The Difference Between God's Will and Self Will

A very common question is, “How can I know the difference between god’s will and self-will?” Even people who have been on a spiritual path for some time stumble on this question.

God’s will and self will can be one of the same at times, though aligning the two is a challenge. Before the two are brought together they are defined as follows:
--God’s will is action taken or words spoken with love.
--Self will is action taken or words spoken with ego.

The more we reduce the importance of acting to fulfill our egos and place greater importance on acting with love the closer we come to aligning our will with god’s. However, doing so regularly is a difficult task for all of us. Taking ego-based action creates the appearance that we’re advancing our status and level of prestige. And feeding our ego usually comes quite naturally while also making us feel good. The problem is that the good feeling is short lived so we again must feed our ego to reclaim that same positive feeling. In the end, we are never satisfied, we are never fulfilled.

Basing a life on god’s will allows us achieve the goals our egos desire, but with a foundation that is far less precarious. The path to achievement is more enjoyable and less draining because loving action results in unintended by-products that maintain our success as well as provide us with unexpected rewards. God’s will is a foundation that starts strong and grows stronger with each loving action allowing us to realize dreams we didn’t even know were in us.