In a previous blog, ‘The Cosmic Search for God’s Will’, I looked to distinguish between God’s sovereign and moral will and offered five (5) approaches that have proven fruitful in my life. None are mysterious! The good news is that they work!
Building on my earlier blog, I would like to tack into the theological wind on this subject of God’s Will. While Pentecostals historically have placed a huge degree of authority and trust in the unique work and role of the Spirit in helping us in our choices, I sometimes wonder if we are not our own worst enemy when it comes to perpetuating myths, even nonsense. More about those myths in a moment.
I understand folks want to know . . .
· Should I marry Joan or Jazelle . . . Jimmy or Jonathan?
· Will I find the person of my dreams in Bachelor’s Cove, Newfoundland or Bella, Bella, British Columbia?
· Should I go on that mission’s trip to Horsefly, British Columbia . . . or the one in Hogla, Bangladesh?
· We have 2 children and would like a 3rd. Should we have another one or move towards adoption?
· If I miss God’s perfect will for my life, is it still ok if I do His permissive will?
Is it really necessary that the 2.4 billion Christian adherents, in the world, flood God’s email account every day with their legions of personal questions?
Sovereign Will ─ God has a predetermined plan for everything that happens and it cannot be frustrated by people, angels or demons. He does not have a ‘Plan B’. While the forbidden fruit was still in Adam’s mouth, a Saviour was already foreknown before the foundations of the world. (1 Peter 1:20; Genesis 3:15)
Moral Will ─ I can tell you with supreme confidence what God’s will for human conduct and you today absolutely is. The list is not exhaustive, but it is a good beginning.
· God's will for you is that you turn to Christ and be saved. (2 Peter 3:9; 1 Timothy 2:3-4)
· God's will is that you live in submission to His authority, that others may see your willingness to humble yourself as servants (1 Peter 2:13-15).
· God’s will is that you recognize God as your highest authority and put obedience to Him above all else. (Acts 4:18-20)
· God’s will is that you use the gifts and abilities He has given you, in His service. (1 Peter 4:10)
· God’s will is that you “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27)
This IS God’s will for our personal life today . . . right now . . . at this moment!
Individual Will ― This is the great bone of contention among believers. Does God have a detailed life plan for each of us? Nope! He does not, and I will address this in a moment. Some of you are disappointed. Don’t be!
In the Book of Acts, Chapter 22 passage, Paul the apostle is confronted by Christ on the Damascus Road (22:8-10). “Who are you Lord?” Paul asks? When the answer comes, “I am Jesus of Nazareth whom you are persecuting” — Paul asks only one question: “What shall I do Lord?”
Little has changed since that event. “What shall I do Lord?” I understand that question and its sincerity. After all, when we stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ at the end of our life to give an account, we want to feel good about what we have done and have some degree of confidence that we have achieved in this life what He set out for us to do.
Still, in answering that question, “What shall I do Lord?”, Christians need to shed the myths around God’s will so they can live in the freedom God wishes for us. It is to these myths I turn my attention.
(1) Myth — God wants you to know your PERSONAL future
No, he does not! The biblical perspective is that God is not interested in showing you your personal future. But Scott, there are countless biblical examples that suggest God has an ideal plan for people. OK! The question though is whether each example is intended as normative Christian behavior. Consider ...
· Should we all practice the holy kiss? (I Corinthians 16:20)
· When a person gets a call to the ministry, should we expect a light and a voice from heaven, like Paul? (Acts 9)
· God spoke to Balaam through a donkey. (Numbers 22) Should we therefore keep one in our backyard just in case?
Let me be clear! When it comes to personal guidance, the New Testament shows . . .
· Specific guidance for specific decisions was the exception to the rule.
· It was provided only during the formative years of the church.
· It was always communicated by means of supernatural revelation. Phillip goes to
the desert / Eunuch (Acts 8). Peter is told to go to Cornelius’ house. (Acts 10) Paul, Silas and Timothy go to Macedonia, following a vision. (Acts 16)
An individual will of God for every detail of a person’s life
is not found in the Bible. There, I said it!
The biblical evidence is in!
(a) The number of recorded incidents is far too small to constitute normative experience. In the first 30 years of the church there are only some 18 instances of direct, personal guidance and most deal specifically with the apostle Paul.
(b) The examples themselves lack information. They do not touch life’s ordinary events; almost all revolve around the spread of the gospel.
(c) The people who get specific guidance were selected for their special role.
(d) All the examples used to support personal guidance are by supernatural revelation (visions, angels, miracles, audible voice. In fact – there are none without supernatural revelation).
(e) If the apostles’ decisions were based on God’s individual will ─ how come the disciples never mentioned it? So, to all who are reading their personal Horoscope – Stop!
Now this is not to suggest that God is absent from our lives. Quite the contrary! God is fully committed to showing you the next step. And when you have taken that next step in your life, God is fully committed to showing you the next one after that and the next one after that too. However, God is not committed to showing you what is going to happen 8 months from now.
Would you like to know God’s will for your life next Tuesday? Wait until next Wednesday!
In His compassion God is making big plans for us, but in His wisdom, He does not tell us what they are and He does it for good reasons: (i) it would destroy our faith, (ii) it would distract us from our responsibilities of the moment, and more importantly (iii) it would be paralyzing to us.
Ask Paul what happened to Saul when he consulted the witch at Endor (I Samuel 28). When he learned that his doom was near, this knowledge was so frightening that it immobilized him. (v. 20) “Immediately, Saul fell flat on the ground. He was frightened by Samuel's words.” Let me ask you:
· If you had full knowledge of the difficulties ahead in your marriage; if you could see that your child would die of SIDS; if you knew that going overseas would lead you to being thrown in prison; if you were aware of the heartache that your poor parenting would have on your child . . ., would it satisfy you?
· If you knew that on the morning of September 1, 2001 your devoted Christian husband / wife would walk into a coordinated suicide attack at the World Trade Center and their body never recovered . . ., could you live with that knowledge?
· If you knew that 2 members of your family would be instantaneously killed in a traffic accident or that your army son would become a casualty of an IED in Afghanistan . . ., would it make you sleep better at night?
· Suppose a missionary goes out in faith to a dangerous field. Three months later he gets Malaria. Eight months later his wife is killed. He sadly concludes, “I must have missed God’s will. God would not have sent me here only for this to happen.” So ― to his malaria and to his wife’s death is added another misery – Guilt.
God’s will is not that you should know your personal future; only the next step — and the life of Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Joshua, Gideon, David and Jehoshaphat demonstrate this principle again and again ... and again. It is a myth that God wants you to know your personal future.
(2) Myth — The Will of God is a ROADMAP
Particularly popular, here is the faulty assumption:
· God’s will is a roadmap
· I need to know God’s will so that I can get from point A to point B.
· This calls for a decision. I need to make the right choices in order to stay on the road – every time.
· If I make a mistake, I go off the road.
If the will of God is a roadmap, what happens if I make a wrong turn? If the roadmap theory is really true, then we are in trouble, because honest ignorance or disobedience has a way of leading us through detours or dead ends.
If the will of God is a roadmap it leaves no room for God’s spontaneous moments that appear in our life as gifts wrapped in His love.
If the will of God is a roadmap it puts us under enormous stress to always have to know the details and read God’s mind.
Great news! The God who makes His will known
does not stutter when He speaks.
No! I am serious here! Really! See, relationships are developed, not discovered! If I am compelled to go in search of the one – and the only-one person to marry, in a world teeming with 7 billion people, then I certainly have my hands full, right? Plus, since when does God become a dating service . . . or a parking attendant . . . or . . .?
Consider those famous words of Romans 12:2
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.”
How do we do this? Well, here it is — staring us in the face. It is accomplished very specifically by . . .
· Presenting your body a living sacrifice (v. 1)
· Not conforming to this world (v. 2) and
· Being transformed by the renewing of our mind (v. 2)
Hudson Taylor was successful in China because of his obedience to God’s call. His success comes from his obedience to God’s moral will, not God’s individual will. Would Taylor have been successful if he had gone to Egypt or the Congo? Probably – because he was being obedient to the Great Commission. (Matthew 28)
Nowhere in Romans 12 do we read anything about ‘choice’ or ‘making choices’. All the words are about who we are on the inside, not the outside. In other words, choice is not important . . . character is!
While we busy ourselves trying to figure out God’s will for our career, marriage or job – and how to get from Point A to Point B, He is calling us instead to become what He has called us to be! At its most basic level, the will of God is about becoming more like Christ every day ... not looking for a roadmap.
There is no Biblical evidence to suggest that the Shepherd of our souls says to His sheep, "Listen, we're going to the meadow behind Farmer Joe’s hayfield. If we should get separated for some reason, meet me there. After all, you have the map I gave you.
(3) Myth — I need to FIND God's will
Says who? We are not involved in some sort of cosmic Easter-egg hunt. Christians often act like God has hidden His will somewhere and it is their responsibility in this heavenly game of hide-and-go-seek to locate it. Too funny!
I like what a former Old Testament professor of mine, Dr. Bruce Waltke, writes in his book, Knowing the Will of God.
“When we talk of ‘finding God’s will’ we generally want divine guidance on specific choices, but it should be noted that this specific term is never used after the Holy Spirit came upon
the church at Pentecost. The apostles, upon whom the church is founded, did not teach that we are to seek God’s will in this way.” (pp. 10, 11; cf. p. 53)
“The New Testament gives no explicit command to ‘find God’s will,’ nor can you find any particular instructions on how to go about finding God’s will. (p. 12)
I sometimes wonder if God keeps a door open just a teeny, tiny crack to see if we will persevere, squeeze through and encounter new opportunities.
You might ask, but what about those Bible passages that say God does have a specific will for my life? I am glad you asked! Let’s consider the major ones . . . while reminding ourselves that a text out of context is a pretext . . . and therefore no text at all.
(a) Jeremiah 29:11 – "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper (shalom) you and not to harm (racah) you, plans to give you hope and a future."
Contextually, these words were spoken to a nation in judgment. As Jeremiah is speaking, the Babylonians are taking them away into exile for 70 sobering years because of their sin. God comes in the midst of this judgment and says, “I know the thoughts I have towards you . . . “
It is in the midst of this that God is quick to offer a long-distance promise. And even though this promise of peace and not harm says nothing about determining God’s personal will for your life . . . the verse can be used to provide us with tremendous insight into God’s character. We need to read the rest of the passage!
KJV – “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Amplified – “to give you hope in your final outcome.
MSG – “I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.”
God says, I know what I am thinking! I have a future and a hope for you. THAT is His will. We do not need to go in search of it!
(b) Romans 8:14 – “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.”
The phrase is a sober one because impressions can be from God or have other sources ― like angels / demons, hormonal imbalance, medication, insomnia, including human emotions like fear / anxiety. It can be a very subjective sinkhole.
The Bible gives no guidelines for distinguishing the voice
of the Spirit . . . from the voice of Self. Rats!
Is Romans 8:14 saying that if we are born again, we can expect the Holy Spirit to confirm it through receiving supernatural direction about personal decisions? No! The context of the passage has absolutely nothing to do with daily decision making; it has to do with holy living, which is why Paul says, (v. 6) “For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace”. Paul says that the evidence of our conversion is the leading of the Holy Spirit toward righteous living not decision making. (vv. 9-13)
(c) Proverbs 3:5-6 – “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding, in all of your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”
This is probably the most quoted verse when talking about God’s will. It is a great passage, but is it talking to us about the specific will of God for our lives if we trust Him? No, again!
You might protest, “The final phrase in v. 6 of the KJV says, ‘And He shall direct thy paths’”. I agree, but the KJV is not helpful here because the word ‘paths’ is not about a specific path, but the general path of life. The NIV and NASB reflect this idea with its translation: ‘He will make your paths straight’ or ‘smooth,’ or ‘successful.’ So, when the verb ‘make straight, make smooth’ is connected with the noun ‘paths’ ― the meaning is “He will make the course of your life successful.”
This idea of a general path is easily consistent with the way the Bible writer uses that same word in other passages. Consider . . .
· Proverbs 4:18 “the path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn”
· Proverbs 15:19 “[the] path of the upright is a highway”
· Proverbs 11:5 “The righteousness of the blameless makes a straight way for them”
In C.S. Lewis’ book “The Horse and His Boy” (of Chronicles of Narnia fame), Shasta is a young boy who was found as a baby, taken in by Arsheesh, a Calormene fisherman. The boy overhears the fisherman preparing to sell him off to a new master. While waiting in a stable, a horse by the name of Bree talks to him ― and so they agree to escape together and ride north to Narnia. The rest of the story is about their adventures and how often they escape the hands of danger in one form or another.
Towards the end of the book, as they reach Narnia, from which they can see Aslan’s Country (Heaven) . . . Shasta and Bree have a mysterious encounter.
“I was the lion”, says a voice. As Shasta gapes with open mouth, the Voice continues.
“I was the lion who forced you to join with Aravis. I was the cat who comforted you among the houses of the dead. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the horses the new strength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach King Lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you.” (p. 173-177)
I really want to encourage you to concern yourself with serving God today rather than searching for God's will for tomorrow. Put another way, the goal, as expressed in the New Testament, is not to find the will of God but to do the will of God, without any definite promise about the end result. So, shed the myths you were told, determine the factors helpful to your decision making, loosen up and choose the path of freedom, knowing that ultimately God is in control anyways. “Only Saying …”