I've wrestled with the concept of changing God's mind for a while and was somewhat confused about this until I realized that it is not The FATHER that Changes, After all our FATHER is Immutable and therefore never changing.
Malachi 3:6 God Declares “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”
Here we see that by his own word that The FATHER does not change. So what does it mean when it says that God repented or changed His mind?
First, when we think about immutability we should not think that God does something this way and only this way, but just as a father or mother may treat all their children equally they may not treat them all the same. For some children, a stern look is an acceptable discipline, for others harsh words, and even others Proverbs 23:14 (Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.)
Likewise, The FATHER is the same God never changing in his desires for man. In his awesomeness, he may have to do some things to bring us into a correction. Just as a child if playing in the supermarket get out of control his/her parent may say "If you don't stop I will spank your behind" THE HEAVENLY FATHER may have to impose what may appear to us as harsh punishments if our actions continue. (Give me a second I'm going somewhere with this.)
Now the written Word of The FATHER says that The FATHER knows the hearts of man ACTS 15:8 so when a man, Moses or Abraham, David, you or even I, come to our HEAVENLY FATHER in prayer saying Merciful God does not do what you said you would do! The Holy Spirit searches our heart and knows if our request is effectual and fervent if our request is contrite and the actions of The FATHER are determined by the contriteness of our repentance toward The FATHER.
For the simple mind of man this may appear that THE FATHER has represented or is even mutable, but in fact, what has happened is that our repentance from our sin did not dictate in the Eyes of THE FATHER what may have appeared as negative repercussions.
I once heard a pastor say after losing his son to drugs and violence, God has taken everything away, all the distractions that stop me from living my life totally for him. His spiritual knowledge and understanding of how THE FATHER does what is needed to bring us to a level of spiritual maturation were profound even in his time of mourning for his son he realized that God allowed what had happened to happen so that The FATHER could bring him to a higher place, and He could live up to the full potential that God had for him.
Can God Answer a Prayer for
Something Outside of His Will?
Again we are creatures of limited minds and thoughts and therefore we perceive the will of THE FATHER by our own terms. To keep it simple God will not answer prayers for something outside the scope of his will. In doing so THE FATHER would not be the immutable being that the Scripture says that He is. The flaw is that man with a limited understanding has thought because God says thou shall not kill and later tells King Saul to kill all the Amalekites that The FATHER contradicts himself. This is however a misconception because the immutability of God is that he does what he does for the best interest of his Children. Always.
This may seem hard to swallow but think about this. The FATHER who is always just acknowledged to mankind that all sin must be punished and paid for with blood. therefore because of His immutability, toward justice and man's inability to give good sacrifices, decided within GOD'self "I will manifest myself in flesh, take on the form of sin but being perfect and without sin and though innocent will be propitiation for the sins of the world." So that man may by the name of my son Jesus Christ return back to me unto salvation.
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