divine guidance
Why is it so hard sometimes to discern God’s will? This is the question that some InterVarsity staff friends and I discussed this past weekend over a bottomless pit of chips and queso at Chili’s. It seems like for so many of us, we want to follow God’s will for our lives and it seems like that would be easy but we become paralyzed when we don’t hear God’s voice clearly. Is it possible that in our culture we have misrepresented the nature of hearing from God? Or have many of us just never learned how to hear God’s “still small voice”? There have been a few times in my life with Christ when I’ve been certain that a thought or revelation was divine and not from me. Those moments had a quality to them that I can’t describe very well. But if I’m honest, in most of the circumstances when I’ve had to make big decisions, it’s come down to me pretty much choosing what I thought would be best. I prayed and prayed and listened for God to make clear to me which of two paths was better, but in the end, without a clear word I just chose one. Often, these were huge decisions that I would have liked God to have made. Decisions like whether or not to accept a new position in ministry.
Where do verses like Romans 12:2 come in? Or Philippians 1:9-11? They seem to imply that part of the renewing of our minds and our growth in the love of God will help us be able to know what God’s will is (apart from supernatural revelation?) But that’s not very glamorous and I don’t want to give up on actually hearing from God in moments of decision. How do we find that balance? Or should there be balance?
One thing is clear to me, from scripture we can often know for certain that some things are not God’s will. To over simplify, if I’m struggling with whether or not it’s God’s will for me to cheat on my wife or my taxes I’m pretty sure that I can know that those things are not God’s will. But it’s going to be hard to find a properly interpreted text from scripture that will tell me whether to take a ministry position, go overseas as a missionary, or be a witness for Christ in the marketplace. How do we discern between those good things?
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Very helpful Berry, and relevant for a lot of Christian college students.
The one thing that I’d like to add to it, since for your purposes you left this topic alone, is a simplified description of what it usually feels like for me to recieve direct personal guidance from the Spirit (when it does actually happen that is): My thoughts take on a new quality that feels otherly (if you like, a Holy quality), and this clues me into the fact they are not of myself. They feel energized/inspired by some kind of Power. Also, the thoughts usually carry with them a greater degree clarity (illuminating), an out-of-nowhere sense of creativity, and a deeper quality of love and peace than the thoughts that I usually think.
Often when I’m making decisions I naturally try to visualize “what things would be like” if I went with this or that option. But after receiving guidance from the Spirit, I feel a block from visualizing my decision in any way contrary to what was revealed.
The reason why I gave that crude description is because when I first started giving language to these experiences, it helped me to more easily recognize them. Also, these descriptions have resonated with the experience of other Christians I have talked to, which has brought greater validity to them for me.
Anyways, I don’t want to come across as overly spiritual because, like Berry, I only sometimes receive this kind of personal guidance from the Spirit. Often when making decisions I have to utilize and trust God’s Spirit speaking in other ways (wisdom and reason, Scripture, the community of faith, circumstances, etc). I try not to forget that these things are also established and upheld by God. They are also spiritual, and even personal.