|
|
Direction and Guidance
by Mac Hammond
"And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thess. 5:23).
What does the phrase sanctify you wholly mean? It means to separate you completely unto God. God is concerned that all three of your life's areas - the spirit, the soul and the body - be separated unto Him. He is going to give you two or three witnesses and ample direction in each of these parts of your being in order to guide and direct your life.
How does God communicate direction to your spirit man? The primary and most basic way is through His Word. "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Tim. 3:16-17).
This is our standard of evaluation. The Bible is a book of principles: You are not supposed to kill. You are not supposed to commit adultery. You are not supposed to lie. You are not supposed to backbite and gossip. It gives you standards, principles you are to abide by, which will give general direction to your life. However, it does not always deal with the specifics.
For example, you may have two or three decisions to make - whether to buy this house or that house, take this job or that job, marry this person or that person and so forth. Houses, jobs and spouses are all fine with God, having them agrees with His Word, but you need specific direction.
"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God" (Rom. 8:14-16).
This is what we refer to as "the inward witness," and this is how you receive more specific direction for your life. It is like that settled feeling you get when you turn to your best friend and ask, "Do you agree with this?" and he or she says, "Yes, most definitely."
When you sense an inward witness, you come into agreement with the Spirit who lives inside you. You feel settled and comfortable because the Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit.
There are other ways God speaks to us in the soulish realm and the physical realm to help clarify the times we are not really sure we have received an inward witness.
But let me say this: the Holy Spirit is a gentleman. He does not push. He does not pressure. If you feel pressured or pushed, it isn't God. The Bible says haste is sin. If you are feeling pushed into a situation because it just won't wait, the deal is so good, the job is just perfect, a man like that doesn't come around twice, just say, "See you later." Because God does not push, and He does not pressure.
The Holy Spirit will give you a sense of peace and knowing and quiet confidence. If you do not have peace about a situation, don't move on it. Wait until you are sure the direction you receive does bring an inner witness and a lasting peace, and then take action. The Word of God is your measuring stick, and it gives you general direction; the inward witness gives you specific direction.
As three-part beings we have a soul. Our soul consists of our mind, our will and our emotions, and it is our will that is the decision-maker. The weighing, measuring, evaluating part of the soul is our mind, or our intellect.
God gave you your mind to use. That may sound like a foolish thing to say, but a lot of us turn our minds off when we are born again, because we hear so much about the carnal mind. God never said the mind was bad; He said it was bad for your mind to be ruled by the flesh. You have to use your mind.
God gave us our ability to reason, to weigh, to measure and to evaluate. God gave us common sense. He does not expect us to float around on a little faith cloud and never use our minds. In fact, in Isaiah 1:18, God said, "Come now, and let us reason together. Using the mind of Christ."
Part of the miraculous transformation of being born again is that we receive the mind of Christ. Why? So we can let it lie dormant? No. So we can use it as God wants us to use it, in accordance with His Word.
Perhaps you are considering a new job, an opportunity you feel pretty good about in your spirit and which offers nothing contrary to the Word, but that doesn't make the figures work. It's just not going to produce enough income for you and your family.
I would suggest that God is speaking to you through your reasoning ability. It does not make sense to take a job you cannot live on. So unless that good feeling in your spirit is a solid knowing that God wants you in this job, pass on it. Believe Him for a job that will pay better.
Sometimes we spiritualize things so much that we ignore the good common sense God gave us. We have become too spiritual to pay attention to the gray matter between our ears. But that is why God put it there, and that is one of the ways He will speak to you, through your own natural reason. When God is speaking to you to do something, it will make good sense from more than one viewpoint for you to do it.
Your physical senses can be trained to discern between good and evil. You do not have to close your eyes, float away, and try to forget what your spirit is saying. When you reach a certain point in the Lord, your physical senses can discern between good and evil because you have trained them to do so.
God directs us in the physical realm by what theologians call "providential circumstance." In more normal English, we call it "open doors." Satan opens and closes doors, too, because he is the prince of this world. He opened a door to Adam, who handed his God-given dominion over to the Devil. You must be aware that God is not the only one who opens and closes doors.
But here is what I want you to understand about doors: God will not give you specific direction for your life and then keep the door shut. If you reach a certain point and that door is shut and will not open, either God has not called you there, or if He has, it isn't time yet. It's one of the two.
Many of us spend a great deal of time trying in the name of faith to kick down doors God does not want opened. When He tells you to do something, and you get to that point, then if it's God, the door will open.
When we were looking for a new building, the first location we were really serious about was on a road near our present location. In the natural, this option appeared to be consistent with the Word of God. It bore witness with my spirit. (The truth was, I wanted out of our old building so badly I could taste it.) And it appeared we could make it work financially. But I couldn't get the door to open.
Every time we sat down with the owners to negotiate, another problem would come up. The city council got involved, and it looked like a solid dead end. Then all of a sudden, God finally got my attention: "That's not where I want you." I immediately stopped pushing to acquire that space, and it was less than two weeks later that our current building became available. Just like that, every detail came together. The doors were open where He had called us to be.
That is a sure indicator of whether or not you are on track with God.
I know some folks who had a genuine call of God on their lives. They knew they were called to the ministry, but the doors were not open to them. Common sense and reason said it should have been happening. Even their good judgment told them they had heard from God. God did call them into the ministry, but closed doors were an indicator to them that His due season had not arrived.
God has a time and a season for everything. And it is important that you don't miss His timing. Wait on Him. Stay in faith. He will reveal His timetable.
Christians have a way of getting ahead of God. I know I have. We get impatient. We cannot wait to get out there and do what He has put in our hearts to do. But we have to understand that this is one of the main ways - providential circumstances, or open doors - He will indicate that His timing has arrived.
God directs us through His Word and specifically through His inner witness, but He also guides us through open doors.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers
For a free 14-day trial membership, please click here.
Copyright © 2001 CFAITH All rights reserved.
