Mark D. Roberts @ Typepad

How Does God Guide Us? Concluding Thoughts

In this series I've tried to show some of the ways that God guides us. I've explained that God guides us through:

• Circumstances
• Scripture
• Community
• Reason
• Dreams and Visions
• Divine Whispering
• Spiritual Direction

I suggested that we can confirm God's guidance in various ways, especially through taking the risk of stepping out in faith. In my last posts I showed that God's guidance is not only for our benefit, but also for the sake of others, and especially for the sake of God's own kingdom and glory.

I'll finish up this series by responding to a couple of very practical questions that often hear as a pastor:

   How can I learn to be guided by the Holy Spirit?

   My life is so busy, how can I find time to quiet my heart enough to hear the Spirit's gentle whisper?

How can I learn to be guided by the Holy Spirit?

I have found that many people simply need to be aware of the different ways that the Holy Spirit can guide them. Some who have studied the Bible for years to gain theological knowledge never expected the Spirit to speak to them personally through the Scripture. Once they have this expectation, they realize that the Spirit had been whispering in their ears in the past, but they had dismissed this internal voice as nothing of significance. Now they are ready to be guided by the Spirit in a more personal way.

Let me emphasize again that spiritual guidance must be evaluated for its consistency with Scripture. Moreover, we all need to be in close fellowship with other Christians who can help us to discern God's directions for our lives. If you want to be guided by the Spirit and not simply to claim divine status for your own inclinations, commit yourself to Bible study and to active involvement in Christian community.

Remember that spiritual guidance often comes, not for our sake, but for the sake of others. As you seek God's will, ask him to show you how to serve those around you. Make yourself available to do God's will, to participate in his work in the world. Submission to the Lord is a crucial ingredient of your readiness to hear his voice.

Finally, the practice of spiritual disciplines helps to tune our ears to the voice of the Spirit. As you spend time reading and meditating upon the Scripture, praying, journaling, taking time to be alone with God, being silent for extended times, worshipping publicly and privately, and fasting, your heart will be prepared for hearing God's voice. If these disciplines -- or even the word "discipline" -- are unfamiliar to you, let me recommend a couple of marvelous books: The Spirit of the Disciplines, by Dallas Willard (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1988) and A Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth, 3rd edition (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1998).

My life is so busy, how can I find time to quiet my heart enough to hear the Spirit's gentle whisper?

I imagine that this question has been on the lips of many readers ever since I first mentioned our need to take time for quiet. Most of us live hopelessly busy lives, and even if we have moments of potential quiet, we tend to fill those with lots of unnecessary noises. I always marvel at folks who walk along the beach, preferring the artificial noise of their iPod to the soothing and inspiring sound of the waves.

For most of us, quiet won't just happen. We need to plan for it. It needs to become a top priority in our calendars, or we'll be sure to find lots of reasons to spend time on other things. Today I'm on a plane for Texas, where I'll be speaking at a retreat. After the retreat is over, I'm going to spend some extra time at the retreat center before I fly home. Why? So I can get some quiet with the Lord. I find that if I can schedule times like this into my calendar well in advance, them I'm apt to take them. Otherwise the busyness of life overwhelms my good intentions.

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Guidance Through Divine Whispering (Section B)

Part 14 of the series: How Does God Guide Us? 
Posted for Friday, February 2, 2007

In my last post I related the moving Old Testament story of Elijah who, after confronting the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel, retreats to the wilderness where he hears the "gentle whisper" or "still, small voice" of God. I suggested that we too can hear that quiet voice as the Spirit of God speaks even today.

Unfortunately, a multitude of contemporary Christians have trivialized this ministry of the Spirit. "God spoke to me" has become a virtual replacement for "I thought," except that by saying "God spoke to me" a person avoids having to take responsibility for his or her actions. After all, if God told me to upgrade my computer software, who are you and who am I to question God's command? Claiming God's authority for my own thoughts not only appears to protect me from being corrected, but it also gives an added punch to my own preferences.

While recognizing that the Spirit will speak to us, we must also acknowledge our tendency to misinterpret what we hear, or to mistake our own inner voice for the voice of God. My friend Dave was a pastor to young adults in a large church. Energetic, handsome, godly, and obviously single, Dave found that many of the women in his group were interested in more than just his Bible teaching. Every now and then one of them would approach him with exciting news, "God has told me that we're going to get married," she'd announced happily. At first Dave didn't know quite what to say to this unwelcome and unlikely bit of divine direction. But over time he developed an appropriate response: "Well, that could be great news. Thanks for sharing it with me. Now, just as soon as God tells me that we're going to get married, then we'll do something about it." Oddly enough, God never told Dave what his young fans had purported to hear from the Spirit. He ended up marrying a wonderful woman who, ironically enough, hadn't heard God whisper Dave's name in her ear.

Stories like this make it easy for those of us who are more intellectually oriented to discount hearing from God altogether. I've heard a few Christians even deny that the Spirit still speaks to our hearts in any direct way. But this extreme view opposes both the biblical record and the testimony of thousands of wise, balanced Christians who are not inclined to conjure up divine voices.

I have another pastor friend whose experience of the Spirit's guidance for his marriage was quite unlike Dave's. Greg, a scholarly Presbyterian minister, was teaching an adult Sunday school class one day. In the midst of his lecture, a woman entered and sat in the back of the class. Greg, who had never seen her before, barely took notice of her entrance until he heard an inner voice say distinctly: "You are going to marry that woman." Not one to have such experiences, Greg just about fell over on the spot. Somehow he managed to finish his lesson. Many months later he did in fact marry that woman, but not because he clobbered her with a claim to spiritual guidance. First he introduced himself to her. As a friendship developed, they both began to sense what Greg suspected from the beginning. Along with their Christian community, they discerned God's guidance with all the tools available to them. Indeed, they did marry. Once again, a skeptic could chock up Greg's experience to overactive libido or simply good luck. But as one who knows his spiritual integrity, I believe that the Holy Spirit spoke to Greg's heart in order to accomplish God's will in his life.

The possibility of the Holy Spirit whispering to us may lead us to wonder: How can I develop a wise, appropriate sensitivity to the Spirit? I'll address this question in my next post in this series.

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Guidance Through Divine Whispering (Section A)

Part 13 of the series: How Does God Guide Us? 
Posted for Thursday, February 1, 2007

The Old Testament book of 1 Kings contains one of the most dramatic stories in all of Scripture (1 Kgs 18-19). Israel was languishing under the corrupt leadership of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. The royal couple had led the nation into the worship of the pagan gods, Baal and Asherah. The king and queen had killed the prophets of God, replacing them with hundreds of pagan psychics. Only Elijah remained faithful and alive as a spokesman of the true God.

Empowered by the Lord, Elijah confronted King Ahab and his multitude of prophets, challenging them to a "my God is bigger than your god" kind of duel. Both sides would build altars on Mt. Carmel and prepare sacrifices on the altars. But they would not set fire to the sacrifices, as usual. Instead, they would wait for fire from heaven. Whichever deity consumed the sacrifice would be the winner. That god would be recognized as the true God.

The prophets of Baal went first, preparing a bull, placing it on their altar, and calling out to their god. When Baal failed to answer, they began dancing wildly around the altar, crying out for a miracle. As Elijah taunted them, they even engaged in ritual self-mutilation in an attempt to motivate Baal's response. But the fire didn't fall. Baal was still and silent.

Then Elijah repaired the altar of the Lord that had been torn down by the pagans. He prepared his sacrifice and then, just to make things a lot more difficult for God, Elijah drenched everything with buckets of water until the ditch around the altar was filled to the brim. When all the preparations were completed, Elijah prayed a simple prayer, asking the Lord to demonstrate his sovereignty. God's response was stunning:

Immediately the fire of the Lord flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust. It even licked up all the water in the ditch! And when the people saw it, they fell on their faces and cried out, “The Lord is God! The Lord is God!” (1 Kgs 18:38-39).

In the wake of victory, Elijah zealously killed the vanquished prophets of Baal. But when Queen Jezebel heard what had happened, she sought Elijah's life, forcing him to flee to wilderness.
Several weeks later he found himself cowering in a cave in the desert, crying out to God for help. Then God instructed Elijah to stand outside of the cave and watch.

And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a "gentle whisper" (1 Kgs 19:11-12).

The God who had done such wonders on Mt. Carmel, the same God who controls the awesome power of wind, earthquake and fire, chose to speak to Elijah through the "sound of a gentle whisper," what the King James Version of the Bible calls "a still, small voice." The contrast between God's mighty power and his quiet voice couldn't be more stark. Though we might expect or even prefer dramatic demonstrations of divine guidance that knock us off our feet, the Holy Spirit often speaks in a gentle whisper that brushes our hearts like a soft spring breeze.

The thought of the Spirit whispering to us sounds wonderful, but it isn't without complications. I'll address a couple of these in my next post.

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Guidance Through Dreams and Visions

Part 12 of the series: How Does God Guide Us? 
Posted for Wednesday, January 31, 2007

So far in this series I've shown that God guides us through circumstances, Scripture, community, and reason. Those who especially like my last post on reason might find themselves a bit uncomfortable with today's post.

As I begin, I must admit that the subject of guidance through dreams and visions does not reflect my personal experience to any great extent. In fact, I feel most comfortable among Christians who are guided by thinking, not by visions and dreams. But as a biblically-committed Christian, I must not limit God's activity by my own limited experience, no matter how tempting that may be. Rather, I must let the Bible speak. For this reason I recognize the possibility of spiritual guidance through dreams and visions. Whether we are sleeping or awake, the Holy Spirit can reveal God's will to us through inspired visual images.

Throughout the Bible God communicates with his people through visionary experiences. In Genesis 15 the Lord speaks to Abraham in a vision (Gen 15:1). A few chapters later God speaks to the gentile king Abimelech in a dream (Gen 20:3). So it goes throughout the Old Testament stories. The New Testament begins on a similar note, with an angel appearing in a dream to Joseph, telling him that his fiancée is pregnant by the Holy Spirit (Matt 1:20). Not long afterwards Joseph receives direction to go to Egypt as, once again, an angel speaks to him in a dream (Matt 2:13).

If we were to think that things like this happened only for biblical characters, the promise of Joel corrects that misconception. Several centuries before Christ, the Lord spoke through this Jewish prophet:

Then after I have poured out my rains again, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions. In those days, I will pour out my Spirit even on servants, men and women alike (Joel 2:28-29).

Seven weeks after Jesus's resurrection, God poured out his Spirit as promised by Joel. Peter, preaching the first Christian sermon on the Jewish festival of Pentecost, quotes from Joel's prophecy to explain what has happened to the followers of Jesus who have just received the filling of the Spirit (Acts 2:16-21). The fulfillment of this prophecy at this time implies that Christians, both old and young, will experience divine guidance through dreams and visions.

The rest of the book of Acts illustrates this implication as the Holy Spirit guides the early Christians through extraordinary visual experiences. In Acts 16, for example, the Spirit at first speaks to Paul and Silas, telling them not to evangelize in the Roman provinces of Asia and Bithynia. Then Paul has a vision in the night, in which a man from northern Greece asks him, "Come over here and help us." The evangelists quickly leave for that region, believing that God has called them to preach there (Acts 19:6-10). Later on, when Paul's ministry in Corinth brought on Jewish wrath, God inspired and affirmed Paul through another vision:

One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision and told him, “Don’t be afraid! Speak out! Don’t be silent! For I am with you, and no one will harm you because many people here in this city belong to me.” So Paul stayed there for the next year and a half, teaching the word of God (Acts 18:9-11)

Of course, as we have noted with respect to other forms of guidance, that which we derive from dreams and visions must also be tested by Scripture in the context of prayerful, reasonable Christian community. Throughout history, heretical theologies have often originated in the visions of their founders, visions inspired by something other than the Holy Spirit. The New Testament letter from Jude refers to false teachers as "dreamers" (Jude 1:8). But, for those of us inclined to exalt rationality far above visions, I daresay that most modern heresy stems from thinking, not dreaming.

I know a woman named Sandy who, years ago, had a dream in which she and her husband were missionaries in a city she had never heard of, in a country on the other side of the globe from where they were presently living. As she shared this dream with her husband and with her church, they all began to believe that Sandy had indeed heard from the Holy Spirit, even though she and her husband were not missionaries and the city revealed was in a country that prohibited the entrance of all missionaries. Years of patient discernment followed, as this couple sought to follow God's leading. He confirmed what Sandy had dreamed in hundreds of ways. Many, many years later, through a most amazing series of divine interventions, the dream was fulfilled, as they began to minister in the very city whose name had once revealed in a dream. A skeptic would scoffingly say that this was a self-fulfilling prophecy. But, knowing the journey of Sandy and her husband, I stand amazed at the grace of God who still speaks to us, as promised, through dreams and visions.

Yet this isn't all. In my next post I'll explore still another way in which God guides us.

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Guidance Through Reason

Part 11 of the series: How Does God Guide Us?
Posted for Tuesday, January 30, 2007

So far I've shown that God guides us through circumstances, Scripture, and community. In my last post I added that we can be guided through careful reasoning. I want to explain what I mean in this post.
Because the Spirit's guidance can be so marvelously miraculous at times, we can overlook or even disparage so-called "normal" processes of reasoning. Sometimes we even sit around like spiritual couch potatoes, waiting for some special gift of guidance while failing to use the gift of our minds, one of God's most amazing endowments to human beings.

God has given us powers of reason to be used for his purposes. Whether we utilize these powers to make medical discoveries, to teach Sunday school, or to discern God's will, God is honored when we use His good gifts for His glory. Moreover, the Spirit of God works in and through what can seem to us so natural and normal.

Some Christians assume a false dichotomy between natural and supernatural activities, believing that God's hand can be seen only in the supernatural or the extraordinary. But this distinction underestimates God's presence throughout the natural world. The Son of God, through whom God created the world, "sustains the universe by the mighty power of his command" (Heb 1:3). The Lord is present and active in the "normal" affairs of the universe, in that which seems ordinary to us, even as He is present and active in that which is spectacularly unusual. So, when we use our ordinary human reasoning for the purpose of seeking God's will, the Spirit can and does guide us.

The problem with this facet of spiritual guidance lies in the sin-induced corruption of our natural reason. Before we knew Christ, we were "alienated from God and enemies of God in our thinking" (Col 1:21, my translation). When we were reconciled with God through Christ, our sin was forgiven and our minds began to be renewed. But that renewal is an ongoing process that continues throughout our lives as we learn to think in new ways. No longer are we stuck in futile, human ways of thinking (Eph 4:17, Col 2:18). We can begin to think in godly ways because we have been given the "mind of Christ" (1 Cor 2:16). When we allow the Spirit of God to be active in every facet of our lives, then our thinking will also be guided by the Spirit (Rom 8:5-6).

As we devote ourselves to the key relationships of the Christian life, spending time in fellowship with God and God's people, we will start to think more like God and less like a captive of our corrupt culture. As God's written Word permeates our minds and hearts, we will treasure the things of God and think the thoughts of God. As we prayerfully ask the Lord to inspire our thinking, the Holy Spirit will lead us. Then we can have even greater confidence that our human reasoning, transformed by the Spirit to be more like what God intended it to be, will guide us in God's paths.

When our reasoning receives input from Scripture, and when it is something done in the context of Christian community, then the possibility of discerning God's will is greatly increased. Reason often allows us to make connections, taking in the various kinds of input that God is supplying. I would never suggest that reason alone is adequate for spiritual discernment, but it does supply a crucial link in the chain of divine guidance.

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