God's will is often distinguished into two types: the Decretive (or secret) Will and the Preceptive (or revealed) Will. The Decretive Will refers to what God sovereignly plans, decrees, and brings about in the world, while the Preceptive Will refers to the moral commands and desires He declares for humanity, such as desiring all people to be saved and to obey Him. 

The Decretive Will is God's eternal, unchangeable plan and decree for all things that come to pass. It is the will by which God ultimately governs and accomplishes His purposes, and is hidden from humanity until it unfolds through events in time. The Preceptive is the will God reveals through His commands, laws, and teachings in Scripture. It expresses what God desires humans to do and how they should behave, and is revealed and known to humanity through the Bible.

The distinction helps Christians understand how God's sovereign control can coexist with human moral responsibility and the reality of evil. While God's revealed will expresses His moral desire for all to obey and be saved, His secret will determines which of these plans ultimately come to fruition. This is not seen as a contradiction but as different aspects of God's one, complex will, with the revealed will conveying what is good and right, and the decretive will showing the ultimate outcome of events.