Understanding God's Will (UGW) series: Introduction
This is a huge series that I posted on my other blogs. [This is the one I wrote for the anti-Calvinist blog and so it includes notes on Calvinism, in red and a different font.] Like most Christians, I've struggled long and hard with trying to understand God’s Will. I went through years of stress when I was seeking His Will about buying our first home. (I wrote all about this in the "Child of Mine" posts on the other blog, my life story.) I was terrified of missing His Will. But after that whole time was over, I delved deeply into the Bible to learn what it says about His Will. And it changed my view.
And the bottom line is ... I wasted a lot of time and energy needlessly worrying that I would miss His Will. We don’t need to worry about “missing His Will” as long as we are abiding in Him, sensitive to Him, and living obediently. Because if we focus on this (instead of on finding “the next step”), things will become clear as we walk with Him.
This series here compiles what I've learned about His Will in general, the things I didn’t really know before. And I think they are precious truths worth exploring, worth applying to our lives.
But I need to say this up front: I am no expert in “God’s Will” or in how He works or what the Bible says. I can only tell you what I think and believe at this point in my life. And that could change. There could be a Bible verse I didn’t know about that could alter my view. Or I could have an experience that changes my perspective. God’s ways are a mystery.
[And ironically, they become more mysterious the longer I walk with Him. The older I get and the more I learn, the more I realize that there's so much more in life to learn, that there's so much I don't know or can't figure out and that many things are more gray and fuzzy and complex than I originally thought... and so as I age (I'm almost 50 now), I feel like I know - really know - less than I did when I was younger and knew "more." You know what I mean?]
Anyway, this is how I understand things now - the best I can do - at this point in my journey of faith.
And despite the fact that I seem to have a lot of answers here, I also have my fair share of unanswered questions and doubts still. Let's be honest, we will always have deep, hidden doubts and fears, even as Christians. (While I may have doubts and questions about how God acts and moves and answers prayer, I do not have any doubts about God’s existence or love. I’ve come too far to doubt that anymore. See "My Testimony" for more on that.) It's normal to have doubts and unanswered questions. The key is to be honest with the Lord about them and to let them drive us closer to Him, to find our answers in the Word instead of in the world. The more we do this, the more we will grow in our confidence and faith (even in the face of painful trials), and the more we will learn to seek refuge in Him when other doubts spring up.
Anyway, what I want to look at in this series is how we view God’s Will versus how I think the Bible portrays God’s Will. I think there is so much confusion over this, because we have grown up with so many pat answers and assumptions about what it is and about how God works. And I think this is why “finding His Will” about a house was so stressful for me. Not only were there lots of expectations, misplaced hopes, and fears, but there were also many misconceptions about what “His Will” is and how to find it. And it wasn’t until after this whole time period that I began to see it more clearly. If I had known then what I know now, it wouldn’t have been so painful and stressful for me. But that’s life, I guess.
[In Calvinism, everything that happens is God's Will, what He preplanned and wanted to happen and caused to happen, even things like child abuse and predestining most people to hell. (See the Calvinist quotes on sin and God's Will and predestination/election.) What a horrible assault on God's character, the gospel, and truth!
In contrast, I believe the Bible clearly and repeatedly gives a more complex picture of how God works than that. Yes, there are things He "preplans" and orchestrates, such as preplanning that Jesus would come to earth to die for our sins. But whereas Calvinism would say that God caused the people who crucified Jesus to be evil and to desire to crucify Him and that they had no chance or ability to choose otherwise because God orchestrated it all to be exactly the way it was, I believe the Bible shows us that God doesn't cause people to be evil or to sin but that He allows us to choose to be that way (and He knows ahead of time what we will choose) and then He weaves our self-chosen decisions (whether sinful or not) into His plans. He lets us choose first, and then He works it into His plans.
(And I don't mean the Calvinist version of "choose" where un-regenerated people "choose" to sin because that's the only desire that Calvi-god built into their "sin natures," and so that's all they can "choose" because they have no ability to desire to do anything else. That's not real choice! Having only one choice - only one door to walk through - and not having the opportunity or ability to make any other choice because God didn't give you any other options is NOT choosing or making free-will choices. It's simply doing what Calvi-god preplanned you would do and forced you to do. That's NOT choice! It is Calvinist deception, trying to sound like they believe we make real choices and are truly responsible for our choices when they are really teaching the exact opposite!)
I believe the Bible gives a very different view of how God acts than Calvinism does. In the Bible, God gives a lot of freedom to man to make decisions, to obey or disobey, and He works our choices into His plans. But He doesn't make our choices for us. And since God allows us to disobey, many things that He wills don't get done. (Are all orphans and widows taken care of?) And many things that happen do so because of our bad choices, not because God wanted it to happen or planned it to happen.
In Calvinism, God controls and orchestrates all that happens, every tiny detail, including our sins. But in the Bible, God is over and above all, giving us freedom within boundaries, but then He takes our choices and works them into His plans or makes something good out of them.
It's kinda like the difference between a professional chef (Calvinist) who - to make his meal work out well - has to prewrite his recipes, plan every single ingredient he's going to use, and preplan/control every step of the way and everything that everyone on his kitchen staff thinks, says, and does so that he gets the exact outcome he preplanned, with no influence or input from anyone else... and a professional chef (non-Calvinist) who allows other people to bring in ingredients of their choice and to influence the steps he takes and the way he creates the meal, and yet who is still wise enough and capable enough to work it all into something amazing.
Or maybe you'd prefer a chess example. In that case, it's like the difference between a master chess player (Calvinist) who has to play both sides of the chess board himself, controlling every move made by both sides, in order to win... and a master chess player (non-Calvinist) who can beat any other skilled chess player who challenges him, anticipating their moves and working them to his advantage, whatever they choose.
The God of the Bible is so much more wise and complex than Calvinism gives Him credit for, being able to give us freedom to make choices and still being able to weave it all together into good, into His plans. But the god of Calvinism can only manage the factors he alone creates and can only win if he alone controls and causes everything, meaning that if there were any tiny particle he didn't actively control, he's cease to be a sovereign, all-powerful God.]
I want to start by looking at these two examples from my life: a job that I got and the first home we rented.
Just after my internship as a counselor, I was looking for a part-time job. I could only work a handful of hours a week since I had a toddler. And they needed to be evening hours so that I could work when my husband, Jason, was home.
As I interviewed for a position, the interviewer assured me that I could do almost all the work in the evening and that there would be minimal interruption during the day. And I asked several times to make sure. As I considered all the facts, everything sounded pretty reasonable. All I had against it was this tiny, little nagging sense that I wasn’t running it all past God. It was just a hint of a feeling that something wasn’t right, that I was going off in my own wisdom, and that God might actually want me to say “no,” or to at least slow down and pray and wait for guidance. But the details all seemed right, and I couldn’t see any real reason not to take it. And I needed the job (or I thought I did). It was an open door, so it must be God’s Will, right?
Well, it was a few weeks after I got the job that I learned that it was very disruptive to my day. This was a crisis-management counseling position, and so I had to be there when called upon. And I was called upon at all hours of the day, several times a week. I had to drop everything and ask my husband to come home from work so that I could attend staff meetings with the teens in the hospitals, sometimes up to an hour away.
I only made it four months before burning out and needing to find a new job. Had I just slowed down and listened to that still, small voice (which I didn’t really recognize as the Holy Spirit at the time), I would have been spared a lot of trouble. Thankfully, God allowed me to find a much more convenient part-time job after that, a position that opened up just as I was leaving the other one.
But, you might be wondering, maybe all this was God’s Will? Maybe He planned it all to happen that way to get me into that second position? Maybe, but I don’t think so. I had the sense that I was rushing ahead of God, and yet I didn’t listen. I believe that He might have had a different plan in mind, but I missed it with my hasty choice. He, however, took my mistake and worked it into a new plan.
And another time that I made a hasty choice was in regards to the first house that we rented. We were in an apartment out by my graduate school, but we were looking to move back home by my husband’s work. My mom and step-dad at the time, Bob, owned some rental houses there. And Bob called me up one day and offered to rent a house out to us. Something inside (or Someone) said, “Wait! Check it out first.” But did I listen? No! My reasoning said, “He’s my step-father. Of course he wouldn’t rent out something to me that wasn’t fit for us. I’ll just have faith that God brought this because it’s for the best.”
Well, after we said “Yes” and made plans to move from our beautiful, clean apartment, we got to see this home. And we were horrified. It was disgusting and filthy. It reeked of animal pee, the carpet was soiled, there was pot paraphernalia in the cabinets, and there were fleas and mice poop all over. (We had to bomb it three times for fleas. And I was eight months pregnant.) And it was like a fun house at a carnival, with walls ever-so-slightly slanted this way and that. And it was tiny, tiny, tiny. It was so filthy that we had to live with my parents for a month so that it could get fixed up enough to not be a health hazard. (Bob hadn’t really kept watch on the previous renters, so he didn’t even really know what condition it was in.)
And then, as house prices rose and we had a second child and I decided to stop working and we couldn’t make enough money to move up, we got stuck in that house for several very unhappy, very depressing years.
Thankfully, we eventually moved to a better place (a two-bedroom rental that later became a moldy nightmare and heartbreak), but I wonder how things might have turned out had I listened to the Spirit’s quiet nudges or took the time to pray and to wait on God. We might have been able to bypass the whole mold-pit if we had prayed and listened to God's leading from the beginning. But I wasn't aware at the time how God led people and carried out His Will and worked in people's lives, and how we need to pray over things and wait on Him and listen to the still, small leading of the Holy Spirit. I simply followed the good-sounding open doors as they came, assuming it was "from God."
But because of all the mistakes I made and all the research I did in the Word because of it, I learned over time. And so that is the good that came out of the bad.
So was the path that we took God’s Will for us, His preplanned path, to get us to where we are now? Or did we have some responsibility for what happened and where we ended up, especially since I knew that we didn’t seek God’s advice in the first place? Is everything that happens God's Will, preplanned and caused by Him? Or can we do things that God never willed, wanted, or caused?
I think the first thing we need to do when we talk about God’s Will is to define it. When we say, “God’s Will,” I think there are actually three different things we are referring to: God’s desires, God’s plans, and what actually happens.
If you said, “It’s God’s Will that I move to New York,” it could be that you think it’s simply what God desires for you, what He wants you to do ... or that it's the one path He preplanned for you and it was your job to find "the path," the next step He planned for you ... or that since you moved to New York (or are going to) then it must have been "God’s Will" because everything that happens is "God's Will" and has been planned by and caused by Him (Calvinists would fall into this camp).
I think it causes a lot of confusion when we lump them all together as “God’s Will,” because they are all different things. And they all bring different questions to the table.
1. Such as if you say it's what God desires for us, what He wants us to do, then does it always happen, no matter what? Or can we do things He doesn't desire? Can we fail to do things He does desire? What are the consequences of this? If His Will hinges on us somehow, then what are our responsibilities? How can we figure out what He desires for us and from us?
2. If you say it's the path He preplanned for us, then the question is ... Are His plans for us fixed? Are they written in stone? Will they happen no matter what? And if His plans for us don't always automatically happen, then how does He lead us to and down the "right path"? What is our part, our responsibility in finding it? What happens if we miss it? Do we miss out forever? Is there only one path and one opportunity to find it? If we miss it, can we ever get back on that path or does He have to make a new path for us, a lesser one, Plan B?
3. If you say that whatever happens is God's Will because God's Will always happens and is the only thing that happens (Calvinism), then why bother putting thought or energy into making any decisions at all? Because if God actively controls everything that happens (preplans it and carries it out), then we wouldn't be responsible for or have any influence over what happens anyway, good or bad. Nothing we do or think could affect what happens or change the outcome. This, of course, opens up a whole mess of questions about who's responsible for sin and rebellion and evil and our belief/unbelief and our problems and the consequences of our choices, etc. God or us? Do we really have any choice in the matter if God always causes everything that happens and if everything happens exactly the way God planned it? Does Him being all-powerful and sovereign have to mean that He always uses His sovereign power all the time to control everything?
[Or do Calvinists simply have a wrong view of His all-powerfulness, His sovereignty? I believe God is indeed "all-powerful," just not in the way Calvinists say.
Calvinists insist that for God to be "sovereign," He must always be using His power all the time to control every little detail of everything that happens, even sin, so that it all works out just like He preplanned. According to them, if there's one tiny thing He doesn't preplan/control/cause - even one tiny speck of dust - then it would mean He's not God. Consequently, and despite their insistent denials, this belief of theirs makes God the preplanner, causer, controller of all evil, sin, and unbelief.
But "sovereign" is not about how God must supposedly use His control and power (which is really just Calvinists telling God how God must act in order to be God), but it's about the position of power and authority He holds. God is indeed sovereign and "in control" and all-powerful - the highest authority there it, over and above all - but He gets to decide how and when to use His control and power.
He alone has the last word in everything. He decides what to allow or not allow, when to step in and when to sit back, when to restrain people/demons and when to allow them freedom to act, how to answer our prayers, what boundaries to give us, etc.. And He can take whatever we choose to do (our sins, our disobedience, our obedience, etc.) and work it into His plans. This is how I believe the Bible shows God using His sovereignty and power. Sometimes He actively causing things (but never sin or unbelief) and sometimes He simply allows things (such as our choices and sins) and then He works them into His plans. And so contrary to Calvinism, God can still be sovereign and all-powerful and yet choose to let us have free-will and make real decisions, even ones He doesn't want.
And because our sinful decisions are really our decisions (not preplanned, controlled, caused by God), He is still righteous, just, and holy when He holds us accountable for them - unlike Calvi-god who punishes people for doing what he commanded them not to do but also what he simultaneously predestined/caused them to do, which makes him unrighteous, unjust, and trustworthy.
Sadly, most ordinary Calvinists can't see the damage that Calvinism does to God's character and the gospel. (And they don't even realize they're wearing Calvinist glasses when they read the Bible, and so how can they ever realize they need to take them off? See my anti-Calvinist blog for more.)]
Possible consequences of believing in option 2 or 3:
I think options two and three - believing God's plans are fixed and that He plans everything that happens and that everything that happens is because He planned it and caused it - could cause us to be lazy in our spiritual lives and disciplines. If we think we have no real role or responsibility in what happens, then we won't see the value in prayer or think it really matters. We won't put too much effort into our decisions, into obedience, into seeking righteousness. We'll let whatever happens happen because "everything that happens is what God wanted and God always carries out His Will ... right?" (Been there!)
Or maybe, if we think His paths are fixed, we'll stress ourselves out over finding "His Will" because we believe that He planned one particular "right path" for us ... and we have to find it or else! This might cause us to freeze up and panic about making decisions because we're so afraid about missing the path He planned for us, about being "out of His Will." (Definitely been there!)
This thinking also causes pain and heartache when we face tragedies, like a death or natural disaster or illness. Whatever God plans, happens. Right? And so whatever happens is because God planned it, right? (And if God planned it and caused it, then there is no such thing as free-will. We are just puppets on a string, acting out our prewritten roles. Right?) And we are left with the tragic belief that God wanted these bad things to happen, that He planned them, that there was nothing we could have done about it, that prayer doesn't really do anything because everything's been preplanned, that we have to simply accept these tragedies in "humility" and not be upset about them, etc.
But ... did He plan it? Was it “His Will”? Does He always do whatever He wants? Do our prayers make any difference at all? Or is our understanding of God’s Will off? Is it as fixed and "going to happen no matter what" as we think it is? Or do we have more of a role in and responsibility for getting God’s Will done than we realize?
So, which is it?
Is His Will best understood as His desires (what He wants to have happen), His plans (the path He preplanned for us, and we have to find it), or what actually happens?
In order to better understand “God’s Will,” we need to first define it. Desires? Plans? Or everything that happens?
Personally, I think that “His Will” is most accurately defined as what He desires (not an "official" definition, just my own best way to understand it). It’s what He desires for us (the choices He wants us to make and the path He wants us to take, etc.), and it’s what He desires from us (living God-glorifying lives and being obedient, etc.).
[And something I learned well after writing this series is this: If you look up the word "will" in the concordance - from verses about the things God "wills," about what His "will" is - we see that it's often about His desires, His "preferred-will," about what He wants to have happen or wants us to do, about His "best offer" to people which they then have to decide to accept or reject. And so I was right (and Calvinists are wrong) to define it as what He desires for us and from us and to believe that His Will doesn't always happen because He leaves it up to us to accept it or reject it.]
I think that while He does have plans for our lives - paths He wants us to take, decisions He will guide us in if we seek His help and guidance - His Will isn’t a pre-set, written-in-stone path. It's not preplanned steps He irresistibly guides us down. It's not about finding the "next step" He planned for us, as if failing to find that step means we will be out of "His Will." And it's not about "whatever happens is because He planned it that way, therefore we have no real control over our behavior, and nothing different could have happened anyway."
And I think His Will is more about how He wants us to live - abiding in Him and in daily obedience to Him and His Word - than it is about the particular decisions He wants us to make. And I think He has given us the responsibility to decide if we want to know how He wants us to live or if we want to be blind to it, if we want to obey or disobey, if we want to seek Him or ignore Him, if we want to follow His lead or go our own way, etc..
Contrary to Calvinism, which ultimately believes (after removing all the layers they wrap around it to disguise it) that God preplans and controls everything and so we don't have any real influence over our choices, thoughts, or behaviors, I believe we are truly responsible for our choices ... as in our choices and actions are not predetermined by or controlled by God, but by us. He has given us the right and responsibility to make real decisions (within boundaries), and so we are ultimately responsible for whether we accomplish "God's Will" or not. And if His Will doesn't get done, it's because we failed to do it, not because He planned it that way. If we sin or make a mistake, it's because we chose to, not because He planned it that way. If we end up in hell, it's because we chose to reject the only way to heaven, not because He preplanned it that way.
To Be Clear:
To be clear, I do believe that God does make plans and that when He plans something, He has ways of making sure it gets done. But not by controlling our thoughts and actions, not by causing sin and evil. If we aren't willing to do what He wants, He might find someone else who is. He might wait until the conditions are right, even waiting generations. He might set up situations in such a way that we have to make a choice, to act out what's in our hearts, and then He incorporates our decisions into His plans, without predestining/controlling what we choose to do.
So He doesn't force us to make the decisions we do; He just forces us to make our decision. Our thoughts, choices, actions, and sins are up to us, but He knows how to incorporate it all into His plans. Whether we choose to obey or disobey, to seek Him or to ignore Him, to do right or to do wrong, etc. So one way or another, His plans get done, but in a way that we are truly responsible for our choices and actions.
(And not the fake Calvinist idea of "Sure you're free to make your own decisions and to do what you want, so you are responsible for your choices"... but what they really mean is "You are free to make the decisions Calvi-god predestined you to make, free to follow the desires Calvi-god built into your nature - desires you can't change - which will cause you to do what Calvi-god predestined you to do... but you're still responsible for your decisions even though they were predetermined and orchestrated by Calvi-god. But, hey, he is the potter and we are the clay, and he can do whatever he wants, and who are we to talk back to him, so be a good, little, humble Calvinist and shut up and get in line"! That's fake freedom and fake responsibility for our decisions!)
Is there one pre-set path or do we have choices?
So I'm going to toss out the third option - the Calvinist idea of "God plans everything and causes everything to happen just as it does" - because it's wrong! Way wrong! And it's a futile option to discuss anyway, because if it's true then there's nothing we can do about anything. And so it wouldn't matter what we think or discuss about it. Everything we do would be a charade and totally pointless.
So let's focus on option two for now, the idea that God has "pre-set" plans for us.
I think we make problems for ourselves when we confuse seeking His Will with seeking His “pre-set plans” for us. Because He does not (usually) reveal His plans for us ahead of time. And for the most part, I don't think there are pre-set plans for us, for our individual lives. I think He has preset plans for mankind in general, such as creating us, sending Jesus to die for us, offering us salvation, redeeming us in the end, separating the sheep from the goats, etc. But I don't think He necessarily has preset plans for our lives. I think He's given us boundaries we can't pass, but He's also given us an enormous amount of freedom in the decisions we make within those boundaries, options for how we can live our lives. Yes, I think that in His love and wisdom, He has “best plans” for us, and He will guide us in those if we seek Him and obey. But I do not think that His paths and plans for us are pre-set and unchangeable. They hinge on us. Our behavior, choices, prayers, and obedience to Him and His Word have a major effect on if His best plans for us happen or not.
In the Old Testament, we get an idea of how God works with people. And generally, He lays out two paths: the blessing path and the curse path. Each path has consequences tied to it, but the people decide which path they want to take, by their obedience or disobedience. And because they themselves chose the path they took, they are responsible for reaping the consequences. God did not force them to choose what they did; He just forced them to make their choice. Yes, God has some long-term, overarching plans that He is working out over the course of history (salvation and restoration), and we can’t change those. (Thank God!) But He leaves it up to us which path we take in our individual lives to get to that end. He leaves it up to us if we will choose the "obedience path" or the "disobedience path." And this will affect whether we stay in His Will or not.
I do not think that God always does whatever He desires or that He forces His plans on us (in general). I do not think that everything that happens is because God wanted it or planned it to happen. We have responsibilities and an effect on life, and we are responsible for many of the consequences. And this is just how He has set up life, because He wants people who choose to love and obey Him, not who are forced to. So not everything that happens is “God’s Will.” And His Will does not always get done by us. And finding His Will is not about finding “the next step.” (Sometimes, it is, like when it is time for Him to reveal the next step.)
And this is where I got hung up so many times, especially in our search for a new home. I was needlessly exhausting myself in search of His future plans for my life, for "the next step" He wanted me to take, when I should have been focusing on His Will for me today, for how He wants me to live in my daily life in general, as revealed in His Word and in prayer.
I think that as long as we are living the way He wants us to live daily - in obedience, abiding in Him, reading the Word, praying, speaking truth, loving others, doing our daily jobs for His glory, confessing sin, etc. - the "next steps" will become clear as we go along. We don't have to stress ourselves out finding "the path." If we are walking in daily obedience to Him then we will be walking in His Will, on the path He wants us on, and the next step will become clear in time. Not because we are seeking it, but because we are seeking Him. And there's a big difference! We can save ourselves so much headache, heartache, and confusion if we have our focus right.
If we focus mostly on finding His plans for us instead of on finding Him, then we will miss out on both. But if we focus on finding Him first and foremost, then we will get both, without trying too hard or exhausting ourselves or discouraging ourselves.
God doesn’t promise to reveal His path and plans for us because we’re desperately searching for them. He holds the future and doesn’t let us in on that ahead of time. But He does promise to guide us (one step at a time) and care for us when we are abiding in Him, living the way He expects us to live daily, as revealed in the Bible - living in humble submission to Him, fearing Him, seeking wisdom, living righteously, praying, loving others, taking care of the needy, and obeying, among other things. As revealed in the Bible, these things are His Will for us.
Psalm 25:9,12: “He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way.... Who, then, is the man that fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way chosen for him.”
Proverbs 2:1-2,9,11: “My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding ... Then you will understand what is right and just and fair - every good path ... Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.”
Proverbs 11:3: “The integrity of the upright guides them ...”
Isaiah 33:15-16: “He who walks righteously and speaks what is right ... this is the man who will dwell on the heights, whose refuge will be the mountain fortress. His bread will be supplied, and water will not fail him.”
Jeremiah 6:16: “This is what the Lord says: ‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’“ (Italics are mine.)
Humility, wisdom, integrity, righteousness, seeking “the good way,” and obeying are what will take us down the good, restful path.
But there isn't one pre-set path for our lives. His Will is not about finding the "one path." It's about how we live daily. And we can choose to obey, to abide in the Lord, or we can choose to disobey and go our own way (and face the consequences). We can choose to follow Him when He does reveal a step He wants us to take, or we can refuse to. We can include Him in our choices, or we can ignore Him. His "best plans" for our individual lives don’t just happen apart from our effort, obedience, prayers, and abiding in Him. But how much time and energy do we waste worrying and fretting and wavering, trying to find "His Will, the next step, the one path" when we should be focused on finding Him, on getting to know Him better in His Word and on finding out how He wants us to live today, His revealed Will for our lives, according to the Word?
And so the sobering thought is ... we have a choice in whether or not we fulfill “His Will.” His Will (how He wants us to live, the things He wants from us and for us) is not a mystery; it’s all there in His Word. But do we take the time to discover it? Do we abide in Him? Do we put aside our own selfish desires and plans, in obedience to Him instead? Are we seeking Him, or do we just want to know what “the next step” for our lives is?
Since His Will is about how we live our lives and our obedience to what He calls us to do, I think that His Will goes undone many, many times. When we don’t seek to know what He expects out of us in His Word, when we don’t obey the Spirit’s nudges, when we don’t pray, when we ignore needs that we see, when we do not do the good that we know we should do, when we violate one of His commands, when we are unforgiving, when we don't watch our tongues, etc., His Will doesn’t get done.
Our problem is that we would much rather seek His plans with all our energy than seek Him with all our heart. We would much rather believe that His Will has to do with finding His "preplanned path" for our lives or the next step than it does with reforming our lives. We want a quick open door, not a deep makeover of our spiritual lives and disciplines. We want the blessings without any work or responsibility on our parts. And we want to believe that everything happens because He made it happen, not because it was some consequence of our own doing.
But we do have responsibilities and we do create consequences. His best plans for us don’t always happen because we can choose to obey or disobey, to pray or not, to seek Him or ignore Him. He allows us to do that. And He allows us the consequences. He honors our free-will and our choices and allows us to have an influence over what happens in life, for good or for bad. We have a hand in (and a responsibility in) making His Will happen and in reaping “blessings or curses.” By obedience, righteous living, and prayer.
Yes, God is all-powerful and He does indeed know what is best. And whatever He does is best. But just because He knows what’s best and wants what’s best doesn’t mean that He always causes those things to happen, apart from man’s cooperation. I believe that He voluntarily limits His use of power in causing things to happen. He does not always use His power to force things. He doesn’t always do “His Will,” regardless of us. Oftentimes, He hinges it on us, choosing to carry out His Will with and through mankind. Not because He's not sovereign enough or anything, but because this is the way He wanted it to be. He is not just some "force"; He is an emotional, relational being who wants a real relationship with people. And He couldn't get that with robots. So He chose to make real people with real feelings, thoughts, and abilities to make decisions. That's the way He wanted it to be, and it's apparent all throughout His Word.
Now, I’m sure this has brought up more questions than it's answered. So in the next posts in this series, I want to look at some of the questions you might want to ask about all this. (Some are so long that I broke them up into parts.) And I want to fill in the answers in more depth and with the Scripture that supports it. Now, I hate to be redundant, I really do. I hate being redundant, saying the same thing over and over again, kicking a dead horse, repeating myself. But in the name of being clear and thorough, I will repeat much of what I’ve already said in this intro. And I know it’s all a bit jumbled and messy because there is a lot to say. So please, bear with me.
[Note: Calvinists would have a problem with me saying that God's Will doesn't always get done, because they believe that God always carries out His Will and that everything that happens is His Will. But, for one example, consider James 1:27, which says that God wants us to take care of widows and orphans. This is something God wills, that He wants for us - to take care of widows and orphans. But does this always happen? Are all widows and orphans taken care of? No. Therefore, we have to conclude that God's Will goes undone sometimes because of us, our failure to do it. I would place the ultimate responsibility on man for not doing God's Will.
But guess how Calvinists would explain verses like this in light of their belief that everything that happens is God's Will, that He controls all?
They would say that Calvi-god (I call their God "Calvi-god" to distinguish him from the true God of the Bible) causes everything that happens for his glory, and that he sometimes wills us (causes us) to do the opposite of his stated Will because it somehow brings him glory.
If you ask them, "Why does God say He wants all men to repent and believe in Him," they'll say "Because it brings Him glory." But if you ask, "Then why does God (Calvi-god) predestine most people for hell, giving them no chance to repent or believe in Him," they'll say "Because it brings Him glory."
You see, Calvi-god has two Wills: the one he states in the Bible and a secret one which includes everything that happens, even if it contradicts his revealed Will. This is why Calvinists can say, "Sure the Bible says God wants all men to repent (God's stated Will), but He predestines most men to not repent and to go to hell for His plans and glory (Calvi-god's secret "other" Will, which contradicts the revealed one)."
But Calvinists say this is okay because they are both "his Will." They say it's okay for God to have two different wills that contradict each other, for God to state one thing but cause the opposite. And how do they excuse all this nonsense? With "Well, He's God and we're not, and so He can do whatever He wants and we don't have to understand it."
So in Calvi-god's eyes, the sin is as glorifying to him as repenting from the sin. Evil is as glorifying to him as good. Giving into temptation is as glorifying as fighting temptation. Causing abuse is as glorifying as fighting against abuse. Not taking care of widows and orphans is as glorifying as taking care of them. Disobeying his stated Will is as glorifying to him as obeying his stated Will. Because Calvi-god causes everything that happens "for his glory."
How can you trust a god like this? A god who says one thing but causes the opposite? A god who says he wants us to do one thing when he might really want us to do the opposite? A god who gives us commands we have no choice about obeying because he's already preplanned what we'll do anyway? A god who gets as much glory from causing good as he does from causing evil? A god who punishes us for the things he preplanned and caused?
There's something seriously wrong with Calvinism's god! It's just too bad that so many good, God-fearing people have been sucked into it through their desire to honor God and be humble. I believe Calvinism is little more than a brilliant strategy of Satan to use God's Word against God, to use our humility against us, to use our desire to glorify God against Him, etc.. All while disguising his lies as truth.
"... for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light." 2 Corinthians 11:14]
