Discerning the Will of God

In July a parishioner emailed me a series of questions about discerning the will of God. I emailed him back and he thought the answers were helpful. With my permission he shared the answers with his friends and urged me to give the answers a broader distribution. Since I haven’t blogged for a while, I thought this might make a good topic for a blog, especially since we all face moments in life when we have to make major choices. With his permission I am posting most of my reply to him, with a little editing to make it more applicable to a general audience.

Often when making a decision, we want to know that God is approving of it. Hence we want to know exactly what God has to say about it. But how can we discern God’s voice from the clamor all around us? We begin then by asking the question: Is it normal to “feel” God? If so, can you describe the feeling? One temptation that many Christians face is to equate God (or an encounter with Him) with a particular feeling. But God isn’t a feeling—any more than human beings are. There is no one consistent feeling that you have whenever you talk with your mom or dad or any other person. Of course, there is often a feeling of love when I talk with loved ones or with God, and that is to be expected. But that is not always the feeling, since there are sometimes other emotions that are more appropriate—guilt, anger, confusion, and the like. If you read the Psalms, you see the wide variety of emotions that people have when they dealt with God. Moreover, we have to understand that God does not always manifest Himself and certainly not in the fullness of His glory; even Moses wasn’t allowed to see God’s face. In addition, it often seems that the more one advances spiritually, the less one senses God, as is often expressed by the psalmists, who complain that God has abandoned them when they had been faithful to Him. Theologians have noted that God appeared to Moses as a bright light in a burning bush in his first encounter, but in later encounters he went under a dark cloud; so at first believers seem to sense God’s presence easily, but He seems more withdrawn as we progress. Of course, God seems more absent (not that He is) so that we can learn to trust His Word rather than our feelings or outward manifestations.

How do we, as Christians (faithful or trying to be) listen to God to try and understand His plan? Read the Scriptures. God has already given you a whole book revealing Himself and His attitudes. Somehow or another, though, we think that that isn’t enough. We want Him to say more. But He has already given an outline of the moral law in the Ten Commandments and further explained them in the Sermon on the Mount. He has revealed the gospel by which we have new life. The gospel is God’s eternal Word to us; it is the only means by which we have eternal life. Why would we seek something beyond it? Of course, God hasn’t spoken about every detail in our life because He does allow us great freedom. Let me illustrate with this example. Let’s say that you have a vehicle and the money to keep it gassed up. You are told that you can drive on any paved road as long as you obey the traffic signs. Within those parameters, however, you can drive wherever you want to. In the same way you have the gospel, which like a car empowers you to go wherever you want to. The only restrictions are laid down by the law, which tells you where you may not go and what restrictions you have to observe. But just as I could choose to drive to the Smokies or to the Rockies or stay in the Midwest, so I have the freedom to do all sorts of things as long as I do not violate God’s law as summarized in the commandments. Now I may have to use my common sense to ask myself whether I should go to the mountains or stay in the Midwest; likewise, in the Christian life I may have to use my common sense to ask what the best choice in life is. But God’s plan isn’t a straightjacket.

When we make decisions, should we do so honoring our parents (and what they taught us) as well as God? We must always honor our parents, but honor does not necessarily mean obedience. When we are not yet of age, it does, but once we are grown and not under their direct authority, we may listen to their advice but we are not bound to it.

When looking to the Scriptures for guidance, do we simply go with the way we were taught or is it better to come up with our own interpretation? The Scriptures are never a matter of our own interpretation, as Peter reminds us (2 Peter 1:20-21). Nor do the Scriptures tell us to simply be a Christian by association and without real thought. We are to search the Scriptures and learn them and know them. Since the Scriptures interpret the Scriptures and become clearer the more we read them, the main task for a Christian is to steep himself or herself in the Bible so that it really does become clear.

© 2010 James A. Kellerman