A Guiding Presence
Galatians 5:25
As a pastor, some of the most common questions I receive have to do with divine guidance. What’s God’s will for my life? How do I know if God wants me to take this new job? Does God want me to marry this person? Could God be pointing me in a new direction for my life? Of course, the question of God’s guidance isn’t just a pastoral matter for me. It’s also personal. When I was in the Spring of my Freshman year at Tulane, I began thinking about what I wanted to major in. I had always been taught that God had given us both gifts and a purpose in life. So I began to seek what God wanted me to do with my life. After several weeks of praying and reading Scripture, I received my calling into ministry through a strong impression on my mind that I was to become a minister. When I was thinking about proposing to my wife, I prayed to God and asked for his guidance. And in every church I’ve served, I’ve sought God’s guidance for my ministry and in every ministerial transition, I’ve sought God’s guidance. I know I’m not alone. Most of us want God’s guidance in our lives, we just don’t know how to go about or how to know when we’re receiving it.
God has always guided his people. Scripture abounds with examples of God providing guidance. Some are dramatic, as in the Book of Exodus where God directs Moses by speaking through a burning bush that is not consumed. God guided the Hebrews in the wilderness by a pillar of fire at night and a pillar of cloud during the day. Sometimes God’s guidance is ironic, as when God guides Balaam through a donkey or Jonah through a giant fish. In the Book of Acts, the guidance of the Holy Spirit can almost seem like a daily occurance. Paul experienced the Spirit’s leading throughout his ministry, leading him to say, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.” Galatians 5:25
So from Scripture, we learn that receiving God’s guidance is the norm. That’s the rub, right? It appears so normal and clear in Scripture and yet it’s such a challenge for us. We’d love it if God just wrote down his instructions or whispered in our ear or had an angel spell out what to do. But the Holy Spirit rarely speaks with audible words, like at Jesus’ baptism. Rather, God guides us through quiet, subtle ways making it seem more difficult to discern His leading and guidance. That’s complicated by the fact that many times when God may be trying to guide us, we’re either not aware of it or we don’t hear it. We often limit God’s guidance in our lives because God will communicate to you to the extent that you invite him to do so, are attentive to His leading and your readiness to listen and hear. So today, we’re going to look at the ways that God guides us so that you might be able to recognize and discern His guidance for your life.
To receive God’s guidance, you first need to understand its purpose in our lives. Sometimes we become so absorbed in seeking guidance for ourselves that we overlook one of the Spirit’s main reasons for speaking to us: so that we might do His will by ministering to others. Yes, God provides individual guidance to us but ultimately, God is guiding us to do His will. Spiritual guidance comes, not only for our good and for the good of others, but ultimately for the good of God, that is so His will and purposes might be fulfilled. Ephesians 2:10 puts it this way, the Spirit guides us so that we might “do the good things [God] planned for us long ago,” and these things are all part of his plan of salvation. As we receive God’s guidance and follow His will, we derive personal benefit in that we are blessed through serving God and following His will. But more importantly, the people around us are blessed and even more significantly, God’s purposes are fulfilled through us. It’s not about us but always about God.
So how does God guide us? First, the Holy Spirit guides us through reason. Our Wesleyan faith is built on four pillars called the Wesleyan Quadralateral which are Scripture, tradition, experience and reason. Because the Spirit’s guidance can be so miraculous at times, we can overlook or even disparage so-called “normal” processes of reasoning. God has given us powers of reason to be used for his purposes, whether we utilize these to make medical discoveries, teach Sunday school, or discern God’s will. It’s through reason that the Spirit can and does guide us. This is why Paul tells us we’ve been given the “mind of Christ” (1 Cor 2:16) and that the Spirit of God can guide our thinking. Romans 8:5-6 But, none of this guarantees the rightness of our thought. Reason, though a gift of God in creation, is not infallible and people can and have twisted words and even Scripture toward their own ends. This is why we need to test everything with the entirety of God’s Word and the wisdom and counsel of others.
Second is through Scripture. The Bible provides a reliable yardstick by which to measure our ideas, plans or actions. The Spirit will never lead us to contradict Scripture. Reason alone is inadequate for spiritual discernment, but in the context of immersion in God’s word and Christian community, it does supply a means of divine guidance for our lives.
Scripture is the primary source for divine guidance in our life. We call this the Living Word. In these words thousands of years old, we hear the voice of God for our lives today. One of the chief functions of Scripture is to reveal God’s will for our lives. There are two kinds of guidance in Scripture: the first is corporate. This is God’s will for all people in how we should live, for example the 10 Commandments. There are also thousands of other imperatives in the Bible–actions God wants us to do, things we are to believe and attitudes we are to take on like worship him weekly, praise his name, give thanks for his gifts, love God, our neighbors and our enemies, feed the poor, seek justice for the oppressed, tell others about Jesus, and on and on. In the Bible there are almost 50 “one another” sayings, like love one another, encourage one another. They can only be fulfilled in relationship to others. God has clearly laid out his expectations for our communal life together.
The second type of guidance God provides through Scripture is personal and specific, whether that be to marry a certain individual, or to take a job offer, or to go on a mission trip. And so we can go to Scripture looking for that personal guidance. But be aware that Scripture does not address every issue or problem or circumstance in life so this approach can have its limits. Even so, the Holy Spirit can give quite specific direction to our lives and situations. It reminds me of the guy who said, "Lord, I want to know your will for my life." He opened up his Bible and put his finger down and it said, "Judas went out and hung himself." He thought, "That can’t be right." So he closed his Bible and opened it again and put his finger down and it said, "Go thou and do likewise." He thought, "Lord, this could not be right. Two out of three..." He opened it a third time and puts his finger down and it said, "And what you do, do quickly." That’s not how you’re supposed to use Scripture for divine guidance.
One of the best ways is by systematically reading through God’s word on a daily basis. John Wesley recommended that Methodists read one Old Testament chapter a day and one New Testament chapter a day. We have a daily Bible reading plan on our website which assigns two chapters a day. As you read systematically and regularly God’s word, the Spirit speaks to you and guides you. This can happen when we read Scripture and the Holy Spirit highlights or emphasizes a word, a phrase or a verse what speaks to a particular issue or circumstance in our life. One of the primary questions we should always bring to Scripture is, “What is God calling me to do as a result of this passage?” Another way to look for specific guidance is to use a topical Bible which categorizes all scriptures by topic. You can look up what God says about divorce, parenting, personal finances or whatever you might be facing. You can see the entirety of what God says about an issue you’re facing.
Third, the Holy Spirit leads us through other people. In the Old Testament, God often speaks to his people through prophets. But as the age of the prophets has passed, God can speak through the people around us, sometimes without them even knowing it. God speaks audibly through teachers, pastors, friends, family members - even people we don't especially like. It’s through the wisdom and counsel of other brothers and sisters in Christ that we can receive the guidance of the Holy Spirit. This is why the body of Christ is so important. We are not only wired for community, to have connection with other people, we need the wisdom and counsel of other Christians. There is no such thing as a Lone Ranger Christian. And why it’s so important not only to be connected to a body of Christ but in a small group where we share life together, pray for each other and receive the counsel of God through one another. Paul writes in Romans, “I myself feel confident about you, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another.” We’re called to “encourage one another” Colossians 3:16 and “spur one another toward love and good deeds.” Hebrews 10:24
Craig von Buseck tells of serving as an associate pastor in Pennsylvania. After more than five years on staff, he began sensing that the Lord wanted him to leave this church to complete his ministry training. Relations were beginning to become strained between himself and the senior pastor. While we remained friends, as time went by I began to recognize that we had differing leadership styles and different visions for the church. But he also knew you don't make major moves in your life because things are uncomfortable. Sometimes God places us in difficult situations because He wants to grow our character. Over many months he prayed about my situation at the church and came to the conclusion that in this case either I needed to leave the church, or the vision needed to change.
Transition was inevitable, but how it would come about was unclear to me. And so I waited for the Lord to guide my steps. In the meantime, I went about my duties at the church, working as unto the Lord. In this time, God did some dramatic miracles in that church that to this day cause me to be in awe of His power including the sale of their church property at full price which had no parking to the gift of 21 acres of prime real estate to relocate to. And yet in the midst of all this, I did not have peace.
The more he prayed, the more he believed that God wanted me to go on for more education. So he asked the Lord for confirmation. He prayed that God would make His will clear to me. The following week, clarity began to come. He received a telephone call out of the blue from a minister friend in Florida, who said. "I don't know what's going on there, but I felt like I needed to call. I've been praying for you and I feel like the Lord is saying that you are coming in to a time of transition. I believe you need to get ready because God is about to make some major changes in your life." Two days later another minister friend called and said the same thing and then a third pastor called from Indiana and said the exact same thing.
But there was still the question of timing. He went to a ministry conference praying, “Lord would give me clarity of vision and Your timing in this transition.” On the last day, he attended a session on prophetic ministry. A woman named Sharon led it, called him up front and laid her hands upon him. The words that came out of her mouth were both amazing and humbling. "The Lord says, 'I'm allowing you to stand in places of training. I'm allowing you to stand in places of co-laborship, and I'm allowing you to be one who is trained in diversity. And you're getting to do all things that I might build an ability to know things from the inside out.' For the Lord says, 'Know this, there will be a day that I will plant you -- you're grooming for the anointing of the house now...'Know this, I'm changing your home ... I am readjusting you, picking you up and I am transplanting you, just like someone whose pot is too narrow.' The Lord says, 'You're root-bound. I'm picking you up and putting you in a bigger place.' And the Spirit of God says, 'You're going to see that out of that place that I've centered you, I've located you, but I've also put you in a place where your children are going to be blessed."
By now the tears were filling his eyes because one of his greatest concerns in this transition was for his children, and here the Lord promised that He would take care of them. Hallelujah! After receiving this word I met with the pastor who wasn't surprised when I told him that I was leaving to attend Regent University. After a frenzy of painting and cleaning I put my house up for sale. It sold quickly -- and with a decent profit. A few months later I moved to Virginia Beach where I enrolled in the Divinity School. In the midst of that first year, he sensed that the Lord wanted him to minister through the media -- a calling God had placed on his heart while he was still in high school. He then learned that there was a special program in the College of Communication called Religious Journalism. Two years later Craig graduated from Regent University with an MA in Religious Journalism, was hired in the Direct Marketing department at CBN as a staff writer and is now Ministries Director for CBN.com -- a position that allows him to minister through the media, just as the Lord had revealed to him more than 15 years earlier and led him to this place under the direction of the Holy Spirit and other people. Amen.
