I had a skype call yesterday from a friend who lives overseas, and who is trying to determine God's leading for he and his wife. I'm talking about an important life-decision, and one that certainly requires (I would hope) some sense of God's heart and mind on the matter, as I believe they're trying to discover right now.
My friend mentioned a book he's reading by Kevin DeYoung called, "Just Do Something: A liberating approach to finding God's will - or - How to Make a Decision Without Dreams, Visions, Fleeces, Open Doors, Random Bible Verses, Casting Lots, Liver Shivers, Writing in the Sky, etc." Now, to be fair I've never read this book (although I'm inclined to now). However, as my friend told me the title, I made the comment that I would say that our experience as a family is the polar opposite of the author's perspective. Having now read some of the reviews on the book I can say with a fair amount of confidence that the author is: 1 - American. 2 - Probably in his late 30's or early 40's. 3 - Likely from a Reformed perspective theologically 4 - is a "Cessationist" when it comes to hearing God's voice.
The concept of just "doing something" as opposed to waiting for or expecting God to give clear guidance (or even believing that God has a preference one way or the other) is a very Western - and particularly American - way of looking at life. Here in America we are used to getting whatever we want instantly : fast food, fast travel, fast access to data. I'm old enough to remember when we didn't have the internet or email, and while I'm a big fan of technology in general I've seen the dangers that "instant communication" can present. When I was dating my wife long-distance, our letters would take weeks to travel between Senegal and South Africa. When a letter would finally arrive, we could never be sure what questions the other was responding to because we'd written so many letters in between! My point is simply that life and decision-making just took a lot longer because we didn't have access to "Instant" anything. Waiting was a way of life - especially in Africa. But there was a positive side to a slower lifestyle: we were often forced to wait for information before making important decisions. . . and often in the waiting we heard God's voice. I believe that in the hectic, instant lifestyle that so many lead today we have lost the art of waiting upon the Lord. In fact, we don't even believe that God WILL speak to us, or that He has any particular opinion one way or the other. I want to quote one of the reviews on DeYoung's book, and then make a few comments afterwards.
“My goal,” he says, “is not as much to tell you how to hear God’s voice in making decisions as it is to hear God telling you to get off the long road to nowhere and finally make a decision, get a job, and perhaps, get married.” He fears that many Christians, because of their unbliblical understanding of knowing and doing the will of God, are wasting their lives doing nothing when they should just be doing, well, something! “I’d like us to consider that maybe we have difficulty discovering Gods wonderful plan for our lives because, if the truth be told, He doesn’t really intend to tell us what it is. And maybe we’re wrong to expect Him to. . . ,
Here’s the real heart of the matter, according to DeYoung. “Does God have a secret will of direction that He expects us to figure out before we do anything? And the answer is no.” Though we are free to ask for his direction and though we ought to be devoted to prayer in all matters, God does not burden us with seeking his will of direction ahead of our decisions. “God does have a specific plan for our lives, but it is not one that He expects us to figure out before we make a decision.” “Trusting in God’s will of decree is good. Following his will of desire is obedient. Waiting for God’s will of direction is a mess.”...,
Here, then, is how we are to live within God’s will: “So go marry someone, provided you’re equally yoked and you actually like being with each other. Go get a job, provided it’s not wicked. Go live somewhere in something with somebody or nobody. But put aside the passivity and the quest for complete fulfillment and the perfectionism and the preoccupation with the future, and for God’s sake start making some decisions in your life. Don’t wait for the liver-shiver. If you are seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, you will be in God’s will, so just go out and do something.”
If this is truly DeYoung's perspective, he is heading down a road - and bringing others with him - that ends in up believing that God doesn't actually care one way or the other about anything in our lives. I find this outlook to be not only humanistic, but completely unbiblical as well. THROUGHOUT the Scriptures God led His people through the very supernatural means that DeYoung is discounting: dreams, visions, promptings, prophetic words, divine circumstances, etc. Waiting for and Resting in God has now become "passivity". The author's own words are contradictory when he says, "Though we are free to ask for his direction and though we ought to be devoted to prayer in all matters, God does not burden us with seeking his will of direction ahead of our decisions." Why, then, should I bother asking for direction or praying at all? Clearly God isn't going to answer, so you might as well just get on with life the best that you can. He gives lip service to seeking God, but in the next breath basically says that it's a waste of time. This is only a short step away from believing that God doesn't actually intervene in the affairs of men at all - which is called Agnosticism. The problem today is not that God no longer speaks to us supernaturally, but that we no longer have the patience or the time to hear His voice.
Not only do I believe Scripturally that God expects us to seek His guidance, but our own experience has proven literally HUNDREDS of times that God is intimately involved in our lives, and that He wants us to seek Him and wait upon Him for direction. I'm not talking about asking God what kind of cereal to eat in the morning, or whether I should wear a green or red shirt today. Common sense alone says that this would be ridiculous. BUT, I do believe that many of our daily decisions absolutely require that we remain "in tune" with God's Spirit and His leading. But this requires two things that DeYoung and many others would undoubtedly reject: A level of intimacy with God that allows me to hear His voice, and the willingness to wait until He has spoken. If from the outset I have a perspective that God no longer speaks supernaturally outside (or even INSIDE ) the Scriptures, then I am destined to find my own way as best I can. Just consider the implications of this attitude: the God who created and sustains the entire Universe, who knows all of time and eternity, who can see both the past and the future, and who knows me more intimately than I can even imagine - this same God is asking me to figure out all of life's important decisions by using the teeny, tiny amount of intelligence that I alone possess. Wow. No wonder so many of us end up in such a mess! I counsel people virtually every day who have used the "wonders" of their own intelligence to get themselves into the biggest messes you could ever imagine. No, I would rather take the time to learn to recognize the voice of God's Spirit and follow His lead. And know this: God's leading is very often counter-intuitive, or even illogical in nature. If I am looking for the solution that makes "sense", I will in all likelihood not follow God's leading anyway.
As I said before, hearing God's voice has become a truly lost art. When I speak about waiting upon God and resting in His sovereignty, I am met more often than not by blank stares. We have given in to the lie that God does not speak "that way" anymore, and therefore we have to figure it out for ourselves. God is no longer a supernatural being who communicates with His children. He has become a distant, uncommunicative entity who expects us to find our own way as best we can.
So go for it, and let me know how that works out for you.
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