Can faith change Gods plan?
Scripture draws a careful distinction between two aspects of God's will — what He desires His people to do (which can be accepted or rejected), and what He has determined to bring about (which nothing can alter). Faith does not change God's plan. It brings us into alignment with it.
God's Counsel Is Immutable
The article "The Counsel of God" (An Outline of Sound Words, 1967) sets out this distinction plainly:
"The Counsel of God"There are two distinct ways in which God's counsel is presented to us in Scripture. First, there is God's mind for us, given for our help and blessing, which it is possible for man to accept or reject. Secondly, there is that which God has determined to do, with which no one can interfere, and which God will assuredly bring to pass.
On the one hand, God graciously offers His counsel to guide us — and we may refuse it, to our own loss. On the other hand, His determinate counsel — His eternal purpose — cannot be frustrated by any creature:
His counsel is eternal, nothing can frustrate it, it remains, manifesting the wisdom and the power of God.
And regarding Hebrews 6:17:
The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews speaks of "the immutability" of God's counsel, showing that God, in His goodness comes down to meet man in his weakness, and to show that what He promises He will assuredly fulfil, He confirms what He has promised with His oath. God's counsel is indeed immutable, it can never be altered; there is no power in earth or heaven that is able to turn God away from what He has set Himself to do.
God Works All Things After His Own Will
"Aspects of the Will of God" (An Outline of Sound Words, 1970) echoes the same theme:
"Aspects of the Will of God"Sometimes the will of God is presented to us in Scripture as that which He desires His people to do, and at other times it is that which God has determined to do, and which will be assuredly carried out in spite of all the opposition of the enemy and the failure of His people.
And:
God had His eternal purpose, and to secure it He had His counsel, the counsel of His own will, the plan to bring to fruition that which He had purposed... To secure all for that day, God "works all things after the counsel of His own will." Whatever may take place among men, the hearts of God's saints can rest quietly in this, that behind all that is passing, God is working all to secure what He has determined to have for His own pleasure and the glory of His Son.
Even the wickedness of men is overruled to serve God's plan. The Cross itself is the supreme proof:
God can use even the wickedness of man to subserve His counsel and will. ... It was necessary, to fulfil God's counsel, that Christ should die, and God took the occasion of man's rejection of His Son to carry out this great work that would secure His glory, and [be] the basis for accomplishing all His purpose.
Faith Aligns Us With God's Will — It Does Not Alter It
H. J. Vine brings this into sharp focus in The Mystery of God's Will:
H. J. VineBoth the willing and the working according to God's good pleasure are the result of His working in us as Philippians 2:13 tells us.
The desire to do God's will does not originate with us — it is God who works in us both to will and to do. Faith does not impose something new upon God's plan; it is itself the fruit of that plan operating in us. Vine also writes:
We are therefore not to be downcast by difficulties, nor become slack when the path is smooth, but dominated by the will of God, press forward with divine joy filling our hearts, having the double assurance that the end is secure and all is for good on the way.
Abraham's faith illustrates this perfectly. Writing on Genesis 17:
The faith of Abram was further tested at this point. ... The whole matter has become impossible as far as man and the flesh are concerned. The power of God must come in if the promise is to be fulfilled. Yet note how many times in Genesis 17 "I will" is mentioned. This is the statement of an unconditional covenant. All relies on God's unchangeable will and purpose.
Abraham's faith did not create or alter the promise — it received what God had already purposed.
Prayer Operates According to God's Will, Not Against It
What then of prayer? Does the prayer of faith change God's mind? The article "Practical Remarks on Prayer" (Bible Treasury, 1909) is careful:
"Practical Remarks on Prayer"Such is "the boldness" we have towards Him, that "if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us" (1 John 5:14). This involves brokenness of our own wills, spirituality; without which our thoughts and feelings do not move in the line of His will.
The condition of answered prayer is not that we bend God's will to ours, but that ours is brought into line with His. The Holy Spirit's work in prayer operates exactly this way:
The Spirit Himself maketh intercession ... He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to God.
The Spirit intercedes according to God — not to change God, but to form within our hearts desires that correspond to His will.
W. J. Hocking reinforces this in The Church at Prayer:
W. J. HockingWe know that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatsoever we ask, we also know that we have the petitions which we have asked of Him (1 John 5:14-15).
The efficacy of prayer lies not in changing God's plan but in the fact that the Spirit moves us to pray in accordance with that plan — and God, who sees the Spirit's mind within our hearts, answers.
God's Eternal Purpose Cannot Be Moved
William Kelly, writing on 2 Chronicles, captures the full picture:
William KellyNotwithstanding, the wisdom of God knew how to combine His purpose of grace with His righteous government. Each evil king as a responsible man is judged in righteousness; in which all the unsaved will be judged. But the decree founded on grace is eternal and unchangeable. The Son of David shall, must, reign. The government shall be upon His shoulders, and of His kingdom there shall be no end.
The consistent testimony is that faith does not change God's plan. God's eternal counsel — His purpose in Christ — is immutable. No creature, no prayer, no act of faith can deflect it.
But this is precisely what makes faith so precious. Faith is the means by which we enter into God's plan. God works in us "both to will and to do of His good pleasure." The Holy Spirit forms desires in us that correspond to God's will, so that when we pray "according to His will," He hears us — not because we have persuaded Him to change course, but because He has graciously brought us into alignment with what He was always going to do.
In that which God does not rule, He overrules. Even human wickedness — even the Cross itself — served His determinate counsel. How much more does the prayer of faith, inspired by His own Spirit, move perfectly within the current of His purposes?
Faith does not change God's plan. Faith receives it, enters into it, and finds rest in the certainty that "God works all things after the counsel of His own will."