And do not
be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so
that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable
and perfect. Romans 12:2 NASB
The word ‘good’ suggests
the existence of another word ‘bad’. The
word ‘light’ informs us of the existence of the word ‘darkness’. The perfect will of God in our memory verse
suggest the existence of a less than perfect will of God. In other words if there is a perfect will of
God, then there is also a not so perfect will of God also known as permissive
will of God. The Lord knew you before
the foundation of the world (Jeremiah 1:5). Whilst you were in your mother’s womb, He had
decided His will for your life (Psalm 139:13).
So you are not on earth by accident, you are here on earth for a particular
purpose (God’s ordained purpose).
The perfect
will of God is God’s divine plan for your life.
This is what He has divinely arranged – the kind of man or woman to
marry, career, ministry, and so on. The
permissive will of God is what He permits. A point to note is that the fact
that He permits something does not mean it is His will. God can restore our lives when we fail to
follow and find ourselves in a place other than where He had desired for us to
be; but we will miss all of the blessing He had ordained for us in His perfect
will.
Our free will
is is a spiritual law. The Holy Spirit
is gentle and He will not force anyone against his or her will. Jehovah God
wanted to be the king over the Israelites but the people saw how other nations
had kings and desired a king for themselves (1
Samuel 8:1- end). It was not
God’s will for the people to have another king because God was already their
king but the people kept asking for a king so the Most High said no problem and
gave them a king – King Saul. That was
God’s permissive will not His perfect will.
God did bless them, but they did not receive the full blessing of
God. When God was their king, they had
peace but after they received their king – burdens after burdens, wars after
wars. God wants to give you the best not
His second best. To get the perfect will
of God, you need to be very patient.
Abram and
Sarai his wife had been given an explicit promise by God that not only would
they have a child, but that his seed would be as uncountable as the stars in
the heavens. However, despite this
promise from God, they grew impatient of “waiting upon God” and decided to take
things into their own hands and fulfill God’s promise by the works of their own
hands. Not only did Abram and Sarai
become impatient with God, Sarai blamed God for her inability to conceive,
saying “Behold now, Jehovah has kept me from bearing!” Jehovah permitted the birth of Ishmael,
though it was outside His perfect will and intent. Today, mankind is still fighting wars which
originated from Abram’s settling for the permissive will of God, instead of His
perfect will.
This is what
the Permissive Will of God is all about.
It is about being impatient and settling for that which God will permit
(ergo permissive), rather than waiting for the Perfect Will of God and God’s
perfect plan and destiny for one’s life.
Because God is
omniscient, He knows what He will accomplish in us. He knows what we will do, and what we would
do, in any given circumstance. Thus, His
plans for us will never fail; they will never be flawed by some missing piece
of information, some unknown detail.
God's plan and purpose for each and every believer is for our good, and
for His glory. This includes all the
suffering and tragedy that comes to us in life (see 2
Corinthians 1:3-7; 12:7-10).
Having said
that there is a "perfect will" let us not conclude that there is an
imperfect will of God, so that we might fear we will miss His "perfect
will" and be forever doomed to live out a life of misery and failure and
frustration. His perfect will takes into account our ignorance, our weakness,
or sins, and even the sins of others against us (Joseph and his brothers - Genesis 50:20).
Always make a
distinction between God’s perfect will and His permissive will, which He uses
to accomplish His divine purpose for our lives.
God’s perfect will is unchangeable.
It is with His permissive will, or the various things that He allows
into our lives, that we must wrestle before Him. When we see God’s perfect will against our
desires it will demand a choice; and that choice can affect not only us but
others.
Scripture to Claim:
For you
have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may
receive what was promised. Hebrews 10:36
NASB
