Divine Guidance

It is totally inconceivable that the Creator and Sustainer of the universe will not take a personal interest in guiding and directing the lives of His children. Listen to what the Scripture says about guidance:

The psalmist said, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye" (Ps. 32:8, NKJV).

"The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail" (Isaiah 58:11, NKJV).

"I guide you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths" (Proverbs 4:11, NIV).

"Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God" (Romans 8:14, NIV).

In other word, - No leadership, no sonship!


Believers need to have a sense of being led. Otherwise we become victims of our circumstances; we are circumstance-directed instead of Christ-directed.


Main categories of divine guidance


There are three main categories of divine guidance - God's direct voice, God's Angel and the Holy Spirit.


God's direct voice


God spoke to Moses directly before the golden calf incidance at the foot of Mount Sinai. The Lord spoke and guided Moses directly (Exodus 3 to Exodus 32). From the time the Lord appeared to Moses at the Burning Bush God had never cease to speak to Moses directly. He spoke to him, guided him to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt; He gave him the Ten Commandments, as well as the laws of worship, sacrifice and everyday life. He also gave him detailed instructions in making the Tabernacle with its furnishings, the altars and the priestly garments.


God's Angel


When the children of Israel sinned against God by making and worshipping a golden calf, He told them that He would not go before them, but that He would send His angel to be their guide.


"And I will send My Angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite, and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people" (Exodus 33:2, 3, NKJV, emphasis added).


The Holy Spirit


In my previous message (posting) - "The Candle of the Lord", I mentioned briefly the guidance provided by the Holy Spirit.


Jesus said, "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth, for He will not speak on his own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. he will glorify Me, for he will take of what is Mine and declare it to you" (John 16:13, 14, NKJV, emphasis added).


Paul said, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God" (Romans 8:14).


Consequences of not being guided


Turing to astrology


When God's people lose the sense of being guided, they turn to anything for guidance. Of all the things men and women turn to for guidance, astrology is one of most devastating, for it means that moral considerations have been abandoned and one's destiny is decided by the position of the stars.


In my opinion, this is a form of idolatry. There is little difference between an ancient pagan bowing before a stone idol, asking for its blessing, and pagan studying charts that depict the movements of lumps of matter in the sky which he thinks guide his life. Some Christians are turning to horoscopes for their daily guidance. The stars which God has made can separate us from Him if we make the stars our guide rather than letting God reveal Himself to us through Christ and His Word.


Failed to enter God's rest


Lack of clear divine guidance often leads to worry. The secret of emancipation from worry is to live the guided life. There is always the fear of making the wrong decisions even they have the opportunity to call on God's help. Because of this, many believers will not enter God's rest.


The psalmist said: "For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice; do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, as in the day of trial in the wilderness, when your fathers tested Me; they tried Me, though they saw My work. For forty years I was grieved with that generation, and said, 'It is a people who go astray in their hearts, and they do not know My ways.' So I swore in My wrath, 'They shall not enter My rest.'" (Ps. 95:7 - 11, NKJV)


Believers fail to enter God's rest because of their stubbornness and unbelief. Even God gives them guidance and direction they refuse to act and follow Him.


Failure in getting divine guidance


Turning to formulas and techniques


One reason why some Bible-believing Christians find it difficulty to discover divine guidance is because there are many areas of legitimate concern that are not specifically addressed in the Bible, and so they are at a loss to know what to do. Consequently they mistakenly view guidance as something that can only be obtained by the use of formulas and techniques.


There is a story about a British young woman who felt that the Lord had called her to be a missionary, but was not sure about the country or the people to whom she should go. She got the "guidance" she needed when, driving in the streets of London one day, her car ran out of petrol outside the Philippine Embassy. This, she decided, was the Lord's way of showing her that she should become a missionary to the Philippines. Unbelievable?


Just as there are no "short cuts" on a straight road, so there are no magic formulas for knowing the will of God, but there are patterns of sound teaching in the Bible to follow.


Paul wrote to Timothy: "Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us" (2 Tim. 1:13, 14, NKJV).


Focusing on our wants


Another reason why guidance fails to come is because, although we may ask God to guide us, what we really want deep down in our hearts is God's stamp of approval on our own selfish desires.


A Pastor said to a young man in his congregation that if he wants to get married he must seek God for a Christian wife. This man then prayed: "Lord, choose me a wife, but let it be Rachel."


Many of the desires that spring into our minds are tainted with self-centeredness and self-interest, and it is perilously easy to bring them to God, not for His examination, but for His unqualified approval. If we want God's guidance for our lives, we must be willing to be guided, not to our ends, but to God's end.


Jesus said, "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me" (John 6:38).


The fact is that God wouldn't will anything for us except our highest good - and still be God. God's will is in our highest interest at all times, in all places and in all circumstances.


Seeking guidance only in a crisis


Many Christians fail to see that guidance is not something that happens only in a crisis, but something that happens in the continuous. We must be willing to be guided by God, not merely now and then, but as a life proposition. It is difficult to get light in a crisis if you are not willing to get light in the continuous. If you don't speak to God unless you are in a crisis, God might not hear you in a crisis when you do speak to Him. The plan of your life might be unfolded in a moment of sudden insight, or it might be a gradual unfolding. Yet the gradual unfolding might be the highest form of guidance.


David, the psalmis said: "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way" (Ps. 37:23, NKJV).


Notice that one step is about two and a half feet - and not ten feet. Divine guidance is a moment-by-moment happening.


The psalmist also said: "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path" (Ps. 119:105).


Notice that a lamp is not a spotlight, but just produces enough light by which to let us see the next step.


Categories of God's will


Briefly, God's will can be divided into three categories:


1. His sovereign will - God's predetermined plan which He has for the ages, and is always fulfilled. It will not be frustrated by men, angels, or by anything else. We can only know as much of God's sovereign will as he permits us to see. For example, in Bible prophecy, usually we recognize it only after it has happened.


2. His moral will - God's plan revealed in the Scripture, the moral commands which teach us how we ought to live and what we ought to believe. The entire Bible reveals one hundred per cent of God's moral will. You don't need to ask for guidance on the moral will of God, because God has given it in the Scripture.


3. His individual will - We cannot understand divine guidance fully unless we understand that God has an "individual" will for each of our lives. God's individual will is the ideal, detailed life-plan which God has uniquely designed for every believer. This plan encompasses the decisions we make and is the basis of God's daily guidance. The Bible gives general instructions but it does not give specific instruction for any individual believer. For instance, the Bible forbids a Chrsitian to marry a non-Christian, but it does not indicate which particular person one should marry, or for that matter, whether a specific believer ought to marry at all. These personal decisions are influenced by God's moral will, but have to be determined by finding God's individual will.


God's guidance is both general and personal


The Bible claims that God does have a personal will for His people. Many witnesses, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, spoke to confirm this. For centuries, men and women have ventured on this concept, sought the promised guidance and testified that God was as good as His Word. The Bible is full of such stories.


In the Old Testament, we read of Abraham's servant finding Rebekah; of Moses, Samuel and the prophets, all witnessing to the fact that God's guidance is personal as well as general - willingly given to the limit of man's capacity to receive and understand.


The same can be seen in the New Testament also. We read of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch; of Ananias and Saul; of Peter and Cornelius. In particular our Lord Jesus - He got His guidance, not only from Scripture, but from direct contact with God, the Father, in prayer. Jesus was divinely guided to be in the right place at the right time. He taught His disciples to pray, "Your will be done" (Matthew 6:5 - 15), a prayer, called the Lord's Prayer, which presupposes the possibility of knowing God's will.


All through the ages, men and women have believed that God has condescended to guide them. In each generation, godly people have claimed that the discipline of Bible studying and prayer have let them to know God's guidance in their lives.


Guided by God's Word


We are given the Word and the Word is God's primary means of guiding us toward His perfect will and purpose for our lives. Scripture provides the single most important guide and checkpoint for our lives (2 Tim. 3:16). The better we know His Word, the more clearly we will know His will.


There are three steps we must take to profit from God's Word:


1. Hear the truth of God's Word. This means you have to study the Scripture until your inner man hears what God says. Just reading the Bible will not do.


2. Believe the truth of God's Word. This means accepting the entire Bible Message as from God.


3. Practice the truth of God's Word. This means doing whatever God asks you to do, whether you feel like it or not.


Someone had said: "What you have read is leading you to Jesus' feet. Upon Him all the Old Testament truths converge; from Him all the New Testament truths emerge. He can be found in the pages of the Bible!