Man’s Influence of God’s Will

Luke 11:2 “So He said to them, "When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

We have already looked at the above quoted passage of scripture when we discussed the difference between God’s perfect and His permissible will, and we saw that the Lord Jesus was teaching us in this passage that we were to pray that God’s perfect will would be done on the earth. And so this passage reveals to us an important spiritual truth about prayer, which is if we want to experience God’s perfect will in our lives then we are going to have to pray for that to happen. For the Lord Jesus implied in His teaching that unless we prayed, then God’s perfect will would not be done, which means that we would therefore by default experience God’s permissible will in our lives. In other words when believers enter the kingdom of God they do not automatically experience God’s perfect will for their lives, for God expects them first to find out what His perfect will is, and then ask Him through prayer to perform His will in their lives. The question is then asked, why God doesn’t automatically perform His perfect will in the lives of His saints. We can answer that question by looking at the life of the Lord Jesus. Jesus was the perfect Son of God and He knew God’s perfect will for His life before He ever came to the earth (Hebrews 10:7). Nevertheless if you study the life of the Lord Jesus you will see that He had to pray and intercede to God so that God’s perfect will would be accomplished in the His life (Hebrews 5:7). The Psalms specifically, are full of the Lord’s prayers that He prayed while He was on the earth. And so if the perfect Son of God had to pray to experience God’s perfect will then we are no different, and we too will have to pray if we want to experience God’s perfect will manifested in our lives. We saw earlier that both angels and mankind have free wills. Nevertheless in this area there is a distinct difference between men and angels, for angels are able to do the perfect will of God and never have to pray to God for that to happen. Men on the other hand, even if they know God’s perfect will still have to pray that His will would be done in their lives. So why is there a difference between angels and men in this area? The reason is because angels have the ability to do God’s will, for God has endued them with supernatural power (Psalm 103:20-21), which is why God does not give angels any aid, because they don’t need it (Hebrews 2:16). Men on the other hand do not have the ability to do God’s will, for God has not endued us with supernatural power. Therefore because men are completely reliant on God’s power they have to pray, both for God’s ability and His intervention in their lives so that they can walk in His perfect will. And so in essence that is one of the main purposes of prayer. It is the saints asking God to perform His perfect will in their lives, and thus in this manner the saints are able to influence the will of God. It is for this reason that the apostle John teaches us that if we pray in accordance with His will, He hears our prayers and grants us our petitions (1 John 5:14-15). The will of God that John is referring to in his teaching is God’s perfect will for our lives. The question is then asked, how do we know what God’s perfect will is? The answer to that question is that God’s perfect will is revealed to us in His word and by the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, and let us reason together," Says the Lord, "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” 

Man is a unique creation of God, for we (not angels) have been created in His image and His likeness. And so because of the intimate relationship that we enjoy with our creator, in that not only is He our God but He is also our Father, we are able to not only pray to Him but we can also converse with Him. In the above quoted passage of scripture the Lord invites us to reason together with Him. In other words God is saying that there are instances when He will let us know His will for a given situation, and in turn He invites us to let Him know our will for that same situation. God does that because in certain instances, He is not averse to changing His will to meet our desires, as long as they are spiritual and not fleshly in nature.

Isaiah 38:1-5 “In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, "Thus says the Lord: 'Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.' "  (2)  Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord, (3) and said, "Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what is good in Your sight." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.  (4)  And the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying, (5) "Go and tell Hezekiah, 'Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: "I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will add to your days fifteen years.” 

 Scriptural examples make it easier for us to understand the biblical truth that mankind can influence God’s will in certain instances. The first example we will look at is how Hezekiah influenced God’s will. In the passage of scripture quoted above God had made known to King Hezekiah that it was time for him to die. In other words God had revealed through the prophet Isaiah, His perfect will for Hezekiah. Instead of submitting to the will of God for his life however, Hezekiah let God know in no uncertain terms his view on the subject. Hezekiah felt that he had served God faithfully and he had no desire to have his life ended at that time. And so for whatever reason, Hezekiah disagreed with God’s decision and he let God know just how he felt about it. God was not in the least bit angered with Hezekiah because he disagreed with Him, but rather God listened to him. And so we see that God changed His will to accommodate Hezekiah, and God gave him a further fifteen years of life on the earth. In other words God and Hezekiah had reasoned together, and in this instance Hezekiah influenced God to change His will.

Acts 27:21-24 “But after long abstinence from food, then Paul stood in the midst of them and said, "Men, you should have listened to me, and not have sailed from Crete and incurred this disaster and loss.  (22)  And now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship.  (23)  For there stood by me this night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve, (24) saying, 'Do not be afraid, Paul; you must be brought before Caesar; and indeed, God has granted you all those who sail with you.” 

 In the next example we see the Lord listening to the apostle Paul and changing His will accordingly. The background to this account is that God had impressed upon Paul to advise his jailers not to set sail at that time. God had warned Paul that if they did sail that they would lose not only their ship and cargo, but also their lives. In other words God had made His will known to the apostle Paul. Paul had tried to persuade the men not to sail but they refused to listen to him. As a result they had been caught in a horrific storm at sea and they were about to lose not only their ship, but also their lives. In the intervening period however Paul had been petitioning God on their behalf and God listened to Paul. Scripture does not reveal to us just what Paul prayed for, but we do know that he asked God to spare the lives of all on board. It may be that Paul had only asked for their lives to be spared and had ignored the ship and cargo, or it may be that Paul had asked for both but that God had decided that the ship should be lost as punishment for their disobedience. Nevertheless the point remains that Paul and God had reasoned together and God had changed His will to accommodate, at least part of Paul’s request by granting him the lives of the men sailing with Paul.

Deuteronomy 3:23-26 “Then I pleaded with the Lord at that time, saying: (24) 'O Lord God, You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your mighty hand, for what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do anything like Your works and Your mighty deeds?  (25) I pray let me cross over and see the good land beyond the Jordan, those pleasant mountains, and Lebanon.'  (26)  "But the Lord was angry with me on your account, and would not listen to me. So, the Lord said to me: 'Enough of that! Speak no more to Me of this matter.”

 In this last example we see that the Lord does not always grant our requests, for remember that our Lord said “Come now, and let us reason together”. In other words God also has His say and there are going to be times when His will is going to prevail. The background to the above quoted passage of scripture is that Moses had lost his temper in front of Israel, and he struck the rock that God had told him to speak to. As a result of Moses disobeying God on that occasion, God had told Moses that He would not allow him to enter into the Promised Land with the children of Israel. There had been numerous occasions before this incident, when God had wanted to destroy Israel for their stubbornness, but Moses had interceded to God on their behalf not to destroy them, and God had listened to Moses and had changed His mind by not destroying Israel. And so on this occasion Moses had hoped that the Lord would once again relent, and change His mind to let Moses enter the Promised Land. As we can see however God would not listen to Moses on this occasion, and in fact commanded Moses not to bring up the issue again. Nevertheless Moses and God reasoned together on this issue as well, and in this instance God’s will prevailed.

Michael E.B. Maher

The Will of Man

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