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The will of God vs the will of man

  • Writer: Devon B
    Devon B
  • Sep 11, 2019
  • 4 min read

Updated: Sep 12, 2019


Yesterday, we lost a dear colleague and his 10-year-old son in a motorbike “accident.” I use inverted commas because I question whether it really was an accident. My colleague was transporting his son to school as he does every morning, yet on this particular morning, they had no idea they were going to be called or rather sent home. A Rea Vaya bus driver had been speeding and skipped a red light, smashing into my colleague and his son on their motorbike, shredding the bike by dragging it for a few meters under the bus, killing them instantly. He leaves behind his wife and daughter.


Now, Patrick was a humble, compassionate, patient, genuine, God-fearing man; who always carried words of encouragement, who lived, spoke and acted out of love, and was passionately devoted to his family. My friend and colleague expressed how she often questions God at times like these, which I believe is a perfectly reasonable response to this kind of situation. Like, “Why would God allow such a thing to happen to a believer?” “Why could God not intervene or stop them from dying, or even bring them back to life since He’s an all-powerful, miracle-working God?” Similar questions that I’ve come across include “If God is all-powerful, why doesn’t He stop all the evil in the world?” “Why are people dying at the hands of others; why is there so much poverty and sickness in the world?” The list goes on. Although these are all relevant questions, they usually stem from a place of pain and disappointment, and oftentimes from a lack of understanding and knowledge of God. So, I will make an attempt at shedding some light on the above-mentioned concerns.


According to my understanding, shaped by the revelation of Dr Myles Munroe, Ravi Zacharias, and my Apostle Brandon Bailey, there is a distinction to be made between the will of God and the will of man. We see in the book of Genesis chapter 1 that in the beginning, when God created man, He said paraphrased, “Let us create man in our image, and let them have dominion over the earth.” God did not say, “Let US have dominion over the earth.” So, when He gave man free will, He did not simultaneously impose His own will upon us, He did not include Himself in the equation when He gave man dominion. I would not be comfortable serving a God who gives me free will and controls my so-called free will at the same time. Such a God would be a deceiving, manipulating, dictator because He could then control my life as He pleases. Free will would then be a lie, which would imply that God is a liar, which He is not. God is not a man that He should lie; lies are the expertise of the enemy.


As much as God has a plan and purpose for our lives, it is still up to us to choose whether or not we want to align ourselves to His will. It is only then, that God’s plans and purposes for our lives are established and manifested. We have the free will to choose differently. God, in the book of Deuteronomy 30:15-20, gives us the choice of life and death while outlining the consequences, and even goes as far as to outright tell us what the better decision is, life. As recklessly as God pursues us, He will never impose Himself onto us. He wants us to worship Him out of our own free will. In the same way, He allows us to live our lives according to our own free will. I find it unreasonable, therefore, to question where God is amidst the chaos when the chaos only exists because we choose to live life without His guidance. It is just unfortunate that oftentimes, we find ourselves at the receiving end of the consequences of man’s decisions, which man also makes out of his own free will. Patrick, in this instance, fell victim to the consequences of the bus driver’s decision to skip the red light. Whether he had run his race and finished his course remains in question; this is why I previously insinuated that he had not necessarily been called home, but that he and his son had been sent home.


So, if anything, we shouldn’t be asking where God is, in a situation into which God was never invited in the first place. We should be looking in the mirror and at our fellow human beings and asking where we have gone wrong as humanity; which I think is turning our backs to God while expecting Him to play a position to which we have not assigned Him. Matthew 10:41 says, “Whoever receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward.” So, to be frank, until we openly and wholeheartedly accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and saviour, we have no business asking God about His whereabouts in times of crisis. This insight, I believe, is reserved for those who genuinely want God in their lives. For God to take control, we need to give Him control. Questioning God becomes the most convenient point of departure for conversations that ought to be addressing the will of man. Ultimately, God cannot be held accountable for the decisions people make out of their own free will. This is a principle that we may not easily accept but is one we all need to understand.


“My people perish for a lack of knowledge” – Hosea 4:6

“In all your getting, get understanding” – Proverbs 4:7


 
 
 

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