<p>1:18 will- see on Job 22:27,28.</p><p><i>Of His own will He gave us birth by the word of truth- </i>According to John 17, our unity will convert the world. The Gospel is a message of reconciliation with God which overflows into reconciliation between each other, according to Ephesians. The church is a foretaste, an advertisement, of what the future Kingdom will be like (James 1:18).</p><p>In contrast to the process of conceiving sin explained in v.14,15, &quot;Of His own will&nbsp; He gave us birth by the word of Truth&quot; (v.18). The child of God is born &quot;Not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God&quot; (Jn. 1:13)- i.e. of the will of God. The act of intercourse which leads to human conception is the ultimate and strongest expression of the fleshly will of man. The same immense drive and will is possessed by God, who channels it through His word and Spirit to result in the conception of spiritual people. What <i>tremendous</i> power there is therefore in that word Note the comparison: &quot;Of his own lust... of His own will... the word&quot; (v.14,18).</p><p>&quot;Being born again, not of corruptible (human) seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God&quot; (1 Pet. 1:23). Jn. 3:3 says that the new birth comes from above- James 1:17 describes the good and perfect gift of the word as being &quot;from above&quot;. Notice that the word of God is connected with the will of God. Perhaps our faith in our prayers is militated against by our resigned 'If it be Your will' being so liberally sprinkled in them. Generally the Biblical examples of prayer- which presumably guide our approach- are conspicuous by their omitting of 'If it be Your will...'. They seem to request things in total faith- and normally receive them. Even Paul in recounting his experience of having three prayers go unanswered (2 Cor. 12:8) does not make any specific comment about the will of God. If we have the word of God in our minds and guiding our prayers, then we will be praying according to the will of God, &quot;in the Holy Spirit&quot;. John 15:7 is explicit: &quot;If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask what <i>you</i> will, and it shall be done unto you&quot;. Jesus doesn't say that our prayers will be answered according to<i> God's </i>will, but according to our own will. This is because the word guiding our thoughts results in our will becoming identical with that of God, in so far as it is guided by the word. Again, an ideal is being suggested to us- a wholly spiritual mind filled with the word will result in a far more powerful prayer life. It is by birth of the word, therefore, that we become a son of God, part of the Divine family; and Jesus said &quot;Whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in Heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother&quot; (Mt.12:50)- thus equating the will of God and the word. Similarly Jn.7:17 &quot;If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine&quot; (in the word). Even more fundamentally, the covenant name of God is 'I will be who I will be' (Ex. 3:14 R.V.mg)- and God executes the will that is intrinsic in His very Name through His word. &nbsp;</p><p><i>That we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creations</i>- We are living the eternal life, the Kingdom life, right now- if we have the Spirit living within us. We are already part of a new creation by the Spirit, which is a foretaste of the new order / creation which is to come. We can have the firstfruits of that state now in our minds, which if they are spiritual are the only part of our bodies which are experiencing the Kingdom life now, albeit in a limited form. An alternative approach to this verse is to view the &quot;creatures&quot; as the whole multitude of the redeemed, of which the present believers are only &quot;the firstfruits&quot;. In this case, all the faithful who have been influenced acceptably by &quot;the word of truth&quot; are only a small foretaste of the many who will be so converted at the Lord&rsquo;s coming.</p>