Where There’s a Way, There’s a Will
May 4, 2023 at 11:44 am | Posted in Where There's a Way There's a Will | 3 CommentsTags: discerning God's will, doing God's will, doing the will of God, God's revealed will, God's sovereign will, God's will, knowing God's will, knowing the will of God, will of God
I think most Christians would like to know God’s will or plan for their lives, and the more specific, we think, the better. But how do you know if the Lord wants you to buy a house or rent an apartment? To have three children or nineteen children or no children? To work overtime or take a day off? To drive a Ford Pinto or a Cadillac Coupe de Ville? To make mint chocolate chip cookies or a coconut cream pie for your Sunday School teacher?
People try to discern God’s will in a number of ways, many of which are forbidden by Scripture: reading the horoscope; flipping a coin; even flipping open the Bible to a random verse and taking it as a sign from God. In the links below, I have tried to describe some of the ways that the Bible actually speaks about God’s will. You may have heard the expression, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” meaning that if a desire to accomplish a purpose or obtain a goal is strong enough, then the person or group who desires it will somehow figure out a way to achieve it. If we reverse the clauses though, we may remember that Jesus Christ Himself IS the Way (John 14:6) and that His will, rather than our will, should – and ultimately will – be done.
1. God’s Decretive Will (Genesis 1:3; Acts 4:24-28)*
2. God’s Preceptive Will
3. God’s Dispositive Will
4. God’s Secret Will (Deuteronomy 29:29; Genesis 50:20)
5. God’s Will and Our Will
6. God’s Will concerning Your Joy
7. Causality and God’s Will (II Corinthians 8:3-5; Ephesians 1:1-9)
8. God’s Specific Will for You
9. How Do We Get the Answers to Our Prayers?
10. The Psychic Hotline May be Hotter than You Think
*most-viewed post in category
The Psychic Hotline May be Hotter than You Think
August 24, 2017 at 4:00 pm | Posted in Q&A, Where There's a Way There's a Will | 8 CommentsTags: Deus Absonditus, Deuteronomy 29, divination, fortunetellers, God's secret will, mediums, necromancy, psychics, sorcery, witchcraft
Question: (1) Are mediums and psychics really communicating with the spirits of dead people, or with demons? (2) Based on Deuteronomy 29:29, is it okay to even ask this question?
Answer: I tend to think the majority of “mediums” and “psychics” are really con artists that prey on gullible (sometimes desperate and distraught) people who want some type of closure with a deceased loved one, or some kind of hope that their future is going to be okay. However, the Bible does not rule out the possibility that some of them could be communicating with demons, either willfully or unwittingly. Satan is a great deceiver, and he would like for people to look anywhere besides the Bible for comfort, guidance, and truth. Possibly for both of these reasons, the Bible clearly condemns all of the following: fortunetelling, sorcery, witchcraft, magic, necromancy (trying to talk to dead spirits), soothsaying, sign-reading, consulting familiar spirits, divination, trance-induced visions, horoscopes, and false prophecy (Exodus 7:11; 22:18; Leviticus 20:6, 27; Deuteronomy 18:9-12; I Samuel 15:23; II Kings 21:6; Isaiah 8:19; Acts 8:9-13; 16:16; Galatians 5:20-21; Revelation 21:8).
As to your second question, God’s will about certain things is intentionally hidden from us for our good and His glory. It is wrong for us to inquire into what He has chosen to keep secret for now. However, a question like this, which is just about how we are to think about those who attempt to violate Deuteronomy 29:29, is not itself a violation. It is right and good to think about anything God has revealed in Scripture, including the revelation that there are some things He has chosen not to reveal.
God’s Specific Will for You
November 11, 2015 at 3:09 pm | Posted in Ephesians, I Peter, I Thessalonians, Where There's a Way There's a Will | 11 CommentsTags: 1 Corinthians 2, 1 Peter 2, 1 Peter 3, 1 Peter 5, 1 Thessalonians 4, 1 Thessalonians 5, 2 Corinthians 12, 2 Timothy 3, Ephesians 5, Hebrews 4
If you are a Christian, here is the specific will of God for you:
1. Respond to suffering.
For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.
I Peter 3:17
God may allow you to suffer for sin or mistakes, or He may allow You to suffer despite your obedience. Our job as Christians is to accept suffering as coming from God – either in allowing or causing it – and to seek to do what is right.
But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.
I Peter 5:10
For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth: but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
II Corinthians 12:6-10
2. Give thanks.
In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
I Thessalonians 5:18
Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;
Ephesians 5:20
3. Obey the earthly God-ordained authorities when doing so would not violate God’s commandments.
Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:
I Peter 2:13-15
4. Be holy.
For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God: That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified. For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.
I Thessalonians 4:3-7
5. Use your time wisely.
See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
Ephesians 5:15-17
What will help me accomplish God’s will in my life?
1. His Spirit
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
I Corinthians 2:9-10
The Holy Spirit teaches us through the Bible and gives us wisdom through prayer.
2. His Word
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
II Timothy 3:16-17
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Hebrews 4:12
3. His Body
Specifically, it is God’s will that we be involved in the local church.
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
Ephesians 4:11-12
Causality and God’s Will
October 28, 2015 at 12:20 pm | Posted in Ephesians, II Corinthians, Where There's a Way There's a Will | 7 CommentsTags: 2 Corinthians 8, Deus Absonditus, Deus Revelatus, Ephesians 1, God's absolute will, God's hidden will, the Divine will, will of God, will of man
Although God’s will is sovereign, there are passages of Scripture that make it appear as though He sometimes chooses to sovereignly blend together His divine will with the will of human beings. To put it another way, God, as the primary agent of cause, uses man’s will as a secondary cause to work out His decretive, absolute sovereign will.
For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves;
II Corinthians 8:3
Here, the Bible acknowledges that human beings have a “will” and that our will does exercise a certain power.
Praying us with much intreaty that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.
II Corinthians 8:4
These Christians wanted to financially support Paul and his missionary team, even though they couldn’t “afford” it.
And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God.
II Corinthians 8:5
The wonderful thing is, they didn’t just give money – they gave themselves. These may be the two hardest things for Christians to give, and yet they did it willingly, or “voluntarily” we would say, but also, at the same time, they did it by the will of God.
So, regardless of how “spiritual” the issue is – from putting a check in the offering plate all the way to deciding to trust Christ for eternal salvation – we recognize the Biblical reality that God’s will is at work, and it may well be said to overrule, but it does not obliterate man’s will when it comes to obedience to Christ.
Ephesians 1:1-9 is another example:
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus:
Ephesians 1:1
Paul did not become an Apostle because that was his goal and he worked hard for it. He recognized that God’s decision and God’s action caused it to happen.
Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
Ephesians 1:2-5
If you are truly a Christian, God chose you to be His child in Jesus Christ way before you ever did anything – even before you exercised your own will. He did it because it pleased Him – but not because it “arbitrarily” pleased Him. Rather, it was done according to His good pleasure. In other words, if you are truly a Christian, He chose you despite the fact that you were undeserving and ill-deserving, and yet it was still good and right for Him to do it.
To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
Ephesians 1:6
It’s for His praise that we were chosen, not for our praise.
In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
Ephesians 1:7-9
Beyond saying that His choices were and are “good,” we must be content to accept them as “mysterious” to us. Usually, a “mystery” in the Bible is something that was hidden, but is now revealed. It is when the absconditus becomes the revelatus, but it is not revealed so that we can subject it to human scrutiny or criticism. It is revealed so that we can rejoice and glorify God for it.
God’s Will concerning Your Joy
October 5, 2015 at 11:36 am | Posted in Biblical joy, Where There's a Way There's a Will | 9 CommentsTags: Colossians 2, God's will, happiness in the Bible, John 16, knowing God's will, Libertinism, Manichaeism, Romans 8, suffering in the Bible
Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body: not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.
Colossians 2:23
The heresy in the church in Colossae was an early example of what would later become called Manichaeism. Manichaeism was started by an Iranian false prophet named Mani. It taught that the “spirit of the world” must be denied to the point where misery was a necessary ingredient of Christian service. Originally, its ideas competed with Christianity, but its principles appealed to some Christians, and the Gnostics attempted to sort of “adopt it into” Christianity, although it was quickly denounced as a heresy.
The truth is that God’s will for your life is not that He simply wants you to be miserable. However, in an attempt to counteract the false teachings of Manichaeism, it may be that the pendulum has swung too far the other way. The crisis in the modern Church is that we have a tendency to associate God’s will only with our temporal happiness. We fail to take into account the eternal weight of glory (Romans 8:18) which might be built, and we devalue perseverance and discipline as means of sanctification.
God does not get a kick out of you being unhappy in your marriage or on your job or from any physical or financial limitations you might have, but neither does He give carte blanche to be guided by your feelings. God is God of the decretive and He’s God of the absconditus, but He’s also God of the circumstances and the details.
As Christians, we are soldiers, so we have to train (unpleasant but necessary); we have to go to battle (excruciating but necessary); and we will eventually get to enjoy the spoils of victory (have a feast and ride in a parade), which is joyful while still being God-glorifying.
So, you may get the joy of helping people on a job you hate, and you may experience the ecstasy of “making up” (or the virtues of patience and contentment) after enduring mistreatment by your spouse. Either way, God’s will for your life is sanctification and joy in Him. Don’t get too caught up trying to demonstrate your “free will.” We are terrible judges of our own summum bonum. We are “settlors” when God wants us to be “overcomers.”
These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
John 16:33
This reference to the spirit of “the world” includes Manichaeism (let’s hurt ourselves to prove our own will power) and Libertinism (let’s eat and drink for tomorrow we die).
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Romans 8:35-37 (emphasis added)
God’s Will and Our Will
September 18, 2015 at 9:26 am | Posted in Where There's a Way There's a Will | 9 CommentsTags: Christian liberty, Colossians 2, free will, God's decretive will, God's dispositive will, God's preceptive will, God's secret will, Romans 2, Romans 7, will of God
Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God, And knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law;
Romans 2:17-18 (emphasis added)
One of the distinguishing features about sometimes categorizing God’s will as preceptive, rather than decretive or secretive, is that God’s preceptive will is clearly revealed.
For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Romans 7:18
There is nothing good in our flesh. Have you come to grips with this in your life? Have you preached this to yourself and to the children entrusted by God into your care? God’s will can sometimes be described as dispositive, as can ours, but, in a stark contrast to His, our disposition, apart from His Spirit controlling us, is toward evil.
For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
Romans 7:19-25
Our wills are always subject to God’s decretive will, but they are often in abject rebellion against His preceptive will. Our wills are subject to our desires, but there is hope in Christ, for He can change our desires and thereby make our wills subject to God’s will.
One important thing to remember about God’s hidden will is that it is intentionally hidden. God has His reasons for not revealing His secret will to us, and those reasons are good. Historically, though, this has not sat well with everyone who claims to be a Christian. There were those in the early Church – including ascetics, gnostics, and legalists – who wanted to add their beliefs to Scripture’s teaching about God’s preceptive will, and to insist that their additions were binding, when in fact God had not revealed them to be so.
Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body: not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.
Colossians 2:23
The “things” referred to were possibly things like refusing to eat and wearing itchy clothes – things that appeared to mortify the flesh in an attempt to exercise “self”-control over the will. These denials of self and comfort were supposed to “prove” how spiritual the practitioners were by demonstrating their own “will power,” but they were basically worshiping their own will by pretending it was God’s will.
The truth is that there are certain areas where Scripture grants liberty and the application of personal conscience – for example, exact clothing choices, which holy days to observe, and what to eat or drink. In these areas, we should acknowledge that, where God has chosen to close His holy mouth, we ought not to be loud with ours.
God’s Secret Will
July 20, 2015 at 2:53 pm | Posted in Where There's a Way There's a Will | 15 CommentsTags: Deus Absonditus, Deus Revelatus, Deuteronomy 29, Genesis 50, God's decretive will, God's hidden will, God's revealed will, sovereignty of God, will of God
The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.
Deuteronomy 29:29
The Deus absconditus, meaning the hidden or obscure or secret will of God, would include the decretive will of God. The Bible is a huge book, and it reveals more about God than we could fathom in this lifetime, but, in addition to that, there is an eternity of information about God that we cannot know.
The Deus absconditus is contrasted with the Deus revelatus, meaning God’s revealed will. Certainly, what God has revealed is trustworthy and true, even when it appears to be in conflict with what is really happening. God is not harassed into mutability by human actions, nor can His ultimate plans be thwarted or frustrated by human actions, although from the finite view it may sometimes appear that way. One Biblical example of this is Moses’s intercession with God when he came down from Mt. Sinai to see the people worshiping the golden calf. It appears that Moses “changed God’s mind,” but from the perspective of God’s hidden and decretive will, everything that happened was subject to God’s own sovereign control. The parade example of this is the unfolding and culmination of the life of Joseph.
But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
Genesis 50:20
A lifetime of ups and downs caused by the sins of others was used to weave a beautiful tapestry of redemption and salvation.
God’s Dispositive Will
June 24, 2015 at 1:18 pm | Posted in II Peter, Where There's a Way There's a Will | 14 CommentsTags: 2 Peter 3, anthropopathism, emotions, Ephesians 4, Ezekiel 18, Ezekiel 33, feelings, God's will, Matthew 7, the Will of God
A third broad category of thought about the will of God is called the dispositive will, or the will of disposition. Your “disposition” is how you are inclined to feel about something. It does not necessarily dictate that you will act in accordance with your feelings, but it can certainly influence your actions. It can be helpful to think of it as God’s “emotive” will because we know that God does have emotions. His emotions are holy and perfectly controlled, but if we ascribe human emotions to Him for the purpose of being able to discuss His character and actions (and the Bible does this) it is called anthropopathism.
The Bible does not always let us in on God’s inclination or disposition about certain matters, but sometimes it does. For example:
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
II Peter 3:9
What does this tell us about God? It does not reveal His decretive will because obviously many are going to perish despite the fact that He is not “willing” that any should perish.
Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Matthew 7:13-14
Nor is II Peter 3:9 dealing expressly with God’s preceptive will, because, although He does command everyone to be saved, this is talking about His desire rather than a command. What it is revealing is God’s dispositive will – His inclination or His feelings about those who reject Christ, regardless of how they wound up in that condition.
Another example of the Bible describing God’s will in dispositive terms is:
Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?
This verse is speaking about earthly, temporal life, not eternal life, and it asks a rhetorical question, so the answer should be clear.
Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
Ezekiel 33:11
The Lord could force the wicked to turn from their ways, and His disposition is inclined toward delighting in repentance, but He does not always do so. In fact, the punishment of the wicked conversely satisfies His justice, wrath, and holiness, but it gives Him no predispositional or emotional delight, and – emphatically and obviously – no sinful delight.
Here is another example:
Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
Ephesians 4:29-30
These verses express God’s will in the preceptive sense because they command us not to do certain things, but they also give us insight into the dispositive sense of His will because they tell us He can be grieved (a combination of sadness and anger). Am I really powerful enough to grieve the Spirit of God? My “power” is not really the issue, but my sin and rebellion certainly do affect our loving and caring God, and He responds with love and what seems in our finite human understanding to be a “hurt” response, although He keeps His promise to eternally seal us, despite our sin.
Neither the apparent conflicts between these operations of God’s will (preceptive, decretive, dispostive), nor the recognition of their complementarity, can be explained away by appeals to the “free will” of man, because God is still omniscient and omnipotent and omnipresent and omnibenevolent, which leads us to consideration of God’s secret, or hidden, will, which we will look at next time.
God’s Preceptive Will
June 3, 2015 at 12:53 pm | Posted in Where There's a Way There's a Will | 3 CommentsTags: Decalogue, decretive will of God, free will, moral choices, sovereignty of God, Ten Commandments, the problem of evil, theodicy, will of God
God’s preceptive will refers to precepts and specific orders that are spelled out in the Bible – and to principles pertaining to the application of God’s will in circumstances that are not spelled out word for word in the Bible. We encounter God’s preceptive will when we read what He has commanded people to do in order to be obedient to Him, and what He will hold them accountable for failing to do. The parade example is the Decalogue.
God’s preceptive will is our way of thinking about God’s commandments of righteousness and His commandments against unrighteousness. Unlike His decretive will, the preceptive will can be resisted. God allows unrighteous choices and actions to come from man’s will, but is not morally culpable for allowing them. This bothers people. We like to imagine a God who wished to prevent people from committing evil acts, and then we apply our understanding of His power to do just that (which He often does), and then we are upset because He doesn’t do it all the time. Our challenge instead is to be grateful He has the power to overrule the consequences of our own evil actions, and, again, He does in fact choose to overrule vast numbers of evil intentions on the part of those who would like to carry them out. Then we recognize that He is sovereign and powerful enough to control the whole thing to show off the greatest good. It is a challenge to our faith, but that is definitely the God you want when you are thinking correctly, and, regardless, it is the true God Who exists, and it is better for us to know the reality. God wishes to use evil – for reasons we admittedly don’t understand – but at the same time He is in absolute control and is incapable of making mistakes.
The Deep End 