God’s Permissive Will

feb 182014

Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today- February 18, 2014

Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. John 7:17

The will of God is what He wills for His children, but it is not forced. What our heavenly Father wants for us is Himself, His plan and His provision, but only at our instigation. God’s will is a choice. It is an option between a conflicting system of understanding and the Spirit’s process of revealing His clear path. What the Lord wills is what’s best. When we are willing, He is more than willing to show us the next step of faith. A little walk with Jesus unveils His vast love for us.

When we choose the will of God, we choose to follow God no matter what. It is a capitulation to Christ and Christ alone. Belief is what brings discernment into focus. Belief creates clarity, but unbelief clouds our choices. Like the scary sensation of a pitch black bedroom, we stumble toward the bathroom in the middle of the night. So, we cannot see unless we flip on the switch of faith. It’s from the bright light of trust that we find the Lord’s best. His will starts with our Savior.

“The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them”(Psalm 25:14).

Are two conflicting choices staring you in the face of your faith? Both are good, but you want to know the Lord’s best. Where to work? Who to date or marry? Where to live? Where to attend church or school? Rise above your affections for your options and set your affections on Jesus. Release your earthly attachments and set your heart on heavenly outcomes. What you let go of, God gives back in what’s best for you. Prayer and patience produce your best choices for Christ.

Faith is confidence in Christ; a total trust in His character and His claim to be God.  Once you settle this, submit your will to the Lord’s will. Surrender your right to know what’s right and take the next right step. Your choice to do God’s will does not guarantee instant revelation, but it does mean you move forward under the Spirit’s guidance. Follow by faith, even if you don’t feel a spiritual sensation. Obedience to what you know, may eventually answer what you don’t know. Choose God’s will and He will affirm His truth in your heart. You are a confidant of His will.

“For the Lord detests the perverse but takes the upright into his confidence” (Proverbs 3:32).

Prayer: Heavenly Father I submit my will to Your will, so I can joyfully follow Your ways.

Related Readings: Job 29:4; Psalm 111:10; Mark 3:35; Acts 18:21; Romans 12:1-2

Wisdom in Creation

1 Kings 4:29–34

This passage is a celebration of God’s endowment of great wisdom upon Solomon. It also celebrates the broader theme of God’s ordering of creation according to a majestic, divine design. God has infused his wisdom, as it were, into the very structure of material reality. And he has equipped the human race, created in his image, with the ability (the intellectual machinery) to, as German mathematician Johann Kepler (1571–1630) said, “think God’s thoughts after him,” in order to develop creation’s potential (note especially 1Ki 4:32–33). We as God’s designated stewards have been called to faithfully and intelligently cultivate creation’s potential. God wants us to varying degrees, based on the particular aptitudes and strengths with which he has gifted each of us, to draw out the fruitfulness of creation through engineering, entrepreneurship, development, intellectual understanding, the arts and so forth.

Bible scholar J. Richard Middleton depicts God the Creator as both a grand architect and a consummate artist:

Superimposed on and integrated with the picture of God speaking creation into being is the metaphor of God as designer and artificer, constructing with care, attention, obvious pleasure, and self-investment (as a good artist) a coherent, harmoniously functioning cosmos, according to a well-thought-out plan. This characterization of God as maker or artisan is rhetorically embodied in the superb literary artistry of the creation story, which moves from a preparatory statement in [Genesis] 1:1–2, through six “days” of God’s work, to the seventh climactic day (2:1–3), when God “rested” (šābat), satisfied, having completed his work.

Middleton goes on to articulate part of his understanding of the complexity of the imago Dei (“image of God”) as it pertains to humanity’s interactions with the created world:

[C]areful exegesis of Genesis 1:26–28 … does indeed suggest that the imago Dei refers to human rule, that is, the exercise of power on God’s behalf in creation. This may be articulated in two different, but complementary ways. Said one way, humans are like God in exercising royal power on earth. Said in another way, the divine ruler delegated to humans a share in his rule of the earth. Both are important ways of expressing the meaning of the imago Dei. The first expression—the notion of likeness to the divine ruler—suggests the image as “representational,” indicating a similarity or analogy between God and humans. The second expression—the delegation of, or sharing in, God’s rule—suggests the image as “representative,” designating the responsible office and task entrusted to humanity in administering the earthly realm on God’s behalf. But these expressions are not simply alternative; they are integrally connected.

Think About It

How is God’s wisdom a part of our physical reality?
In what ways are intellectual pursuits a part of God’s calling?
How can people steward God’s creation through understanding it?
Pray About It

Lord, you have a unique calling for each of us. Those of us who seek and pursue the wisdom found in your creation—in any vocation or avocation of life—need your guidance to fulfill our role in your grand design.


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Location:All Nations Baptist Church