All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. (Philippians 3:15 NIV)
How do you determine what to believe and think? How do you determine what is the right choice to make or the right course of action to pursue? Is it possible to get insight about these matters from a higher power? Lots of people think so and are attempting to do just that in many different ways.
Now you can have your own personal psychic. Just dial the number appearing on your screen and a real live psychic will give you answers to life’s most difficult questions. So go the commercials on late night television. We even have celebrities promoting these psychic networks. I personally like the advertisement I saw recently which guaranteed that all of their psychics were "certified." Now, who do you suppose certifies psychics? I’m sure that they were all certified and personally I think they are certifiable.
Do you believe in that junk? Many people today obviously do! Why do we see such a rise in this kind of sooth-saying? Undoubtedly, people are asking questions for which they have no answers. They must believe that there is a "right" answer to these questions that is just beyond their understanding. So, they try to tap in into a "higher" wisdom. As a result, many charlatans get rich.
But are we to conclude then that there is no supernatural guidance? We must be very careful not to throw the baby out with the bath water, because the Bible clearly teaches that God guides His people. In the text today, Paul indicates that God will make clear to us His opinion or view –– that God will show us the way. As Christians we have both the privilege and the responsibility to be led by the Spirit of God. Romans 8:14 (NCV) reads, "The true children of God are those who let God’s Spirit lead them." But what exactly does it mean to be led by the Spirit?
Does God have a specific will for every decision in your life? How does God guide us in making decisions that are good? Must we depend on feelings, impressions, circumstances, and subjective impressions to determine God’s will? These are questions for which we need some answers.
Guidance, you see, is a fundamental issue for every Christian. We must all make decisions. How do we know what school to attend for college or graduate work? How do we know what job to take or what kind of profession to enter? How do we pick the right person to marry, assuming we have a selection of choices to begin with? How do we choose the right community in which to live? How do we choose the right house to buy or car to drive? Does God really care about these things, and if He does, does He lead us in making the right decision? How does He do it?
As we have already stated, many non-Christians resort to a variety of methods to make "right" decisions. Some people just do want they want to do. Others consult horoscopes, Ouija boards, palm-readers, crystal balls, astrologers, spiritists, seances, parapsychologists, and mediums. Little do they know the danger in such pursuits. James 3:17 (NAS) says, "But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruit, unwavering, without hypocrisy." On the other hand, describing the opposite kind of wisdom, James 3:15 (NAS) reads, "This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic." One wisdom is heavenly, the other is earthly. One wisdom is from God, the other is demonic. Many people are putting themselves in danger of receiving demonic direction when they consult spiritists, mediums, and those who claim to be psychics. There are many voices speaking today. We must be careful whom we listen to.
How then can we be sure that the guidance that we are receiving is from God? There is no doubt from Scripture that God does guide His people. The question is how.
The Bible reveals that God does have a will for your life. The will of God has been expressed in different ways by theologians and other serious students of the Bible. You have probably heard expressions like God’s "perfect" will, God’s "permissive" will, God’s "general" will, God’s "sovereign" will, God’s "moral" will, God’s "specific" will, God’s "ideal" will, and God's "individual" will. These have all been used to describe God’s will.
Basically there are three categories under which all of these expressions may fall. They can be summarized under the headings of "God’s Sovereign Will," "God’s Moral Will," and "God’s Individual Will."
By God’s "sovereign will," we mean that God has a pre-determined plan for everything that happens in the universe. This is God’s perfect plan that He is working out behind the scenes of history. His sovereign will is His own doing, and we cannot disrupt or change it. We cannot even grasp it with our own human understanding. It is beyond us. Everything fits together in God’s sovereign will.
By God’s "moral will," we mean the moral commands revealed in the Bible that teach men how they ought to believe and live. The Bible is God’s revelation in which He unfolds His moral will—the principles by which we are to live our lives.
By God’s "individual will," we mean the specific, ideal, detailed, perfect plan for each situation in each individual person’s life.
That God has a sovereign will and a moral will is universally accepted. It is clear from Scripture. However, that God has an individual or perfect will for each situation in every person’s life is questioned by some. Some people contend that there may be several options available, all of which equally acceptable to God.
It is clear in Scripture that God did lead some people in special ways in specific situations. Indeed, this is true in the life of Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, David, Peter, Paul, and many others. It is also clear that this kind of leading was the exception rather than the rule. Even in the lives of those we mentioned, those special revelations of God’s direction were limited.
Some, therefore, have written off the possibility of special revelation. Should we? No! I believe that God still gives special guidance in some situations. I also believe that this is the most rare form of guidance He gives. Nonetheless, we must very careful not to limit God in any way. We must also be careful, on the other hand, not to limit God to only special revelation. Some, in doing so, have spiritualized and made subjective the process of coming to understand the will of God. They have reduced the guidance of God to feelings and in so doing, opened the door for deception. We should do neither. We must have a balanced, biblical approach to guidance.
Generally we must receive guidance from God’s already revealed will. We find that will in His written Word. We come to apprehend that will as His Spirit gives us understanding of the written revelation, and as the Spirit applies that Word to our lives.
The Word of God is given to us as an objective revelation of God’s will. It protects us from hearing the wrong voice. Many people do many strange things and then blame it all on the Lord. They say, "The Lord told me to do what I did." A written revelation of God can keep us from making many common mistakes.
We read in 2 Timothy 3:16 (NAS), "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness." God has given us His Word so that we might be trained and corrected. Psalm 119:105 (NAS) says, "Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path." By reading the Word of God, we turn the headlights on. Now we can clearly see where we are going. Psalm 1 compares the man who meditates on God’s Word to a bountiful tree. This tree is planted by streams of water where it never dries up and always bears fruit.
If we would submit ourselves to the guidance of God, then we must build our lives on the Word of God. We must read it, study it, and meditate upon it. We must apply it to our lives by discerning the moral principles we must live by. Jesus Himself indicated that we do not live by material things alone, but by the Word of God (Matthew 4:4).
Jesus illustrated the absolute necessity of living by the Word in Matthew 7:24-27. There He paints the picture of two houses that are exactly alike, except for their foundations. One is built on a rock, and the other on the sand. The storms come, as they always do, and the house built on the sand falls while the house built on the rock stands firm. Jesus declares that the Christian who hears and obeys God’s Word is like the house on the rock, which stood. If we build our lives on His Word—being guided by the moral principles it contains—then we will stand when the storms of life come.
Therefore, when you are trying to understand what the will of God is concerning a decision you have to make, ask yourself this question—"Is it consistent with God’s revealed Word?" If the course of action you’re considering does not line up with the Word of God, it is not the will of God.
The Spirit also has a role to play in God’s guidance. John 16:13 (NIV) says, "But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come." It is apparent that one of the tasks of the Holy Spirit is to guide us into the truth.
The Holy Spirit will never lead you contrary to the principles of the written Word, but we need the Holy Spirit to apply the written Word to our lives and to give us insight into what the written Word means in our particular circumstance.
As we are prayerfully reading the Word of God, often the Holy Spirit will speak to us in a special way, illuminating our minds and applying the passage under consideration to our specific situation. The Spirit will bear witness to God’s revealed Word and confirm the application of God’s Word to our hearts. Remember, we are not talking about some mystical and totally subjective experience but rather a witness of the Spirit that is in complete harmony with the revealed Word of God.
The answer to the question of how we can be led by the Spirit is that the Spirit leads us to an understanding and application of the Word of God.
Beware of circumstances. Sometimes God uses circumstances, but we must be careful because circumstances are tricky things. You cannot count on circumstances alone. You cannot count on the Bible falling open to the right passage. You may put out a fleece and find that it is only partially wet. If you toss a coin, it just may as easily come up heads as tails. Be careful. What you see is not always what you get.
Jonah was told to preach the gospel to the people of Nineveh. It was a message he did not want to hear. It was not the kind of guidance he wanted. So he ran from God. As he was trying to make his getaway, he found himself down at the dock. As circumstances would have it, there was as ship waiting. He could have said, "Praise God! Here is a ship. If God had really wanted me to go to Nineveh, He would have closed this door. I knew I must have been hearing things." Be careful, the temptation of Satan can appear as the providence of God. As it turned out, God had to arrange a transfer to get Jonah to Nineveh. Don’t trust in circumstances alone.
Search the Scriptures. We should not be satisfied simply to read the Bible, we must also study the Bible. A casual understanding of the Bible is not enough to receive the guidance of God. Like the Jews in Berea, we must be "examining the Scriptures daily, to see whether these things [are] so." (Acts 17: 11 NAS) The Bible says many things, and you can make it say almost anything you want it to say if you do not come to a thorough understanding of its teachings. So search the Scriptures.
Get godly counsel. A clear safeguard in Scripture is to consult other godly people. Notice, I said "godly" people. Don’t just consult anyone. Make sure the person or persons you consult have a solid, stable walk with God. Otherwise, you simply get the opinions of others. Someone else’s opinion may be no better than your own. Ask them to pray for you. Many times, their wisdom will save you from a poor decision. God will use people to speak in wisdom to you. This is a very important safeguard. Proverbs 11:14 (NAS) says, "Where there is no guidance, the people fall, but in abundance of counselors, there is victory." Proverbs 15:22 (NAS) says, "Without consultation, plans are frustrated, but with many counselors they succeed."
Don’t confuse feelings with facts. An important safeguard is to understand that impressions may only be impressions. Suppose you lost your car keys. First, you looked it all of the usual places around the house where you might put them. Then you might look again, this time taking the cushions out of the sofa and chairs and looking under things where they might have fallen. Still you do not find them. In your exasperation you cry out to God, "Lord, I really need these keys. Please help me find them." Suppose an impression comes to mind that your keys are locked in the truck of your car. Now, you have to decide whether it is worth all the trouble to tear out your back seat in order to look in the trunk. Let’s say that you do and do not find them there. Are you going to say to your friends, "God lied to me the other day. He told me my keys were in the trunk of my car, and they weren’t!" Certainly not! You wouldn’t say that. And you also wouldn’t say that God told you He thought the keys were in the trunk of your car. God certainly knew where they were. You might say that you just didn’t hear God clearly. This is probably the truth, and this is precisely why we need more than an impression. Impressions may simply just be impressions, therefore we need more than impressions. In the really important decisions, we must have the confirmation of the objective Word of God.
God will lead us, as His people, as we give ourselves to understand His Word and be open to His Spirit. He will enable us to become good decision makers, people who base their actions on moral principles and the spiritual wisdom found in the Bible. His Spirit will lead us into the truth as we act upon what we already know to do. It does no good to steer a parked car, and God will not guide a Christian who is not moving. Get moving, seek the Lord, be open to the Spirit, study His Word, and He will give you His guidance.
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