There is a popular religious teaching that is presented in most churches to most Christians that God moves in “mysterious ways” and that we can never really know or understand His will because He is so far beyond our ability to comprehend.

Let me just start out this post by letting you know right up front that this teaching is pure garbage and that it was invented by the devil.

I am not telling you that your pastor who is teaching you this error is of the devil. But I am telling you that they are getting their doctrine from the devil.

Hopefully I am not being too subtle here. I really want you to understand how destructive this teaching is to everyone who hears it and believes it.

Our passage lets us know that we have an instruction to understand the will of the Lord. The verb is a continuous action, so Paul is not encouraging us to push forward in a hit or miss fashion. We are ALWAYS supposed to be understanding the will of the Lord.

Anything less is not actually walking with Jesus! But the popular teaching is telling Christians that this is not attainable! And this is simply a tactic of the devil to put something in the way of every Christian so that they can NEVER hope to walk with Jesus.

Understanding and knowing the will of God is the only standard for normal Christianity. Anything less is substandard.

And yet, not understanding the will of God is far worse than just being substandard. This teaching pushes God’s people into operating with terrible and sinful characteristics.

If you don’t understand God’s will, then you are not only unwise, but you are an actual fool! You are not walking circumspectly, you are not redeeming the time, and you have no way of recognizing that the days are evil.

The doctrine that God’s ways are mysterious and cannot be known is the second most destructive doctrine taught in the modern church. It turns Christians into fools. It takes away their wisdom. They lose the ability to be able to consider all of the consequences of their actions (the meaning of “circumspectly”).

When you don’t know God’s will, you are left to founder along and build your own standards of the way in which God operates among His people and in the world at large.

This is a recipe for defeat and disaster. From here it is only a hair’s breath away from beginning to teach other terrible doctrines that will kill you.

One example of this downward spiral is the teaching that God is using some bad thing that He allowed into your life so He could teach you something and get the glory.

Only fools teach that. But not understanding what the will of the Lord is will turn you into a fool.

God is always good. And He only gives us good gifts. But if you don’t understand God’s will because you believe it is mysterious, then you will start calling bad things from the devil the good things from God.

That right there will kill you. So don’t be unwise. Understand that God’s will is not mysterious and that He wants you to know it!