See Pt I before delving into this deeper discussion on this subject.
There are two aspects of God’s will. One is his objective will, which is for everyone, all the time. The Scripture is the objective will of God. It is the revealed will of God for everyone, everywhere, and everywhen. The second is the subjective will of God. While it is always consonant with his objective will, it is God’s personal will that concerns specifics related to the individual that are not explicitly covered in his objective will, Scripture. God’s will for an individual is specific for that person and may not be precisely the same for anyone else, at least at a particular time and place. As Christians, we live our daily lives in recognition of both, as shown in what and how we pray.
But most teaching or biblical commentaries about praying in the will of God are usually about the objective will of God. Other references on this topic warn that the word “anything” does not give us carte blanche in our prayers. I agree with that caveat, but, unfortunately, I have been guilty of only making that warning or clarification and failing to explain what seems to be comprehended in praying in the will of God. My desire is to make more explicit what is meant by praying according to his will, which means we must understand what is included in his will.
Are we to understand according to his will to include only events covered in his objective will, Scripture? Or does praying in God’s will consist of both his objective will for all people and his subjective will for the individual praying? To clarify, praying in God’s will would include the conditionals found in Scripture since those commands are contained in his objective will, and therefore, for everyone all the time. But would it also include conditionals that are a part of God’s subjective will for the individual? I believe it does.
Those who believe everything is determined would (as would knowledgeable Calvinists), of course, only include what God has determined. This makes the whole concept of conditionals, whether in his objective or subjective will, seem rather pointless. Because the one who meets the predetermined condition was determined to do so (so there was never any doubt that the promise would happen in his life). The one determined not to meet the condition (so there was never any doubt that the promise would not happen in his life) has been eternally predestined, and nothing can alter that. Thus, there are no real conditionals in Scripture.
But as we have seen in Scripture and in how we live our daily lives (part 1), there are conditionals. Meaning, God says he will do something that will make the outcome different if we meet his prescribed condition than it would be if we do not. In this case, God will answer our requests made according to his will if we ask, and only if we ask. If we do not ask, he will not answer a non-request.
As an Extensivist (generally, I use this term as a positive replacement for non-Calvinist; I further explain it here), I believe praying in the will of God includes both his objective will for all and his subjective will for the individual, which would include the conditionals of both his objective and subjective will.
I believe choice matters; our requests or lack thereof really matter in what happens. I think the conditionals of Scripture are just that. I believe praying in the will of God includes the conditionals of Scripture. Although the subjective will is seldom mentioned as being comprehended in praying in the will of God when we speak of the Scriptures that promise to grant our request, we do talk about and pray about countless things that are not explicit in God’s objective will.
All of this to ask, can God’s will for us, subjectively and personally, be a part of praying in God’s will, and with the promise he will give it to us if it is according to his will? If not, we should quit teaching people to pray about everything and even stop praying for God’s will in our lives in a very personal and subjective way.
John says, “If we ask anything according to his will he hears us . . . We know we have the requests which we have asked him.” (John 5:14–15). Does that kind of promise, which is repeated many times in the Scripture, include only his objective will, or does it include his subjective will? If it includes his subjective will, and I think it does, then we can expect to find conditionals in God’s subjective, specific, and personal will for us that is similar to the conditionals we see in his objective will for all people at all times. This understanding means I can pray for some things that are not explicit in Scripture regarding God’s will for my life in the whole array of events that constitute my personal life in seeking to follow God.
I could be praying about a particular health issue in my family or a friend’s family, knowing that God has comprehended such things in what it means to pray in the will of God. Some of which would be conditionals similar to those found in Scripture. I can know that some events will turn out differently if I pray than if I do not pray. We should view these prayers as consonant with his objective will, but we should not view them as a replacement for his objective will.
I could and should pray about health issues because it might be a conditional part of his subjective will to pray. But, I also must be aware that it may not, or the outcome I am seeking is not his desire for me. That is where I decide whether I trust him more than I trust myself. If so, the conclusion of our prayer in the words, “Your will be done” is the prayer that extols God’s objective and subjective will.
God may be thinking of someone who needs the witness of Christ in a scenario that is best addressed if my health prayer is not answered. But it could simultaneously be his will that I prayed for what is a legitimate need since he said “in everything by prayer . . . let your requests be made known” (Phil 4:6). It would not have been his will if I did not make that known in prayer and just said, “Your will be done” because I would be skirting part of his objective will.
The request, “Your will be done,” does not seem to fit best at the beginning of our prayer, as a replacement for making our requests known, or as something that is necessarily contrary to our requests. Christ did place it first in what is traditionally known as the Lord’s prayer (Matt 6:9–15), but he then made specific requests, which is surely fine.
But when he actually prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, he prayed his requests first (Matt 26:39). I am not speaking directly to whether you say it first or last, but rather that it cannot be used to bypass making our requests known, which saying it first is more likely to do. We have all heard people say, “Your will be done” at the beginning, followed by nothing. Consequently, practically speaking, it seems best at the close of the prayer because we recognize we do not know everything, and we trust him above everything. “Your will be done” involves the following. First, we desire God’s will because it glorifies him and is best for us. Second, it is his will that we make our desires and requests known to him. Consequently, we are doing his will and praying according to his will when we make our requests known, and we are not when we do not make our requests known. Third, the nature of conditionals is that if we do not meet the required condition, we miss out on the conditioned result.
For example, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Matt 7:7). The very nature of conditionals is that if we don’t ask, seek, and knock, God will not answer, give, and open the door so we can find. Therefore, his will includes making our requests known because what we pray about might be a conditional, which means that if we ask, it is his will to answer and change the outcome of the event we prayed about. Whereas if we do not ask, it is his will not to respond and change the outcome. Both giving blessing when we ask and withholding blessing when we do not are included in praying his will. Therefore, if we pray “Your will be done” without making our requests known, we may very well be asking God not to answer our heartfelt but unasked requests, which he would have answered had we asked.
Think about all the things we pray about daily, or I believe we should pray about, that fall into the category of the subjective will of God. We pray about health issues, job issues, where a person will go to school or college, money to build a church or pay a bill, providing or repairing a car, a need in a personal relationship, for children, for parents, marriages, time organization, ad infinitum. If these things that are very personal, his subjective will, are not comprehended in Scriptures that speak of asking according to his will, then we should stop praying about them and teaching others to do so as well.
But I believe that conditionals exist in both God’s objective will and subjective will for the individual so that a person praying for everything in his life is praying in the will of God. People are in the will of God when they are making their requests known so long as they understand that God alone knows what requests in his subjective will that are conditional.
God does, in his will, provide what is needed to fulfill his subjective will for an individual as he does in his objective will for all. That is to say; I believe God answers prayer (Isa 37:15–21; Matt 7:7; John 16:23–24; 14:13–14, James 4:2; 5:16–18; 1 John 5:14–15). I believe his call to pray “at all times” (Eph 6:18) “without ceasing (1 Thess 5:17) “for all things” (Phil 4:6) means just that. We are always praying about everything, and my understanding of everything is that means everything that is not contrary to God’s nature and objective will.
For example, Debbie needs a car, and so she prays specifically for God to provide her with a car. There is no Scripture to pray for a car except seeing it as covered under the command to pray for everything (Phil 4:6). Now when praying for a car, it could be that God does not want Debbie to have a car, or he could even want her to have a different vehicle at this time. It could be he never wants her to have one. That is possible, but it is also possible and seems highly probable that he wants Debbie to have a car.
God may desire Debbie to have a new car or used car, but it is a conditional. God has determined that area of Debbie’s life is conditional. That is to say, if she asks, he will provide it, and if she does not ask, he will not. The pattern for conditionals in God’s subjective will is the same as his objective will.
Therefore, it seems that praying about everything (Phil 4:6), all the time (1 Thess 5:17), includes God’s subjective will as well. It actually would seem quite odd that it would not. That would mean there are not some things he desires for one person that he may not for another. Or that he would not want us praying about those things that he wants to personally do in our lives like a new job, where to live, and the countless things we do pray about regarding our families. In contrast, that he does want us praying for everything in his subjective will for us fits well into praying all the time for all things.
Further, that we are to pray about everything in our lives, tells us that not everything that rushes into our lives, be they opportunities or trials, is his will; to know, we have to pray. Finally, given that he has placed conditionals in our personal lives, we may assume they are similarly prevalent as we find in his objective will. These, as in Scripture, will come to pass differently if we pray than if we do not pray.
A person who senses God wants them to be a missionary will then pray about that, as well as such things as what country, when, through what sending organization, where to be trained, what to do specifically, and all the related familial and other ministry concerns.
We know God does not call everyone to be a vocational missionary, and he does not call or desire all missionaries to go to the same country. Therefore, it seems undeniable that there is a subjective will of God in which we should make our requests known.
I remember well the process of accepting God’s call to preach and then to pastor. This call is full of decisions that must be made to follow him step by step to the church where he desires you to pastor. The process for discerning these things is, to a significant degree, discovered through prayer. The application of prayer to discerning God’s subjective will for each of us can be applied to seeking the will of God in a galaxy of possibilities. Many of which would probably be conditionals that will turn out differently if we pray than if we do not.
Unless there is an explicit Scripture or a clear overarching principle, we cannot know what things or events are determined by God and what is not until we have gone to him in prayer, and even then, we will not always know; nor do we need to know.
All we have to know is that there are conditionals, and they will have a different outcome if we pray than if we do not. If we do not ask, we do not receive. It also seems that God’s subjective will could include options. That is to say, God could incorporate various options or details within a broader area of prayer that is conditional. He could have one particular option in which he includes multiple components that are conditional. If the person prays for all of them, God will grant all of them, but if they pray for only some, he will grant only some, provided they are conditionals.
For example, Bill is praying about where to go to school. There are three different schools Bill is considering. Bill prefers school A over B and C, but he is sure he does not want what he wants more than he wants God’s choice. At the outset of thinking and praying about what school, Bill is unaware that God’s choice is school B. He makes that known to Bill in the process of prayer, counsel, and thinking through various components of his decision. He may use persuasive leading and highlight option B through the Holy Spirit and even circumstances.
Bill understands, in God’s subjective will for him, he may not want him to go where his friends are going. By the nature of conditionals that he has established, we know that his will is not unconditional in every circumstance.
The only things that are unalterable in a conditional are that if we do not ask, we do not receive, and the range of options that have been set by God. Additionally, it may be within God’s permissive will to permit Bill to go to any of the schools if Bill places his will above God’s, even though what would be best for him is school B. Remember, we are never out of God’s teaching range. He desires to teach us humility and the walk of faith within his desired will for our lives, but he can teach it even when we walk contrarily in what we think is best or even in rebellion.
Importantly, God may condition his perfect will in a given situation on having made our heart known through our requests, and then with a great heart of trust saying, but Lord above all, I want your will. And his will was to give us what we specifically prayed for. But if we would not have prayed at all, or would have prayed and only said “Your will be done” without expressing our requests before speaking our trust in his will, he would not have answered our prayer according to his perfect will because that included making our specific request known.
Reasons for this can be things like teaching the intimacy of prayer so he can better teach us the value of prayer, or so we can grow in our sense of walking in fellowship with him. Meaning, he is not going to lead Bill to the school that would be best for him apart from specific honest prayer, much in the same way he is not going to give him the wisdom or peace he desires for him or us to have without first meeting the appropriate conditions of asking, trusting, seeking, and knocking.
But his perfect will, where Bill will be most blessed, is school B. That perfect will is known to Bill by praying and trusting it is God’s will to pray through the options and be more desirous than anything that he ends up in God’s perfect will.
But it may go still further, what if what God wills for Bill also includes that B has financing, which is not available at school A or C. And that the money available with B is not automatic, but Bill must ask for it as well. What if included in his will were other conditionals like housing or the curriculum that he wanted Bill to take as opposed to what he would allow him to take in his permissive will. Friends he might meet or other opportunities that he might have while in school that are conditional, which means he will not have them if he does not ask.
In many scenarios, there could be so many possible conditionals that we could not think of all of them at one time. Consequently, we could not sit down and write a list of all the possible conditionals to pray for simply because we could not think of all of them at one time. We may just take them for granted if we do not really grasp the nature of conditionals.
That raises the question of how we cover all the various components. One way is that we should pray about them as they come to mind. God has a plan for each one of us. In this scenario, if Bill prays and trusts the leading of the Holy Spirit, he will experience the best God has for him. In addition to these big decisions, there are many associated components that God has made conditional. God’s permissive will lets us choose our desires instead of his best, but God will still teach us and accomplish his will in our lives.
The recognition of conditionals’ in both his objective and subjective will means that praying in the will of God is not something that is static or will happen regardless of whether we pray, ask, or seek; the will of God does not entail that all outcomes are determined.
Instead, God’s will, at least in the area of conditionals, includes our praying and making our specific requests known, without which, we are not praying in the will of God. That is because praying in the will of God includes seeking whether our specific request is the will of God or not. That includes the need to keep in mind that without asking, praying about everything, which would involve bringing our requests to him in prayer, we cannot truly be praying in the will of God.
The reason we know this is that we know it is his will that we pray about everything. “Your will be done” is not a shortcut to praying in the will of God. When we pray “Your will be done” in place of making our requests known, it can or surely does contain an element of insincerity since it is evident that we do not desire his will to be done in our lives, or else we would be doing his will by making our requests to him in prayers. Don’t let “Your will be done” become a substitute for continuous praying about everything because God is not impressed (Phil 4:6).
Praying in the will of God includes conditionals, which means that if we do not pray about them, we are not praying in the will of God. One can see how the very nature of conditionals deepens one’s walk and fellowship and trust in God. When Christ was in the garden of Gethsemane, he prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will” (Matt 26:39). The first part of that prayer was equally the will of God (making his specific requests known), as when he said, “But as You will.” As a servant who is totally dependent on the Father, he should make all his requests known and desire God’s long-term best, whether it was according to his specific request or another path determined by the Father.
Accordingly, we all agree we are to pray in the will of God, and he gives everything according to his will. We see that our normal recitation of “Your will be done” does not answer the nagging question of what is comprehended in his will, which leaves unanswered what does it mean to pray in the will of God. We know some things for sure.
It is his will that everyone be saved (John 3:17; 1 Tim 2:4; Titus 2:11; 2 Pet 3:9). That is static, absolute, and unchanging. We can know that all the time with every person. But we can also know that the conditionals of Scripture are just that. If we meet the condition he sets forth, he will grant the promise of the condition; conversely, if we do not, he will not grant the promise that is dependent on fulfilling the conditional.
Simply put, the recitation, “Your will be done” is not the totality of what is included in praying in the will of God. We make our requests known by praying in faith and the power of the Holy Spirit, and then rest in trusting God’s will may be what we prayed or not, but we want his best.
Therefore, asking, even if what we ask for turns out not to be what he desires for us, is praying in the will of God, as was the case with Jesus in Gethsemane.
On the subject of salvation, Paul says, “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom 10:9). There is a condition and a conditional promise. If a person will confess . . . and believe . . . he will be saved. So, what if he does not believe? Well, if the statement is genuinely conditional, he will not be saved. Thus, God’s perfect will is that a person who confesses Christ gets saved, and equally his will, those who do not believe, do not get saved. The condition matters.
We find that God’s objective will comprehends his desire for the salvation of all persons “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,” (Titus 2:11) which he wills to happen or not happen based on whether or not they confess Christ. Both outcomes are comprehended in the objective will of God.
Similarly, if there is a subjective will of God, it can be within God’s perfect will for a person to go to school B and be blessed in many ways, but that can be equally conditioned on whether the person asks or makes school B a request, including all the associated components of school B that God has made conditional. Spurgeon said, “Brethren, if there be a God, and if this Book be his Word, if God be true, prayer must be answered; and let us on our knees go to the sacred engagement as to a work of real efficacy.”[1]
There is a pervasive urgency throughout Scripture to pray. There could be things that come to mind that we should pray for, but if we wait too long, it becomes the past, and the prayer cannot affect what it might have had we prayed when first prompted by the Holy Spirit.
Understanding the presence of conditionals as seen throughout Scripture highlights the practicality of the numerous commands and calls to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess 5:17), for “everything” (Phil 4:6), “with all perseverance and petition for all the saints” (Eph 6:18), and makes them even more relevant. Without this understanding, the commands seem to be only for the most dedicated prayer warriors, but in light of innumerable conditionals, they are seen for what they are. They are for the average Christian as much as they are for the most dedicated; they are essential for experiencing God and his best for us in this life.
Therefore, I believe we can come closer to fulfilling the commands to “pray without ceasing” and to pray for “everything” if we practice this principle: if you think about it, pray about it!
[1] Spurgeon, “Praying and Waiting,” 607. Akin, 1, 2, 3 John, 206.
