Articles About God's Will And Your Destiny
Rethinking the Will of God
Frank Viola
INTRODUCTION - THE AGONY OVER GOD’S WILL
Brethren, do not be children in understanding; however, in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature.
(1 Cor. 14:20, NKJV)
The following story is a conglomeration of several real stories of real people put into one fictitious character.
Enter Jack Jones. He’s a twenty-two year old college student who has just finished his undergraduate degree at the University of Florida.
Jack has just become a Christian. His conversion was dramatic. It was one of those conversions that utterly changed his life and turned him upside down. Jack is completely devoted to Jesus Christ.
Jack begins attending a church in town. The pastor of his church is giving a series of sermons entitled, How to Know the Perfect Will of God for Your Life. Jack is present every Sunday morning taking copious notes on every word. Here’s what the pastor is teaching:
God has an individual will for every individual believer. He has a detailed blueprint . . . a comprehensive road map for your life. It’s like a train track. Each track represents every decision you will ever make.
The wonderful thing is that God has promised to make His perfect will known to every believer. As a Christian, you have two main responsibilities. One is to discover God’s perfect will for your life. The other is to follow it.
If you follow it, you will have joy and peace in your life. If you miss it, you are outside of God’s will, and that’s not a good place to be. The way that you know God’s perfect will is by reading the Bible. But there are many decisions that you will face that are not addressed in the Bible.
In those cases you must look for outward signs and interpret those signs. These signs are like road signs on the highway of life. These signs will point you in the direction of God’s will. The Lord will also lead you by inward impressions. By these two things you will know the perfect will of God for every decision you face.
Jack is thrilled by the pastor’s teaching. So he launches off and begins to lay before God some of his personal decisions.
Jack just graduated from college, and he’s always desired to get his Masters degree. The University of Florida does not offer a Masters program for Jack’s major, so he must enroll in another school. Just before becoming a Christian, two schools accepted Jack into their Masters program. Florida State University and the University of South Florida. But now after being introduced to ‚the perfect will of God,‛ Jack feels compelled to bring the decision before God.
And so he prays. ‚Lord,‛ Jack reverently asks, ‚which school do you want me to attend? Both have accepted me.‛ Jack spends several days praying and asking the Lord to show him what His will is in the matter. The days go by.
Jack is seeking inward impressions. He’s reading his Bible. He’s looking for signs. Several weeks pass, and Jack is not sure which option to take. God has not revealed anything to him. He feels the pressure because the deadline is approaching his door. Jack must make a decision quickly. But he’s frustrated because God has not revealed His will.
Under the pressure of time, Jack ends up deciding on Florida State. But with that decision comes fear and guilt. He is afraid that he may have missed God’s will. He feels guilty because he believes that if he were more spiritual, the Lord would have shown him His will in this decision . . . just like He shows His will to all the other Christians in his church who give testimonies every Sunday about God’s direct leading in their lives.
Jack feels like there’s something wrong with him. He must be disobeying God in some way. God must not be happy with him for some reason. Jack is unsettled about his choice. But he doesn’t know what else to do about it.
In his first year at Florida State, Jack gets involved with an on-campus Christian organization where he meets a young lady. He is very fond of her, and she’s very fond of him. Her name is Sarah, and she and Jack spend a lot of time together. The more he gets to know Sarah, the more he likes her.
Sarah has everything that Jack has been looking for in a girl ever since he was a teen. She’s very intelligent. She has sharp wit and a great sense of humor. She has a good head on her shoulders, and she’s strikingly attractive. What is more, she is a Christian who is deeply committed to the Lord. Sarah and Jack have many of the same interests, and they are the best of friends.
Jack begins bringing her to the Lord to see if it is God’s will for him to pursue a relationship with her. Since the Bible doesn’t tell him whether or not to date Sarah, he begins looking for inward impressions and outward signs.
On his way to school one day, Jack turns on the radio. He tunes into a Christian radio station and hears a preacher talk about how God will often demand us to let go of the things that we love.
Immediately Jack thinks, 'Maybe God is talking to me! Maybe this is a sign from Him.‛ A few days later, Jack is flipping through the TV channels late at night, and he stumbles upon a television evangelist. The evangelist is delivering a sermon on how God doesn’t always give us the desires of our heart. And we must be willing to accept His will when it crosses our desires.
Troubled by this sermon, Jack falls asleep thinking that God may be telling him to not pursue Sarah. That very night, Jack has an interesting dream. He dreams that Sarah is no longer interested in him. In the dream, he is married to a young woman named Jill who is part of his church. (Jack barely knows Jill.) The next morning, Jack thinks to himself, ‚God probably doesn’t want me to be with Sarah. That would be just too good. Sarah has got everything I want. The Lord’s way is hard. It’s the way of suffering and the cross. I think the Lord’s will is that I get to know Jill.‛
On the heels of this dream, Jack begins spending less and less time with Sarah. And he begins making attempts at getting to know Jill.
Interestingly, Jack is not attracted to Jill at all. But he figures that if it’s God’s will for him to marry her—as the dream seemed to indicate—he will eventually fall in love with her.
The weeks go by. The months go by. Jack finds it quite difficult to get to know Jill, though he is trying. She often drives home on weekends, which is a two-hour drive. And she often misses church . . . the main place where Jack talks to her.
Six months go by, and Jack hardly ever talks to Sarah anymore. She no longer attends the Christian organization where Jack met her, and he rarely bumps into her at school. They’ve gone their separate ways.
Jack finally spends some quality time with Jill. But he still has no physical attraction to her.
As this is happening, another drama unfolds. Jack’s uncle Sam is a wealthy businessman. In fact, he’s a multi-millionaire. Sam has a reputation of always making sharp decisions in business adventures. That’s how he made his money.
Sam approaches his young nephew saying, ‚I’ve got a great opportunity for you, Jack. There’s little risk to you. You can’t lose anything significant. But if you join with me in this new business adventure I’ve undertaken, you very well could make enough money within a year to pay off your entire school debt. You’ve got two weeks to decide on it.‛
As is his custom, Jack brings this job opportunity to God immediately. He waits on the Lord’s guidance and even fasts an entire day to get His will on this matter. Two weeks go by, and Jack has not received any direction at all. He has no inward impression, and there have been no outward signs. He is just as unclear as he was when he was first approached by his uncle.
Sam calls and asks Jack about his decision. Jack tells him, ‚Uncle Sam, I have to be honest with you. I’m a Christian now, and I submit all of my decisions to God’s will. He has not shown me anything on this so I’m going to have to pass.‛ Sam accepts the decision. Jack continues his studies at school.
It has been nine months since he first met Sarah. And this is what has happened. He discovers that Sarah is now engaged. His heart drops when he finds this out. To make matters worse, he learns that Jill is not even a Christian! And she has just reunited with her old high school boyfriend who lives in her home town. (Part of Jack feels relieved by this news because he was never attracted to her.)
But here is the clincher. Jack’s father calls and says, ‚This is going to hurt, son. But I do think you need to know. Your Uncle has made $70,000 over the last month. Half of that money would have been given to you if you would have gone into business with him.‛
Jack is stunned. He’s confused. He begins to battle two conflicting thoughts. One is that God doesn’t really care about him. The other is that he may not really be a Christian after all. He begins questioning his entire relationship with God.
What his pastor taught him just doesn’t seem to be working in his life. It seems to work for others, but not for Jack. He has spent many nights agonizing over God’s perfect will for his life. And he has lived almost daily with the haunting question, ‚Am I in the center of God’s will, or have I missed it?‛
In short, Jack sinks into depression.
A week passes. One day while driving to the supermarket, Jack flips through the channels on his car radio. He is suddenly arrested by a preacher who is delivering a message. The message is about discovering the will of God. Jack ends up listening to the message for twenty minutes. The effect?
It profoundly rocks his world!
When the message is over, Jack parks his car off the side of the road. He takes his hands off the wheel and leans back in his seat. He is astounded. With mouth slightly open, Jack feels as though 3,000 lbs. have just been lifted from his shoulders. In quick reverse, his mind begins to replay the last nine months of his life. Everything suddenly becomes clear. Jack’s eyes begin to tear up as he mutters under his breath, ‚I understand now. You really do love me, Lord.‛
Jack has just been given a brand new view of God’s will. And that view has utterly and completely set him free. His life will never be the same.
Now why did I tell you that story? For one reason.
It is because that which Jack heard that day is the very message I wish to share with you now.
CHAPTER 1 - GETTING STUCK ON A TRAIN TRACK
I would like to take dead aim at a doctrine that is very popular among Christians today. It is the doctrine that teaches that God has a wonderful, detailed plan for your life. He has a perfect will for every individual Christian that encompasses every decision they will ever make.
That perfect will is like a train track. If you miss God’s perfect will, you are going to end up in a really bad place. The way that you discover God’s will is by reading your Bible, following inward impressions (usually in the form of ‚checks‛ or ‚stirrings‛), and decoding outward signs.
I challenge this idea on several counts.
First of all, you cannot find Biblical support for this doctrine. The idea that God has a unique, detailed, prescribed plan for every individual believer does not exist in Scripture.
The phrase, the will of God, is used in four different senses throughout the Bible. They are as follows (see the Appendix for Scripture references):
1. God’s Eternal Will.
This is God’s central, all-consuming and all-governing will. It is His central goal and ultimate intention. It is that which governs all of His activities. Paul refers to it as the eternal purpose (Eph. 3:11). God has a single will that drives Him to do everything that He does. It’s the ultimate goal of creation and redemption. It is the one will that stands behind the universe.
God hid His will for ages. He shrouded it in a mystery, and He hid it in His Son. The Almighty chose not to reveal it to any creature, including His holy angels. Instead, the Lord in His good mercies waited. He waited for ages. And what did He wait for? He waited until a unique vessel was born whom He would grant the unique privilege to know and live in the divulged secret of His own heart. That vessel is the church, and it includes you and me!
The very mystery of the ages . . . His eternal purpose . . . His ultimate plan . . . ‚the mystery of His will‛ was given to Paul of Tarsus to discharge to God’s people in this age! What a tremendous privilege and honor that we as Christians have. We have been given the privilege both to know and live in the mystery of creation and the will behind it all. (For a detailed discussion on the eternal purpose, see my book Rethinking the Wineskin, Chapter 7.)
2. God’s Sovereign Will.
This is also called God’s ‚permissive will.‛ This will is hidden from man. Whatever God does or allows is His sovereign will. God is omnipotent, meaning, He is all-powerful. He can do anything that is capable of being done. But God is also omniscient, meaning, He’s all-knowing. He knows everything before, during, and after it happens.
So let’s go back to eternity past. Our all-knowing God sees into the future before He creates the universe. Every event unfolds before His eyes. He sees every act that every human being will ever commit. He is also all-powerful, which means He can change anything He sees before it happens.
So if I lose a button from my shirt tomorrow, God saw it in eternity past. But He also had the power to change this event before it happened. Consequently, because God is omniscient (He knows all things, including future events) and He is omnipotent (He can change what He sees), then the loss of my button was His sovereign will.
God’s omniscience coupled with His omnipotence means that He predetermines everything that happens. This is His sovereign or permissive will. Did you follow that?
How can you know the sovereign will of God? You can know slices of it only if He reveals it to you supernaturally.
Otherwise, read a history book! If the history book is accurate, you have just discovered the sovereign will of God in the past.
So God is sovereign. If something happens, it is His will because He saw it and allowed it.
3. God’s Moral Will.
This is also called God’s ‚perfect will.‛ It is His desired will as it pertains to man’s behavior. While God’s
sovereign will is hidden from us, His moral will is revealed. God’s moral will relates to how He wishes for human beings to conduct themselves. His moral will applies to every person in the same way. For instance, the Scripture says that God is not willing that anyone should perish, but that all would receive eternal life. God’s moral and perfect will is that all people come to His Son. But His sovereign or permissive will allows them to reject Him.
4. God’s Will in Dispersing His Gifts and Callings in His Church.
Because Jesus Christ is Head of His church, He has willed the place that the members of His Body will occupy. The Lord distributes His callings and gifts to the members of His Body according to His will. Because each believer is a different member of His Body (some are hands, some are feet, etc.—1 Cor. 12), His will concerning gifts and callings differs from person to person. For this reason, Paul would often say that he was ‚an apostle according to the will of God.‛
Not every Christian has the same gift or calling. Each member of the Body is given a different calling and gift according to God’s will. Further, the Lord will often direct His servants with respect to His work. A very large part of the Spirit’s leading in the life of Jesus and the apostles (Paul included) was on this score. It had to do with ministry.
These are the four uses of the phrase will of God in the Scriptures. I challenge you to look at the Scriptures in the Appendix. If you read each of them in context, you will discover that the phrase the will of God never refers to a specific, individual plan that differs from Christian to Christian. To put it another way, the doctrine that God has a detailed plan for your life which encompasses every decision you will ever make has no Biblical basis.
The Doctrine is Unlivable
This doctrine is also unlivable. While it can be believed and taught, it simply cannot be lived out. I have yet to meet a person who actually lives this teaching. May I call to witness the events of your life this morning.
Upon waking, you decided if you were going to get out of bed or snooze. You may have decided what you would do while lying in bed. You then decided which side of the bed you would throw your legs over.
You then decided what you would do as soon as you got out of bed. Maybe it was to go into the bathroom and brush your teeth. Maybe it was to take a shower or a bath. Maybe it was to walk into another room and fellowship with the Lord. You made some decision. If you took a shower, you decided whether or not to shampoo your hair . . . whether or not to shave. You then decided what side of your body you would wash first.
You then decided when you would get dressed. And in so doing, you decided what to wear. You also decided which sock to put on first . . . if indeed you chose to wear socks. You then decided which shoes to wear. And in so doing, you decided which shoe to put on first.
Then you decided whether or not to eat breakfast. If you did eat, you decided where you would eat, what you would eat, and how you would prepare the food. If you went out to eat, you decided where you would go, what seat you sat in, what you would order, and how you would order it. You decided exactly how much to tip the waitress or waiter.
Point: You made countless decisions this morning.
Now, I would like to propose that none of you asked the Lord to show you His will for every decision that I just mentioned. And if you tell me, ‚Brother Frank, the Lord guided me on every decision you just stated . . . I’ve consulted God about His will before I made every one of those decisions, and the Spirit led me into which choice to make for all of them,‛ then I have but one response for you.
You need to be admitted to the skull ranch immediately because your head is not screwed on straight. In addition, you have a problem telling the truth. My point is that this doctrine is simply not livable.
The Doctrine Encourages Immaturity
I grew up with the train track view of God’s will for most of my Christian life. My observation is that it encourages gross immaturity. I’ve watched many Christian brothers and sisters who followed this doctrine make some of the most foolish and bizarre decisions. I could hear some of them now.
'Brother Frank, I was outside sitting in the sun, contemplating a decision before God. And then, lo and behold, I saw a twig move, and I knew that God was giving me a sign to do thus and so.‛
The belief that God has an individual will for your life that you must discover has also caused many Christians to put out fleeces. I’ve been guilty of this myself in the past. I soon discovered that this is not a New Covenant practice. In fact, it only happened once in the Old Testament. And the conditions were drastically different from the way that Christians utilize the fleece today. (If you don’t know what ‚putting out a fleece‛ is, read Judges 6.)
Casting lots (which was never practiced after the Holy Spirit descended at Pentecost), playing ‚Bible Roulette‛ (flipping the pages, stopping, and randomly sticking your finger on a sentence to discover God’s will for your life) are all very immature and foolish ways of trying to ascertain the will of God in a decision.
In short, I’ve watched Christians make some of the dumbest mistakes in their lives by trying to interpret inward impressions and decode outward signs. And I will shamelessly admit that I have been guilty of this as well.
The Doctrine Engenders False Guilt, Fear, Doubt, and Confusion
The train track view engenders false guilt, fear, doubt, and confusion when God’s will is not clearly known. I have met many a Christian who suffered from a chronic hangover of guilt because they felt that they missed God’s will in making a personal decision.
Jack was dominated with guilt because he couldn’t discover God’s will about which college to attend. This doctrine breeds false guilt that one is not spiritual enough to receive clear guidance on every decision. It produces fear that one may have missed the will of God. It creates confusion when one thinks they received a sign or inward impression, only to find out later that the particular sign or impression didn’t come from God at all. This doctrine also spawns doubt in God’s love and His promise to provide for and take care of His children.
Regrettably, I have watched some Christians shipwreck their faith over this issue. I’ve watched them agonize to the point that they question their salvation. They conclude that if they were saved, God would supernaturally show them what they were to do in every circumstance.
Now I want you to get clear on something. I’m going to speak a little about sin in an effort to set many of you free from false guilt. According to the New Testament, sin is the transgression of the Law (1 John 3:4). If you violate God’s Law, you have sinned. What saith God’s Law? ‚Thou shall not steal.‛ If I steal your lunch box, I have committed a sin. The Lord Jesus Christ told us that the entire Law . . . all 613 rules . . . is covered by one precept (Matt. 7:12; 22:36-40). Paul also echoes the Lord and so does James (Rom. 13:8-10; James 2:8). John speaks right in line with it as well (1 John 1-5).
The Lord said that love fulfills the whole Law. It fulfills all of it. What is love? Love is the very nature of God. Our God, in His essence, is love. Love is benefiting others at the expense of oneself. The greatest demonstration of love is the cross of our Lord.
Love fulfills all of God’s demands. Now, sin is the transgression of the Law. Consequently, if you walk in love, you cannot sin. Why? Because love fulfills the Law. If I love you, I’m not going to steal from you. If I love you, I’m not going to kill you. If I love you, I’m not going to commit adultery with your spouse. If I love you, I’m not going to covet what you own. If I love you, I’m not going to lose my temper and cuss you out. If I love you, I’m not going to lie to you, deceive you, belittle you, demean you, or insult you. Love fulfills the Law.
Parenthetically, if I am faced with a clear opportunity to love you . . . when I can meet a known need of yours, and I deliberately and knowingly refuse, I have also sinned. This is the teaching of James (James 4:17).
Having that as a background, what I’m about to say should liberate many of you. If you are ignorant about God’s will regarding a certain decision, and you are not out of harmony with love with respect to that particular decision, then you cannot sin in that decision!
If you are not violating love at any point with respect to a decision, then you have not sinned. Put differently, if your motive, your intention, your goal, your action, your reaction, and your attitude in a given decision are not in violation with love, then you have not sinned in that decision.
Now, you may make a foolish decision. You may make a stupid decision. You may make a decision that you will regret for many years. But if you have not violated love in making that decision, then you have not sinned in making it. You can only sin if you walk out of love. And that can penetrate to your motives, your attitudes, and the means to the end.
Are you following what I’m trying to say here? If you have, you should feel a whole lot lighter right now. I’m trying to free your mind from the concept that says that if you make a decision and God has not given you a revelation on what His will is in that decision, then you have somehow sinned. This is simply not true.
The Doctrine is Inconsistent with God’s Relationship to His People
The train track view of God’s will is inconsistent with God’s relationship to us. Let me unravel that a bit.
How does a shepherd lead his sheep? He leads them into those areas where they will be safe from harm. And when he leads the sheep into areas of danger, he stays with them very closely.
When a shepherd leads his sheep into green pastures, he gives them boundaries. By his rod, he will specify where the sheep are not to migrate toward, lest they get picked off by wolves. The rod brings the sheep back if they stray.
But the shepherd does not point out specific plots of grass in the pasture that each sheep must eat from. Instead, he gives the sheep a wide boundary of pasture land. As long as the sheep are within the safe boundary outlined by the shepherd, they can graze on any patch of grass that they choose. The heavenly Shepherd does the same with His sheep.
This principle is also true for earthly kings. A king gives basic laws to his people to promote harmony in his kingdom. He doesn’t give prescribed, detailed rules that govern every decision the people in his nation will make. He gives them broad laws to follow; not specific instructions for day-to-day living. The same is true with our Heavenly King.
Equally so, a wise father will give his children lots of instruction when they are very young. He will supervise virtually everything that the child does. But he has a goal in mind. The wise father is trying to train his child so that the child will eventually be able to make decisions for himself.
As the child grows and matures, the parental supervision becomes less and less and the child’s freedom to decide on his own becomes greater and greater. So does the child’s responsibility.
Consequently, if the parents have done well in training their children, the children will be able to make judgments according to the parental training that was instilled in them. They will be trained to make good, wise decisions. They will be capable of making solid judgments based upon the training they received. It is the same way with our Heavenly Father. Are you following the metaphors here?
The Lord leads His children as a Shepherd, a King, and a Father. As a Shepherd, He leads us into green pastures and out of danger. But He allows great freedom of choice within the green pastures. As a King, He gives His people spiritual principles by which to govern their lives. But these principles are very broad and allow for much freedom of choice. As a Father, He provides lots of instruction to His children when they are young. But then He expects them to mature. And part of maturity is the ability to make decisions that are in harmony with God’s mind and heart.
The Crucial Need for Understanding
Psalm 32:8-9 underscores the point I’m trying to make. The Lord says through the Psalmist,
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with my eye. Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you. (NKJV)
The horse and the mule have no understanding. They have no discernment. They have no judgment. Because they have no understanding, they must be pulled with the bit and the bridal, left and right, and told where to go in every circumstance. The Lord tells His people, 'I will teach you which way to go. Don’t be like the horse and mule which have no understanding.‛
There is a great need for understanding among the Lord’s people today. Scores of Christians have imbibed a doctrine that essentially throws out the element of understanding and reduces them to that of a horse or mule where they expect God to pull them to the left and to the right saying, 'Go here; go there. Go here; go there. This is what you do in this situation. This is what you don’t do in this situation.‛
And the Lord says to His people, 'Do not be like that.‛
The point of the passage is simply this: God teaches, instructs, and guides us by giving us understanding. Therefore, seek understanding. And that brings us to the passage that we opened with:
Brethren, DO NOT BE CHILDREN IN UNDERSTANDING; however, in malice be babes, but IN UNDERSTANDING BE MATURE. (1 Cor. 14:20, NKJV)
I would like to close this chapter by making the following proposition: God’s will for you and me is not like a train track.
It’s like a parking lot.
The continuing full manuscript of "Rethinking God's Will" can be found on Frank Viola's site "Present Testimony Ministry", at: http://www.ptmin.org/rethinkingthewill.pdf
Author Profile
Frank Viola
Frank Viola is a Christian author and speaker. His public speaking covers a wide range of topics including the all-sufficiency of Jesus Christ, the deepening of the spiritual life, Christian community, church planting, God's eternal purpose, mission, and church restoration. He has written numerous books on the deeper Christian life and radical church reform, including the bestsellers From Eternity to Here and Pagan Christianity (co-authored with George Barna) as well as Finding Organic Church, Reimagining Church, Bethany, and The Untold Story of the New Testament Church. His many articles and interviews can be read online at www.FrankViola.com.
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