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On a General Thread, it dawned on me that many of you might have good book ideas on "God's Will".
Open for ideas or discussion.
is finding the will of God a biblical concept?
bruce waltke
Far too many Christians rely on faulty logic to divine the will of God. Their thinking goes like this:
God has a plan, and therefore
He intends that I find it.
That is a non sequitur, a conclusion that cannot logically follow the premise.
Simply because God has a plan does not mean that He necessarily has any intention of sharing it with you.
As a matter of fact the message of Job is in part that the Lord in His sovereignty may allow terrible things to happen to you, and you may never know why.
In North America we live such safe and scheduled lives that we come to presume that God will act "fairly" toward us. Then when some young person dies in a tragic accident we cry, "Unfair! How could a loving and just God allow this to happen?" This is an excellent question, and one that Job asked, but he was never given the sort of answer he expected. However, if we contrast our lives with those of Christians living in sections of Africa that have experienced racial strife or who have gone through severe drought, we begin to remember that there is no guarantee of "fairness" in Scripture this side of the grave.
My following of God is based upon my relationship with Him rather than on a special "sign." Rather than looking for some sort of wrapped spiritual package from the Almighty, I want to rely upon my closeness to Him. So when I wonder about which job offer to take, I don't go through a divination process to discover the hidden message of God. Instead I examine how God has called me to live my life, what my motives are, what He has given me a heart for, where I am in my walk with Christ, and what God is saying to me through His Word and His people.
Bruce Waltke is professor of Old Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando, Florida, and professor emeritus of biblical studies at Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia.
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Good topic!
The best book I've found on the subject is "Hearing God" by Dallas Willard.
Pastor Larry
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I enjoyed Friessen's book "Decision Making & the Will of God." It was at a time when I was rethinkign some things and had come to some conclusions. I found myself laughing out loud while reading Friessen because I saw my previous self in many of his illustrations ... It was like he knew me or something. He confirmed many conclusions that I had come to over a period of several years but had never really addressed with anyone else.
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Second to Friessen would be Haddon Robinson's
Decision Making and the Will of God and John MacArthur's
Found: God's Will
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The Mysterious Will Of God by Charles Swindoll is pretty good.