Dave Bish “the blue fish” writes The Spirit Says…, thanks to Adrian Warnock for the link. Now I know Dave mainly from his comments here and elsewhere on the atonement debate, on which he may think he is on the opposite side from me. But on this matter of the need to hear God’s voice in decision-making I can wholeheartedly recommend his post.
In a comment in response Adrian Reynolds asks
one big problem – how do you decide what is “big” as an issue or not? … E.g. is your choice of supermarket a big issue to seek guidance on – quite possibly! Where do you draw the line, unless you don’t draw the line…?
In principle I would go for not drawing the line, as does Luke Wood in his helpful comment in response. There are not some important or “religious” decisions we have to pray about and other trivial or “secular” ones for which we don’t need to bother with prayer. God may guide us to a particular supermarket so that we can meet and minister to someone there, or to keep us from a danger we might face at the alternative store. Even the colour of our socks can in principle affect our Christian witness. I don’t say that we should kneel down and ask God to tell us which socks to wear and then wait for an audible answer. But our whole lives should be lived prayerfully and in tune with God, so that we know when we are following his will, and feel a check in our spirits when we start to step outside them, even to the extent of choosing the wrong socks. Paul knew this call and this check on his missionary journeys, in the examples Dave quotes. As we learn to listen to God and follow his way in the small things of life (yes, even in which socks to wear), we find ourselves more and more able to keep in step with him in the bigger decisions.
That sounds good in theory, it’s another matter putting it into practice, especially when the going gets tough!
Peter – have you read Garry Friesen’s “Decision Making and the Will of God”? I found it to be a cogent argument that God does not, in fact, have an individual will or plan for each of our lives, from the little everyday issues like socks to the big ones like marriage and ministry.
Friesen argues that God’s will exists on an unknowable sovereign level in terms of His plans for creation and redemptive history and on a revealed moral level as described in the Bible. But the concept and proof of an individual will for our lives is not found in the Bible. Instead we’re to apply the principles and examples of wisdom found in the Bible and use our God-given freedom of choice to determine which path to choose.
Most interestingly, this viewpoint eliminates the quandary or paralysis that most people find themselves in trying to determine God’s will for a decision. Instead, there is the freedom to choose (along with the responsibility to know the Word of God). For an intuitive thinker (NT) like me, that’s an attractive viewpoint – just curious if you’d had a chance to read Friesen’s work.
ElShaddai
ElShaddai, thanks for your response. No, I haven’t read Friesen’s book. But I don’t think I would disagree with it. I am not trying to claim that God has a specific and detailed plan for our lives which we must follow. Indeed we have a freedom and responsibility to choose, within God’s wise principles. But as we remain in an attitude of prayer and listening to God’s prompting, he can lead us in the specific ways in which he would like us to serve him at a particular point in time. This kind of leading, not just according to God’s general wisdom and moral principles, is clearly taught in the New Testament, for example in the Acts passages which Dave refers to.
St Augustine wrote “Love God and do what you want”. This can easily be misunderstood. But if we truly know God, love him and live in communion with him, we can do what we want in confidence that it is also what he wants, not as a fixed plan for our lives but as what brings pleasure to him.
🙂 it’s nice when we find common ground. thanx.
I must admit I have mixed feelings about this.
On the one hand I agree and aspire to being where God wants me to be, when he wants me there, to do what he wants me to do, etc.
On the other hand, maybe I’m in contact with too many people with pathological disorders to be fully at ease with some teaching in this area. There is certainly the danger for some to be so paranoically obsessed with hearing God’s voice precisely for each situation that they end up paralysed and unable to do anything at all.
My reading of Peter’s post is that there is a difference between having your God radar on to hear a warning ping and being ‘paranoically obsessed’ with waiting for God to tell you which socks to put on.
John Wesley said we should pray without ceasing, and I think that is the spirit of what Peter is saying. Be in constant contact with God and be listening for the nudge that guides you one way or another. In the absence of the nudge, go about your business as you will.
I agree with everything you say, John. I just think that people with a teaching responsibility need to be very careful about how they talk about things like this, at least in my experience.
“We can do what we want in confidence.” Yeah, right!, as long as what we are doing does not go beyond what is written. There is a limit.
True story. Relative to “Give to the one who asks you.” One morning about 2:30 am. after driving from a loading point I arrived at the destination for an 8:00 am. delivery. So like all professional drivers sleep is where you find it and I had laid down for a nice nap. About fifteen minutes into this chore I heard him coming and had also heard his engine skip. Damn! I thought to myself, he’s out of fuel. Sure enough he turned into the parking lot where I was doing what I wanted to do, rolled up parallel to my truck but from the opposite direction, phsssShuz, set his brakes and shut off his skipping engine. Never getting out of his truck, which I felt as an insult, he rolled down his window and knocks on the side of my driver’s door. Up I get into the driver’s seat, roll down my window to hear his story about what I already know he is going to tell and disgustingly listen. “Mr.” he says, “I just bought this ol’truck this past afternoon and on my way home I stopped to eat and a snag busted my cross over fuel line and my fuel leaked out. But I only took enough cash with me to pay for this truck and trailer. Had to single out the tires to get ‘er moving and had just enough to buy fuel to get ‘er home.” “I want to borrow $40.00 from you for fuel and as soon as I get home I’ll get in my pickup and run right back over here and pay you back. I live about ninety miles away.” I am not a truck driving novice. If there is a road story I haven’t already heard, at least twice, it ain’t a road story. So then looking over his rig, seeing his singled out tires, and already knowing he was out of fuel before he got to where he was, my stingy, sinning, lying, recalcitrant self says, “I only got $20.00 dollars I can let you have.” “But Mr.” he says, “I need $40.00 to make it home! I can’t make it on just $20.00.” He reluctantly took the $20.00 and skipped off to buy what fuel he could and me doing what I wanted, laid back down. Me and the Lord. “What have you done?” “Didn’t I say give to the one who asks you and the one who wants to borrow from you do not turn him away?” “Oh Lord God”, I said twisting in the wind, “What am I to do? I don’t know where that fellow went. How in the world can I pay him what I owe him?” and laid there twisting in the wind trying to do what I wanted to do but could not sleep. About forty five minutes later here he comes back! While he’s turning into the parking lot I’m jumping out of my bunk, getting his $20.00 from my wallet, rolling down the window, have my hand out with his $20.00 in it before he even stops to get it. “Thanks” he says, drives off and I’ve never seen him again.
Was he lying to me about needing $40.00 I don’t think so. Was he lying to me about paying me back? Irrelevant. The situation had nothing to do with him, it was all about me. To whom much is given much is required. That driver’s attitude was not what needed to be corrected it was mine, toward what has been written. Disobey what the Lord commands relative to the situation you are in, the other person’s attitude is irrelevant and not an excuse. For it is your attitude toward him that is measured by his commands. If you will not obey a man you can see you will not obey the man you can’t see either. Which is why he commands “teaching them to obey whatsoever I have commanded”, the last one is first.
What more can I say?