T(r)oy's Marbles

First, in light of the fact that God guides us through the Bible and through the church, it should be noted that there is another, more “direct” way God guides us: the Holy Spirit. The Bible says:

“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.” (John 16:13)

Maybe this is what Jesus is referring to when he says “My sheep know my voice.” Sometimes “you just know” the right thing to do. God sometimes gives you a peace in your spirit about a certain action or prospective decision.

However, it is important to check this with the community of believers and to check this against the Word of God. In spite of that, however, I believe this is an under-rated method of telling God’s will.

The question is: how do we know it’s the Holy Spirit and not some evil spirit or merely our own self-deception influencing us? There are a few ways, I think, to address this issue. Some of these points are more “preventive” in nature than others, but all should come to bear on this issue:

1. Often, as a believer, if you are entertaining an idea that is not in line with God’s will, the Holy Spirit will give you a “check” in your spirit about that idea. If it will lead you into sin, you can be sure of this, since part of the Holy Spirit’s work involves “conviction” of sin. This may be what Jesus is referring to when he says that the Holy Spirit “will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin…” (John 16:8) Indeed, many Christians believe as such.

2. The Bible tells us to fight the enemy (Satan and his demons) in prayer, in right belief and in appropriating the armor of God.

We fight the enemy in prayer by appropriating the person, work and name of Jesus Christ in our milieu. For example, at home you may choose to declare that each room, each space, each table and chair belongs to Jesus Christ. You may choose to speak out loud that the blood of Jesus Christ has purchased you and your home and that the adverse powers have no authority there. You may choose to speak out the name of Jesus, reminding the adverse powers that Jesus is risen again from the dead, that Jesus is Lord of Heaven and Earth and they have no dominion or power in your home or in your heart.

The adverse powers are also defeated as you saturate your mind with truth, worship and praise. For example, often the adverse powers will try to influence you through convincing you that “you’re a good-for-nothing sinner; you’re hopeless; you’re just going to step into it again, anyway, so-why-not-give-in-right-now.” But this is a lie. And it comes from The Liar. The Truth is: “You are a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.” The Truth is: Jesus has bought you. The Spirit of God is living inside you. You are accepted, you are secure, you are significant. You are God’s child. You are the Bride of Christ. You have been set free. All of these are truths in God’s Word that form the basis of your life. If you really believe that you are a good-for-nothing sort of person, eventually you’ll find yourself acting according to that belief. But, if you really believe that you have been set free, well, then, why go back to a life of slavery to sin?

Another example. True of false: God is good. True, of course, but do we really believe this? Let me show you now, how doubting this simple truth causes errors in judgment in even every-day kinds of situations. And those errors in judgment divert us from following God’s ways.

Some time ago, I discovered a grain inside me that (I'm sorry to say) actually thought: “God is not totally good.” I discovered that I had been thinking of God as a person who was “out to get me”. “Sure, he does give grace,” I thought, “but he kind of gives it grudgingly and only little bits of it at a time, when I need it. Take, for instance, our finances. Now that Heather and I feel a strong sense of calling to Madrid, God will not provide for us.” Because of this, I think: “What do I need to do now to compensate for God’s indifference to our plight?” I make a list: “I need to make phone calls, write emails, ask people and just generally start to get in a worry and a huff about what I need to do to make up for God’s apathy.” This began to affect my prayer life, my reading of the Scriptures: I engaged in those activities to show God “what a good boy I can be”, to earn his favor and hopefully curry some reward from him. As time went on I began to get more and more irritated with God and I began to treat others with something that I will call less-than-kindness, consideration, respect and gentleness. Even my wife and kids got the brunt of my general irritability.

A simple little lie: God is not good. And yet it affected me and the relationships I had.

We do battle with the enemy through saturating our mind with truth. This may be what the Scripture is referring to when we are told to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” It says this in Second Corinthians, chapter 10, verses 3 through 5:

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

Can you see how, if we would only do this, we would go a long way to knowing if thoughts and inclinations have authentic, God-centered origins or if they spring from the lies of the devil or those of the world?

And is it any wonder that we are told in Ephesians 6:

“Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.”

Here are a handful of things to say about this text:

1. Did you notice how the first piece Paul tells us to put on is “the belt of truth”? (Saturate your mind with truth!)

2. Did you notice the piece that “extinguishes the flaming arrows of the evil one”? The shield of faith!

3. Did you notice the only offensive piece? The sword of the Spirit: the word of God: revelation!

4. Because these items are essential to our life, I have tried to visualize this text at various times in the past, literally taking a few minutes in the morning, putting on the armor of God through slowly meditating on this Scripture and making it a prayer of appropriation. The effect was tremendous. I invite you to do the same.

That said, doing battle with the adverse powers goes a long way towards building a sense of confidence that one is walking in the ways of the Lord and not in the path of evil. But, I would be remiss if I did not mention one other thing you should keep in mind regarding our battle with the adverse powers: it is not only fought through prayer, right thinking and putting on the armor of God. It is also fought through simply living a holy life.

Often, I have heard people, who say they believe in Jesus, express a desire to know God’s will with regard to a particular matter in their life. Yet, while they are talking about deciding whether or not to take a particular job or live in a certain house or any other number of incidental matters, they are at the same time engaging regularly in sex with an unmarried partner or knowingly cheating on their taxes or repeatedly lying to their boss or abusing their children verbally.

I will not mince words here: this is hypocrisy. These people are no better than the Pharisees who strain out a gnat, yet swallow a camel. They sound pious and Christian, they talk like they are passionate about following God’s lead, but they have clearly forgotten the more important matters of mercy and compassion and justice and Christ-like virtue. Pardon my expression, but: Who really cares if you think it’s God’s will for you to take a certain job when you’re treating your wife like she’s dirt? Don’t neglect the latter to pay mind to the former. It’s not that God doesn’t care about your career; it’s just that he cares more about who you are than what you do.

This is to say: sin always clouds judgment. There’s a reason Solomon tells us that “sin is folly.” It has a way of making us stupid, really. (Have you ever noticed, by the way, how even the smartest people do the stupidest things? Example: yes, some college professors—really smart people--sexually harass their students. Example: Enron executives—really smart people—commit sins of greed. Yes, sin makes even the smartest people in the world seem incredibly stupid.) And thus we’re back at faith.

You’ve got to believe, to trust God with your whole life in order to hear him as he wants to be heard. So, the best thing you can do to determine God’s will for your life is both simple and hard: just follow him and obey him regarding what matters most to him. When he tells you to stay away from certain things, stay away from them. And when he tells you to run after certain things, by all means, run after them! He’ll take care of the rest, believe me.

What is it that Jesus said? “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness…” and don’t worry about the rest.

That said, we’ve established a few “guideposts” when it comes to this issue of knowing God’s will. These “guideposts” are (thus far): the Bible, the community of believers (especially those with teaching, pastoral and discernment gifts), the Holy Spirit, and battle with the forces of evil (through prayer, truth, the armor of God and holy living).

Remember, these “guideposts” are anchored in the “concrete” of revelation and faith. That is, ultimately, we can know God’s will because God is a God who reveals himself and his plans to us and, as we choose to believe that revelation, we come to see first-hand the truth of it.

Tomorrow, I’ll suggest one or two other “guideposts” and conclude with a closing thought/idea.

Until then,
Troy

Click here to read the final part of Discerning God's Will.