mgpcpastor's blog

The subject of knowing God’s will arose in a conversation today.
If I can put it simply, there have been two aspects of God’s will observed.
The first of these is His revealed will. We find this in the Bible. God tells us what humanity should and shouldn’t do in its pages. He also calls us to repent and trust in the Saviour sent by Him, the Lord Jesus.
The second aspect of his will is not revealed explicitly. It unfolds around us day to day in providence. Deuteronomy 29:29 is observed to identify these two aspects of God’s will.
So, today I travel to Sydney and then back to Melbourne. God’s Word permits me to do this if I travel by honest means.
But His secret will is best observed in hindsight. At 7.15 as I boarded the plane I believed it was God’s will that I be in Melbourne at 8.30. However a lightning storm has meant that even as I write this at 8.00pm we are still in Sydney.
I am free according to God’s revealed will to plan my travel, but it is only when providence comes to pass that we truly know what His decretive will really is. Personally, I find it enough of a challenge to follow the will that God has revealed to me without obsessing over details that I cannot truly know until they come to pass.
Now some may say this holds true for small and mundane situations like travel, or dinner or what socks to wear but not large issues like marriage, career or where to live, but where is this distinction made biblically?
This is not to say all decisions are equal. Some deserve more thought and discernment than others. But to claim that a course of action which is not spelt out in the Scriptures is God’s will prospectively is presumptuous and can result in manipulation of others, particularly if this is claimed by those in authority over others.
Think, pray, act in accord with the Bible and then find out what God’s will is. Proverbs 16:33 tells us that we cast the lot but God determines the outcome.
Tomorrow, God willing I’ll post some material about the background and plans for the trip to Timor Leste (East Timor) we’re free to go, we’ve purposed our plans and day by day I’ll try to tell you what God’s will is as we experience it.

Finally, I thought I’d be posting this from Sydney, but we were cleared to fly before I was done. If this makes it to the blog tonight it was actually God’s will it be posted from Melbourne.