The ABC of finding God's guidance

When I talk about the ABC of finding God's guidance, I am not suggesting that it is a simple thing and I'm certainly not suggesting it's a trivial thing. It's profound and wonderful thing to receive guidance from God. But we do have the promising Jeremiah 29: “If you see me you will find me; and you will find me if you seek me with all your heart.”

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I found seven things very helpful to me. And I am putting them ABC to help you remember them.

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A – Advice of others.

The Scriptures say, “In the multiplicity of advisers, there is safety.” (Proverbs 11:14) I don’t mean that we should be telling all and sundry of what we are thinking of doing, that can be very unwise. But I think it is helpful to choose two or three people who are sensible, spiritually mature, and are not involved emotionally in your decision. Then I think it is unlikely that God will call you to do something against that advice. Possible, but rare.

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B – Bible.

Firstly, I mean this in a general sense. God will never guide me to do something that is against the teachings and the principles of Scripture, and certainly never into anything that is sinful.

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Secondly, I find that God often gives specific Scriptures appropriate to what he is trying to tell me. But I find that if I am systematically spending devotional time in my Bible, God often sends me Scriptures that are amazingly appropriate. (By “often” I do not mean every day or even every week. But I have just found this to be true when I am at a moment of important decision-making.) This plan for being in Scripture includes some method which takes me systematically, perhaps 10 to 20 verses a day, through the whole Bible. I must allow God to speak to me in any way he wishes. Things like “promise boxes” are very false – you will always get a nice answer. If the decision I am making is a major one, I would probably not move forward unless God had given me the same Scripture, or kind of Scripture three or four times – two or three perhaps from my own Quiet Times, and one or two from a source with the person have no idea what I was grappling with. In other words, I take the Bible seriously and give God time to speak to me through it. I certainly don’t advise using the Bible as a lucky dip box – the “open-and-point” method. And we must be very careful not to read into the Scriptures what we want to see there.

I know of someone who was in Bible college preparing for the mission field. He was sharing an apartment with three other college students and, like a lot of young men, they were not very good at washing the dishes, so they piled up in the sink. One night he went on a date, and the next morning told the other students he was marrying the girl he had met. He said he had divine guidance: his morning reading had been, “His hands were delivered from the pots.” (Psalm 81:6) Actually this verse is taken completely out of context. We must always be sure that we are interpreting the Scripture in such a way that we retain its primary meaning. Believe it or not, that young man went ahead and married that girl, and was washed out of the ministry.

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C – Common Sense.

Sadly, common sense is surprisingly uncommon among Christians these days. I am saddened and horrified at some of the conspiracy theories and fake news that Christians are swallowing line and sinker. God is a God of logic, of rationality, and it is, again, quite rare that God would call you to do something that is against common sense.

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D – Direct impulses of the Holy Spirit.

“God’s Spirit witnesses with my spirit.” (Romans 8:16) This is the “still small voice.” It is the sense that God is affirming within me that the course I am planning is correct. This is  allied to Col 3:15 – “Let the peace of God rule in your hearts.” Particularly here, I won’t hear that still small voice if I am hurried and rushed. I need to be spending good periods of time in quiet with the Lord. St Ignatius particularly advise the use of this method. We had an exercise where he suggested living and imagining for one day making one decision, and then living and imagining the next day making the other. Then afterwards, to reflect back on which day left me with a feeling of “Consolation” – the peace of God.

I even think the desires of our heart play a part here. By and large, God does not call us to do something that really dislike.

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E – Events.

This is God speaking to us through circumstances. For example, God might “open doors, ”or “close doors.” This is particularly important when big “coincidences” are involved. For example, when I am considering taking a certain course of action, I get a phone call or an email exactly on that day from someone, who knew nothing about what I was thinking, inviting me in that direction.

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God might also use events in the sense of giving us “signs.” I had a remarkable one when I was in the ministry at Rosebank union Church. On the day I started, a woman in the church, knowing my love of birds, gave me a beautiful picture of a martial eagle made out of seeds. From time to time over the next six years I would say to her, “don’t you want your picture back yet.” And she would always answer, “no not yet.” Then, completely unknown to her, I was given a call to go to Waterproof Baptist Church. On the very day the court arrived, she came into my study and said, “If you don’t mind, I think I would like my eagle back now.”

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We might even on important occasion ask for a sign. One biblical precedent for this is when Gideon put out a fleece. On the first night he asked that the fleece be wet and the surrounding ground be dry, and it happened. On the second night he asked for the reverse, and it happened. These things give us great confidence to move ahead in faith.

Obviously, we must not trivialise this (“If  she has a banana sticking out of her ear when she answers the door I know I shouldn’t ask her to marry me.”)

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F – Fellowship.

There is no such thing as a loan Christian.

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“No man is an island entire of itself;

every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.”

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I belong to a church – a bigger group. And also to a smaller group who can know me more intimately, who can pray with me and seek God’s guidance with me. This provides a chance for the body of Christ and the gifts of the Spirit to operate.

I was once in the throes of making a very difficult and crucial decision. I have more or less made my mind to do. Then one night, I was sitting in church during a worship time, at a very big service.  On the other side of the church, a young woman that I didn’t know very well suddenly had a strong conviction that she needed to speak to me. The conviction was so strong that she had gone to the door stewards to enquire where I was sitting, and next thing she was at my shoulder. She certainly knew nothing about what I was dealing with. She said, “I don’t know why, but the Lord has just impressed on me that I should tell you that the decision you are contemplating is the correct one.” It was startling. It was like a bolt of lightning. And in retrospect I can see that it was correct.

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G – Go Ahead in Faith.

There are times when I go through the six stages outlined above, and I still can’t decide what to do. Sometimes I think the Lord wants us to take a step of faith first before he confirms it. We cannot steer a ship that is standing still, only one that is moving. And so, I use my brain, I use my wisdom, I even use what I would like to do, and I make my decision. And then I go ahead in faith, always saying to God if this is wrong, please feel free to stop it.. And it is then that Isaiah 31:21 comes into operation: “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “whether you turn to the left or the right, you will hear a voice behind you saying: ‘This is the way; walk in it’.”

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Conclusion.

God does guide us. Jeremiah33 says: “Call on me and I will answer you, and show you great and wonderful things that you did not know before.”