by Paul Ponchot
The Restoration Herald - Feb 2025
One of the legitimate questions I hear from Christians is “What is God’s will for my life?” When this is asked, they usually want to know about the many decisions they face, like jobs, educational pursuits, retirement investments, what kind of house or car to buy, and a myriad of other choices not directly addressed in Scripture. This subject can be a source of stress for Christians, because we want to make the right decisions and do what pleases the Lord. To answer this, we need to have a basic understanding of the will of God as revealed in Scripture. I am grateful for the hard work men like Jack Cottrell, George Faull, and others have done on this subject that has benefited me.1 The best approach is to think of God’s will as a pyramid with four levels: the purposive, prescriptive/preceptive, permissive, and practical will of God. These designations may not be as precise as we would like them to be, but they will help us in exploring our subject matter.
Purposive Will of God
This is the top of the pyramid. It involves what God decides to do and then does. This includes, among other things, creation, the choice of Israel for bringing the Messiah into the world, the plan of redemption, and the conditions for salvation that accompany it. This level of God’s will cannot be thwarted in any way by man or spirit being. If God determines to do something, He will get it done and has. Since He is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-wise, and everywhere present, no one can keep what He decides to accomplish from happening. God plans, initiates, and brings to pass what He purposes to do.
Many Scriptures speak to this matter:
Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand. (Proverbs 19:21, ESV used throughout)
Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created. (Revelation 4:11)
This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised Him up. (Acts 2:23–24)
Prescriptive/Preceptive Will of God
The second level on our pyramid is what God prescribes for man, but we decide whether or not we will do it. This has to do with the commands or precepts found in the Bible.
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. (Ephesians 5:15–17)
This especially includes God’s desire and commands for us to come to Christ for salvation. God lays out His plan of salvation in the Bible, but we are the ones who decide if we will accept what He offers through Christ. In 1 Timothy 2:4 God “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (also see 2 Peter 3:9).
The prescriptive/preceptive will of God also applies to the Bible’s teaching about Christian living. God tells us, and everyone, how He wants us to live, but we decide whether we will obey or not. Matthew 7:21 says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Similarly, Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 4:3, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification.”
Permissive Will of God
This third level on our pyramid is the difficult one for many people to understand, because there is so much evil and suffering in the world. Even Christians have a hard time accepting this aspect of the will of God. This is where we must be precise in our approach. We must distinguish between what God causes and desires to happen (i.e., His purposive and preceptive will) and what He allows or permits to happen (i.e., His permissive will). God created a very particular kind of world where man would have free will. Because Adam and Eve used their free will to disobey God, He brought a curse upon His once “very good” creation. Sadly, in this fallen universe bad things happen. Sometimes this is because of our own wrong decisions, sometimes because of the decisions of others, and sometimes through no fault of our own, simply as the result of the original fall of man in the Garden of Eden. This is a true, but difficult, reality to embrace regarding the fallen world we live in.
God permits many things to happen because He is being true to His original plan and design for a world filled with free will beings made in His image. If God keeps every negative thing from happening, then His plan for creating this kind of world is thwarted. Under God’s permissive will, He allows or permits things to come about which He has not purposed or prescribed. He can still intervene and bring about certain ends in accordance with His specific purposes, but most of what happens falls under the category of God’s permissive will. This includes our good decisions, our sins, and the consequences that follow both. (See Acts 18:18–21; 1 Corinthians 16:5–7; James 4:13–15.)
I know we have questions about suffering and tragedy that may not be answered in this life. When these things happen, we must trust in the Lord and know that He is walking with us every step of the way (Proverbs 3:5-6; Romans 8:28), understanding that salvation in Christ is the ultimate solution to the ills of this world.
Practical Will of God
The final level on our pyramid is what I am calling the practical will of God. I admit this is an arbitrarily chosen category which falls under the umbrella of God’s permissive will. However, my intention is to use this to discuss the daily and life decisions we make, which are not specifically addressed in the Bible. Here we are talking about decisions on a practical level where there is no “Thus saith the Lord.” I do not mean just the “mundane” ones like what we wear or eat, but other important decisions like what job to take, how to invest for retirement, what house to rent or buy, what car to purchase, what hobbies we will enjoy, etc. This category deals with decisions that are not “right versus wrong,” but rather where the options are all good or acceptable.
Let’s dispel a common but mistaken idea about what the Bible teaches concerning the permissive/practical will of God for us in our everyday lives. Many people believe that God has a specific plan for every person’s life. In this scenario, everything that happens is a part of that plan. It comes through in statements like, “Well it’s all according to God’s plan for your life,” or “Everything happens for a reason.” We do not have space to consider this in depth, but such statements are not true to the Bible. They are a part of the theological system of theistic determinism (Calvinism). In sharp contrast to Calvinism, most things happen because of human decisions. God allows it, but He is not making it happen, and it is not a part of some laid out master plan God has already determined.
God’s specific plan (desire/will) for every person’s life is to come to Christ for salvation, then to live a life of faithfulness for Him. Many of the other decisions we make within this plan God leaves up to us. He has not necessarily determined every job you should take, or every kind of car you should buy. Often there is no wrong choice. To be sure, God can open doors of opportunity for us that He prefers, but God can bless us no matter what decisions we make, as long as we are honoring Him with them. However, we should base what we do on the wisdom and principles of God’s Word. A good rule of thumb is to ask, “Will what I am deciding to do honor God?” If the honest answer is “yes,” then go ahead. If the answer is “no,” then don’t do it. When in doubt, it is usually best to use caution or not follow the particular course of action. When deciding between “good” options, we can ask if one is “better.” If we are having a difficult time, we should pray, get into God’s Word, and seek wisdom from godly people. These God-honoring practical decisions fall within the permissive will of God for us.
God’s specific will for us is found in the Bible. For the myriads of other decisions not addressed there, we have some freedom, but we must never use this freedom to sin. We must strive to honor the Lord with everything in us.
~RH
(Endnotes)
See Cottrell’s What the Bible says about God the Ruler, chapter 8 and Faull’s Social Ethics, Section 1.
The first three terms are not original with me.
Paul Ponchot has been the evangelist with the Cumberland County Christian Church in Vineland, New Jersey, since 1994. He is a 1987 graduate of Cincinnati Bible College. He and his wife, Ronda, have three children: Jillian (and husband Jonathan), Chris (and wife Grace), and Kayla, and two granddaughters: Susan and Jane. Paul is also the Director of South Jersey Evangelism.
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