How Do You Know?

How do you know?

In the midst of all the circumstances of life, the good, the bad, the struggles, how do you really know what God wants you to do?

The Bible says there is a way to know.

We’re learning in this series, Know Him, about our great God.

The writers of Scripture have these remarkable ideas, names, pictures of Him.

He is a Father. He is a Redeemer. He is a Judge who brings justice. He is a Comforter.

But can we really know what He wants us to do?

From the very beginning when God was forming a people to call His own, He came to Abraham…Abram, as he was known then. The Word says, “The Lord said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you.’” Genesis 12:1

God guided Abraham.

Then when it was time for Israel to leave Egypt, we are told that the Lord would go before them as a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night.

This was a physical picture of a spiritual promise.

In the book of Proverbs, the Word says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.” Proverbs 3:5

He knows just what I need.

God doesn’t leave people on their own. James puts it like this: (First chapter of James)

“Whoever among you lacks wisdom…” Anybody ever make a bad decision? You ever needed any wisdom? Anybody need any right now? “Whoever among you lacks wisdom, ask God (just ask God) who gives generously to all without finding fault.”

Our God is a guiding God.

But here’s what I think.

I think of all the facets of the greatness of God, this one…the guidance of God…is the one I think is most confusing to people in terms of how do we actually experience it? There will be some people who use the language of divine guidance quite easily. “The Lord told me to do this,” “God spoke to me about going here,” “God put this burden on my heart,” “God showed me this.”

Then there are other people who love God deeply, who follow God, who learn about God, who honestly simply never find themselves having that experience. They wonder, Am I doing something wrong? Is there some secret I don’t know? Am I off-base, or are other people just making stuff up? Are they using language, you know, a little slickly.

Some denominations and traditions use that language of guidance all the time. Other ones just as devoted to God never use that language at all.

Again the question… how do you know?

Does God communicate with us?

What does it mean to communicate with someone?

This is a very important subject. Quite a miraculous thing we’re able to do. We just take it

for granted. People can communicate. It’s essential to community, to communing, communication. Communication is simply guiding somebody else’s thoughts.

When someone is communicating with you, all they are doing is causing you to think certain thoughts you would not otherwise be thinking. Those thoughts are going on in your head. They’re your thoughts, but somebody else is prompting them. That’s communication.

Now because we’re finite creatures, we have to use finite means to guide each other’s thoughts. I’m doing that right now, because you’re reading this, you are having thoughts you would not otherwise be having, right? We make sounds, or we write symbols down on paper. Then when people look at that, those symbols…it’s amazing how this happens…they prompt thoughts in us. That is what it means to read.

Because we’re finite creatures, we have to use finite means to guide each other’s thoughts. But God is infinite, and among other things, this means God can guide your thoughts directly. He doesn’t have to use sounds. He doesn’t have to use symbols. He can; He doesn’t have to. He has direct access to your mind.

He can simply guide a thought without using any other means at all.

But now part of what this means is it’s possible for God to guide a thought in my mind, but I may not know it’s God doing that.

God will guide our thoughts as we interact with Him through the Bible. It is truly remarkable to me how God will speak directly to issues in my life as I read scripture. You see we can view the Bible as a bunch of stories, or as God’s story for our lives. We can disengage from the truths in scripture or let them become truth for our lives. As we let the Word of God enter into our lives it begins to read us, that’s God, rather than us just reading it.

And prayer is not just me talking with God. If God wants to, God can also talk back. Jesus says about His people, “When He (the Good Shepherd) has brought out all His own, He goes on ahead of them, and His sheep follow Him (this is a picture of guidance) because they know His voice.”

To have a personal relationship with Jesus means I must be open to the possibility that the Spirit of God is prompting me, guiding me.

Jesus says this in the book of John,

13 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. ^14 He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. ^15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. John 16:13-15

Very often the Spirit will prompt us with ideas. When that happens – which it will happen this week; a thought will come – write somebody a note or encourage somebody who feels alone or serve somebody who is in need or confront somebody who is going down a wrong path or go up to somebody who is lonely. I talked to somebody this week whose life got altered because somebody in this church…they were visiting New Life…invited them out to eat. It ended up altering the trajectory of their life.

When those thoughts come, the main thing is not to say, “Hey God is speaking to me.” What is important is that you actually do what the prompting is. I want to say this to some of you. It may be that you have been obeying those kinds of thoughts, serving God your whole life long and never really identifying that that is God’s voice. The main issue is not that you say that is God’s voice. The main issue is that you actually respond with obedience. That is the adventure, and that is our guiding God.

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