sharply to the left. I have always been interested in looking into other people's windows, glowing in the evenings, each of them has its own life, its own joys and sorrows... So are these lights of the suburbs... The lights are on in the houses, some are watching TV, others are sitting at the table and having dinner, someone perhaps someone is looking anxiously out the window, waiting for their daughter who was late on a date... I didn’t have time to think it through - in the headlights I suddenly saw a man who had appeared from nowhere on a deserted highway.

I will never forget his eyes: there was no fear in them - rather some kind of monstrously greedy curiosity. I didn't have time to slow down. As in nightmare or a horror movie: I press the pedal hard, hoping that I can stop the car or at least ease the collision, the car skids a little to the side, then there is a terrible blow, the man flies over the hood... I stopped, turned on the emergency lights, ran out onto the road. "God! Help! - I prayed as I rushed headlong towards the man lying on the highway. “If only he were alive!” - I repeated to myself like a spell. I wanted to run away as far as possible. After all, no one saw the accident. There are no witnesses. They won't find me. However, they will continue to stand rooted to the spot and tremble in horror. Finally, he dared to come closer. I looked around again. There was not a single living soul anywhere. “Get in the car and get away quickly. Run wherever your eyes look! - shouted an inner voice. - You drank! You hit a man. You will be sent to prison. This will be your end. End!". Just thinking about it made me feel sick. My heart was pounding madly. I was about to go back and get into the car, but something held me back. I couldn’t act like a coward and leave the man on the road. I checked if he was alive. The pulse was still beating, but weakly. The man was conscious. I turned him on his side. I called an ambulance and the police. I noticed that the victim’s lips were moving: he was trying to say something.

He leaned lower. Then it seemed to me that the man was delirious, because I heard a quiet and hoarse voice: “I’m sorry... And thank you...” Only later did I realize that the man I had hit was not delusional, he actually thanked me. Now, after the passage of time, I know why exactly. " Ambulance"Arrived in a few minutes. Unfortunately, the man I hit could not be saved. He died an hour after the accident. During the investigation of this accident, I tried to prove that the stranger himself stepped under the wheels, but it seems that they did not believe me, citing the fact that, firstly, I was drunk, and secondly, the darkness and rain prevented me from clearly seeing what was happening on the road. What happened next? Lawyer, court, verdict and, as a result, a zone. I was horrified by what had happened, as well as by what awaited me ahead. I was worried, thinking about what would happen to my mother, my beloved girl, and the company. But he tried not to think about the family of the man he hit. Perhaps the first most terrible test was the meeting with the wife of the deceased at the court hearing.

The young woman with a detached face did not shed a tear during all this time. Not a word of reproach towards me. Nothing. She seemed petrified with grief. I also learned that after the death of her husband she was left alone with her five-year-old son in her arms. I was afraid that the victim’s wife would attack me with accusations, take revenge, and call me a murderer. But she was silent. She never even looked at me during the trial. And then there was the zone, a series of disappointments and trials. It is very difficult to survive in prison without letters from home, support from relatives and, let’s be honest, parcels and packages. I received a couple of short letters from my beloved and... silence - not a word, not a message. I started to worry how she was doing, if something had happened. My mother, who came on a date, shed light on what was happening: Mila got married. “Well, God will be her judge!” - I thought to myself. And one day I got into a conversation with the priest from the prison church. No, it was not a confession in the literal sense of the word - just a heart-to-heart conversation. I told Father Peter about everything that happened to me.

Don’t despair, my son, everything is God’s will. Perhaps you are right, and that person himself stepped under the wheels of your car, or perhaps you imagined it. Be that as it may, we do not make decisions, but the Lord. He, and only he, administers justice... Pray for the slave you killed Bozhy Nikolai, for his family, left without a father and husband, for your mother, who suffered a difficult ordeal... I wanted to write a letter to the wife of the deceased. But where to find the words? How to ask for a petition for what you did? Several times I started a letter and gave it up... And I also believed. In God. The purpose of man on earth.

Upon release, I spent a couple of days with my mother, and then decided to go to Nikolai’s wife (that was the name of the deceased man). It turned out that she and her son moved to the city, rented an apartment, and got a job as a dishwasher in a dining room. Was I afraid of our first meeting? Wrong word. Getting ready to talk, folded a large sum in an envelope, fortunately my business partner turned out to be a decent person - the company flourished the entire time I was serving my sentence. Awkward meeting. Incoherent words of apology on my part. Her silence. That's how it was at first. And then Lisa plucked up courage and said:

You will forgive him too...
- For what?

She was silent for a moment and held out a crumpled piece of paper:

I didn’t know anything either... Read. “Lizonka, my sunshine! I know I have cancer. There is very little time left to live. I don’t want to be a burden, I can’t allow you to feel sorry for me. This step

I did it in my right mind and memory. Forgive me, my love..."

So... your husband threw himself under the wheels of my car?
- I think yes…
- And you... Why didn’t you say anything about this at the trial?
- I found this letter just a month ago, when we were moving to the city... Forgive us... with Kolya, if you can...

And in my head I heard the words of Father Peter: “Everything is God’s will...” I remembered Nikolai’s face before his death, I remembered that in his eyes there was no fear, but only greedy curiosity. And the words I heard: “Forgive me... And thank you...” After our first conversation with Lisa, a lot of water has passed under the bridge. More precisely, more than two years have passed. I help her and Nikita financially, sometimes I go with the boy to the skating rink, to the circus, to the amusement park. It often happens that I stay up late with them. I don’t argue, I really like sweet and quiet Lisa. I want to believe that I do too. But I am not rushing things, remembering the words of Father Peter:

Everything is God's will...