God’s sovereign will is reflected in all the uses listed above and refers to God’s secret, determinative decree according to which all things must necessarily and inevitably occur. Being secret, it cannot be known (Isa 5:18–19), and the Christian’s proper response to it is to accept it in faith.
God’s moral will refers to God’s revealed, prescriptive ethical/moral expectation of his creatures that they ought to do. This will can and must be known, and the Christian’s proper response is to obey it (Acts 20:27; Rom 12:2; 2 Cor 8:5; Eph 6:6; 1 Thess 4:3; 5:18; Heb 10:36; 1 Pet 4:2; 1 John 2:17).
The idea of God’s “perfect” will; i.e., a best course of action among several legitimate options, which God normally hides but divulges privately to those who meet certain conditions in an earnest quest to discover it, is not a category reflected in the biblical material. The “perfect will” idea fails for the following reasons:
It erroneously conflates two mutually exclusive expressions of God’s will, one wholly secret, the other wholly revealed.
It is based on a semi-gnostic, existentialist view of discerning truth.
It is based on poor exegesis of texts such as Romans 12:1–2.
It often reflects a faulty view of divine sovereignty, suggesting true contingency in the decree of God.
Stand Firm! 