Category: Relationship

I started this series with the definition of God’s will and what it means to do it. Click here to read it.

Now, today’s series is about types of God’s will and how we can key into it for both our spiritual and physical edification. Shall we proceed?

1. Sovereign Will of God.

This is God’s plan that is predestined or decreed in His eternal wisdom. This consists of what the Almighty has decided in His mind to do by His omnipotent power. No creature, whether man or angel can disobey, delay, or thwart this plan. Consciously or unconsciously, we are all playing a part in this plan.

For example, everything about Jesus Christ and the salvation of mankind was decreed before the creation of the earth and everyone – Mary, Joseph, Apostles, Judas, Romans, Herod, Pontus Pilate, etc involved in the play was playing his/her part.

What if Judas refused to betray Jesus? Seriously, if it’s not him, one of the 12 will. Why? It has been written.

Other examples are God’s choice and selection of the nation of Israel (Romans 11:1-2) and most of what was written in the books of Daniel and Revelations fall in this category.

To shock you, the ongoing Russian-Ukraine war, America’s moral decline, the COVID-19 pandemic, breathtaking scientific breakthroughs, etc., are all fulfilling a part in the sovereign will of God concerning the end time.

We can also put the natural laws like gravity, Earth’s rotation, and revolution, and the galaxies into this category for they all work according to the dictate of Almighty God.

Lastly about this,  sometimes, God reveals some parts of his sovereign will to us. However, frequently, it remains a secret. God reveals to us only what he wants us to know.

2. Commanded Will of God.

This is also known as the moral will of God. This includes His laws and commandments like the ten commandments (Exodus 20) and many such divine guidelines where Yahweh told us how He wants us to act or not to act.

You can choose to obey or disobey this but there are consequences for any of the actions. (Deuteronomy 28, Isaiah 1:19-20).

3. The preferential  will of God.

This is knowing the mind of God on something that is not explicitly stated as a sin. That is wanting to discern what ultimately pleases Him and of His utmost delight.

It means being on God’s perfect side or choosing Yahweh’s stand and as His children, our desire should be to do that which pleases God

For instance, God doesn’t want sinners to perish. It is His utmost delight that all come to repentance. Therefore, doing God’s will towards the sinner will be not to cancel such an individual as someone beyond the grace of God.

God loves the poor and wants them taken care of. Doing God’s will towards the poor will be taking care of them.

This is also called God’s will of disposition. For more on this, read the following verses; Romans 12:1; Colossians 1:10; 2 Corinthians 5:9; Ephesians 5:10, Matthew 18:14; 1 Timothy 2:3-4; 2 Peter 3:9; Ezekiel 18:32; 33:11.

4. The directive will of God.

This refers to the Holy Spirit’s personal and direct guidance in our lives through a dream, vision, prophecy, pastoral utterances, word of wisdom, or other means.

God may want you to do a particular job, married a specific person or not, go somewhere or not, etc and it does not violate any of the “wills” above or Scripture (in fact its validity must be subjected to scripture to prove whether it is the will of God or not).

For example, if you have a dream where you married a second wife as a married man, that is not God’s will because it negates His plan for marriage as explicitly stated in the Holy Bible. The “Macedonian call” (Acts 16:6-10), the guidance of Philip (Acts 8:26), and of Peter and Ananias (Acts 10:1-23) are examples.

5. The discerned will of God.

This is the type of will, we get by application of two or more Bible passages, especially on issues not specifically touched in the Bible.

The decision of who to marry, what city to live, what career to pursue, how many children to have, which school to attend, what kind of car to get, what kind of food, shoes, and clothes, and how much money to give to charity and more are not written in the Bible. We use Biblical principles to discern God’s will on it.

The first example is there is nowhere in the Bible where the name of your spouse is written down as in Mr. A of No 2, Oregon street TX USA must marry Miss. B from No 26, African way, Nigeria but if we applied various biblical instructions about Christian marriages and spouse selection, we can deduce whether they can marry themselves.

5. Expected will of God.

These are sets of laws of what God expects us as Christians to do for our benefit and safety.

God expects us to pray, fast, pay our tithes and offerings, be faithful to one spouse, be diligent and be hardworking plus many other good things

Conclusively let’s pray; Teach me to do your will, for you are my God” ( Psalm 143:10 ).