Guidance

All Christians need and desire guidance. It is implicit in the existence of a personal God who cares, leads and enters into personal relationships with his creatures so they will accomplish his purpose on earth. With such a God Christians should be among the most decisive people on earth. In reality Christians are often the most indecisive, partly because of some mistaken ideas about guidance (see Vocational Guidance). In this article we will explore the myths about guidance, scriptural images of the guide and the guided, and some steps for doing the will of God. The outcome can be well expressed in the prayer in Psalm 143:8-10: “Show me the way I should go. . . . Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.”

Myths and Misunderstandings

There are at least eight obstacles to gaining a truly biblical approach to discovering and doing the will of God.

God’s wonderful plan. It is a myth and misunderstanding that God has a wonderful plan for your life; God has something better—a wonderful purpose (Ephes. 1:9). God’s purpose is that you should live to the praise of his glory (Ephes. 1:12, 14) and participate in his grand purpose of renewing everything under the headship of Jesus Christ (Ephes. 1:10). The difference between a plan and a purpose is like the difference between a blueprint and a stream that carries people along even though they may make adjustments along the way.

Your decisions and God. It is a myth and misunderstanding that God wants to make the decisions for you. Sometimes people cry out, “God, please take control of my life.” In reality God does not want to make robots out of us and normally does not answer such prayers positively. The Bible does not sanctify passivity, that is, always waiting and wanting to be acted upon.

God’s one way. It is a myth and misunderstanding that there is only one way to do the will of God. Sometimes this is called the “center of his will” syndrome. It is promoted by popular Christianity but is not found in Scripture. There are many ways of doing God’s will within his purpose.

Knowing God’s will. It is a myth and misunderstanding that God’s will is difficult to discover. The pagan world says this, and pagan religions therefore make much of guidance and seeking guidance through priestly divination. Occult and magic practices follow the same path. People look for signs and portents. But followers of Jesus are given in the Bible both wisdom and the Spirit of God to guide (Psalm 25:9; Psalm 48:14; Proverbs 3:5-6; John 16:13).

Signs and wonders. It is a myth and misunderstanding that God’s guidance is normally associated with supernatural signs and messages through prophecies, “fleeces” and extraordinary phenomena. In the book of Acts and the Epistles we see Christians constantly using their redeemed judgment (Acts 6:3; Acts 15:36; Acts 20:16; Romans 1:10-13; 1 Cor. 16:4-9; 2 Cor. 1:5-2:4). All cases of supernatural leading were unsought. Sometimes people wait for supernatural phenomena when they should be practicing what they already know of God’s will.

Open doors. It is a myth and misunderstanding that God normally calls through “open” doors. Believers are encouraged not only to go through open doors of opportunity (1 Cor. 16:9) but to break down closed doors for God (Acts 4:19-20). Sometimes relying on open doors amounts to being guided by circumstances.

Not natural. It is a myth and misunderstanding that what is natural for you—including the way you are made and what you think in your own mind—is probably not the will of God. Just the reverse: God has written his will into the very fibers of our personality and spiritual gifts. We fulfill God’s will by doing what he created us to do. Our best thoughts are from God. In Christ we have a renewed mind (Romans 12:2; 1 Cor. 2:16; 2 Cor. 5:17).

Beginning again. It is a myth and misunderstanding that when you make a mistake, you have to go back and start again—if you can! Grace means the exact opposite. God’s grace enables us to live fully in the present, free from the past, anticipating a glorious future. In God’s sovereignty, our mistakes—and the mistakes others have committed against us (Genesis 50:20)—are incorporated into God’s great purpose for our lives and for creation.

Having debunked these myths, we turn now to the Scripture to find three empowering visions of the Guide and the guided.

Images of the Guide and the Guided

Remarkably, the Bible has no definitive word for guidance. What the Bible presents is three relational metaphors of God and the chosen people. The message is sublimely simple: it is more important to be in relationship to the Guide than to have an experience of guidance. It is more important to be shown God’s ways (Psalm 25:4) than to find out the perfect way for ourselves. Be in relationship with the Guide and one will be guided; seek guidance and one may miss the best thing of all!

The sheep and shepherd. This universal image in John 10 gives us a powerful paradigm. The shepherd “calls” and “leads,” and the sheep “listen to his voice,” “know his voice” and “follow him” (John 10:3-4).

Father/mother and son/daughter. Parents move from close supervision with detailed instructions to growing freedom for their children, including their assuming responsibility and deciding from internal motivation rather than external constraint (see Parenting). God the Father sends the Spirit into our hearts giving us the freedom, motivation and privileges of being sons or daughters of the divine family (Galatians 4:1-11). The goal is maturity—the master concept of the Christian life (Ephes. 4:13; Col. 1:28).

Friend with friend. The ultimate exposition of this learning relationship between Jesus and his followers is found in John 15:13-16. As a friend, Jesus tells us his Father’s business and plan. As the friends of Jesus—and not merely his servants—we make our own decisions, doing what he commands based on the revealed mind of the Father (see Friendship).

Practical Steps

With these three images before us, we can indicate some positive, practical steps in discovering and doing the will of God.

Know and obey the Scriptures. The primary way we gain the mind of God is by exposing ourselves daily to reading and ingesting God’s Word (see Spiritual Disciplines; Spiritual Growth). The Bible shows us (1) God’s sovereign will (the mystery that is revealed: that God wants to restore the whole of creation in Christ), (2) God’s moral will (so one does not need to ask whether premarital sex or gossiping is right or wrong) and (3) God’s individual will (each of us is called to live for the praise of God’s glory; Ephes. 1:12).

Pray. The most important fruit of prayer is not so much the guidance obtained but a deeper relationship with the Guide. Persons who live lives of unceasing prayer will normally find makingdecisions within God’s will easy. Such persons become God’s will.

Cultivate a renewed mind. When God’s law is written within your heart (Psalm 40:8), your own biases, prejudices and fleshly stubbornness are dealt with day in and day out. What is needed is sound judgment (Acts 15:28), to think of ourselves “with sober judgment” (Romans 12:3). What we gain by seeking God in the midst of life is encouraged by a large section of the Old Testament and the book of James—wisdom.

Seek godly counsel (Proverbs 11:14). God leads us in the context of a community, as is amply illustrated by Paul’s consultation with his companions after receiving a personal vision of a Macedonian man calling for help (Acts 16:9-10). Our primary Christian community, especially in a small group or house church, is the normal context for us to experience the leading of God. One caution, however, is this: sometimes people claiming to have a word from the Lord for us can be wrong, as Paul concluded in Acts 21:4.

Do the thing at hand for God’s glory. Your present obedience will predispose you to be guided in the future. It is much easier to steer a moving car than a stalled one!

Be open to supernatural confirmation. But be focused on seeking the Lord, not signs from the Lord.

When you have made a decision, do not keep looking back. Trust God’s sovereignty in your life. Doing God’s will requires walking by faith, not by sight. We find our acceptance and approval in our relationship with God, not in reading favorable circumstances. You will probably not find out that you actually did God’s will until long after, possibly until long, long after.

» See also: Spiritual Disciplines

» See also: Vision

» See also: Vocational Guidance

» See also: Waiting

—R. Paul Stevens