The Five-Fold Will of
God
Romans
12:2 mentions the four-fold aspect of the will of God:
1. Good
will of God
2. Pleasing
will of God
3. Acceptable
will of God
4. Perfect
will of God
The
five-fold will of God is all of the above, but also includes the “permissive”
will of God.
From
past experience, I would not recommend that anyone be in the permissive will of
God. For then you will go through a lot of heartaches, losses, chaos, negative
situations happening, financial setbacks, marital problems, problems with your
kids, health issues that arise, and many other complications.
You
will feel as if you have been banished to Babylon or to the wilderness. The
road of life will be very bumpy, and life will be hard.
Your
finances might dry up, and your marriage fail, or your health begin to fail,
and it’s an open door for the devil to send calamities into your life like he
did for Job.
You
will go through many unnecessary trials and tribulations, and afflictions and sufferings
that otherwise could have been avoided. Things won’t work out very well in your
life.
However,
when you are in the good, pleasing, acceptable and perfect will of God in your
life concerning a matter, things will go well for you in your life. You will be
blessed tremendously, and even beyond measure, and become prosperous in spirit,
soul, health, relationships, ministry and finances.
The
good, pleasing, acceptable and perfect will of God is His very best for you. He
wants to give you the best. He wants you to experience the best outcome in your
life, marriage, family, ministry, career and destiny.
You
have to be in tune with the Holy Spirit to listen to His still small voice
speaking to you. He will guide you into all truth, and will give you direction
for your life. He will help you to make the best and most wise decisions.
Wisdom
will lead to your life being like a tree of life and a fruitful garden that
abounds with blessings and good fruit. It will lead to a life of peace, rest,
abundant life, wealth and riches, long life, health, happiness, joy and
satisfaction.
Like
I previously mentioned, there is also the “permissive” will of God. This
involves issues that are neither right nor wrong (gray issues), or even
necessarily sinful issues. But they are issues that the Lord does not care for,
but He just puts up with it and is not happy about it. He just tolerates it. He
lets you make the choice, but it’s not His best will for your life.
When
you are in the permissive will of God, you won’t be totally happy or at peace.
Things won’t go well for you like you anticipated. The road will be full of
twists and turns, and bumps and obstacles. There might be strife and turbulence
in your life. Your life will not go quite as well as you hoped it would.
There
will be disappointments and delays. Your life will feel dry and thirsty like a
parched desert, and you will wander around in a wilderness.
You
might miss coming into your promised land when you are in the permissive will
of God (unless you choose to make a course correction and get back into the
good, acceptable, pleasing and perfect will of God).
Twice
that I am aware of, I found myself in the permissive will of God. It never
involved gray issues or immorality or anything like that.
Many
years ago (I am 58 right now) when I was in my younger 20’s, I was living with
my parents in Antioch, California. But the commute to my workplace and to the
church I attended at the time, was about 20 miles west.
I
had to spend over an hour commuting in heavy traffic each way. I desired to
move to Concord, California to be close to my job and my church.
One
of the ladies from church invited me to come and move in with her and her
family and to rent a room. She gave me a fair room rental price (I think
around $400 and that included food too).
I
prayed about it if it was God’s will, and even asked one of the Senior Pastors
of the church what he felt in his spirit, as he often received prophetic words
and words of knowledge from the Lord.
When
I inquired about how he felt in his spirit about moving in with a friend of
mine and renting a room in her home, his only response was that God was neither
saying “yes” or “no”. The decision was mine to make.
I
ended up making a very poor decision. I learned from that experience that if
God neither says “yes” or “no”, and the situation involves other people, it is
best to just drop the issue and not proceed.
I
lived with this family from church for a year and a half. Shortly after I moved
in, I realized that I made a mistake. Instead of graciously asking if it was okay for me to move back to my parents’ home, I stayed put where I was hoping
for things to improve. But it only got worse and worse over time.
The
problems were not with my friend or her husband necessarily, but her children
continually stirred up strife and made my life miserable. Her kids would often
purposely do mean things to me just because they knew I would get upset.
After
tolerating this for around 18 months straight, one day I was eating dinner. One
of her children said a very rude and smart-alec remark to me. (Her kids were
always treating me with disrespect, dishonor and being rude and being
smart-alecs).
So
I had tolerated enough for 18 months, and when her son began browbeating me and
being a smart-alec, and being very rude to me, I had put up with enough and immediately
told my friend and her husband that I would be moving out at the end of the
month.
My
friend was upset because she wanted me to stay, but I couldn’t put up with her
kids anymore and their bad manners.
So
the day before the end of the month, I packed up my belongings, and somehow jammed
it into my Toyota Camry, and drove back home to my parent’s house.
My
parents gladly allowed me to move back home. They never wanted me to move out
in the first place. But they let me make the decision. And it was a very bad
decision where I left feeling burnt.
My
friend and I used to be close-knit, but after moving out and I was very angry,
and she felt frustrated too (although she never attempted to correct or
discipline her children).
It
ended up that both of us parted ways and were no longer close friends anymore.
That experience of moving in their home ruined our relationship that we used to
have.
I
felt relieved to move out and get out of there. My friend felt bitter for a
long time after I left on a bad note.
Our
friendship was never the same ever again. We still were friendly with each
other if we ran into each other at church or a ministry conference. We would
talk and catch up on how everyone is doing.
But
things in our friendship were never the same after my 18 month experience of
living there and being totally miserable since Day 1.
If
I could do it over again, when I realized on the first day that I made a major
mistake, instead of thinking that I “made my bed and had to sleep in it”, the
right thing would have been to just ask my friend if it was okay for me to move
back in with my parents, and to be released from the agreement. I could have
just told her that I changed my mind, and decided to stay in Antioch with my
folks.
Another
experience of being out of the will of God was in 2020 when my brother was
forceful and demanded that I move to Juneau from Antioch, California to live
near him.
I
didn’t want to move to Juneau, Alaska, and I didn’t feel good about it in my
spirit. But I felt I had no other option of where to live.
My mom had passed away in 2019 and 14 months later my dad passed away in 2020. I lost both parents within a 14 month period of time. I am still mourning over them and look forward to seeing them when I get to heaven when it's my time to go.
So
even though I didn’t feel good about moving to Juneau, I went ahead and made the move.
The
very next day after arrival to Juneau, from my hotel room (temporary place to
live for only 3 weeks until I found an apartment), I looked out the window and saw
a major jet taking off and flying south.
I
told myself that I wanted to be on that jet heading back to California.
But
I told myself to just stick where I was at, and to get used to where I was
living.
For
a few months, things went okay. Once a week I would go over to my brother's house for
dinner and fellowship and sometimes play board games. He lived with his
girlfriend named Gretchen.
She
is from the Catholic Church and loves Jesus. We got along very beautifully, and
she was so kind to me and would drive me places to get groceries, snow boots,
and other things I needed. She took me to a bank to get set up with a bank
account from Juneau. She did a lot of very kind things for me.
Then
after being in Juneau for 5 or 6 months, my brother and Gretchen decided to
part ways. Then I Iost fellowship with Gretchen.
Then
my brother lived close by in an apartment and only once in a great while we
would have a visit or go out to dinner at a restaurant. Then over a year ago in
May of 2023, he relocated to the Denver, Colorado area. I was very happy for
him, but sad for me.
I
was left here in town with no blood family or friends.
In
2021 I got married to a wonderful man of God. He has been my “sweet sunshine”
as I am always telling him. Almost daily it is rainy and cloudy here, and in
the winter there is snow, ice and slush.
I
miss my birth state of California where the weather is mild and does not snow
in Antioch in the winter. Also, after I moved to Juneau I lost all of my
friends from my church in Antioch and from neighbors and other lady friends.
I
was forced to have to put my cats to sleep before moving to Juneau, because I
could not take them with me on the long journey.
I
was out of the perfect will of God and in the permissive will of God.
The
end result of being out of the perfect will of God is that since moving here to
Alaska, I have gone through many losses and setbacks. My health has failed. My
finances dried up. I went through many afflictions and hardships.
But
somehow I have made it and survived. It is always a safe thing to follow the
leading of the Holy Spirit and to be within the perfect will of God. Then things
will go much smoother in your life.
I
am happily married now, and we have kids, but for a while in the early stages
of marriage, there was turmoil with many “outside interferences” plus enemy
attacks coming against us right and left.
But
now there is peace and joy. I am in love with my husband and love our children.
We knew each other for many years when I lived in Antioch. We were attracted to each other. He would come often for visits. We developed a romance while living in Antioch, although were not married yet.
After I moved to Juneau, he would come where I was and have visits with me. If we had not come into a courtship in Juneau, then we would have
come into a courtship while in Antioch. Then there would not have been so many
enemy attacks and outside interferences.
To
experience the fullness of God’s best plan for your life, seek out His will and
Word concerning all the key issues of your life, and seek His wisdom when
making decisions, and especially life-altering decisions (such as to who to
marry, what friendships and relationships to keep company with, ministry
decisions, or whether or not to relocate to a different geographical area).
You
have to get to the place in your life of putting Jesus first, and making Him
the Lord of all the secret kingdoms of your heart. Allow the Holy Spirit to
produce good fruit in your life by submitting to His will, His Word, His plans,
and His ways of doing things. Then things will go well in your life.
When
you walk in the fear (holy reverence) of the Lord, and obey His commandments,
and abstain from sin (such as sexual sin, porn, anger, pride, unforgiveness,
hatred, prejudice, malice, jealousy, abuse of any kind, ungodly movies, ungodly
music, and all other things that involve living according to the flesh rather
than the Spirit), then things will go well in your life and you will be blessed
beyond what you could ever hope for or imagine.
Seek
the Lord and spend time in His Presence daily, and worship Him, to step into
His grace so that you come into alignment with His perfect will and plan for
your life. Trust in the Lord that He has your best interest at heart. His plans
for you are good, to give you a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11).
God’s
perfect plan for your life is for you to experience righteousness, peace and
joy in the Holy Ghost (Romans 14:17). He wants your peace to be like a river,
and for your joy to be full and complete.
He
wants you to experience total shalom in your life (heaven on earth, peace, joy,
contentment, rest, satisfaction, love, every need met, nothing missing or
broken, prosperity in every area of your life, all the wounded places of your
soul to be healed, and life forevermore).
To
come into the perfect will of God for your life, it involves getting to know
the Lord better and more intimately (in spirit and soul), so that you trust Him
completely. Spending time every day in His Presence is the key thing. In His
Presence is fullness of joy, and at His right hand are pleasures forevermore
(Psalms 16:11).
Spending
time daily in His Word will also transform your life. The Lord will take you
from one plateau of glory to another, by His Spirit.
Psalms
42:1-2 says, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul longs after
You O Lord. My soul thirsts for God, for the true and living God.”
Allow
the Lord to be the Potter and for you to be the submitted clay. Let Him have
His way in your life, and mold you and make you into a vessel of gold, a vessel
of honor, fit for the Master’s use.
As
the old song goes,
“Have
Thine own way Lord, have Thine own way, Thou art the Potter and I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will, while I am waiting yielded and still.”
Prayer of
Salvation
It
is God's will that no one should perish (end up in hell), but that ALL should
come to repentance.
For God so loved this world that He gave His only begotton Son,
that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
God did not send His Son into this world to condemn the world,
but that the world through Him would be saved.
The thief (Satan the devil) comes only for to kill, steal and
destroy. But Jesus has come to give us life, and life more abundantly, until it
overflows.
I urge you to come to the Cross today and receive Jesus as your
Savior and Lord. He will wash away all your sins and make you as clean and
white as fresh snow.
Please do not put it off for another time in the future. I urge
you to not delay. Come to the Lord today and give Him your heart and life. He
will save, and heal you and make you whole.
Please do not delay, because on this earth there are no
guarantees that a person will wake up in the morning. Also, you could be
driving on the highway and be involved in a major collision and be instantly
killed. You may be flying in a jet or aircraft and the plane crashes and
everybody is killed.
A person does not know the exact date that they will die. But
the fact is that every person will eventually taste of death (unless you are
translated to Heaven which is very rare and highly unlikely, although it could
happen for a few that is. it happened for Enoch, Elijah and
Elisha).
Come to the Cross today and do not delay. Time is of the
essence. If you should die not knowing Christ, then you would perish and end up
in hell. Eternity is a very long time. Do not play games with your salvation or
takes unnecessary risks.
Just pray this prayer and mean it with your heart:
Dear Lord Jesus,
I receive You as my Savior and Lord. I give my life over to You.
I believe that You died and rose again, and that if I call on the Name of the
Lord I shall be saved.
I accept you into my heart right now, and confess that You are
Lord and have risen from the dead and forever live to make intercession for
me.
Thank You for washing my heart pure and clean and making me
whole, and for giving me peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Thank You that now I am a new creature in Christ Jesus. The old
has gone and the new has come.
And there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh (carnality and sin), but walk after the
Spirit. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
If you prayed this prayer, I believe you got born again and are
now heaven bound and will be with the Lord forever and have eternal life. Your
sins are now forgiven. You are accepted in the Beloved.
I would encourage you to find a good Bible based local church to
help you grow in your faith, to learn the Word of God, to praise and worship
Him, and to have fellowship with the saints.
Serving Christ is the best decision you will ever make.
Only Jesus can satisfy your soul, and only He can heal your
heart and make you whole.
He will give you peace you never knew, and sweet love and joy,
and Heaven too, for only Jesus can satisfy your soul.
God bless you!!!
