8/22/76; 11/7/76; 1/2/78; 1/23/80; 7/22/82; Rev 508 9/29/83
A. Definition.
1. Divine guidance is the doctrine of determining the will of God for your life, related to both specific and general things, by the operation of your own thinking in the application of doctrine.
2. Divine guidance is the communication of divine will through divine revelation.
3. Today it is confined to the canon of Scripture and through the pain of discipline for the reversionist in the cosmic system.
4. In the ancient world, divine guidance included direct communication from God through dreams, visions, dialogues, part of the Canon which then existed, discipline, and the teaching of angels.
5. Divine discipline and human disaster as a classification of guidance from God is limited to the negative aspect of God’s will. It can only correct.
6. Discipline and disaster is God saying, “No, you are not in My will.” Therefore, divine discipline is limited to warning. Sometimes undeserved suffering is used in this way.
7. The only way to know positively what is the will of God for your life is to understand Bible doctrine and metabolize it.
8. You cannot know the will of God apart from knowing the Word of God.
B. There are three categories of will which exist in history.
1. The Sovereign Will of God.
a. The will of God must be consistent with His attributes and personality.
b. God cannot compromise His essence in the function of His sovereignty.
c. God is a person. Personality connotes self-consciousness and self-determination (i.e., the will of God).
d. God recognizes Himself as a person; as such He decides, thinks, always acts rationally, and forms policy.
e. The will of God is manifest in the decrees of God. The decrees teach us the will of God.
f. The Decrees of God.
(1) The decree of God is His eternal, holy, wise and sovereign purpose, comprehending at once all things that ever were or will be in their courses, conditions, successions, and relations, and determining their certain futurition.
(2) The several contents of this one eternal purpose are, because of the limitation of our mentality and faculties, necessarily perceived by us in partial aspects and in both logical and revealed relations.
(3) The decrees of God are His eternal and immutable will regarding the future existence of events which happen in time, and the precise manner and order of their occurrence.
(4) Therefore, the decree expresses the eternal plan and will of God by which God has rendered certain all events of history in the past, present, and future.
(5) Hence, the will of God is the sovereign choice of the divine will and mentality inherent in the essence of God by which all things are brought into being, controlled, made subject to His pleasure, and producing His glorification.
(6) It is the pleasure of God to permit creature volition in both angelic and human beings. This explains why man and angels have free will (the other two categories of will in history).
g. The Will of God.
(1) There is one all-inclusive will and purpose of God concerning all that ever was or is or ever will be among creatures.
(2) This will and purpose originates within God Himself without any outside influences.
(3) The will and plan of God were objectively designed for His pleasure, glory, and satisfaction in eternity past.
(4) All creatures have been placed in space and time, and all events relating to space and time were simultaneously and instantly decreed.
(5) These simultaneous decrees result in all divine action.
(6) Divine action falls into two categories.
(a) Within the Godhead, the interaction between the members of the Godhead is called immanent, intrinsic, and subjective.
(b) Actions related to creation are the actions of God which are called extrinsic (outside of God), transient (they function in human history chronologically), and objective (the function of divine justice in human history).
(7) God did not decree Himself to be.
(8) God’s decrees are efficacious. They determine all that ever was, is, or will be. Efficacious refers to the directive will of God. Efficacious is used in a technical sense for that which is the direct work of God, in contrast to permissive will, which is the will of God accomplished through man’s free will and through the action of God’s creatures.
(9) Distinction should be made between the decrees of God in eternity past and the actions of God in time. The action of God in time is the execution of the decrees of eternity past. The execution is not the decree, but logically follows the decree. One follows the other, but they are not the same.
(10) Distinction should be made between what could have happened and what does happen. God knows both, but only puts what is going to happen in the decrees.
(11) Distinction should be made between God’s decrees and God’s laws. God’s decrees occurred in eternity past; God’s laws function in time. (a) The decrees are the action and plan of God. God’s laws regulate human conduct and function, so that the decrees can be fulfilled by the action of God in time.
(b) The laws of God are completely revealed in the Scripture, while the decrees of God are only partially revealed.
© The laws of God can be broken by human volition or frustrated by man’s volition, but the decrees of God cannot be broken or frustrated by man’s volition because the decrees already existed before volition was ever created by God.
(12) God’s decrees do not originate from His foreknowledge. In the logical order of things, the function of the foreknowledge of God makes nothing certain. God’s decrees originate from God’s omniscience, not His foreknowledge. The order is: Omniscience > Decrees > Foreknowledge. The foreknowledge of God merely perceives the things that are certain. It is the decree of God that makes all things certain. The decrees are from omniscience; foreknowledge only confirms what has been decreed.
(13) Therefore, all things depend on God’s will, and nothing is certain apart from God’s will.
h. The Decrees of God and the Desires of God.
(1) Sin, suffering, reversionism, death, human good, and evil are not the desires of God, but they are in the decrees of God.
(2) God desires His perfect will, but both human and angelic volition, using divinely-created free will, violate the desires of God. This is how sin and evil come into the world.
(3) When human will equals God’s desires, this equals divine guidance.
(4) God does not desire to throw creatures into the Lake of Fire, but that judgment is decreed for all who reject Christ as Savior.
(5) God does not desire to discipline believers, but that punishment is decreed for all believers in reversionism under the influence of evil or persistent carnality.
(6) Therefore, it is the justice of God which reconciles desire and decree. And it is the justice of God to which we adjust when we obey, do, or function under the will of God.
i. Characteristics of the Will of God.
(1) God’s will or decree is all comprehensive.
(2) Not the slightest uncertainty could exist as to one of the smallest events without the confusion to all events.
(3) Therefore, all events of history are interwoven and interdependent, Eph 1:11, 2:10-11.
(4) The will of God is eternal; God is not gaining in knowledge. What He knows at any given time in history He has always known.
(5) The will of God is perfect. A perfect person can only have a perfect will.
(6) Since nothing has or can occur unknown to God in eternity past, His will is unchangeable and certain.
(7) The free will of God or divine sovereignty, reflected in the decrees of God, will be completed regardless of His creatures and with regard to His creatures. God’s will goes on and does not depend on you.
(8) God is bound by His justice, truth, and infinite faithfulness to complete what He has begun.
(9) The principle of the will of God is therefore grace. Since God thought it, God will do it. His will for us is to be on the grace side of history. (10) The divine outline of human history in the dispensations is the reflection of God’s will and decrees.
(11) The divine objective is the preservation and deliverance of believers to the point of maturity.
(12) The work of God is often called providence, by which He molds all events into the fulfillment of His eternal purpose.
(13) Preservation continues the existence of things, but providence directs their progress. Advancing believers progress to the divine objective. (14) Therefore, the will of God is directive. God has a plan for each of our lives communicated in His Word.
(15) The will of God is determinative. God has permitted non-meritorious volition to bring us to the place of blessing or cursing.
(16) The will of God is permissive. Negative volition to Bible doctrine is permitted, but divine justice provides a horrible life and death.
(17) The will of God is preventative, providing Bible doctrine, establishment laws, and discipline to keep human volition inside the will of God.
2. The Free Will of Angels. Negative angelic volition is the basis for the angelic conflict and explains the rulership of the world by Satan today. Angelic volition seeks to interfere with human history so that human history will not fulfill its objective, which is to glorify God. 3. Human Volition. All of us have a totally free will.
C. The Axiom for Divine Guidance, 1 Jn 3:23.
1. “And this is His mandate, that we believe in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He has given to us a mandate.”
2. This verse is the desire of God. It reduces the will of God to its utmost simplicity; i.e., that all the human race believe in Jesus Christ; and that all believers function under impersonal love of the royal family honor code, gate 6 of the divine dynasphere, toward all other members of the human race.
D. Phase Two Categories of the Will of God.
1. The viewpoint will of God is what God wants you to think.
2. The operational will of God is what God wants you to do.
3. The geographical will of God is where God wants you to be.
4. The permissive will of God says that God permits certain things to happen because God has given free will to man, so that man would be a rational creature who would resolve the angelic conflict.
5. You can know the viewpoint, operational, and geographical will of God for your life only by having maximum doctrine in your soul. You receive divine discipline for not knowing the right answer and being outside of God’s will.
E. Classification of the Will of God.
1. The directive will of God is the same as the desire of God, Num 22:12. These are direct commands, “Don’t do thus and such.”
2. The permissive will of God is permitted but is not God’s desire, Num 22:20.
3. The overruling will of God is that Jesus Christ controls history, Num 23:5,8,23,25-26.
4. Therefore, the will of God can be declared under four principles.
a. The will of God is directive. God has a plan for your life.
b. The will of God is determinative. God has permitted non- meritorious volition to bring us to the place of blessing or discipline.
c. The will of God is permissive. Negative volition to Bible doctrine is permitted, but divine justice provides discipline.
d. The will of God is preventative, providing doctrine, establishment laws, and discipline to keep human volition in the will of God.
F. Academic Concept of Divine Guidance, Rev 3:1.
1. All divine guidance depends on the perception of doctrine and then its application. This principle of Bible doctrine in the soul is found in Ps 32:8; Isa 58:11. The pure thoughts of doctrine, not the deceptive thoughts of man, are the basis for divine guidance. Prov 3:1-6; Rom 12:2. Gates 1-4 of the divine dynasphere are the key to divine guidance.
2. The filling of the Holy Spirit is a part of divine guidance, Eph 5:14-18.
3. Spiritual growth causes you to know more of the will of God, 2 Pet 3:18; Heb 11:7.
G. Mechanics of the Will of God, Acts 11.
1. Guidance through prayer, verse 5.
2. Guidance through objective thinking of Bible doctrine, verse 6.
3. Guidance through perception and recall of doctrine, verses 7-10.
4. Guidance through providential circumstances, e.g. the people we meet, verse 11.
5. Guidance through filling of the Holy Spirit and humility, verse 12.
6. Guidance through fellowship and comparison of spiritual data, verses 13-14.
7. Guidance through recalling of doctrine, verse 16.
8. Guidance through disaster.
H. Divine Guidance and Human Free Will.
1. The humanity of Christ had free will, Mt 20:22, 26:42; Heb 10:7-9. If mankind does not have free will, then neither did the humanity of Christ. And if He had no free will, there would be no salvation.
2. Divine guidance is based on the fact that man does possess free will. This free will was created by God to do the will of God apart from coercion. This resolves the angelic conflict.
3. Bible doctrine in the soul + free will in man = divine guidance, the execution of the will of God.
4. Divine guidance reaches its peak in spiritual maturity, Heb 11:7.
I. The Ultimate in the Will of God, 2 Pet 3:18. “But grow by grace and by knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and in the day of eternity.”
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