What is God€™s permissive will?

There are two definite lines discernible in Scripture — God's (a) directive will, and (b) permissive will; (a) unfold to us God's purpose, and (b) His overruling in the midst of the ruined creation in His providential dealings.

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. ... The will of man is diametrically opposed to the will of God, and although God in His infinite wisdom allows man to carry out his will at the present time, the day is surely coming when God's will will be done on earth, even as it is done in heaven.

This calling out takes place now, when, on the other hand, God is allowing man's will — during the period which is called "man's day" — to expose its folly. This, pursued without subjection to God's will, eventually culminates in the "wilful king"; and a trinity of evil — Satan, the false prophet, and the imperial beast of Revelation — will plunge the nations ... into a vortex of strife, darkness, and blasphemy, bringing swift judgment upon both the deceivers and the deceived to make way for God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Though the primary thought of this passage is the testing which God permits to come upon believers, yet we cannot rule out altogether the idea of temptation, since every test brings with it the temptation to succumb, by gratifying ourselves rather than glorifying God.

God Himself is above all evil. It is absolutely foreign to His nature. ... Equally so it is impossible for Him to tempt anyone with evil though He may permit His people to be tempted with evil, knowing well how to overrule even that for their ultimate good.

God permits His people to be put into the crucible and tries them, even by fire, but it is because faith in His estimation is a thing of exceeding value. So we are going to look at our testings in the light of this, God is dealing with us for the refining of faith, and to strengthen it.

It was a "messenger of Satan," and yet it came permissively from the hand of God, on the top of all the trials that came upon him from the persecuting world and the defects and failures of the saints.

Israel ought not to have needed them. Simple faith would never have thought of them. But the Lord saw the real condition of things, and issued a command accordingly.

Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives; but from the beginning it was not so.

Thus we see that the mere granting of a desire is no proof whatever that such desire is according to the mind of God. Israel ought not to have asked for a king. Was not Jehovah sufficient? Was not He their King?

It is a comparatively easy thing to act as circumstances seem to prompt, and if these circumstances become a supposed divine rule of action to me, this is precisely to abandon the march of faith for providences. Alas! into how many ditches will this blind guide lead the unwary, or the unfaithful Christian?

Thus, we see that providence may place in a position which God would have us not use but leave. It may seem the most fair occasion possible in outward things; but faith judges the contrary, because faith looks not to our honour but to God's.

God's will is not attractive to the flesh, indeed the flesh abhors it, but the renewed mind sees God's will as pleasurable, and proves it to be "good, and acceptable, and perfect."

Which is better, to know the will of God, or to prove it in experience? Certainly the latter! But how may we prove it? On the negative side, by not conforming to the world: on the positive side, by being transformed by the renewing of the mind.