Can I Miss God's Will?
1) Direct Answer
Yes—a person can step out of God’s perfect will by unbelief or disobedience and miss His best in a season. But if you truly belong to Him, His purpose will stand; He will correct and bring you back. The Bride will not miss her place.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- The Bible shows a perfect will and a permissive will. “Prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2). That means some things are allowed, but they are not His best.
- Israel wanted a king. God let them have Saul, but said, “they have rejected Me” (1 Samuel 8:7). Permitted, yet outside His perfect plan.
- Balaam pressed past God’s “No” until he got a “Go,” and it led to judgment (Numbers 22; 31:16). That’s permissive will—dangerous ground.
- Jonah ran from God’s will, but God corrected him and set him back on the path (Jonah 1–3). You can detour, but God can bring His own back.
- Not everyone doing religious works is in the will of God (Matthew 7:21). We must do the Father’s will, not our own way.
- For those who are His: “All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me” (John 6:37). “My sheep hear My voice… and no man is able to pluck them out of My hand” (John 10:27–29). He finishes what He starts (Philippians 1:6).
- We are told, “Be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is” (Ephesians 5:17). That means it can be known, and it can be missed if we are unwise.
- God’s will is first moral and spiritual: “This is the will of God, even your sanctification” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). As we walk clean, He orders our steps (Proverbs 3:5–6).
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- If everything that happens were God’s perfect will, there would be no warnings to “understand” His will, no call to “prove” it, and no need to pray “Thy will be done.” The Bible gives those commands because our choices matter.
- You can miss timing, peace, and reward by choosing your own way (1 Corinthians 3:13–15). But if you are His, you won’t miss salvation or your ordained place; He disciplines and restores His own.
- The Bride hears the Word, follows the Spirit, and will not fail to take her place. She is called, washed, and kept.
Practical counsel to stay in His perfect will
- Yield fully: Present your body a living sacrifice so you can “prove” His perfect will (Romans 12:1–2).
- Stay in the Word: His will never contradicts Scripture (Psalm 119:105).
- Be led by the Spirit: “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Romans 8:14).
- Watch the fruit and the peace: The wisdom from above is pure and peaceable (James 3:17); let His peace rule in your heart (Colossians 3:15).
- Don’t force God after He has spoken: Balaam did and paid dearly. Wait, obey, and don’t press past the check of the Word and Spirit.
- If you’ve stepped off: Repent now. He restores and even redeems lost time (Joel 2:25). “All things work together for good” to them that love God (Romans 8:28).
Short reinforcing statement
Don’t live in the permissive will. Walk in the light you have, and God will make the next step plain. His perfect will is knowable, walkable, and sure for those who yield to His Word and Spirit.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
One in a million
65-0424 §25
Just let me give you just a little analysis. "Not all that saith unto me 'Lord, Lord,' will enter therein, but the one that doeth the will of my Father." Jesus said, "On earth man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word..." Every word, not just now and then a word, but by every word. It was one word misbelieved of God's commandments that caused death, sorrow, and every sickness and heartache. To miss God's word, one word... If He taken the human race into death by misbelieving one word... "Surely, surely.....
The Supernatural
56-0129 §18
...oo poorly." Perhaps a fine Spirit-filled man, but the organization would not promote him, no matter how Spirit filled he was, because of an inadequate education. There they missed God. Peter couldn't even sign his own name, and he had the keys to the kingdom of God given to him by Jesus Christ. We're looking to education. Education's fine, but that's taught in school houses. The church is the place to know of God and learn of God, and in the supernatural. And God is supernatural and the same yesterday, today, and f...
Moses' Commission
50-0110 §18
But when the promise drew nigh, they thought, surely, that they would understand. But the people of God... Usually Satan works right in there with their understanding, and makes them dull of understanding. And there they miss God nine times out of ten. But God had His promise there. Now, then when Moses went down to deliver them, why, they refused him, rejected him. And it cost them forty years more suffering. Isn't that right? Forty years more suffering. Moses run to the backside of the desert, of course. And afte...
Escape hither, come quickly
58-0202 §7
In Mark 11:24 and 25, we find out in there that He used that great power of God on a tree just to show the disciples a lesson. He used it on a fish. Many of you's heard about the possum, all things. God is so simple, works so simply that you go over the top of it as if it were some great, high, doxology somewhere, and you miss God. It's because you don't look in the simplicity to see Him. If you just get down and notice those things, God is right with you, moving.
God has a Provided Way
62-0728 §19
...fire. They rose up out of Egypt. They had never been out that way before. But they went just as straight to the promised land, because they were following a pillar of fire, God's provided leader. They stayed right in God's provided way. Oh, it's too bad that we human beings miss it so much, because we don't know who our leader is. That's the only thing. We try to take some thought of our own. We always mire up somewhere and wreck up. Now ducks and geese go south, and they have a provided leader. God, if he's going...