Teaching Chapter

What We Need Most to Know

When someone speaking to me begins a sentence with "God told me," I have to admit that it sends up a red flag for me, especially if it is not followed by a verse of Scripture. Perhaps I should think that the person saying it is so incredibly spiritual and sensitive that he has an ongoing conversation with God in which God speaks to him clearly and directly, giving him specific extrabiblical instructions about what to do and where to go. Certainly, many people today see this as the way we should expect to receive guidance from God if we are in intimate relationship with him.

A while ago, a friend of mine gave me a copy of a new book by an author who has had multiple books on the best-seller list, and because I've read other books by this author that I found tremendously insightful, I looked forward to reading it. The book's premise is that a conversational relationship with God is not only available but meant to be normative, and that if you are not hearing God speak to you in this way, something is wrong with your spiritual life. The author encouraged his readers to still themselves in a posture of surrender and begin by asking the Lord questions about small matters that are not addressed in Scripture, offering examples from his own experience throughout the book: asking God if he should paint the bathroom, where he could find his missing watch, and what dogs do after they die.

Certainly having a relationship with God in which you hear him answer your questions and tell you clearly what to do in every aspect of life is very appealing. We all want wisdom for making decisions that will be pleasing to God.

As I continued to read the book, I came to an account of a horse-riding accident. The author writes that he thinks he remembered to ask God about riding the horse but realizes he did not ask where he should ride.

What do you think? Is this really the normative way for the Christian to go about life in this world — listening for a word from God about every choice and decision we have in front of us? Should I pray about which socks to wear today or what to make for dinner tonight and wait to move forward until I hear him speak to me inside my head?

At the risk that you will deem me thoroughly unspiritual and disconnected from God and put this book down before we barely get started, I have to tell you that I have never heard God speak to me in this way. This is not to say that God never speaks to believers today in this way. And it is not to say that I haven't heard the voice of God clearly in my life. I could talk with you for hours about specific ways God has spoken to me as I have read, studied, and heard his Word preached and taught. He has spoken to me clear words of conviction, instruction, warning, encouragement, assurance, comfort, promise, and guidance regarding his will for my life in powerful ways so that I knew he was speaking directly to my heart and my circumstances. But I would never claim to say authoritatively that God told me something that I cannot find in the Bible.

While the super-spiritual may expect to hear a direct word from God internally or externally through their circumstances so that they will know what to do and what is right, on the opposite spectrum, most of our culture assumes that God has nothing relevant to say to them about how they live and the choices they make. While they might consult the latest self-help book on the best-seller list, or tune in to the latest self-help guru, or look around at the larger culture to absorb its values and moral sense of right and wrong, seeking out God's perspective on the matter would never occur to them. Most people in this world live their lives and make their decisions with little or no thought of God.

So how about you? Some decisions are quite easy to make — especially concerning those matters on which God has clearly spoken. Certainly we don't have to pray about whether to sleep with someone we are not married to. We have clear instructions on that. We don't have to expect to hear a word from God about whether we should forgive someone who has hurt us. We know clearly what we should do; we just don't want to do it. What we struggle with are the things that are not directly addressed in Scripture. Is this the person I should marry? Is this the job I should take? Should I watch this television program? Which way should I vote in this election?

These are the things for which we need wisdom. So how do we get that wisdom? Should we expect to hear a direct word from God on these matters? And, if so, how do we know it is his voice we are hearing? Are we to make those decisions on the basis of a vague and subjective feeling about the Lord's will in the matter? Are we to try on one option to see if we "have a peace about it"?

Or can we make decisions in these matters freely and consciously on the basis of what the Scriptures say and the principles they contain? Is it possible that God has given us a source of wisdom that is grounded in who he is and his purposes in the world that will give us the guidance we need to make wise decisions in all matters of life in this world?

Paul writes that there is "a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory" (1 Cor. 2:7). So perhaps in our efforts to find answers to these questions, we need to start at the beginning, or maybe even before the beginning, when, in perfect wisdom, God's plans for his creation took shape.

The Secret Wisdom Hidden

God's revelation of himself and of his plans for this world is progressive. He began revealing his character and his plan in the creation of the world when he made humanity in his own image and put...