For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. Romans 8:14 (NASB)
My husband and I are in the process of making a very huge and crucial decision. It is one that will drastically affect our lives and our future. We truly desire to know what God would have us do and don’t want to make the wrong decision. We need to know the will of God in this situation.
We looked last time at two of the methods commonly used in decision making and determined that both the selfish and superficial methods of decision making fall short of the glory of God.
Today we will look at making decisions or finding the will of God by following dreams, visions, feelings, circumstances, fleeces, and so on. This is particularly prevalent in certain denominations that are more charismatic leaning.
In many ways this is probably the biggest problem in decision making and due to the influence of the charismatic movement, with its emphasis on signs and wonders, feeling and sensations, which has greatly influenced the church. Whether you realize it or not this thinking and belief system has affected the church at large.
Things like God's audible voice, dreams, or visions are no longer necessary because we now have a completed canon. There is nothing that needs to be revealed in our age and the sign gifts and special revelation has ceased.
If you are not sure about this may I encourage you to challenge your theology by reading these resources and studying these and other relevant passages of Scripture.
John 16-16; 1 Cor. 13:8-10; Eph. 2:20; 2 Tim. 3:16-17; Heb. 1:1-2, 2:3-4; Jude 3; Rev. 22:18
I once heard of a man who determined he was to be a missionary in a foreign land because he met a stranger in an airport parking lot who was a missionary to that country. The man told him that God spoke to him and said he would meet the person who was to go along as a missionary. Based on this account, the man was unable to raise support (prayer or financial) for his trip to that country. The decision to go anyway, against all solid biblical counsel was pure foolishness and in the end it was dangerous as his children were targeted for kidnapping over there!
Now I am not saying that all who are charismatic leaning add to the Scripture when making decisions-what I am saying is that many do and many of us do so as well when we put importance on dreams, experiences, feelings and such and we use them to trump what God’s Word clearly says and does not say.
Another subjective method is to rely on mental impressions or promptings, feeling the Lord is leading you to do this or that. God’s will is never revealed in some spooky feeling.
We live in a feelings based culture and often times my counselees live there too. When it comes to making decisions they are looking for a “feeling” that they assume comes from God. I have been told things like, “I feel that God revealed to me I have to divorce my husband.” That’s a spooky (and unbiblical) feeling!
I know, I know, it sounds so spiritual and noble to say that but it’s based on a feeling that amounts to the person saying “God told me” to do this or that or not do this or that.” How exactly does God tell you anything? Is it a feeling or a whisper or some impression? Whatever it is, it is elevated to the status of a specific command to do this or that, thus adding to the Scripture. How can a person biblically substantiate that? When there is an an emphasis on subjectivity there is little to no accountability if a person “feels” God is telling them to do this or that.
Remember, God’s will is never revealed in some spooky feeling! God leads us through a proper understanding of His Word. More next time!