By William Cooper
The URANTIA Book tells us that it is all-important for us to bring our creature will into cooperation with our Father’s divine will. At first, even ascertaining our Father’s will seems to be beyond our capacity. But as we progress in understanding the nature of deity, we may begin to suspect that determining, identifying, or predicting our Father’s will even in particular circumstances, is relatively simple. Really, it must be rather simple to recognize His will, since virtually everyone is supposed to be able to do it. Furthermore, as we progress in understanding the nature of God and of all levels of Deity, knowing the Father’s will should become progressively easier.
Our Father’s will for us, generally stated is that we should be perfect even as he is perfect. In personality manifestation the Father wills that we should grow to be like him. In becoming like the Father, we will be involved in an eternal career which will require us to observe, identify and incorporate his qualities. Whether in general or specific circumstances, we may determine the Father’s will by asking and answering this question: How should one who is potential Deity respond to these circumstances? My premise is that these questions of “What is God’s will? and “How do I do it?” can be reliably answered by our recalling and adopting the qualities and values fostered by our Father and his Deity descendants.
We already have a great deal of accurate information about the nature of God presented to us in THE URANTIA BOOK. Our Father is fair, just, and merciful. He values and fosters truth, beauty, and goodness in all their endless manifestations. He is loving above all else and he is kind, patient and generous with all of his children. His love and charity for his children are wise. He does not smooth out all their difficulties, since to do so would deprive them of meaningful choices which provide their spiritual growth opportunities. He serves even us, the least in the hosts of his descendants. He is both the remote source and sustainer of everything and the immediately present and intimate personal counselor of personality progress for each of us. He is all of the higher values and virtues recognized by the best human philosophers and many, many more which we shall learn in the ages of progress ahead of us.
There are at least two ways of becoming more familiar with the nature of Deity. One way – the preferred way – is by experiencing Deity consciousness. By this I mean the intuitive rather than reasoning understanding of the qualities and values of Deity. Another way of knowing such things is by the less mysterious process of studying and learning the nature of the Father and other Deity Persons.
Knowing God’s will in particular circumstances is an art involving an assessment of the circumstances, an analysis of our selfish inclinations toward the choices involved and a testing of the consistency of alternative responses with Deity qualities and values. The more clearly we identify the alternatives and the more thoroughly we identify the selfish or unwise aspects of our alternatives, and the more thoroughly we remember and adopt the Father’s qualities and values, the more reliable our prediction of the Father’s will is going to be.
The Father’s will cannot be inconsistent with his nature.