God created humanity with free will. We can and do make our own choices, proving volition. Therefore, we have the choice to respect and honor God, or to go our own way. Furthermore, God’s plan for creation and humanity was ordained, and history is being lived as God ordained.
At the consummation of human history, the ordaining wisdom, the perfect plan of God, will prove to be just that – the perfect plan. The omniscience of God is our assurance of deliverance.
The term “divine decree” incorporates the divine purpose (God’s will, as in Ephesians 1:9-11); the determinate counsel (Acts 2:23); foreknowledge (1 Peter 1:2 and 1:20); election (1 Thessalonians 1:4); predestination (Romans 8:30).
It is imperative that you understand the Foreknowledge of God:
The word “foreknowledge” in the original Koiné (common) Greek is proginosko – pro is before hand, ahead of, and ginosko is know.
- Foreknowledge is omniscience – God knows all and always has. God is the Self-Existent One with all knowledge – a knowledge (like God Himself) without beginning, without end.
- Divine foreknowledge does not coerce man’s free will. Therefore, divine and human volition co-exist.
- Before the foundations of creation, God knew all the events of history and every choice of man and satan.
- Divine decrees may be defined as the sum total of the Father’s plan, which was designed in eternity past.
- The Father’s plan centers around His Son, Jesus Christ (Yeshua Messiah) who executed (and still executes to this day) the Father’s plan (1 John 3:23; Ephesians 1:4-6). Jesus Christ reveals the Father.
- Entrance by any man into the Father’s plan is based on God’s grace, so I like to call it “God’s Grace Plan” or the “Pre-designed Plan of Grace (PPG).” God had each person ever born personally in mind before history, before time. God’s grace plan is centered around and in Christ in the cross-redemption of fallen man.
- Grace is where the sovereignty of God and the free-will of humanity come together – a reconciliation at the cross (Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 5:8).
- God respects our freedom to make our own decisions, as stated above. God permits sin (through our own volition), therefore, to save us from our choices, God provided His Son and His Son’s death in our place on the cross.
- Adam’s free will chose to disobey God – the worst decision in human history. The best decision in history is your decision to trust Jesus Christ as Messiah, the One Who died for you personally on the cross (Acts 16:31). God is not responsible for sin – Adam’s decision was Adam’s choice. Each person throughout history has the same choice as Adam – God or self. Obey, or choose not to do so, and suffer the eternal consequences.
- God’s divine decrees do not arise from God’s foreknowledge. The foreknowledge of God perceives, before history (creation), the things that are certain. Predestination allows the certainties of history. God’s plan designed the provision for salvation and the consummation of history through His Son, revealed by both the Son and the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:23; Romans 8:29; 1 Peter 2:1).
- The humanity of Christ chose to go to the cross in the garden of Gethsemane the night before (Matthew 26:31-45; John Chapter 17).
The divine decrees unite in one final and all-inclusive objective, which is the glory of God (Proverbs 16:4; Romans 11:36; Hebrews 2:10; Revelation 4:11).
Know this: the consummation of history will glorify God. We must recognize and respect divine authority.
We pray because:
- We are designed to respond to God. In our relationship (provided by Christ) with the Father, God is the aggressor – humanity is the responder. God is our Spiritual Father, we are His children (John 1:12).
- Christ told us to do so.
- Christ always, continuously prayed while seeking and performing the Father’s will.
- When we pray, God is glorified, and we are obedient.
- Prayer is our privilege, and it honors Christ who opened the doors to the throne room, so that we might approach boldly. Hebrews 4:16: “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
- Prayer helps us to remain faithful and dependent on God. Faith is proven when the object of our faith (which is Christ) answers, whether that answer be yes, or no, or wait.
- Prayer is necessary for salvation and effectual execution of the Christian life.
- Prayer allows us to live in privacy with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
- Prayer is intimacy with God.
- Prayer keeps us humble.
- Prayer gives us peace and inner happiness – courage to live life in the flesh (in our body) by the guidance of God’s Word and the Holy Spirit.
- So we will never be alone or feel alone.
God indwells us and walks every step with us through fields of grace.
Happy Studying!