Is it true that when we are carrying out God’s will, if it truly is God’s will, it will always “work” out?

For example, let’s say you know for sure that God’s will for you is to take this one job. Is it possible that even though it’s God’s will, that job doesn’t work out? “Of course not!”, you might think. “If it’s God’s will, then it will always work out. It has to. It is God’s will after all.”

But I see in the Scriptures that this is not the case always. In the book of Judges, Israelites are going to war against their own brother tribe in Benjamin to judge them for a sin they committed. (So, 11 tribes against 1). They ask the Lord which tribe of Israel should attack first. The Lord said, “Judah.” So, Judah leads the attack. But they are resoundly defeated by the Benjamites! Bewildered, they now ask the Lord if they should go to war at all against the Benjamites. The Lord said, “yes.” So, they attack again the second time. But they again get defeated! This time, they pray and fast and worship God. Then they ask the Lord again if they should continue the war. The Lord said “yes,” and promises that they will have victory this time (That promise wasn’t there the first two times). This time, the Israelites completely defeat the Benjamites which they failed to do the previous two times. (Judges 20)

What’s going on? God was judging both the Israelites (11 of the 12 tribes) and the Benjamites (1 of 12). Yes, the Benjamites have done wrong and needed to be corrected. But then the rest of the Israelites weren’t really right before the Lord either. So, God is correcting both parties.

So, in the end, God’s will prevailed. But it took some “failures” to get there. They eventually won the war but lost a few battles in between.

Lesson 1: Our failures don’t necessarily mean that we are not in God’s will. We could be smack dab in the middle of God’s will and experience what people would construe as failures. Stay in there if it’s God’s will. He will bring about the victory eventually.

Lesson 2: Our success doesn’t necessarily mean that we are pleasing in God’s eyes. It might just be that we are being used as an instrument to bring about God’s will for someone else. So, our success is no cause for pride.

Lesson 3: God is more interested in molding and shaping us to be the kind of people who will be fit to do His will. It is the being that is emphasized rather than the doing. Even though the Israelites were in the right, their lives weren’t right. So, God gave them defeats to shape and mold them.

“God disciplines those whom He treats as sons.”

I hope this blesses you. It did me.

PH