Choosing to be a Learner
All through my early years I saw myself as a humble man. The fallacy of that image was exposed the day I was informed that the one-on-one, who I understood would be my “mentor” in the YWAM training program was a single, 19-year-old kid. I was a married, 32-year-old father of three. I could feel the walls going up inside. It was clear to me that there was nothing of value I could possibly gain from this arrangement. God had obviously stepped out of this one. And that was the attitude of my heart for quite awhile after that.
Receiving the Words of Jesus
Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples” (John 8:31 NIV). I have always appreciated learning. I study the Bible and have sought to educate myself on all its contexts. The words of Jesus are the foundation of the Christian faith, so of course I want to comply with what He says. This is what it means to be a follower of Christ: agree with the teachings of Jesus, right?
Jesus’ words above sound great to my ears until an uncomfortable reality pushes in. He wants to drill deeper than mere intellectual acceptance. He often seeks to plant His teachings in my heart through instruments and circumstances I don’t like—painful events or people who seem unfit for imparting wisdom. I resist. This forces me to then ask the question, am I truly teachable? Can I absorb God’s truth for my life regardless the situations through which it is delivered?
Read MoreChoosing to Rid Myself of Sticky Fingers
A good story almost always requires a villain. Everyone loves to detest and blame that guy who is despicable. And what is easier to despise than a creep motivated by pure greed?
In movies, a hero commonly struggles against a filthy rich tycoon or corporation seeking to add to their already-huge pile of money. The greed of the wealthy is a motif routinely used in Hollywood and politics because of its almost-universal capacity to stir up deep emotional responses—usually animosity. It’s a theme that has struck a chord in every generation. Afterall, it is so satisfying to see such evil motivations and actions exposed and justly punished!
But is greed a sin exclusive to the 1%?
Read MoreChoosing to Follow the Magi
Christmas stirs my imagination. Not only can I endlessly ponder the significance of our eternal God becoming a full-fledged human, I am intrigued by the variety of responses in the Bible to this event: Bethlehem shepherds awestruck by an angelic light show; Nazareth residents scandalized by an unwed pregnant teenager in their tight-knit community. Jerusalem’s citizens and king confused and disturbed that a new king is being announced when the old one is still on his throne. But the characters who arouse my curiosity the most are the Magi from the East. Depending on the Bible translation one uses, they are also referred to as kings or wise men in the Gospel of Matthew.
So, what makes them special?
Read MoreChoosing to Resist Envy
A shiny, fresh-from-the-factory SUV was parked in his driveway. I stood staring, as countless dark musings flowed through my head. How can a fellow missionary “living by faith” afford that? The A/C of our family’s minivan was broken with the engine making threatening noises. Someone had recently sideswiped it, leaving an ugly dent in the fender, and it needed new tires. And on top of it all, we were barely paying our monthly bills! Before I could stop it, a seductively gratifying image pushed into my head: wouldn’t it be funny if someone backed into his new car? Hee, hee, hee.
I feel shame admitting these thoughts. Even worse, the above scenario is not an isolated event in my life. I am guilty of the sin of envy.
Read MoreChoosing to Turn from Anger
I almost killed my younger brother when I was 12. He was being mean to our sister, and when I stepped in, he said something—I don’t even remember what it was. But I lost it. I put my hands around his throat and squeezed as hard as I could. It was the screams of our sister that finally cleared the red haze clouding my brain. My brother’s face was blue. I pulled away, stunned that I could do such a thing. Even though I was young and I felt I had initially been right, I had no doubt that something dark had churned up to the surface. And It scared me, not to mention my siblings.
What is it?
Anger is an emotion that provides a surge of energy through the body and mind. In addition, It’s a protective armor that covers the vulnerable and weak places within where my insecurities dwell. It makes me feel bigger and more powerful than I actually am. It’s addictive and difficult to put away once it is found to be effective for injecting strength I can’t otherwise access. It makes me feel in control for a moment.
But it’s also destructive and twists my judgment. Yes, the Bible mentions righteous anger, the kind without sin (Ephesians 4:26). But the stuff we mostly deal with falls far from any rightness in its results: holes in walls; broken tennis rackets; refusal to speak to that person; impulsive texts that “speak our minds;” friends and family members who now avoid us; secret desires to get even and see people hurt, a younger brother with bruises around his neck. And it only gets worse.
For centuries, Jesus followers have classified anger as one of the Seven Deadly Sins.* These are the attitudes and behaviors that early Jesus followers recognized as seedbeds for all sorts of evil. Anger is a particularly toxic one since it is so easily justified and quickly spreads. While anger can take various forms and even smolder hidden within our hearts, a common way this particular sin manifests is as a drive for revenge, desiring and even meditating on others getting the pain they deserve.
Wishing on them what they deserve
The Bible declares that vengeance is territory that belongs to God alone (Romans 12:19). But the hunger for it can feel so strong. And the taste of it, so sweet (at least that’s what we imagine). We want justice—that is, personal satisfaction—when offended. Finding a way to take it into our own hands, right a wrong, humiliate a bully, hurt a hurter or humble someone acting a little too arrogant just feels right and even pleasurable. But God seems to be saying that we will rarely, if ever, get it right and the pleasure, if any, will be short-lived. We only mess things up more. We are urged to leave it to Him and then bless our enemies (Luke 6:28). Anger interferes with us dealing with “undeserving” people God’s way. And He has a way, if we’ll trust Him.
So, why is anger a deadly sin? Because so many other sins spring out of it. In its essence, it opens the door for us to dehumanize another person or group. Unrestrained anger then paves the way for prejudice, malicious talk, defaming another’s character, gossip, shunning, broken relationships, hatred, violence and homicide—justifying each sin the whole way. We don’t treat people as made in the image of God because in our anger we have judged they don’t deserve that sort of value. Basically, we can’t handle anger without inflicting some kind of damage on others—and ourselves. It will destroy us if not confronted. We must call it what it is and choose to turn away from it.
It’s not my friend
The first step for dealing with any sin is agreeing with God and changing the way we think about it. Do you rationalize your bad, grumbling attitude toward that jerk you have to work with? Do certain politicians consistently stir your ire which justifies your hating and belittling them? Recognize it as the seedbed that it is. Left unconfronted, these feelings put down deep roots and grow other things in your life, like bitterness and the inability to love when it counts. As people who are called to be marked by love in our dealings with ALL people, we must repent where anger drives our attitudes and shapes our perspective of others, no matter who they are.
Like all sin, we must choose to hate anger in our lives and not coddle it (read my post on sin). When we feel it being stirred, we must learn to lay it down as a right, choosing to bless rather than curse (it’s possible). We can ask Jesus to show us how He sees the object of our ire. We don’t have to like or tolerate the unjust actions of others, but we are called to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44), those who are against us and our values. Our human anger works against choosing love. The Bible says that the sin of anger even gives Satan a special foothold in our lives (Ephesians 4:26-27). I know I certainly don’t want to give him any extra help!
So, confess it as a sin. Identify what feeds your anger. Ask for help from those who can pray with you and walk you through the healing process where you’ve been hurt in the past and are vulnerable, which is often the root of much anger. Seek those who can hold you accountable in your thoughts, words and reactions. Don’t let anger make a home in your life.
God is offering to be your strength when you feel weak and your shield when you feel vulnerable. It’s not His will for you to let a cheap and toxic substitute like anger take His place.
Response
- What are the “little” ways that the desire for personal justice (aka: revenge) creeps into my heart? How do I rationalize this as OK?
- What have been some of the fruit of uncontrolled anger in my life and relationships?
- How does anger lie to me by making me feel strong for the moment? What vulnerable issues in my life am I trying to protect with anger and need to surrender them to Jesus for His covering?
- Where do I need to have my heart healed?
- Jesus, what do you want to say to me about the anger in my heart?
*Also known as “cardinal sins” or “capital vices,” they include pride, greed, envy, anger, sloth, gluttony and lust. They are often thought to be abuses or excessive versions of one’s natural passions. For example, the sin of anger as a desire for justice (which is natural) gone bad, twisted or out of control.
Choosing to Let Myself Feel Hungry
It was hot and humid. Our family had just joined YWAM staff and purchased an old mobile home in East Texas. Within a couple weeks, the worn central air conditioner died. The repairman said it would take at least $1200 to replace it, yet we barely had money to put gas in our car and buy food. Doubts plagued us over whether we had really heard God when we joined the mission. Working in YWAM wasn’t turning out to be as easy as we thought. Everything felt so hard. Things were not coming together as I believed they should. My wife was giving me the look that said, “I don’t think I can do this.” And did I mention that it gets very hot and humid in East Texas?
This went on for months. Self-condemnation weighed heavily. I was a terrible husband, father and missionary, perhaps even ruining my family. I tried sending out an appeal letter for help with our A/C unit but received a total of $25. Just as the heat of summer began to intensify once more and we were discussing leaving the mission, something happened.
Choosing to See What I Have Been Given
I am afflicted with a condition that I understand many men have. I often cannot see what is right in front of my face. The can of soup I’m looking for in the pantry mysteriously disappears when I go to retrieve it. I’m perplexed and frustrated. And then my wife steps in and produces it out of thin air. How is that possible? To my embarrassment, it isn’t a mere coincidence.
Somehow, she has the ability to see what is really there. I look, and if it is not where I imagined it should be, or if it is a different color or shape than I assumed, or not moving, I’m afflicted with a curious blindness. Items in plain sight are cloaked. I experience this while searching for socks, medicine, keys, and books more often than I care to admit.
But I’ve come to see that it also is a condition that affects my soul.
Read MoreChoosing to Recognize the Problem
I remember the first time I ever stole something. I was six or seven years old, and I walked out of a store with a candy bar in my pocket. When I didn’t get caught and nothing bad happened to me, I was surprised. As a child I then decided it wasn’t really wrong to take something from someone when you wanted it more than they did. A few years later, however, when my bike was stolen I changed my mind. There was something really messed up about the world when people could actually steal from me.
I was on to something. Every philosophy and religion recognize there is something fundamentally wrong with the world. Most, however, disagree on what the fundamental problem is. What exactly is the root of human dysfunction? It’s all around us. Even a child can see it.
The word “sin” carries varying definitions and innuendo depending on who uses it. To some, it might mean socially unacceptable behavior, while to others it could be nothing more than a mistake or a weakness. Still others see it as a silly or overly-restrictive, outdated concept that shouldn’t be taken seriously; after all, we have evolved beyond the need for such primitive explanations of the human situation.
And then there are those who choose to see sin as having nothing to do with morality but rather understand it to describe an ontological problem: physicality is what’s wrong with the world. If we could find a way to shed our corporeal entanglements and escape to a more pure spiritual state of being, then we would experience “salvation”. Sin or evil, in this way of thinking, is nothing more than being stuck in a material world.
But, how do these varying perspectives account for a world that so easily justifies stealing candy bars and bicycles and much worse?
Cut off from God
The Christian faith has always taught that “the problem” is related to human choices. It’s a moral issue. It manifests as rebellion against divine order. Instead of submitting to God’s rulership, we are driven to operate as individual masters of our own kingdoms. We’ve chosen to do things our way, separate from our Creator’s intentions and instructions. And it has disrupted and twisted everything.
The problem isn’t always immediately recognizable in ourselves because it’s an accumulation of all the little choices to do life without God. It is ultimately rooted in our alienation from all that God is, a heritage going back to our very first ancestors. We were designed to live in close, intimate connection with Him. But long ago in a garden, the choice to defiantly take one bite from a piece of fruit (Genesis 3) started an avalanche that carried all humanity out of God’s presence. The result is a spiritual and moral infection that has tainted with deadly consequences all that was created good. And that’s what the Bible calls sin.
Sin: Making Our Own Rules
The Apostle John defines sin quite bluntly: “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4 ESV). Lawlessness here is not referring to specific acts such as exceeding the speed limit while driving or stretching the truth while telling a story or even committing murder. It’s describing a way of walking through life with the understanding that I am the one who sets the rules for myself; there is no legitimate authority outside of me to which I must bow.
Thus sin, according to John, is a lifestyle of following ‘my own feeling of what’s right’ as the ultimate guide to living. I need not submit to boundaries that others put on me. And of course all rules are “manmade” and culturally bound and therefore suspect or corrupt. A god of love, after all, would never expect me to do something I don’t feel good about. I must be true to myself.
All sin flows out of this resistance to authority that’s outside my own understanding and feelings.
What to do about sin?
While many only see a need for self-improvement, stronger will-power or a way to rid themselves of guilty feelings, for a Jesus follower sin must be addressed directly and honestly. The first step is to choose to confess it as a genuine problem (1 John 1:9). This is difficult in our present culture, since actualizing the self has become the way many define what is ultimately good. This is practically lived out as, “I am my own law; I am my own god.” To deal with sin God’s way, we must acknowledge that our drive toward lawlessness (resisting His wise and loving authority) is real and that it has corrupted and continues to corrupt our lives and the world. It has resulted in alienation from God Himself and His intended purpose for the world (Romans 1:21-32).
We then have to choose how we’re going to respond to it. Ignore our lawless impulse? Embrace it as a misunderstood natural part of who we really are? Or, as the Bible calls us, to hate it and turn from it (Romans 6:12-13). But, as anyone who has ever tried to turn away from sin knows, to do so feels unnatural. It cannot be accomplished merely with a little more will power (Romans 7:21-24).
Humility is the next ingredient needed. We must acknowledge that we have hurt God in our lawless state and we cannot fix ourselves; a power from the outside is needed to break the grip it has on us, lift us up and resolve the consequences of our lawlessness (1 Peter 5:6).
And this is where faith comes in. We must dare to believe that Jesus’ suffering on the cross accomplished what God says it was meant to accomplish: yours and my release from our lawless state of being (Colossians 1:13, 14, 22). It doesn’t matter necessarily that we fully understand how Jesus’ atonement works. We simply choose to humbly accept our need for an outside Rescuer, and finally submit ourselves to do life God’s way and with His help.
The Choices Cannot be Avoided
A follower of Jesus cannot ignore sin. And even for a committed disciple, sin can be subtle, deceptive and always corruptive. We must learn to hate the tendency in ourselves to be our own rule-makers. It’s often easier to settle on merely hating it in others.
In some of the upcoming posts we will look at what have traditionally been understood as the cardinal sins. These are the core ones we share in common with all humans and from which all other sins spin off. From them our rebellion, brokenness and lawless habits spring, and we must choose what we’re going to do with each one that’s at work in our lives. There are seven of them. Taking them seriously is a first step in getting at the root of humanity’s dysfunction and experiencing true redemption for ourselves as individuals and for the world.
Sin is the problem. It has cut us off from God. Are you ready to call it what it is and deal with it God’s way?
Response
- What’s my definition of sin?
- In what ways do I still live as if I am my own rule-maker?
- What is my reaction to being told by an outside voice what’s right and what’s wrong for my life?
- What would it take for me to admit that I am sinful?
- Jesus, what do you want to show me about my sin that has separated me from God?
Choosing to Let Go
My stomach muscles tightened as I sat in the YWAM class and admitted to myself that I hated those kids. Before we joined Youth With A Mission (YWAM), I had taught English to middle schoolers at a California public school. My first three years were plagued by 13 and 14 year olds determined to make them my last. Carefully crafted lesson plans were daily sabotaged with rudeness and immature antics that targeted my insecurities. I didn’t know how to handle it, and my anger and stress reached new heights. So, when the YWAM teacher asked me who I had not yet forgiven, guess who popped into my mind? Ugh! Do I really need to forgive them? It’s in the past. I’m a nice guy. I don’t hate anybody. . . Do I?
What is Forgiveness?
Even “nice” people hold on to offenses and keep them for a lifetime. Acts of betrayal, abuse, violence all the way down to disappointments and unmet expectations feel as if they have Velcro on them. Actually, it’s not that they stick to us but that we grip them so tightly. It’s as if we think we can strangle the hurt if we just hold on long enough. Bad news: that doesn’t work. The longer I cling to any level of offense, the more it becomes a part of me, even seeping into my identity as it plants its poison. And the long-term results are not pretty.
To forgive, simply put, is to let go. I don’t release my offense against others necessarily for their sake. It’s so I can be free. For me to be able to hear God clearly (read Choosing to Hear God on His Terms), love others and experience God’s forgiveness for all the stuff I’ve done, I must choose to let go!
A Scary Story
When Peter talked to Jesus about how often he should forgive someone who sinned against him, he proposed seven times to surely be enough. Jesus responded with a play on Peter’s words saying, “No, seventy times seven.” He then told a parable known as The Unforgiving Servant that, rightly understood, should send shivers of dread down our spines (Matthew 18:21-35).
A man who is mercifully forgiven a debt of millions of dollars he owes to a king immediately goes out and takes a colleague to court to make him pay back a loan of a few thousand dollars. When the king hears about it, he reinstates the debt onto the unforgiving man, turning him over to the jailers to be tormented. And then Jesus says some chilling words, “That’s what my Heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from you hearts” (Matthew 18:35 NLT). In other words, God’s forgiveness is tied to how you forgive those who do bad and irritating stuff. If you don’t forgive, you’re going to live at some level of torment because that’s where unforgiveness takes us.
I don’t know about you, but I desperately need God’s forgiveness and don’t need anymore torment in my life. To think there is something that we can fail to do that would erase His merciful act of blotting out our sins should sober us. Especially when we consider how easy it is for us to justify not forgiving some of the jerks we have to work or live with. Forgiving those who hurt or offend us is not a side issue in our faith. It’s a fundamental response to receiving God’s love. It’s the Gospel lived out.
So, Why is it So Hard?
Most people agree that forgiving others is a good thing, that is until it’s personal. I will often hear responses like, “You don’t understand what this person did to me.” Or, “This person doesn’t deserve to be forgiven.” Both statements are usually true. Forgiveness is an intensely personal choice that drills down to the deepest parts of our souls and challenges us to imitate God, which is one reason why it’s so important to Him. It opens us up so the bitter poison we’re carrying in our chests can be drained out. It’s for us, our freedom, our healing, our ability to move forward with our lives. It’s not about the other person’s worthiness or even for their sake. They need never know we have forgiven them.
So why then do we stop short of letting go? Part of the answer is that many of us still have misconceptions about what it is. Here’s a few things forgiveness is not:
- It’s not a feeling. I’ve heard a friend say over and over, “If you wait till you feel like forgiving someone, you’ll never do it.” Forgiveness is a choice. It’s an act of your will to do what is right. You may or may not feel differently immediately after you choose to forgive. But eventually your feelings will catch up to your decision.
- It’s not forgetting what happened. You can never really forget what’s done against you. But you can live in a way that it does not control your decisions, your behavior or your future.
- It’s not saying what the other person did was okay or doesn’t matter. You’re not denying the crime or offense. You’re simply saying, I’m putting it in God’s hands and choosing to not hold on to it anymore.
- It’s not saying you have to trust the person again. Your forgiveness does not make the other person trustworthy. If there is ever trust again between you and the offender, it will have to be earned by changes in their behavior. But in the mean time, you can be free.
Two Categories of Forgiveness
The most difficult thing you may ever be asked to do is to forgive someone who has betrayed or inflicted some kind of trauma on you. Choosing to forgive that one huge thing or the series of huge things done against you is the doorway to most kinds of inner healing. You may need a trusted friend to help you walk it through. But though it’s painfully difficult, it will change you and set you on a pathway that allows you to grow and not stay stuck.
Another category of forgiveness comes into play as we face the daily offenses and hurts of interacting with people. The cutting tone in your coworker’s voice, the disrespectful or thoughtless comments from your spouse, the offensive behavior of students in your classroom. I use to deal with this stuff by putting on my nice-guy face and just smiling. But the sting didn’t go away. I merely dropped each infraction into the offense sack hung around my neck. Unfortunately, that bag would eventually reach capacity and explode. Repressed hurt and anger would spray over whoever happened to be there. I then became the offender.
Learning to simply forgive and release even the tiniest offense when it happens revolutionized my life. Forgiveness must become a lifestyle for Jesus followers. It’s one way we walk in daily freedom, not controlled by the irritants and negativity that bombards us. I refuse to hold on to them anymore, even for a minute.
I’ve come a long way since that day I forgave those middle-school students. Forgiveness is now a central theme in almost any advice I give those who are dealing with past hurts. It was hard for me to admit that I had allowed hatred and bitterness to build a home in my heart. But that’s exactly what had happened. Speaking to each one of those kids by name as if they were in front of me and telling them I was letting them and their bad behavior go changed everything. My hands were empty. The perpetrators were released into God’s hands. I was forgiven for my vengeful heart. And best of all, I was free!
Response
- What keeps me from forgiving those who hurt me? What’s the misconception of forgiveness that I’m stumbling over?
- What’s the huge thing that I have still not dealt with? What is Jesus saying to me about it?
- What’s keeping me from making forgiveness part of my lifestyle?
- Jesus, who do I need to forgive today?
Choosing Guidance God’s Way
I was sure I heard God’s voice. “Take your family to Romania.” It had been that clear in my mind as I prayed, and it was one of the outreach options for our YWAM training school. My wife had prayed and agreed, and we were excited to say, “We’ve experienced God’s clear direction!”
But we had no money. Sad and confused, we watched the team leave for Romania without us. Inner-city Chicago ended up being where our family spent that summer instead (another story). For a long time afterward I was discouraged. Hearing God was obviously for people much more spiritual than me.
Three years later we were on staff at a YWAM base. The Discipleship Training School (DTS) leader asked me to lead an outreach to Romania with my family. Christine and I nervously agreed. Within a short time all the money we needed came in, and with our three young children, we went to Romania for five weeks. It was an amazing time of ministry for all of us, particularly in the orphanages. Maybe we had heard God afterall. . . but just hadn’t understood His timing?
Harbor Lights
Later, I read a book* about receiving guidance from God. The author used the illustration of a 19th century Italian port with an entrance so treacherous from submerged rocks that something innovative had to be done to safely guide ships in. Three light houses were set up in a row. As long as a ship’s pilot kept all three aligned in his sight so they appeared as one light, boats could enter the harbor safely. But if ever he saw three separate lights, disaster was eminent.
The author used this illustration to explain components of seeking God’s direction in life. He proposed that (1) the word of God, (2) the internal witness of the Holy Spirit and (3) circumstances were all “lights” that need to align in order to be confident of God’s leading in any major decision. I quickly saw the wisdom in this and eventually added a fourth light that complemented the three.
God Told Me to Do It?
We all can think of examples of people who have claimed to be guided by God but in the end their decisions proved to be foolish, wrong or outright evil. Below are four “lights” that, when aligned, provide clarity and safety as we seek to hear God’s voice and make life decisions.
1. Alignment with the light of God’s written word
From the very beginning of the Christian Faith, what was written in the Old Testament scriptures was considered authoritative and inspired. The writings of the first followers of Jesus were later added to create what we know today as the Bible. Without the Old and New Testaments there would be no followers of Jesus today because we would not know the story of God’s work in the world. Thus the Bible is still the reference point for those who claim to be Christ followers (Matthew 5:18-19; Luke 21:33).
Yet it can be used wrongly, deceptively and selfishly when quoted out of context. Without seeking to know the heart of God, which is both loving and holy and revealed throughout the book’s entirety, many words can be twisted to justify almost anything. Hatred, murder, various perversions as well as slavery have all been “supported” using the Bible. Despite the sometimes conflicting interpretations of certain passages, it still holds a unique place as a standard for right and wrong behavior and insight into what is truly important to God. It must be the starting point for any follower of Jesus when seeking God’s guidance.
2. Alignment with the light of the Holy Spirit’s internal witness
Whether it comes through a desire, idea, strong impression, voice or vision while reading the Bible, the Holy Spirit’s personal confirmation is very important. Through an internal witness we experience the intimate awareness of God’s presence. What we “hear” within should not be ignored (John 10:3-4). This is where we own the guidance God is giving us with our “yes.” Any internal leading, however, that is contrary to what God has already revealed in His word must be rejected.
Occasionally people tell me what they think God wants me to do. Could that be God speaking to me? At times something inside immediately resonates and it seems clear that this is from Him. It’s like experiencing an internal “amen.” In other cases, I feel nothing or even an uncomfortable sensation. On such an occasion, I have learned to not throw it away but place it on the “waiting shelf” in my mind. If anything comes along in the future that confirms it, I can take it down and consider it once more. There are “words” from other people that have been on that shelf now for many years.
Ultimately, I’m responsible for all my decisions. I can’t blame my actions on some other person telling me what the Holy Spirit is saying. I have to own my choices, and the Holy Spirit helps me do just that. His witness is an internal conviction that is accompanied with peace (Colossians 3:15) even when I don’t like what He’s saying. A lack of peace could also be the Spirit’s witness and should not be ignored. The Spirit’s voice will never back me into a corner in a condemning way but will offer His counsel with the freedom for me to refuse or embrace it.
3. Alignment with the light of wise counsel
The Bible is full of instructions to seek input from others, besides the internal witness, when making decisions (Proverbs 12:15; 15:22). Of course, choosing the right source for your advice is of vital importance. If you go only to those who always tell you what you want to hear, it’s wasted effort. You’re really just doing what you want and not truly interested in God’s will. Who is the person not afraid to tell you “no” and you will respect it? That’s the one you should seek out. On the other hand, going to someone who has a vested interest in the decision you’re making is not a good idea either. Even good and godly people can have selfish reasons for the counsel they give, which may not be God’s.
In the end, everyone, no matter how spiritual they are, needs to hear from outside themselves. You then are left to prayerfully decide whether the counsel is good and fits with what you know to be true about God’s character. This light can also help correct a subjective inner witness that may be leading you astray—if you have the humility to actually listen (read “Choosing to be a Learner”) .
4. Alignment with the light of circumstances
When the first three lights line up, we must then wait for the “open door.” Favorable circumstances alone provide poor guidance. Just because something is a good opportunity does not make it God’s will. The word of God, the Holy Spirit’s internal witness and wise counsel are all important tests for any “great” opportunities no matter how perfect they appear on the surface. How easily we can misinterpret the inner witness of the Spirit, presuming to know how God is going to do what He said. The light of circumstances helps keep guidance from God rooted in reality.
As when Christine and I heard God’s direction to take our family to Romania, timing is an important factor. For us, three of the lights were lining up. But God used finances to steer us to be in Romania at just the right time. I’m still not sure why He spoke the directions more than three years before the door opened, but that’s how He works sometimes.
These are good principles. But guidance from God is not a formula with four easy steps to always know God’s direction. It’s not “magical” like using a ouija board. It’s based on relationship with Him because that is His first priority. He wants you to know He has your highest in mind throughout the entire process. Trusting that He is good and desires to lead you to good places, whether you can presently see them or not, is the foundation for all godly guidance (read “Choosing to Hear God on His Terms”).
He desires, more than anyone else, to see you guided into the safe harbor of His love.
Response
- Which light do I find easiest to depend on?
- Which light do I find easiest to ignore?
- When have I given up on trying to hear God because things didn’t work out the way I thought they should?
- Jesus, what do you want me to know about your desire to guide me?
*Take Another Look at Guidance by Bob Mumford is presently out of print, but used copies are available online.
Choose This Day 