Ok, so don’t be like the world. I get that. The pattern of this world is sinful and everyone in the world makes decisions based on selfish ambitions, so doing the opposite will be what God’s will is. Fair enough, but that only applies to moral decisions. What about the decisions like deciding a career path, or moving to a new city or whatever that are neither morally right or wrong, how do we know God’s will for those?
I always hear people talking about “God opening doors” for such and such, and “I feel right about this, so we’ll have to have faith that it’s God’s will.”. You hear great people of God: Missionaries, pastors, people who above all should be very much in tune with the voice of the Holy Spirit say this. With the exception a very few number of people and an even fewer set of circumstances, nobody can usually say they are 100% certain of God’s will. For some reason that just doesn’t sit right with me. A couple weeks ago at Northpark Church Pastor Terry was talking about the story about Abraham’s big test, about how God told him to go up to the mountain and sacrifice his son Isaac. It was a rousing example of how God has things planned out, and things will work out if we follow his commands. That’s all well and good, but I couldn’t help think about what would happen if that test was given post-Pentecost, during our present day time when God doesn’t really speak in a clear, no doubts “this is God calling and this is what I want” way. His spirit seems to speak to us in a little more of a subtle, ambiguous way in this age. So where does that leave us? How would the story of Abraham being told to sacrifice Isaac play out in this day and age? That’s a huge, life altering decision for Abraham to make, and he better be pretty darn sure its God calling him to do this. So how would he know?
Waiting for doors to open and feeling right about the decision doesn’t quite work here. I highly doubt Abraham would have had any peace about killing his son, and God hardly “opened doors” for him to do it so far as we know from the story. It was quite a way out of the way actually. A three day hike, then climb a mountain, build an alter, bind and kill your son. Things didn’t quite “just happen” for Abraham, he had to go out and do it, and he had to have been 100% sure without a doubt in his mind that it was God himself telling him to do this - he was about to kill his son. So what about us? Isn’t just having faith and trusting we have made the right decision not really faith in God’s plan at all, but really blind faith that we ourselves have picked the right direction to go? That doesn’t seem like faith to me, it seems like taking the best way we can figure and crossing our fingers. Something’s missing.
Can anyone alive today honestly say that they can ever be sure enough that they got it right to go and kill their own son? We make decisions for our lives based on our best guess of what God’s will is, according to how we discern the Spirit is speaking to us, but are we assured enough in our final decision to be willing to play with such high stakes? So far as we know from the Bible, Abraham never doubted whether or not it was God who actually told him to do it - that wasn’t the struggle at all. The struggle for Abraham was why would God tell him to do it, especially since doing so would seemingly break God’s covenant with him to prosper his descendants. In this day and age we don’t have the luxury of even being sure of God’s specific will for us. So how can we possibly follow in Abraham’s footsteps?
So how can we reconcile this? How do we follow God’s will and have faith in him like Abraham and David when we don’t ever have the chance to even know 100% what God’s will is? This is a big stumbling point for me, especially when pastors and teachers call us to have faith like Abraham. How can we ever manage to live out our lives in such faith when the Holy Spirit seems so still and small and leaves room for such doubt and second guessing?
Dan
Being an emotional woman its very easy to think that peace in a situation or "feeling right about it" is the answer (or Gods will ) but it could be just lack of a ... Read Morestressful situation therefore fewer decisions to make. Gods will is not always easy so it may seem a bit chaotic at times. So I have to ignore my emotions and really soak myself in the Word Of God. Proverbs is the book of wisdom...God will fill us with His wisdom.
To realize your insufficiency and shrug it off would be a terrible mistake.
If you do believe that you are indeed good enough on your own, then you are mislead about what God expects.... Read More
At any rate, our understanding of God's ways should not determine our relationship with him.
"The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law." Deut 29:29
Your view is quite different in that the details don't matter so long as we follow his "general" will laid out for us in the Bible.
On the one hand the first idea can be quite discouraging if we are trying but don't feel we are being lead much by the Spirit. I tend to fit this category. But perhaps we're not trying hard enough. On the other hand it puts God very close by. The other perspective, such as what you were mentioning, seems (to me at least) to make God seem a little more distant.
My Response:
Hey, good point you bring up here
1. Do it for the glory of God. Like Dan said, we need to be praying for big decisions like these. If we're doing it only for our own selfish ambitions, then it is basically sinful, and is unglorifying to God. This is even true for things that seem good (like saving people from fires as a fireman). So we need to pray that God can use us (ie. pray that God can use me at this job, or in this city, or at this school, or with this spouse) as Sarah said. We basically have to do it with intent to serve God rather than ourselves. Proverbs 16:3 says it perfectly: “Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.”
2. Don't do something that will cause you to sin. For instance, I wouldn't work at a strip club because that would probably cause me to sin, and I would also be promoting sin by working there. This is an obvious example, but a less obvious one might be pride. If you’re pursuing a job for the purpose of getting rich, prestige, and popularity, then you’re sinning. I’m not saying you shouldn’t try to become a doctor, CEO or celebrity – God can definitely use people in these positions. But he clearly warns about pride and getting rich.
3. The Bible is all that God has revealed to us. What God has given us in the bible is His revealed will, and obeying His Word are to be the focus of our lives as Christians. This is really what Romans 12:1-2 is talking about. Not conforming to the ways of the world, and doing so by studying the Word of God, and prayerfully asking the Holy Spirit to transform us by renewing our minds – resulting in the will of God. As you previously said
I think a big problem in our culture, and in many churches, is that people rely too much on feelings, and in doing so lose interest in learning from the Word of God. They want to “feel God’s presence” when they go to church more than they want to learn from His Word. Don’t get me wrong – I have the desire to “feel” God too, but I think this has become the focus of church services, whereas instead the focus should be learning from His Word – that which God has clearly given to us. Basically, we shouldn’t be lead by our feelings, we should be lead by the Word of God, but from what I’ve seen these days – the opposite is true for a lot of Christians. Obviously, the Word of God does not clearly tell us the answer as to what each of us should choose in major life events, but Proverbs 16:1 and 9 say this, respectively: 1“The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.” And 9 “The heart of a man plans his way, but the Lord established his steps.” Clearly we are “allowed” to make our own plans, which are most often in accordance with our personal interests, skills, and desires. Hopefully they also are in accordance with #1 and 2. And that brings me to my last point.
4. Remember that God is all sovereign. Whatever “plans” we make, they are in accordance with his will. If you satisfy # 1 and 2 with your decision, God will use you to further His kingdom. If not, God will use it to teach you a lesson and/or to bring judgment upon you (but we are still fully responsible for our sins). God has complete control over us and does with us as He pleases “All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: “What have you done?”. (Daniel 4:35). God’s plans will never be compromised by human will – “I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted.” (Job 42:2). There’s never gonna be a time when God says “Oh no,
In summary, make sure you have a good knowledge of the Word of God, so that you can live it out in your life and when considering major life decisions. In everything you do, do it for Him, and avoid sin at all costs. If these things are satisfied, we can have good reason to believe that God will take care of us in whatever plans we choose, and also have comfort in knowing that whatever happens is according to God’s perfect and all sovereign will.
I am definitely not an expert on the bible, but I was just trying to stress its importance here. Remember: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim 3:16-17). Learning from the bible is a life long journey, and as previously mentioned, praying for wisdom is key: “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.” (James 1:5). Anyways, that’s all I got, sorry for being long, just wanted to make myself clear. Hopefully I’ve provided some answers. Let me know what you think.
