Doctrine of Divine Guidance

July 15, 2010

DIVINE GUIDANCE:  Doctrine of

1.    Definition and description:

A.    Divine guidance is a basic doctrine dealing with the determination of the will of God for one’s life.  God has had a plan for each one of us from eternity past.  Divine guidance is doing the will of God because a person knows the will of God.  Divine guidance results when the will of God is communicated.  God’s will is communicated to us in this dispensation ONLY through the Canon of Scripture.

B.    Principle:  You cannot know the will of God apart from knowing the Word of God.

C.    Principle:  The will of God must be consistent with His attributes.  The will of God comes from the sovereignty of Go

D.    The sovereignty of God or the will of god is manifest in the decree of God.

2.    The Divine Will of God

A.    The difference between God’s decree and God’s laws:

1)    Decrees are the ACTION  and the PLAN of God.  Laws regulate human conduct and function.

2)    The laws of God are completely revealed in the Scripture.  The decrees are partially revealed.

3)    The laws of God can be broken by human volition.  The decrees of God cannot be broken or frustrated by man’s volition or angelic volition.

B.    All things depend on God’s will and nothing is certain apart from God’s will.

C.    The will of God is the reflex of the mature believer, i. e., the mature believer can apply doctrine to every situation of life.

D.    Distinguish between the decrees of God and the desires of God:

1)    Examples:

Desire:  His perfect will be done by humans and angels.
Decree:  Human and angelic volition violating His perfect will

Desire:  Not to cast humans or angels into the Lake of Fire.
Decree:  All who reject Christ will be cast into the Lake of Fire.

Desire:  Not to discipline believers
Decree:  Believer’s dominated by the OSN will be disciplined.

2)    What God decrees may not be what He desires.

Decreed:  Your acts of sin, human good, and acts of evil.
Not desire:  Your acts of sin, human good, and evil.

3)    When human volition lines-up with divine desire, the result is divine guidance.

4)    When human volition lines-up with divine decrees, this is not necessarily divine guidance.

5)    There is much in the divine decrees that is not God’s desire.

6)    Divine desire is what God wants to happen.  Divine decrees are what really happens.

(Both desires and decrees come from the sovereignty of God.)

7)    What is desired by God is not always decreed by God.

Example:  All be saved; all will not be saved.

What is decreed by God is not always desired by God.  Example:  Everyone commits sin, human good, and evil, but God does not desire it.

What is desired by God is sometimes decreed by God.  Example:  The desire for the believer to reach maturity.  Some actually reach maturity.

What is decreed by God is sometimes desired by God.  Example:  The believer rebounding when guilty of sin.