God's Will Rarely Accomplished?

Yes, that is what I have concluded recently. Through several different avenues over the last couple of months, God has reignited me to think critically about His will and ways; essentially how He has set up this universe.

Over the last few years I've kind of lapsed into a popular belief that says basically this - everything that happens is God's will, or, stated differently, nothing can stop His will from being accomplished on this earth. Whatever happens, happens because He desires it or plans to use it, even evil in some mysterious way. It is, of course, rarely stated as plainly. Instead, it shows up when terrible things happen, when prayers seem unanswered, when things are inexplicable.......the Christian community concludes that whatever happened is God's will. I've heard it over and over, and I have even agreed a few times.

This is going to be long and I almost don't know where to start. Suffice it to say, I don't agree anymore. I feel confident that the belief that God's will always prevails is errant, scripturally and theologically (I will attempt to make my case below). Having a view of God that is in opposition to the Scriptures is reason enough to reject it, BUT, in this case there also happen to be really devastating effects to believing this way for very long. I've noticed them in myself and in others.

Ultimately, the fruit of this belief is at worst, loss of faith and disillusionment with God (probably the more honest and alive response). Let's be frank - if God's will always triumphs, then God's will STINKS. Just turn on the evening news or read up on world history. Heck, the 2oth century alone is evidence enough to indict God as far from good, if everything that happens is essentially His will. Since most of us have trouble allowing that kind of thought into our consciousness, the alternate result of holding this view is apathy in prayer and good deeds. It's numbness. Nothing I do or don't do can thwart God's will. Again, we would not state it this plainly, but it's there and it creates lukewarmness.

These two options are what an honest person must determine if things are taken to their logical conclusion, and they must be if we want to get to the bottom of things! I personally have experienced the latter - apathy in prayer, apathy in service, and also a bit of the former - disillusionment with what God wills.

The thing that cripples this nice-sounding idea can be summarized in two little words - free will. It goes without saying that God is good enough and powerful enough to accomplish his will, in a heartbeat, on earth and everywhere else in this universe. But free will -there's the rub. From Genesis to Revelation, God is ultra-reluctant to violate human or angelic free will, and seems only to do so when there is no other option, when judgment needs to happen, when he has tried everything else. This is what I've been forced to incorporate into my "God is sovereign" theology lately. He is sovereign, yes, and he has sovereignly chosen to have our choices count. Our wills matter. The horrible state of affairs on this planet can be explained quite easily - angelic and human free will. God has endowed both angels and humans with this shocking gift, and seems loathe to override it.

Once I started re-reading the Scriptures to see if this was truly so, I've been amazed to see just how truly it is so! And how frequently God's will is ignored!!

God created angels to worship and serve him forever. Lucifer exercised his free will against God, choosing something entirely different. One third of the angels followed suit, and God didn't stop them. God created Adam and Eve for perfect communion with him and each other, and to rule over the world. Adam and Eve chose differently, wrecked the communion, and now satan rules over this world, not man (Jesus calls him the "god of this world"). We're only three chapters into Genesis and already most of God's original desires have been overthrown. Not because he is weak or powerless, but because he's chosen that our wills mean something, that they will stand! That we can have our way. Now, every time I open the book this truism leaps off the pages. Our free will can in fact thwart God's will, because he allows it to do so, for now at least.

I think of Moses, and how he argued with God at the burning bush because he was insecure about his speech impediment. God assured him that he would be with him, that he would help him speak to Pharoah and the Hebrew nation, and Moses kept resisting. Finally, Exodus 4 tells us, the anger of the Lord burned against Moses and he went to plan B. Basically God said, fine! I'll use Aaron your brother to do the talking. Now if God really wanted Aaron to be the mouthpiece all along, and it was just a round about way to get there (which is what I feel like we'd have said if we were there "oh, it must have been God's will to use Aaron really"), then why did his anger burn against Moses? Moses got his way because God wouldn't force him. Aaron was plan B. A wise woman I know has said that Eden was God's Plan A; the cross was plan B. Chew on that one for a while!

And look at the Israelites' history - it would be easier to name the times they actually did what God willed than to list all the times God said, "My will is black," and they responded, "White it is!" The prophets - talk about a miserable calling. They had the unhappy job of declaring God's will over and over and over again, and watching it be perpetually defied. I was just reading in Ezekiel 22, and God is looking for an intercessor so that he won't have to rain judgment on his children. He can't find one person to pray in Israel, so he pours out wrath. God actually wanted to show mercy, but because he couldn't fine one solitary pray-er, he reluctantly rained down judgment. Wild!

In Daniel 10, we see this incredibly righteous and obedient man of God praying and fasting, but there's no answer and God seems silent. Three weeks later, an angel arrives and explains to Daniel that his prayers have been heard from the first day, that God sent him in response, but that a demonic spirit over the kingdom of Persia has been resisting the angel for three weeks. Daniel prayed, God responded, but the angel was kept from getting to Daniel by a demonic spirit!?!? Now this is something not heretofore in my theological repertoire!!! A man is praying X in agreement with God's will, God's answer is on the way, and yet a demon has the power to delay the process. Now how come we don't consider that as a possible cause for some of our "unanswered" prayers? If I had been there before week 3, would I have "comforted" Daniel by encouraging him that it must not have been God's will to act? Angels' free will matters, even fallen angels'. Wow.

Flip to the New Testament and watch the trainwreck continue. Jesus weeps over religious Jerusalem, and what are his words? "I long to gather you, but you are not willing." He expressly said that he came for the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and yet the great majority of those sheep rejected him. They got to choose. In Nazareth, Jesus was unable to perform miracles due to people's lack of faith. It does not say he would not do miracles, but that he could not. Hard to fathom, but apparently God has ordained that human wills matter this much!!!!!!!!

When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, part of that instruction was to pray that God's kingdom would come, that his will would be done on earth as in heaven. John Eldredge makes the obvious point it would be silly to pray something that was a given. If his kingdom always came and his will was always done, why would God tell us to pray that it would be so?

Even God's plan for salvation itself was dependent on human willingness - willingness of the man-God, Jesus. Until now I have thought about providential will and permissive will, and how nothing can thwart God's "big" plans, e.g. salvation, redemption, etc. But upon further reflection, I see that even THAT plan required a human free will. Remember how Christ told his disciples that he could call down his father's angels to rescue him, if he chose? Thankfully for everyone, he didn't choose that. He freely surrendered his own will, that will so respected, in a sense, by God, and said, "Not my will, but yours be done." Even he had the choice to resist, but didn't. He chose to participate in God's will, and what glory has come for him and all who believe since! Hallelujah.

And yet we still get to thwart his will, even after this amazing provision. 2 Peter says that God doesn't desire that any should perish, but that all would come to eternal life.........and yet people are perishing left and right. God desires one thing, humans choose the opposite.

I could go on, but why does this matter, you ask? Certainly not because it's fun to split doctrinal hairs. It matters because believing wrongly about God has catastrophic effects on our lives. In these ways particularly, that I in my lowly estate can think of: 1) it's not Biblical and that's reason enough for it to matter; 2) it breeds apathy at best and disillusionment with God at worst; 3) it creates a belief that God's not going to "let" us go down a wrong path (I've heard this numerous times from believers) and 4) it creates a false security about things and takes us out of our "battle" mode. This is a world at war and we are soliders, are we not!? and finally the one that gets most stuck in my craw - 5) it gives God a really bad reputation!!!!!!!!!!! When we assign everything to him, it presents a very distorted view of God to the world.

There are three wills at work on this planet - God's, humanity's, and angels'. What I'm going to try to do from here on out is consider which of the three might be the culprit in any situation, and refrain from assuming that "it must have been God's will." Maybe it was God's will, but maybe it wasn't. I've erred when I haven't considered the other two options, and it's prevented me from perservering in prayer for HIS WILL to truly come, on earth as in heaven. I'll explore this more next time. If anyone is still reading, that is. I've never claimed to be brief!! :)

In closing for now, consider these greats who know better and are godlier than me.

"Without God we cannot; without us God will not." Augustine

"There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'All right, then, have it your way.'" C.S. Lewis

To be continued....