THE WILL OF GOD IS PROGRESSIVE
The will of God is progressive:
Hardly does one read any scriptures that give a blue print about the will of God concerning people. I dare say that there is no blue print on the will of God for God’s people in the bible! This means, scripture has no example(s) where a person received the whole picture (or a master plan) of the will of God and followed it the end. However, there is enough evidence to show that God always gave the end of the picture but the process (day-to-day activities) of getting to the end was more often not given.
God’s will revolve around Isaiah 28:13. “But the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept,…line upon line… here a little and there a little….”. To possess the promise Land, the children of Israel received the promise and the route to the promise land but the day-to-day activities came with time during their journey to the promise land. They had to take a first step towards the promise land before other doors were opened to them. The will of God is progressive indeed.
Joseph had a dream about his future- how ‘other sheaves made obeisance to his sheaf’ and ‘the moon and eleven stars made obeisance to” him (Genesis 37:7, 9). The day-to-day process was not revealed as part of the package. He was sold into slavery, worked in Potiphar’s house, thrown into prison and from prison, he rose to become a prime minister. What is important to note is that, Joseph was consistent in his obedience to God’s word and became a blessing wherever he was. All that he went through prior to his promotion was more of a training process for him. We must be seen to be obeying the revealed word as we journey towards the big picture in the end- another demonstration of the progressive nature of God’s will.
Cornelius, a centurion and devout man, received a revelation from God to contact Peter. Cornelius did not receive all the details or the actual final part of the revelation (which was salvation) but he was obedient to the part that was revealed to him and in the end, he received salvation including his household (Acts 10). We should not always look to the end because God has his own ways of bringing us to our ‘promise land’. We should be ready to work with even the minutest part of the revelations He gives to us. This is another case to buttress the fact that the will of God is progressive.
Sometimes, when we know the end result of God’s will for us, we are tempted to rush things to get to the end. When David was anointed king to replace Saul, he did not rush the process. He even had the opportunity to murder Saul at a point in time when Saul was pursuing him (1 Samuel 24) but he refused. The situation presented itself as if it was part of God’s will and his followers were encouraging him to do it. For Abraham, he thought he could accelerate God’s will of providing him a son and this resulted in the birth of a son with Sarah’s maid. When he waited patiently afterwards, God gave him the promised son (Isaac).
God’s will is progressive and requires our diligence with Him. We must be ready to invest all our resources and our abilities to walk towards the big picture. The fine details may be difficult to know but our daily walk with Him must be dependent on the already revealed word and the Holy Spirit.
