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.
Show us the Father and it will suffice us
62-0722 §79
Lady sitting right back there---high blood pressure, heart trouble. If you'll believe with all your heart, lady, God will make you well. God bless you. Go home, be well. God makes you well. Do you believe it? Just don't doubt. Lady sitting right here. Hallelujah! She's suffering. She wonders what's wrong. She's got cancer. She's also got a cyst or growth she's bothered about. Oh, I hope she don't miss it. God have mercy. Miss North! Believe with all your heart. Amen. We're strangers to one another. Never saw her in...
As the eagle stirreth
60-0403 §98
Right there, sir, do you want to get over that heart trouble? Believe that God will make you well, sitting right there? You were looking and wondering and all at once a little funny feeling trinkled over you. That's right. I don't know you, do I? You don't know me, and I don't know you. If that's right, raise up your hand. Do you believe your heart trouble is gone? Wave your hand. All right, then it's gone. Do you believe? Here's a lady sitting right out in here. Can't you see that light over that woman? She's got...
Does God ever change His mind about His Word?
65-0418E §58
Now, Balaam sought the will of God with all of his heart. Now, when these great men come over and said, "Balaam, Balak, the king, has sent that you come to him immediately and curse this people Israel, because 'they're scattered all over the face of the earth and now they're camping against me. And they've licked up every kingdom around below them. And now we want you to come over and curse this people, because I understand that if you curse anyone, he's cursed. [Now you see, he was a man of God.] What you bless is...
Seals 1: God hiding and revealing Himself in simplicity
63-0317M §158
...then condemn me. But what did the Scriptures say that I would do that I haven't done? [Sin is unbelief, you know.] Who can accuse me? If I cast out devils by the fingers of God, then show me what you're doing about it." Simplicity---even surrendered Himself unto death, but oh, on that Easter morning! He swept out the trash all right, brother. Yes, indeed. And the wheat was sealed in the garner, laying there in the ground with eternal life, resting there waiting for that great day that we're going to speak of---the...
Speak to this mountain
57-1215 §7
...same faith." Well, my beloved friends, every divine promise in the Bible belongs to you. And it's just as essential to you as it was to Him. You find one promise here that God has made, and all the heavens and earth would pass away before that promise would ever fail to act in your stead, because it's to the believer: Whosoever will may come and be partakers of these blessings. I think that one of the main things that causes us to miss the blessings... And remember, "Faith cometh by hearing, hearing of the Word of...