You are riding along with me as I seek to determine if I should return to biblical counseling as a vocation. I am using my own real-life situation to help you learn how to make a biblical decision. As I have said previously, there are many wrong ways to make decisions, thinking that you are going to include God in the process. Dreams, gut feelings, extra-biblical revelation, hunches and following my heart are out.
It is appropriate to seek wise counsel and to pray for wisdom and revelation as you read the Word of God.
But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. James 1:5 (NASB)
As I am praying for God's will to be revealed another important point is to realize that the idea of "being in the center of God's perfect will" is a fantasy. There is no teaching in Scripture that tells me I will find or be in the center of God's perfect will. Romans 12:2 is often (wrongly) cited as a proof-text for this idea. When I am living a holy life, a life submitted to the Spirit of God, submitted to the moral will of God then I will be glorifying God by how I live and then I will be "proving what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." (Romans 12:2b)
When I learn God's will in my situation I must be willing to accept it as the sovereign will of God. I must be willing to accept that this is God's present answer to the question. It may not be His final answer, but if I conclude that I must remain in my present circumstances for now God has not only a purpose for it but a plan in it.
God is never surprised by my circumstances, He is often the originator of them. He brings things and people into my life to help me to grow and change according to His good pleasure. He ordains all of the issues of my days and is working in the midst of them to conform me into the image and likeness of Jesus Christ my Lord (Romans 8:28-29). As a Christian I am convinced that God is leading me to the place where I will bring Him the most honor and the most glory. This once again confirms that I am not truly the focus, I am the vehicle. I am who God chooses to glorify Himself through when it glorifies Him to do so.
I can be confident in this: If God allows me to return to vocational ministry and leave my job it will glorify Him, and if God allows me to remain in my present circumstances (and as an added bonus I respond rightly) He will be glorified.