This is God’s Will
“The Right Outlook on Life”
1 Thessalonians 5:16-17

What is God’s will?
	It could be one of the most nagging questions that follows us through life as we face 
	different decisions.

God desires lordship more than giving you advice!

God’s sovereign will
	God’s absolute will, only completely known to Him, in which no person can change the 
	eternal purpose

God’s directive will
	What God has revealed in His word as His desires for us in our lives as followers

Our decisions
	Decisions we make informed by God’s directive will for us

"As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today."  – Genesis 50:20

“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” – Genesis 2:16-17

An Amazing Plan
	God’s sovereign will is always at work to bring about good. God’s directive will is for us 
	to experience God in a way that will inform our daily decisions so that we will experience 
	blessings and bring Him glory.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

God’s will – The right outlook on life  
	Rejoice always
	Pray constantly 
	Give thanks in all circumstances

Resources
God’s sovereign control of all things. We will call this his “sovereign will.” It cannot be broken. It always comes to pass. “He does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?’”
– Daniel 4:35

Examples
Genesis 50:20 – Joseph says to his brothers, "As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today." Here God's directive will to Joseph's brothers was that they should love him and not steal from him or sell him into slavery or make plans to murder him. But God's sovereign  will was that in the disobedience of Joseph's brothers a greater good would be done when Joseph, having been sold into slavery into Egypt, gained authority over the land and was able to save his family.
Deuteronomy 29:29 – “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

John 4:34, 5:30, 6:3 – “I have come to do the will of Him that sent me.” – Jesus

James 4:15 – When James tells us to say "If the Lord wills, we shall live and we shall do this or that.”

1 Corinthians 4:19, Romans 9:18, Acts 4:28 – When Paul says to the Corinthians, "I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills" (1 Corinthians 4:19), he is not speaking of God's directive will, for Paul has already determined, in obedience to God and in fulfillment of his apostolic office, to come to visit the Corinthians. He is speaking rather or God's sovereign will, his hidden plan for the future, which is unknown to us and inappropriate for us to seek to pry into. In the same way we must understand the mention of God's will in Romans 9:18 ("He has mercy upon whomever he wills, and he hardens the heart of whomever he wills") and Acts 4:28 ("to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place") as references to God's sovereign will."
Source: Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 214-215

“It cannot be denied that we witness God’s sovereignty at its most brilliant when he magnifies his wisdom in human folly, his strength in human weakness, and his grace and righteousness in human sin.”
Source: Herman Bavinck, 245

Directive Will
His will is what he commands us to do. This is the will of God we can disobey and fail to do. The will of decree we do whether we believe in it or not. The will of command we can fail to do. For example, Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” – Matthew 7:21. Not all do the will of his Father. He says so. “Not everyone will enter the kingdom of heaven.” Why? Because not all do the will of God.

Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4:3, “This is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality.” Here we have a very specific instance of what God commands us: holiness, sanctification, sexual purity. This is his will of command. But, oh, so many do not obey.
Then Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” There again is a specific aspect of his will of command: Give thanks in all circumstances. But many do not do this will of God.

One more example: “And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” – 1 John 2:17. Not all abide forever. Some do. Some don’t. The difference? Some do the will of God. Some don’t. The will of God, in this sense, does not always happen.
Source:  John Piper, What Is the Will of God and How Do We Know It?

Examples
Matthew 6:10 – Luke 22:42
“…not my will, but yours be done…” – Jesus, Luke 22:42 
Disciples wanted Jesus to teach them to pray… “…Your will be done.” – Jesus 
Ephesians 5:17, Romans 2:18, 1 John 5:14
1 Timothy 2:4 — Paul says that God "desires [or 'wills, wishes,' Gk. theleo] all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth"
2 Peter 3:9 – Peter says that the Lord "is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

The value of both of God’s will
Before I relate this to Romans 12:2, let me comment on how precious these two truths are. Both correspond to a deep need that we all have when we are deeply hurt or experience great loss. On the one hand, we need the assurance that God is in control and therefore is able to work all of my pain and loss together for my good and the good of all who love him. On the other hand, we need to know that God empathizes with us and does not delight in sin or pain in and of themselves. These two needs correspond to God’s will of decree and his will of command.

For example, if you were badly abused as a child, and someone asks you, “Do you think that was the will of God?” you now have a way to make some biblical sense out of this, and give an answer that doesn’t contradict the Bible. You may say, “No it was not God’s will; because he commands that humans not be abusive, but love each other. The abuse broke his commandment and therefore moved his heart with anger and grief (Mark 3:5). But, in another sense, yes, it was God’s will (his sovereign will), because there are a hundred ways he could have stopped it. But for reasons I don’t yet fully understand, he didn’t.”

And corresponding to these two wills are the two things you need in this situation: one is a God who is strong and sovereign enough to turn it for good; and the other is a God who is able to empathize with you. On the one hand, Christ is a sovereign High King, and nothing happens apart from his will (Matthew 28:18). On the other hand, Christ is a merciful High Priest and sympathizes with our weaknesses and pain (Hebrews 4:15). The Holy Spirit conquers us and our sins when he wills (John 1:13; Romans 9:15-16), and allows himself to be quenched and grieved and angered when he wills (Ephesians 4:30; 1 Thessalonians 5:19). His sovereign will is invincible, and his will of command can be grievously broken.

We need both these truths – both these understandings of the will of God – not only to make sense out of the Bible, but to hold fast to God in suffering.

Source: John Piper, What Is the Will of God and How Do We Know It?