Are you, or someone you love, at the point where you know your creator’s will without doubt and with strong conviction? If so, you (or they) have reached Stage Five – Know Creator’s Will in The Seven Stages of Discovering Life’s Purpose. If not, you (or they) are stuck in The Mid Stages: Reject, Practice and Question Childhood Teachings.
Stage Five is a prerequisite to Stage Six – Adopt Creator’s Will, where you commit to make your creator’s will your will. It is very hard to achieve Stage Six when you have lingering doubts of your creator’s will. A few in Stage One accept with strong conviction what they were taught and reach Stage Five based on their unwavering faith. Some, in Stage Four, reach Stage Five based on the sound reason-based thinking that supports the certainty of their knowledge. Some, stuck in The Mid Stages, achieve no more than acceptance of their creator’s will.
Acceptance differs from certain knowledge. Acceptance occurs when you simply no longer reject or question what you were taught, or arrived at from your questioning. Acceptance is the opposite of denial but is less powerful than conviction. Acceptance is a decision that a position is more likely than not to be true. Because of this it leaves you lacking in certainty and in a state of doubt. In such a state, your knowledge of your creator’s will remains incomplete and your reaction to it may be lukewarm. You will remain stuck in The Mid Stages.
Certainty occurs when you have searched out any lingering doubts in your mind. It occurs when you have thought through the implications of the position at which you have arrived. It occurs when every aspect of your position on your creator’s will makes sense to you. It occurs when, no matter what way you look at your position, your views all reinforce each other. Achieving this certainty in Stage Four is what brings you to Stage Five - Know Creator's Will.
The certainty that moves you to Stage Five is vulnerable to doubt. For example, your thinking is Stage Four may have led you to your certainty in Stage Five that an aspect of your creator’s will is that you unconditionally and selflessly love it and all its created. At some point, you might realize that means you must love even humanity’s least lovable - those who exploit, threaten or abuse people whom you love. As long as that doesn’t make sense to you, you will revert to Stage Four until you are able to resolve this doubt. Resolving it may require further study and deep thinking. You will find some deep thinking that applies to this example at The Neighbour in the Greatest Commandment.
Once you have resolved every doubt that creeps in, you will regain the certainty demanded of Stage Five - Know Creator's Will. On the one hand, once you know your creators' will beyond reasonable doubt, it no longer makes sense not to devote your life to achieving it. On the other hand, it is difficult to summon up your commitment to act on it, knowing how demanding your creator's will is. The difference between knowing and acting is the gateway to Stage Six - Adopt Creator's Will.
Del H. Smith conducts research into life’s meaning and is the award-winning author of the AMAZON Best Seller, Discovering Life’s Purpose.