The sovereignty of God & the free will of man.

[Willing-heart]

For a long time, so many people and Christian denominations have fought over the issue of “The sovereignty of God and The free will of man.” Yet, the Bible tells us both are biblical, both are true, and whenever anyone overemphasizes one over the other, they end up in heresy.

Lucifer seized to recognize that everything he had was from God, and he wanted to be worshipped instead of worshipping God, and that was why God threw him out of Heaven. Did God know from the beginning that pride would be the fall of Lucifer? Yes, of course, He knew. God is omniscient – meaning He knows everything ahead of time. Could God have stopped Satan from falling? Of course, He could have. God is omnipotent – meaning He can do anything.

So, if God knew that Satan was going to rebel and He could have stopped him from rebelling, the question now is – Why didn’t He? I’ve pondered this question so many times. On the face of it, preventing Satan from rebelling would have saved a lot of heartaches, not just to us, but to God Himself. That rebellion cost God the Son to leave the glories of Heaven and become the poorest of the poor, die on a cross, but to rise again, in order to redeem that which Satan has stolen.

So, what’s the answer? The closest we can get to answering this question is simply this:

Whether the created angelic beings or human beings, God has placed an element of free will within all of His created beings. Otherwise, we’ll be robots or puppets on a string, but God wanted all of His created beings to freely love him and choose to love Him. This is the paradox between the sovereignty of God and the free will of man.

“God accomplishes all things according to the council of His will.” – Ephesians 1:11

What does that mean? It means that God’s will shall be fulfilled regardless of our willingness to follow it. It means that God will accomplish His will, with you or without you. It means that God’s sovereign will cannot be frustrated, thwarted or enfeebled.

https://femiroyalblog.com/2018/08/11/insight-into-the-sovereignty-of-god-the-free-will-of-man/

 

[Pilgrim]

Good blog entry Femi. Thank you for sharing. Glory to God.

 

[Willing-heart]

Good blog entry Femi. Thank you for sharing. Glory to God.

Thank you my friend. I think so much time is often wasted arguing and debating on such issue. It probably will take eternity to fanthom some of the mysteries of God.

 

[Doug Melven]

What does that mean? It means that God’s will shall be fulfilled regardless of our willingness to follow it. It means that God will accomplish His will, with you or without you. It means that God’s sovereign will cannot be frustrated, thwarted or enfeebled.

Could you explain a little more what you mean by "God's will"?
Are you talking about His will in general? Like Jesus is coming back at a certain time, or are you referring to God's will for each individual's life? Or something in between.

 

[Pilgrim]

Thank you my friend. I think so much time is often wasted arguing and debating on such issue. It probably will take eternity to fanthom some of the mysteries of God.

You're welcome, Fermi. I anticipate learning something new each passing moment through eternity about God and His will. Oh, what a deeper fellowship will that be. The "secret things belong to the LORD." (Deuteronomy 29:29) ... God is sovereign. Glory to the KING. Amen.

 

[Martyr's Crown]

A nice read. Especially to be reminded of how powerful God is, that He knows everything, that anything is possible for Him and nothing is impossible for our God... That because of His great love we were given a free will, we are free to choose loving Him or to decide not to.

There are many things which are used to be debated or discussed among people whilst the Word is very clear about it. The result of when one leans on to one's own understanding trying to figure it out by one's self, maybe?

This doesn't mean you aren't free to think it through nor wonder about what some biblical parts mean, we are curious beings as humans. Though the possibility of gaining more understanding is there when you ask for God's wisdom and ability from Him to understand it, He is faithful to give us this when we ask Him.

 

[Willing-heart]

Could you explain a little more what you mean by "God's will"?
Are you talking about His will in general? Like Jesus is coming back at a certain time, or are you referring to God's will for each individual's life? Or something in between.

I mean God's will specifically for individual people. For examples:

• When Moses aligned his will with the will of God, God brought water out of the rock.
• When Joshua aligned his will with the will of God, the Sun stood still in its orbit.
• When David aligned his will with the will of God, Goliath fell
• When Elijah aligned his will with the will of God. Fire came from Heaven on Mount Carmel and licked up everything including the water.
• When Daniel aligned his will with the will of God, the mouth of lions were zipped.
• When Paul and Silas aligned their will with the will of God, even though they were in prison, the earth shook and the prison door opened
• When the first church aligned itself with the will of God, Peter and John were released from prison.

One thing I've realised of recent is this, "We are totally useless, but not worthless to God." I believe we ought to expect great things from God, attempt great things from God because we have a great God. You cannot know the will of God when you have not responded to His Word. You cannot know the plan of God for your life when you have not obeyed what is revealed in His book (The Holy Bible).

“God’s will does not mean that we have no choice in the matter. Rather, God’s will is simply what He desires for our lives, whether we choose it or not. In order truly to love and follow God, we must have the ability to choose to do so. Otherwise, we are no more than puppets on a string, and our love and service to God are coerced and not authentic.” – Al Hsu

I wrote this piece during a time I was specifically seeking direction from God. Please do give it a read. God bless. https://femiroyalblog.com/2017/04/30/not-my-will/

 

[Willing-heart]

You're welcome, Fermi. I anticipate learning something new each passing moment through eternity about God and His will. Oh, what a deeper fellowship will that be. The "secret things belong to the LORD." (Deuteronomy 29:29) ... God is sovereign. Glory to the KING. Amen.

The mysteries of God, who can fathom? In spite of all of his weaknesses and failure, Faith is what made Abraham to be God’s friend (Isaiah 41:8) even to the point that God shared his thoughts with him (Genesis 18:17). When we also draw near to God, He promised He will draw near to us, and I'm convinced He is able to even share His thoughts with us too through the Holy Spirit in us. What a friend we have in Jesus

 

[Pilgrim]

"What A Friend We Have In Jesus" sung by Paul Baloche

 

[Willing-heart]

A nice read. Especially to be reminded of how powerful God is, that He knows everything, that anything is possible for Him and nothing is impossible for our God... That because of His great love we were given a free will, we are free to choose loving Him or to decide not to.

There are many things which are used to be debated or discussed among people whilst the Word is very clear about it. The result of when one leans on to one's own understanding trying to figure it out by one's self, maybe?

This doesn't mean you aren't free to think it through nor wonder about what some biblical parts mean, we are curious beings as humans. Though the possibility of gaining more understanding is there when you ask for God's wisdom and ability from Him to understand it, He is faithful to give us this when we ask Him.

The point I am trying to make with the verse "Proverbs 3:5-6" is that God's will is way better than ours, and we ought to be utterly dependent on God in every way and for everything (big or small things). You are right, we should surely study hard the work of God cause from it we find wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, and also it is then we no longer need to feed on milk but solid food. And through His Spirit in us, we are able by His Grace to also start to discern right from wrong, and all these false unbiblical teaching that is rampant these days. You do have a point though, we often try to make sense of everything. The other day someone was telling me how very rational it was for David to kill Goliath to the point that Goliath was actually the underdog in terms of his natural abilities. I know David fought with Lions and all that, but perhaps God was using it all to prepare him for this giant fight. I think the problem is that we can be rational to the point of not seeing it God's way and that kind of take away the glory of God. May God help us all. God bless.

 

[Doug Melven]

One thing I've realised of recent is this, "We are totally useless, but not worthless to God." I believe we ought to expect great things from God, attempt great things from God because we have a great God. You cannot know the will of God when you have not responded to His Word. You cannot know the plan of God for your life when you have not obeyed what is revealed in His book (The Holy Bible).

“God’s will does not mean that we have no choice in the matter. Rather, God’s will is simply what He desires for our lives, whether we choose it or not. In order truly to love and follow God, we must have the ability to choose to do so. Otherwise, we are no more than puppets on a string, and our love and service to God are coerced and not authentic.” – Al Hsu

Thank you for this.
so many times I hear people saying the will of God will happen in our lives whether we want it to or not.
We must align our wills with His.

The other day someone was telling me how very rational it was for David to kill Goliath to the point that Goliath was actually the underdog in terms of his natural abilities. I know David fought with Lions and all that, but perhaps God was using it all to prepare him for this giant fight. I think the problem is that we can be rational to the point of not seeing it God's way and that kind of take away the glory of God. May God help us all. God bless.

In my opinion Goliath was the underdog, he never stood a chance because David knew who fought the battle.

 

[Willing-heart]

Thank you for this.
so many times I hear people saying the will of God will happen in our lives whether we want it to or not.
We must align our wills with His.


In my opinion Goliath was the underdog, he never stood a chance because David knew who fought the battle.

You’re welcome... I’m with you on that. I’m convinced the only reason David defeated Goliath was simply because the Lord was on his side.

 

[Martyr's Crown]

The point I am trying to make with the verse "Proverbs 3:5-6" is that God's will is way better than ours, and we ought to be utterly dependent on God in every way and for everything (big or small things). You are right, we should surely study hard the work of God cause from it we find wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, and also it is then we no longer need to feed on milk but solid food. And through His Spirit in us, we are able by His Grace to also start to discern right from wrong, and all these false unbiblical teaching that is rampant these days.

True, we need to trust God more than ourselves! Leaning on to our own understanding and strenght alone, will bring us more further away from God! When we depend on our flesh we become deceptive, our flesh weakens us! God's Will is certainly the best and most reliable, our will leads towards own destruction and death.

It truly pleases God when we depend on Him with everything whether it be small or big matters. He has blessed and provided for me when I have put requests before Him which normally a lot of people wouldn't as they put more trust in themselves. Yet when I put these requests before Him with faith in Him helping me and providing for me in this, He would bless me more than what I expected getting during this time. It was greater than what I had in mind. God does bless us more than what we ask for, and I believe He also delights in doing this.

The closer we get to God as well as the more His Word becomes a part of us, the more we will learn listening to Him and discerning right from wrong. Standing strongly put in His Truth! We will understand and be walking in His perfect will, doing His will is what we will desire doing the most!

You do have a point though, we often try to make sense of everything. The other day someone was telling me how very rational it was for David to kill Goliath to the point that Goliath was actually the underdog in terms of his natural abilities. I know David fought with Lions and all that, but perhaps God was using it all to prepare him for this giant fight. I think the problem is that we can be rational to the point of not seeing it God's way and that kind of take away the glory of God. May God help us all. God bless.

It made me think with the part where you mentioned that perhaps God was preparing David for the grand fight with Goliath, by fighting lions and bears. God is working with us, and whole our lives I believe are a way of getting us prepared into what we will meet in the future. When we receive His Calling over our lives, He will be using anything we face in our lives to form and strenghten our characters, as well as preparing us.

Like you and Doug stated; David managed winning over David because of His great faith in God. He knew He would have victory because of God! Also; David had already a very close relationship to God!

The danger of thinking too rational about David and Goliath, is indeed that one will limit God's power! Not believing in that nothing is impossible for God! Think also about the army of Gideon who were just 300 warriors against a much larger enemy army, logically they shouldn't have won, not in a good human rational way I think. But God was fighting with them, and no battles were lost when they had God with them! This was also known everywhere! Many nations feared the God of Israel, knowing that He was stronger than any other gods!

 

[Willing-heart]

Thanks for your response @Crowned Princess. Very well written, God bless

We certainly grow as Christians by depending on God more and less on ourselves. God wants us to be dependent on His Grace. Satan wants us to be dependent on ourselves. John always referred to himself as the disciple who was closest to Jesus, whom Jesus loved.

• While Peter was somewhere wallowing in his sorrow, John alone came back to the cross.
• While Thomas was somewhere covered with doubt like a blanket, John alone came back to the cross.
• While Judas was out there taking his own life, John alone came to the cross.

And someone may ask – does Jesus really have favourites? Absolutely not! The reason John was close to Jesus was because John wanted to be close to Jesus. We can be as close to Jesus as we want to be as close to Jesus. The Bible says (James 4:8) that when we draw close to Him, He draws close to us.

More than we could ever know, our great God surely cares about every single detail of our lives. We should never hesitate to pray specifically for the big and the small things and the in-between. In fact, every significant prayer in the Bible is always a specific prayer not ambiguous. How else will one know when God answers it? When Jesus said (in Matthew chapter 10:30) that the hairs on our head are counted, He does not mean that He simply knows how many, but when He says they are numbered, it means that He knows each hair that fell in the brush when we brushed our hair this morning. And if God is that specific in details with us, we need to be that specific in details with Him.

When we are obeying God’s instruction manual – the Holy Bible, we will not ask for things that do not glorify God. When we are completing trusting in the sovereign plan and choice of God for your lives, we are not going to be adamant that God must see it our way. A bird is free in the air, place the bird in the water and it loses it liberty. A fish is free in the water, but if left on the sand it will perish. Also, we Christians are truly free when we are in the realm of obedience to God.

We learn from people in the Bible, we learn from examples, from their sins, failures, repentance and their godly lives. But if we ever just learn from people and miss comprehending the character of God and what God wants us to know about Him in these stories then we miss everything.

(Revelation 5:8) The Angels and the Elders are holding golden bowls… What’s inside them? The prayers of the Saints. They are not clay jars, they are ‘Golden bowls’. This shows that God keeps our prayers in Golden bowls to show how much He values, loves and treasures them all. what a privilege it is to carry everything to God in prayer.

I have no doubt that David's confidence was in the Lord and not in his own ability. The battle is the Lord's. I do agree that God often prepare us for what is ahead, in fact I often think of my whole live journey as His training school for me. For example, Saint Patrick of Ireland, brought up in a rich Christian family in the UK, but was not a Christian until he became a poor slave in Ireland. There he learnt to speak Gaelic and developed a love of God for the Irish people that burdened him even after he was free from the slavery. He returned to Ireland years later even after much objection, but he went faithfully because God had called him there to spread the gospel there.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

For a long time, so many people and Christian denominations have fought over the issue of “The sovereignty of God and The free will of man.” Yet, the Bible tells us both are biblical, both are true, and whenever anyone overemphasizes one over the other, they end up in heresy.

Lucifer seized to recognize that everything he had was from God, and he wanted to be worshipped instead of worshipping God, and that was why God threw him out of Heaven. Did God know from the beginning that pride would be the fall of Lucifer? Yes, of course, He knew. God is omniscient – meaning He knows everything ahead of time. Could God have stopped Satan from falling? Of course, He could have. God is omnipotent – meaning He can do anything.

So, if God knew that Satan was going to rebel and He could have stopped him from rebelling, the question now is – Why didn’t He? I’ve pondered this question so many times. On the face of it, preventing Satan from rebelling would have saved a lot of heartaches, not just to us, but to God Himself. That rebellion cost God the Son to leave the glories of Heaven and become the poorest of the poor, die on a cross, but to rise again, in order to redeem that which Satan has stolen.

So, what’s the answer? The closest we can get to answering this question is simply this:

Whether the created angelic beings or human beings, God has placed an element of free will within all of His created beings. Otherwise, we’ll be robots or puppets on a string, but God wanted all of His created beings to freely love him and choose to love Him. This is the paradox between the sovereignty of God and the free will of man.

“God accomplishes all things according to the council of His will.” – Ephesians 1:11

What does that mean? It means that God’s will shall be fulfilled regardless of our willingness to follow it. It means that God will accomplish His will, with you or without you. It means that God’s sovereign will cannot be frustrated, thwarted or enfeebled.

https://femiroyalblog.com/2018/08/11/insight-into-the-sovereignty-of-god-the-free-will-of-man/

God always does what He thinks is right without having to account to or justify any of His actions to anyone else. That is His sovereignty. He doesn't expect us to understand everything He says and does. When He inspired the writers of the Bible to write what they did, He did not make any effort to explain it. His attitude was, "Here it is, and it is your choice whether you want to believe it or not."

It was according to the Sovereignty of God that He gave us free will to choose our own future. Satan had free will and he chose against God and suffered the consequences. Adam and Eve had free will and they made their choice and suffered the consequences. Abraham had free will and was prepared to sacrifice Isaac until God stopped him. Paul had free will to go anywhere he wished to spread the gospel after being called at Antioch. When God didn't want him to go somewhere, He stopped him. God had his reasons, but doesn't tell Paul what they are. He just said, "Don't go there" and Paul, using his free will, obeyed.

We have free will to follow Christ and receive the blessings of it, or to reject Christ and suffer the consequences. You will see in Luke's gospel, the rich young ruler was called to become a disciple of Jesus, just the same as the others, but he decided to walk away. The young man's decision made Jesus sad, but He did not stop him because He knew that the young man had the right to make his own decision.

God does not have to explain to anyone why there is so much evil in the world and He seems to do nothing about in some areas, but intervenes in others. Some groups of Christians are killed by ISIS, and others are saved through a miracle where Christ appears in a sand storm. We don't know why one group dies and another is saved. God has His reasons, but He doesn't have to tell us what they are.