Knowing God’s will for you in 2001

TROWEL & SWORD

Editorial Paragraphs

Knowing God’s will for you in 2001

Rev. John Westendorp

This year we will again have to make many choices. Life is really an endless series of choices. Some decisions we face this year will not be major choices – should I wear jeans or slacks to work tomorrow? Other choices will have major consequences – do I take on that apprenticeship or not?

Some of the more difficult choices are the ones that impact other people. In the church at Rome some very ordinary choices caused tensions in their church community – choices about dietary rules and holy days. In Romans 14 Paul gives some guidance on how to work through those choices. He does that, not by giving a list of right and wrong choices, but by teaching Biblical principles of freedom and responsibility.

Paul’s ‘guidelines’ make us aware that God has given us His Word to guide us in the choices we have to make. There are numerous promises in Scripture God will guide us. For You are my rock and my fortress; For Your name's sake You will lead me and guide me (Psalm 31:3).

Yet many Christians are confused about God’s guidance. The young man gave up his job and began work as a volunteer with a Christian mission because, as he said, God had told him to go into this ministry. Six months later he hit a rough patch and reported to his team leader that God had told him to leave and seek regular employment again.

The Voice of God?

Sydney Anglicans, Phillip Jensen and Tony Payne, have written a lovely little book to help Christians sort through the issues: “Guidance and the Voice of God” (Mathias Media). That catchy title indicates the book has some things to say to evangelical Christians who will expect to hear a voice from heaven this year when they have an important decision to make.

Examples of such ‘guidance’ through voices or dreams readily come to mind. Paul had a vision of a man from Macedonia saying, “Come over and help us.” Elijah heard the still small voice of God on the mountain. Examples are also common in modern Christian literature. Corrie Ten Boom, in ‘Tramp for the Lord’, tells of God speaking to her in a clear and unmistakable way.

Today Christians who asked the Lord for such guidance are often disappointed when heaven remains silent. Even worse, they begin to question their relationship with God when such guidance is not forthcoming. When well-meaning friends then tell them that there must be some sin barrier in their life that stops them hearing the voice of God the results can be devastating.

Jensen and Payne give us a much bigger picture than of a God who whispers in our ear when we are faced with a choice of employment, but who leaves us to make up our own mind as to our choice of television programs for the evening. For them guidance embraces the whole of life. God’s guidance is not limited to big decisions – such as a marriage partner. Rather, He is a God who guides us even when we make sinful choices and He weaves those things too into the fabric of our lives to accomplish His will.

Correctives

This month Professor Stephen Voorwinde writes that guidance begins in the area of obedience. Jensen and Payne agree and add some other healthy Biblical correctives to the instructions Christians are often given for ‘finding God’s will’ for their lives.

First, in Scripture ‘direct’ guidance is rare. Scripture nowhere leads us to believe that we have a right to expect it today. Just because both Peter and Paul had visions from the Lord it is presumptuous to suggest that all the apostles had such direct guidance from God. Even if all the apostles were privileged in this way that does not yet mean that all believers may expect such direct guidance today.

Second, God has not left us ignorant but ‘has given us all we need for life and godliness’ (2Pet.1:3). The authors remind us that God guides us through the bright light of His Word. They see this as liberating us from the tyranny of our fears of being ‘outside the will of God’. It also sets us free to listen to what God is actually saying. “Many Christians today are so busy trying to work out what God is supposedly saying to them through circumstances, visions, voices, impressions and the like, that they lack the time (and the interest) to listen to what He is really saying to them in His eternal and living Word.”

That leaves the big question: if God’s basic way of guiding us is through His Word how does that work? Here the authors helpfully distinguish between three categories: 1) Matters of righteousness; 2) Matters of good judgment and 3) Matters of triviality.

In the first of these we are dealing with issues about which God has spoken with clarity – they are non-negotiable for Christians. In the second we need to weigh up our options in the light of Biblical principles. In the third category are those matters that we should not waste too much time thinking about.

In a helpful practical section Jensen and Payne apply these three categories to decisions about church, work and marriage.

Guidance and Church

Due to the bewildering variety of churches and denominations many Christians ask, “Where would the Lord have me worship him? How do I choose? Where is God leading me?” Jensen and Payne argue that we are not ready to decide on those questions unless we first resolve some more basic questions: What does ‘church’ mean? What should happen in church? Many are confused in their choices and end up wandering from church to church precisely, because they have never settled these more basic issues – or have come to wrong conclusions about these foundational matters.

Answering these basic questions is essential because there are counterfeit churches that really have no right to the name ‘church’. Payne and Jensen then list some helpful “marks of a true church”. Within that framework of seeking a faithful church they argue that which particular church we attend is not a matter of great importance – it is a matter of good judgment rather than godliness.

At the same time, if our work and social patterns prevent us from actively participating in our congregation, then we have made some wrong decisions.” The authors point out that most people today make their basic living decisions in this order: 1) Find a job; 2) Find somewhere to live near the job; 3) Find a church nearby. But if church is as important as Scripture indicates then this order should be reversed: 1) Find the right church; 2) Find somewhere to live nearby; 3) Find a job that allows us to live near the church.

Guidance and Work

Jensen and Payne offer some helpful correctives to the way work is viewed by many today (work is a curse!). They warn against seeing work as an indicator of our status (we are what we do – and too bad if you’re unemployed!). They caution against being preoccupied with ‘job satisfaction’ that replaces finding our satisfaction in God (in a fallen world Scriptures doesn’t promised job satisfaction anyway). They highlight the danger of seeing work as that which gives us power (for either good or evil) and they give some healthy and refreshing guidance on the money we get for working.

It is in the area of comparing the work of gospel ministry with other work that I am left feeling somewhat dissatisfied. It is possible here to go to either of two extremes. On the one hand we can go back to the ancient clergy-laity distinction. Pastors and Ministers have a vocation to which they are called... the rest of us just work for a living. On the other extreme is the view that sees gospel ministry as just another job along with hundreds of others. What I missed was the strong reformational sense of ‘calling’... that even the lowliest labourer can have in his day-by-day occupation.

Guidance and Marriage

We enter marriage with “a bus load of expectations and entrenched attitudes” which we have picked up from our family background, from friends and especially from the media. In that context Jensen and Payne point out how important it is to start with the Biblical institution of marriage in Genesis 2 and the teaching that marriage is a picture of the Lord’s relationship to His Church.

Two major decisions, about which Christians seek guidance, are firstly, whether or not to marry at all and secondly, whom to marry. In both matters Payne and Jensen avoid the mystical approach that God will make His will known in some mysterious way – apart from Scripture.

Regarding the first question they warn that many “modern Christians are so committed to the idea of marriage that they will marry an unbeliever rather than remain single.” This is an issue of “righteousness” and, as the authors rightly point out, righteousness has a higher priority in Scripture than marriage.

There is also some wise advice to young people today who have been fed the lie by the media that we can all expect to meet the right person, fall in love, get married and live happily ever after. Difficulties abound and at the point of difficulty every married person needs to make the deliberate and intentional choice to love like Christ – even when we don’t feel like it. Jensen and Payne make the point that this is the most difficult choice of all but by far the most important.

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