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"What I Find when I am Most Myself": Howard Thurman on Discerning the Will of God


The will of God is often thought of as something that comes into a man from the outside. It is regarded as something against which the individual has to struggle, as an antagonist. It may well be that the will of God does not come from without, as a grand invasion of the spirit, but rather it is welling up from deep within the mind and spirit, taking the shape of the life as water from a spring takes the shape of the banks between which the water flows...


The will of God is native to my spirit. It is the fundamental character of me. It is the foundation of my mental, physical and spiritual structure. It is what I find when I am most myself. It is what I find when I get down to the deepest things in me. It is what is revealed when all the superficial things are sloughed off and I am essentially laid bare... When I come to myself, I am aware of the will of God as part and parcel of what it is that I seek above all else. To know this, to see this clearly, is to understand what sin is, what the evil of evil is, what rightness is.


Close, present Father, flow through me in all the ways native to me and all my parts, that, as a whole person, I may do Thy Will with such completeness that I become Thy Will. Amen.

3 comments

3 Comments


aaronckohn
Feb 07, 2022

*Well

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Yes, I think so.I know Baxter Kruger would agree. For if the Will of God was OUTSIDE, how could He pierce through our barriers and defence systems? How, in actual fact could He tear down our sin with us? No! The central work of our Saviour was to walk straight into our darkness and pitch camp. So that it is HE working on the inside out that breaks our strongholds with us. I know this personally. I have been dealing with unforgiveness. And Recently I had a dream. In the dream I was in total darkness. Literal pitch back. And every so often I would come into the light screaming, ‘Help me forgive!’ I woke up feeling depressed and down.…

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aaronckohn
Feb 07, 2022
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Thank you Chris. And yes, we’ll said Nicola!

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