I must admit that I'm surprised this is not a more well known concept. I came across it in my first months of studying reformed theology when I read John Piper's article Are There Two Wills in God?. But Piper isn't alone in believing this. RC Sproul speaks of it in his book The Invisible Hand: Do all things really work for good?:
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If God ordains or wills everything that comes to pass, we wonder how that affects human volitional actions.

One way this is frequently answered is by an appeal to God's permissive will. The distinction is made between God's "decretive will," by which He sovereignly brings to pass whatever He decrees, and His "permissive will" that leaves room for the moral actions of His creatures. However, this solution often oversimplifies the question. If God is omnipotent, then He clearly has the power to prevent any event from happening that actually happens. If I choose to sin this afternoon, God has the power to prevent me from sinning if He so chooses. He also has the right to prevent me from sinning since He is sovereign. If he "permits" my sin, this does not mean He sanctions it or gives His permission in the sense that He deems it lawful. He may let it occur without intervening to stop it. This is what is meant by His permissive will. He lets it happen. But what God permits to happen He still chooses to permit...

The human desire for sin is also under God's sovereign control. I cannot even desire to sin unless God in His providence "permits" it, and He will not permit it unless it accords with His ultimate will. In a word, I cannot even sin unless it is ordained in some sense by God... The key phrase here is the one used by Augustine when he argued that God, in some sense, ordains everything that comes to pass. The qualifying phrase "in some sense" was Augustine's attempt to preserve the mystery of the relationship between divine sovereignty and human responsibility.


"Nothing can be more insulting to God than to presume to examine His Word, professing a desire to learn His mind, when we have already settled to our own satisfaction what it will say."
~A.W. Pink