Discussing God's Will

Much of the Christian life is devoted to God's Will.  In fact, most of our language, the very way that we relate to one another in words confirms that God's Will is vital to our lives.  How we deal with tragedy or blessing, how we make choices on an individual and a community level is full of the language of will, e.g. "it is/was God's will for..."

However, despite the lingo, the theology behind the Will of God can be easily ignored or replaced with assumptions that do not jibe with the theology of Scripture.  Because this matters in real, practical ways, an attempt at a two paragraph, blitzkrieg teaching on the Will of God will be put forth here.  The point, obviously, will not be for an exhaustive, comprehensive discourse on God's Will.  Rather, just a brief snapshot to spark some thought on this important issue.

First of all, God's Will is grounded in and arises from His nature.  This is to say that His Will starts from within God and is carried forward in space and time.  Get this: everything that happens is God's Will.  Because God creates and sustains everything by the power of His Word, there is not a single thing that has ever occurred or that ever will occur that is outside of His Will.  There are no "free-acting" agents that live, move, or have their being apart from His creating and sustaining Will.  Everything that happens in space/time is His Will.  We are not speaking of hypotheticals but of what does transpire in the unfolding of space and time.

Secondly, God's Will can be basically broken down into two forms: His Decretive Will and His Prescriptive Will.  His Decretive Will is all that comes to pass, it is history unfurling, it is space and time running its course.  This is God's decreed Will, in that, because events occur and He creates and sustains all that occurs by the power of His Word, all that occurs has been decreed to occur by Him.  His Prescriptive Will is God's prescribing of action and life for humanity through the revelation of His  Word, particularly in Christ.  His Prescriptive Will is what He wants of us and for us.

In the end, there are other things that deal with God's Will: salvation, predestination, foreknowledge, etc.  However, understanding that everything that occurs is God's Will is the starting point, while the second component is found in the prescriptions of God's Word compel us to think, believe, and live a certain way that pleases God.  Every person that lives and that has ever lived intimately interacts with the Will of God, both His decretive and His prescriptive.

The real issue is God not man, and His sovereignty not ours.  Every person must reckon that our life has been created and is sustained by the Will of God, and our response should be obedience to His Will.  He is sovereign and omniscient.  Our understanding of His Will must being with who He is.  In this we, we can always find ourselves in His Will.  The goal, always, is to find ourselves on the right side, which is found in obedience to His Prescriptive Will.