Q: Hello Sir
Please quick question. What is God’s perfect will and Permissive will.
A: It is a common set of terms … perfect will, permissive will.
But I have never seen permissive will of God in the scriptures; not just the
label or words but the entire concept of it. As far as I have seen in the word, the will of God is the will of God.
Simple.
Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and
acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
There are no wills of God as though God had options A, B etc. If
plan A, doesn’t work, then he will fall back on plan B? That’s man, not God.
Pss 33:11 The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of his
heart to all generations.
Prov 19:21 [There are] many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the
counsel of the Lord, that shall stand.
Pss 18:30 [As for] God, his way [is] perfect: the word of the Lord is tried:
he [is] a buckler to all those that trust in him.
God made man in His image but we have since tried to make God in our image. We think God is like us. Of course we don’t say that and if asked, we would deny such a thought. But our actions betray us again and again.
This orientation and an inadequate understanding of the English language are largely responsible for our adoption of the wills of God theology.
There is also our tendency to seek to justify our mistakes and cover up our
ignorance rather than admit “I was wrong” or “I don’t know”. The bigger a public figure you become, the more difficult it becomes to admit to frailty.
Anyway, back to Romans 12, I like to use this example. When I ask ladies
what kind of guy they want to marry, the classic response is to say “I
want a guy who is tall dark and handsome.” When we hear that, do we think of 3 guys or just one?
Q: One.
A: Yes. We do not understand “tall, dark, and handsome” to mean the single
most obvious distinguishing features of three different guys rather we think of the three adjectives as attributes that combine to describe the one guy, right?
Yeah. We want the one guy to be tall, dark and handsome all at the same time because we know it is possible. None of these features are mutually exclusive of the other two. But when we come to the will of God, we take Romans 12: 2 which says, “the good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God” we somehow tell ourselves that God has a good will, an acceptable or permissive will, and a perfect will. So, he has 3 wills … like a good, better, best kind of thing … and you get to engage one of these.
Well, Romans 12 doesn’t say wills of God but will of God. What God taught me is that His will is good in intention, acceptable on presentation, and perfect in execution.
God’s intention is good as He is good. Good towards us, no matter the cost.
Goodness that the English language cannot communicate. I understand that,
according to the Jews’ understanding of God’s goodness, when they say,
“God is good”, they refer to an unconditional benevolence that is so
lavish and extravagant that what the receiver gets is limited only by
his capacity to receive. Imagine the oceans of the world and you trying to
fetch water from it. The only thing that limits the amount of water that you
walk away with is the container that you can carry away when filled with water.
Jer 29:11 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.
The will of God is good.
God’s will is acceptable because He will not force you. You are in the image
of God, with free will just like his own and He will not trample over your will just to do His thing. Because He needs you to get things done, He will have to present it to you in a way that you will accept it and if you cannot accept it, because of His good intention, He will persist and train you until you see what He is seeing at which point you will find his plan acceptable so that your faith can be activated to receive it.
Read
Gen 17:15-19 And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah [shall] her name [be]. And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be [a mother] of nations; kings of people shall be of her. Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall [a child] be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee! And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, [and] with his seed after him.
And by the time God visited again, Abraham was ready, and it was time for Sarah’s training.
Gen 18:9-14 And they said unto him, Where [is] Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent. And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard [it] in the tent door, which [was] behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah [were] old [and] well stricken in age; [and] it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also? And the Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old? Is any thing too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.
The training must have worked because Abraham didn’t have Isaac by himself.
Heb 11:11-12 Through faith also Sara herself received strength to
conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, [so many] as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.
The will of God is acceptable.
And the will of God is perfect in execution. His way works perfectly in the hands of those who follow Him with a perfect heart. Flawless we are not but perfect we are, Christ is our perfection; we just follow him.
So, where did the permissive thing come from? It came from the fact that God will not impose His will on us. When He presents His way to you, if you don’t accept it, he will work to build you up. But while you go through the training, He cannot stop you from doing things your way because you have your own will. So, whatever you choose to do, He will permit you to do it. It is not His permissive will, it is your own.
Why would He do that, what if things go wrong?
Again, that is man reasoning, not God. This is God’s take on our self-willed
actions.
Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to [his] purpose.
God is good, and He is good at being God. He is so good at His job that even
our willful error will be worked out for our ultimate good in such a way that it will seem that we could not have arrived at that ultimate glory without those errors we made … as if our destiny in God required our mistakes.
Gen 17:20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have
blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.
Look at this example also.
1Sam 8:7 And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the
people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee,
but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.
1Sam 8:9 Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest
solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them.
1Sam 13:13-14 And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee: for now would the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel forever. But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the Lord hath commanded him [to be] captain over his people, because thou hast not kept [that] which the Lord commanded thee.
The way it seems to us, if Israel had not demanded a king, no place would
have existed for David to become the King after His own heart. It seems that way. But if we backdrop it against the fact that Jesus was already ordained from before the foundations of the world to be born an offspring of David to sit on the throne of David forever, we will begin to see that God would have found a way to get David to become a King if they had not asked for a king. The fact that they did simply gave God something to work His plans with.
Luke 1:30-33 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
Understanding this, that there is only one will of God, we will find then
what our main problem is. It is that we cannot assume what the will of God is, we cannot bring our will and expect him to bless it even if He lets us have our way. What we are supposed to do is the one thing that we don’t want to do.
Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and
acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
We have to labour and strive and press until we prove [verify, ascertain,
identify, test, weigh, discover exactly] what the will of God is. This is where
our struggle is.
Imagine a 38 year old lady who has been waiting and praying for a guy to
take an interest in her since she was sweet 16. Now someone comes around and he is serious about marrying her. Do you think she will still be my friend or even want to greet me later if I bring up the issue of knowing whether the man is the will of God for her or not?
I think not.
She wants to get married and I am talking about the will of God! Is it the
will of God for her to still be single at 38? Where was this will of God all
this time?
And that is the question: all your life, Miss 38, where have you placed the
will of God? A person who has never bothered about the will of God all her life is not likely to consider complying with the will of God when she has to make what she thinks is a time sensitive decision. Because, one thing is accurate about this scenario, a person under such a circumstance will require a significant length of time to prove what the will of God is because she has not practiced walking with God before this landmark in her life.
The alternative, which many Christians consider as a time saver is to seek out someone who can discern the mind of God for them. And so, the new testament believer in Christ who has direct access to the Lord will take himself/herself out from the provisions of the new testament and seek out a supposed prophet to hear God for them like they used to do under the old testament which no longer exists before God.
This is why a large number of Christians are in marriages today that they regret because one prophet man of God or Pastor told them who their
God-ordained spouses were and they felt compelled to follow the Prophet or Pastor even while they had an uneasiness at the “back of their minds” not to go ahead. Some do not realize that a man of God is first a man and is therefore capable of making mistakes and so, without double checking what they have been told with what they sense in their own hearts, the procede to live their lives based on what someone else has told them is the will of God for them.
I feel sorry for such people, really.
But God is good. If such people allow God to lead them, He will make all
things work together for them and everything will be fine. But the story will only turn if they take time to go through God’s training and get built up to hear Him for themselves.
Sorry I dragged it out like this. It is such a critical issue among Christians, especially young people because they have a greater number of major life changing choices to make. And I wanted to use this opportunity to help them as I help you. I hope you understand the will of God better now.
Q: Wow……so elaborate. I
understand better now. Thank you so much sir.
I have a friend I was talking to last night and she was telling me of some
guys who want to marry her and she’s confused. That her mum took their names to some prophet and they said it’s the one she doesn’t like that is her husband 😂 and that if she ended up marrying the other one, she’d regret it or some stuff.
A: Sadly, the pattern is very rampant … very very rampant.
I have never heard of one instance where the prophet says the one the seeker likes is the will of God. Leaves us thinking that God just doesn’t get it when it comes to matters of love, that the will of God never favours us, and that we shouldn’t just bother asking for the will of God … better not to know … like ignorance is bliss.
Well, a believer who has invested in proving the will of God over time will
not need a so-called prophet to discern the will of God anyway. So basically, those who wind up at a prophet’s table to find the will of God, are already in trouble even before he starts to see anything.
Q: Hmmm true
Daniel Oyanna is a conference speaker on relationships, health, faith and other subjects and a Pastor and teacher blessed by God with a grace to make things easy to understand. He is the author of the book To Date or Not to Date, Instructions in Submission, Crushing the Crushers, several mini-books most of which are free. He started UnLimited to help people reach their God-given goals by walking with them to their finish line. He is reachable at pd_lionunlimited@yahoo.com
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