Will of God - Part I

PART I

In the recent days I had come to a point of desperation to know what God has planned in my life, His purpose for my life and His Will. In such a quest, God taught me certain things regarding life’s purpose and His Will in our lives. As I write this, I am certain it will bless you. This blog on the ‘Will of God’ will be published as two blogs as it is difficult to cover the subject in a single blog.

Will of God:

This is a huge subject to study and what I write here regarding the Will of God is too little. However, I pray earnestly that it will help you to understand what it is. The Will of God is His heart’s desire, His purpose, His persistent intent. When we look through all of Scriptures, we can understand that the Will of God is revealed in three distinct ways as R. C. Sproul puts it:

1     .      The decretive will of God or His sovereign will;

2     .      The preceptive will of God; and

3     .      The dispositional will of God.

The Decretive Will:

Though the term sounds like a theological jargon, it isn’t. It is derived from the word ‘decree’ which means ‘decide with authority’. This speaks of God’s will that cannot be altered by any man or by any event. It’s the will that He has decreed and none can ever bring about a change in it. This will of God is clearly seen in several events throughout the ages. Job, at the end of his sufferings, speaks of this sovereign will of God saying, “I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted”. (Job 42:2) We see God’s decretive will revealed in our own lives as we look at our own lives. You and me, we did not have the choice to choose our parents or our siblings. It was His sovereign will that brought forth all of these in our lives. His sovereign will is always at work in our lives, every day. His sovereign will for our life prevails through every circumstance and situation. There are several things, you may wonder, how could this have happened in my life, you must remember that it’s His decretive will which is unfolding in our lives. As we ponder at the decretive will of God in our lives, it’s appropriateto look at the scripture from Jeremiah 29:11. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future”. Although this was a prophesy to the people of Israel, we must understand that it applies to each of us as well. This scripture reveals the significant purpose of God intricately placed within the decretive will of God. The decretive will of God demonstrates God’s sovereignty over every creature. Yet, it is very important to understand that the decretive will of God does not overrule the freedom ofwill that God has freely given to every individual. Now, the things that are not under your control are always under God’s control and His will overrules them all. This is His decretive Will. This reveals much of His godliness in the light of His sovereignty. God has a plan in your life, that which is decretive and that which has a purpose in itself, that which is to prosper you, that which gives you a hope and a future. There is much to know and understand of God’s sovereign will but I shall end here.

The Preceptive will of God:

Few term this as the permissive will of God. This ‘will’ in all its essence is interwoven with our will. This will reveals God’s intent towards us and His desire for us. God has laid down precepts (commandments) for His children and He expects His children to walk in them. A man’s free will is tested if it is obedient to God by the preceptive will of God. God has given us His commandments and He has commanded us to walk in it, yet He has given us the free will to decide for ourselves, whether we would walk in them or not. Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments”. (John 14:15). Jesus didn’t enforce it upon His disciples to follow His commandments but He gave them the choice to either love Him or not. ‘If you love me’: making it clear that it is by their own will, they choose to love Him and if they love Him, then they are obliged to follow His commandments. John writes in his epistle, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome”. (1 John 3:5). The love that we have for God is expressly revealed in walking according to His commandments and to a redeemed soul, His commandments are not burdensome.

Personally to each of us, God’s preceptive will means to walk and be in the will of God by our own choice. Jesus said, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work”. (John 4:34). The will of the Father was as food to Jesus Christ. In other words, His life on earth was sustained and lived by fulfilling the will of the Father. This must be the same believers;their sustenance and living is by knowing and walking in His will every day. I’ll address these in depth later. For now, the preceptive will of God is laid down in His Word and all those who choose to love Him are obliged to know and walk in it.

The dispositional will of God:

This is God’s dispositional will, in effect, it is what God is ‘willing’ but this does not overrule man’s free will. Jesus said, “In the same way your Father in heaven is not ‘willing’ that any of these little ones should perish”. (Matthew 18:14). Peter writes in his epistle, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long suffering toward us, not ‘willing’ that any should perish but that all should come to repentance”. (2 Peter 3:9).  It’s His dispositional will that none should perish but all should have eternal life and yet many perish as they choose to walk in their own ways. We clearly see how a man’s free will is not affected in any measure by God’s will in any way.

As I’ve written earlier, much of our wills and us living our lives deal with the preceptive will of God. As we walk in the preceptive will of God, His will of disposition becomes our will of disposition and with that comes a burden for the souls that are lost.

The will of God that is displayed in these three distinct ways help us understand the working of God in our lives in full measure. Irrespective of our experiences or events in life, God’s plan and His intent toward us is always good. As God’s children, several things that we go through in life would have nothing to do with ourselves but will have everything to do with His plan for our lives. As we walk in His will, let us continue to trust Him, because He is our Father.

In the next blog, I will be sharing on how we can walk in the will of God. 

Allen Joseph Abraham

SRM Alumnus

Instrumentation and Control Engineering