Theology Central

Years ago I began an unsuccessful career in sales. My manager warned me that I would have to learn to help people past “Buyer’s Blues.” He explained that many people experience feelings of doubt, anxiety, panic, and guilt either immediately before the decision to make a large purchase or immediately afterward. Part of my job would be to coax people through their Buyer’s Blues so they would finalize the sale. This same phenomenon operates in the lives of Christians who have to make big decisions: they so fear missing God’s will that they either cannot make a choice or immediately regret the choice they’ve made.

Buyer’s Blues can be exacerbated by circumstances. An acquaintance accepted a pastorate in Alaska. Driving up the Alcan Highway, his moving van blew a tire. The rental company took days to send help. Then the “help” actually overturned the van, damaging many of my friend’s goods. This was only one episode in a nightmare of a move. Finally, another friend told him, “It’s obvious that you’ve missed God’s will.” My friend didn’t listen to that counsel, but I’ve seen Christians who would gauge their grasp of God’s leading by how well the decision works.

When things don’t seem to work out well, does that mean we’ve missed God’s will? And if we have missed His will, is there any way back? Or are we doomed to some permanent spiritual disablement? I suggest the following by way of answer.

First, God’s leading is neither miraculous nor prophetic. God leads through Providence, and because His leading is providential, it does not yield certainty. Therefore, as long as we are following the precepts and principles of Scripture, God’s leading is not a simple matter of obedience or disobedience. It is more akin to the exercise of wisdom and sound judgment. It is possible for us to make an apparently sound decision that turns out to be a mistake, at least from some points of view.

Second, God is quite capable of using our mistakes. In fact, since judgment and wisdom grow through use, and since use involves making mistakes, God must intend that we make at least some mistakes. While we cannot blame the mistakes on Him, we can trust Him to help us make the best of them.

Furthermore, growth in character relies upon endurance, and endurance requires suffering (Rom. 5:3-4). Whether we are in the will of God or not, some of our choices will result in unexpectedly difficult circumstances. God’s will is for His children to suffer enough to require endurance so as to build up their character, producing hope or anticipation. We cannot always judge whether our choice was according to God’s leading by whether it leads to a rose-strewn future.

Third, every choice, whether mistaken or not, opens before us a new path. Once we are on that path, there is no point asking how we might have fared had we chosen a different path. God’s will is always that we make the best of the path that we now tread for His glory. Part of going forward includes “forgetting those things which are behind” (Phil. 3:13). We have no true knowledge of counterfactuals; we never really know how things might have turned out had we chosen otherwise. Habitual second-guessing of our choices results only in misery.

Fourth, the choices that we make often bring with them new obligations. These obligations will determine at least some part of God’s will for the future. For example, the time to ask whether God is leading you to marry a particular person is before the nuptials. During the wedding you swear oaths that are lifelong and binding. God never wills that you violate your wedding vows. Once you are married, you must never think that God’s will was for you to marry someone else. God’s will is for your present marriage to succeed.

Similarly, if you have run up debt on your credit cards, God’s will is that you pay what you owe. You may decide that the charges were unwise and out of God’s will (and they probably were), but that no longer matters. God’s will is for you to fulfill your obligations, even if doing so means not doing some other things that you might have thought were God’s leading.

Fifth, sometimes we make choices that are so conspicuously bad that we ought to retrace our steps. Bad choices come from not paying attention to the criteria for good choices—criteria such as those that we have discussed in previous essays. Bad choices may not always be sinful, but they are choices for which we are obviously unsuited. When that happens, we should recognize the difference between endurance (which is a virtue) and obstinance in folly (which is a form of vicious pride).

Sixth, we must learn to be perplexed without despairing (2 Cor. 4:8). We have no guarantee that we’ll be able to make every choice with confidence. We have no assurance that every choice will work out well. After all, even with access to direct, divine revelation, the Apostle Paul made choices that landed him in horrible circumstances. Some Bible teachers still question whether each of those choices really represented God’s will for his life. One even wrote a book entitled Blunders of Paul. What distinguished Paul was not that he made the right choice every time (though I disagree with the premise that his ministry was characterized by blunders). What distinguished him was that, even in the worst of circumstances, he kept pressing forward in the ways that matter most: seeking to minister the gospel, strengthen the saints, and glorify Christ. Indeed, the entire epistle to the Philippians is a testimony to this aspect of his life.

As far as I know, the Bible contains no promise that God will give us absolute certainty in our important choices. My personal testimony is that I have rarely experienced that degree of confidence. Often I have had to make major decisions without even ninety or eighty percent probability. Sometimes I have made them with only the slightest inclination in one direction: fifty-one percent or less. I have made decisions that were followed by joyful excitement; I have also made decisions that were followed by shattering experiences with Buyer’s Blues. That doesn’t mean that those choices were out of God’s will or that I didn’t have His leading.

God doesn’t seem to be interested in having us torture ourselves with regret. He doesn’t want us constantly to be looking over our shoulder, wondering whether each choice that we made was “in His will.” Yes, God does have a plan for each individual believer, and He does lead His children. If we are seeking to honor Him, if we are choosing within the bounds of Scripture, and if we are employing the canons of wisdom and careful choosing, then we can trust Him to guide us providentially into the choices that He wants us to make. Choose carefully. Choose boldly.

This essay is by Kevin T. Bauder, Research Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Central Baptist Theological Seminary. Not every one of the professors, students, or alumni of Central Seminary necessarily agrees with every opinion that it expresses.

Beset With Snares on Every Hand

Philip Doddridge (1702–1751)

Beset with snares on every hand,
In life’s uncertain path I stand:
Saviour divine! diffuse Thy light,
To guide my doubtful footsteps right.

Engage this roving treacherous heart
Wisely to choose the better part;
To scorn the trifles of a day,
For joys that none can take away.

Then let the wildest storms arise;
Let tempests mingle earth and skies:
No fatal shipwreck shall I fear,
But all my treasures with me bear.

If Thou, my Jesus, still be nigh,
Cheerful I live, and joyful die:
Secure, when mortal comforts flee,
To find ten thousand worlds in Thee.

If God has an individual direction for His children, then they ought to be able to discern what that direction is. Many Christians believe that the way to find God’s will is to pay attention to a kind of subjective inner sense, a feeling of peace that will indicate the decision that God wants them to make. They think that they find this way of knowing God’s will in Colossians 3:15, which commands us to let the peace of God (or peace of Christ) rule in our hearts. As they note, the word rule is a term that means to umpire or decide. Consequently, they presume that God leads them through the sense of peace that He gives them.

Others have objected that such leading would be equivalent to extra-Scriptural revelation. Therefore, they reject the notion that God creates subjective impressions at all. They insist that believers must rely solely upon the written Word of God.

I agree that the written Scriptures must be the Christian’s only source of spiritual authority, but I think this objection is overstated. Most believers at most times have acknowledged that God can somehow prompt subjective impressions that do not rise to the level of revelation. For example, Calvin argued that one essential component in the recognition of canonicity is the inner witness of the Spirit. Others rely upon the convicting ministry of the Spirit when they witness to unbelievers. Most recognize that some subjective ministry is involved when the “Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God” (Rom. 8:16). Efforts to deny that an inner, subjective working of the Holy Spirit is depicted in this verse are not convincing.

Very likely, God can work through inner, subjective impressions. He probably does. Still, I think that the appeal to Colossians 3:15 is a bit hasty, especially considering the rest of the verse. After the verse says to let the peace of God rule in your hearts, it adds, “to which [peace] also ye are called in one body.” In other words, the peace that Paul is writing about to the church in Colosse is not an inner sensation. It is an outward manner of relating to other believers in the church. The peace of God is to govern our hearts as we carry out our Christian relationships.

While God is capable of producing inner sensations in the believer, including the sensation of peace, basing one’s decisions primarily or only upon that sensation is not justified by an appeal to Colossians 3:15. Believers who make this subjective, inner sense the primary or only way of discerning God’s direction are asking for trouble. God can prompt inner sensations, but He does not promise that He will. To rely upon something that God has not promised is simply presumptuous. It is a form of tempting God.

This problem is compounded by the fact that subjective impressions come from many sources other than God. Our inner sensations are affected by how tired or hungry we are, by what we eat, and by the stresses that we may be under. We have no way of saying with certainty whether a particular sense of inner leading is coming from God or from too much cabbage.

In view of these facts, should we recognize any role at all for subjective considerations such as feelings and promptings when seeking the Lord’s direction? My answer to that question is yes, but it is a qualified yes. We should take account of such things, but subject to three limitations.

First, while God can produce feelings and sensations within people, He need not do so by acting directly upon the soul. Rather, these feelings and promptings may be (and usually are) produced providentially. God uses secondary agencies to move our consciences and affections. These secondary agencies include the kinds of things that we have previously discussed: Scripture, duties, counsel, circumstances, and so forth. The human mind has the capability of sifting, combining, and evaluating such matters very rapidly at a level beneath conscious deliberation. We can intuit conclusions without really being aware of how we draw them, and this intuition sometimes gives us a sense of the right choice.

I believe that God can use exactly this process in producing a sense of His leading within His people. This sense is not miraculous and it does not involve the direct action of God upon the soul, but through secondary agencies God really is leading. Since it is providential, however, and since it involves an element of human interpretation, this sense must never be taken as infallible—and that is the second limitation. As with other factors, our subjective sense of God’s leading needs to be evaluated, weighed, and considered. It is not a form of divine revelation.

The fact that this sense is not revelation leads to the third limitation. We should not seek God’s leading primarily through subjective impressions and inner sensations. We should take them into account, but they should rarely be the determining factor when seeking God’s will. The inner sense of peace can certainly help to assure us that we are on the right path, but it does not take the place of the other factors. We ought to use these inner, subjective impressions for confirmation, not information.

In other words, I am trying to stake out a middle ground on this issue. We should not ignore our subjective impressions about God’s leading since such feelings may come from God, and even if they do not they may represent good intuitions. On the other hand, we must not treat respond to these feelings as if they were a sure revelation of God’s will, since we recognize that they can also come from other sources. Avoiding both extremes, we can legitimately consider our subjective impression of God’s leading as one factor among several, and we should consider these impressions only after we have carefully weighed all other considerations.

This essay is by Kevin T. Bauder, Research Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Central Baptist Theological Seminary. Not every one of the professors, students, or alumni of Central Seminary necessarily agrees with every opinion that it expresses.

Thy Ways, O Lord, With Wise Design

Ambrose Serle (1742–1812)

Thy ways, O Lord, with wise design,
Are framed upon thy throne above,
And every dark or bending line,
Meets in the center of thy love.

With feeble light, and half obscure,
Poor mortals thy arrangements view,
Not knowing that they all are sure,
And, tho’ mysterious, just and true.

Thy flock, thy own peculiar care,
Tho, now they seem to roam un-eyed,
Are led by power and goodness where
They best, and safest may abide.

They neither know nor trace the way,
But guided by they piercing eye,
None of their feet to ruin stray,
Nor shall the weakest fail or die.

My favored soul shall meekly learn,
To lay her reason at thy throne;
Too weak thy secrets to discern,
I’ll trust thee for my guide alone.

In previous essays I have outlined several considerations that all believers should weigh when seeking to discern God’s leading in their lives. Obviously, they should avoid wrong ways of knowing God’s will, such as inner voices, dreams, “fleeces,” and misuse of Scripture. Instead, they should begin by obeying God’s will as revealed in Scripture. This obedience is the sign of their commitment to genuinely wanting to know and do God’s will. They should prioritize faithfulness to duties. They should bathe decisions in prayer. They should inform themselves as fully as possible. They should seek the counsel of people who know them and who know God.

Now I would like to suggest two more considerations that will help believers to discover God’s direction. The first is perhaps obvious, but it bears stating. It is to pay attention to circumstances.

Before I go on, I ought to tell you that some Christians would disagree with me. Their motivations are good: they believe that walking by faith is opposed to walking by sight, and they wish to walk by faith. They also believe that taking account of circumstances is walking by sight. Ergo, to heed circumstances is to fail in walking by faith and (these brothers and sisters remind us) whatever is not of faith is sin.

I agree with them!—but only to a point. When biblical commands or promises appear to contradict circumstances, then we owe loyalty to whatever God says. Abraham believed God, even when circumstances appeared to make the fulfillment of God’s promises impossible. If we find that our circumstances are such that taking God at His word will cost us everything, then we ought to obey God anyway.

If we have to ask how God is leading, however, then usually no clear biblical precept or promise is at stake. After all, we don’t have to ask once we know that God has spoken. We ask when He has not. When we do not have God’s clearly spoken will, we are arrogant to act as if our choices rest upon divine revelation. We have no right to assert our own will, then to insist upon following it in spite of circumstances that render it unattainable.

To cite an extreme example, I may believe that God is leading me to offer my services as an accompanist in a church that lacks one. The problem is that I cannot play a piano or organ. For me to accompany a congregation would require not merely personal willingness but an outright divine miracle of the sort that God nowhere promises. My circumstances ought to tell me that God is not leading me to make such a decision.

Paying attention to circumstances is simply a matter of common sense. Paul was using common sense and paying attention to circumstances when he told the centurion not to sail from Fair Havens until spring (Acts 27:9-10). When things went wrong, Paul even reminded the centurion that he should have listened (Acts 27:21). Circumstances should indeed be taken into account when seeking God’s leading. Simply paying attention to circumstances can prevent some very bad decisions.

We should pay attention to circumstances, and we should also take account of another factor that is regularly discounted. When trying to discern the Lord’s direction, we should consider the direction of our own inclinations. We should ask, “What would I really like to do?”

Too often, Christians assume that God’s will is an ugly, repugnant thing that they would prefer to avoid if they could. Of course, it may be some of the time. Left to themselves, Jeremiah would not have chosen the well and Daniel would not have entered the lion’s den. In those cases, however, obedience to God’s revealed will was clearly at stake. When God directs us into unpleasant circumstances, He usually does it in ways that are unavoidable.

God’s will is not usually like that. Jesus promised rest for our souls and told us that His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matt. 11:30). David taught that when we delight in the Lord, He gives us the desires of our heart (Ps. 37:4). In other words, He leads us to want the things that He wants to give us. Doing God’s will is a joy, something that we can look forward to with cheerful anticipation.

How often do we hear the phrase, “I surrendered to the Lord’s will,” as if the only way that God could get us to knuckle under was to batter us until we lowered our colors in defeat? While such things can happen, they are not the norm. God prepares us for what He wants us to do. If we are seeking Him and delighting in Him, He inclines us toward those things that He sees as our greatest good. We should usually find ourselves wanting the very thing that God wants for us.

When I was first married I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life (a fact that must have concerned my father-in-law). I was working as a laborer in an auto parts warehouse, but clearly that was not a career. I thought about studying law. Somebody tried to convince me to sell insurance. Somebody else tried to get me to go to chiropractic school. None of that seemed right.

I had considered vocational ministry, but I simply found it too intimidating. I wasn’t opposed to ministry, but pastoral work included tasks for which I thought I was poorly suited. Over a process of months, however, the Lord placed me in positions that forced me to do the very things I was most apprehensive about in ministry. I learned two lessons. First, the Lord is quite able to do His own work through someone who is simply willing to be used. Second, I actually enjoyed performing those dreaded tasks, then getting to see the results. I found that I wanted to do more of the same things.

My bride was also watching those events unfold, and she was seeing the same things. When I finally said aloud, “I think the Lord might be calling me into ministry,” she responded, “I know!” In that moment, something clicked into place. I knew what God’s direction was for my life, and I was eager to embrace it. I never had to surrender anything. God gave me the desires of my heart.

Please don’t misunderstand: I am not suggesting that sadness and hardship are never God’s will. What I am saying is that, while seeking God’s will, one of the things that we should consider is our own inclinations and desires. These may well be among the components that God uses to lead us while we follow Him.

This essay is by Kevin T. Bauder, Research Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Central Baptist Theological Seminary. Not every one of the professors, students, or alumni of Central Seminary necessarily agrees with every opinion that it expresses.

Heavenly Father! To Whose Eye

Josiah Conder (1789–1855)

Heavenly Father! to whose eye
Future things unfolded lie;
Through the desert when I stray
Let Thy counsels guide my way.

Leave me not, for flesh is frail,
Where fierce trials would assail;
Leave me not in darkened hour,
To withstand the tempter’s power.

Lord! uphold me day by day;
Shed a light upon my way;
Guide me through perplexing snares;
Care for me in all my cares.

Should Thy wisdom, Lord, decree
Trials long and sharp for me,
Pain, or sorrow, care or shame,—
Father! glorify Thy name.

Let me neither faint nor fear,
Feeling still that Thou art near;
In the course my Saviour trod,
Tending home to Thee, my God.

God knows exactly those choices that will bring the greatest good into your life. Perhaps those are not the choices that will result in the greatest apparent good, especially in the short term—I’ll have more to say about that in a future essay. But God knows who He wants you to be, and He knows which choices will bring you to that goal.

To deny that God is able to lead you in making those choices would be pointless. God promises that if we trust in the Lord and acknowledge Him, He will direct our paths (Prov. 3:6). In the Bible, He often directed His people through special revelation. Of course, He still directs us through the revelation that is recorded in Scripture, but there is no particular reason to think that He cannot direct us in other ways as well.

One of the ways in which God leads us to the right choices is through godly counsel. What Proverbs 11:14 posits of nations is also true of individuals: without guidance one is in danger, but deliverance is found in the abundance of counselors. While we may not always seek counsel for ordinary, mundane choices—whether we should wear the blue socks or the black ones—God wishes us to ask for counsel about the important ones.

Of course, if we want to get any help from counsel, we need to seek wise and careful counselors. Bad counsel can lead us seriously astray, as it did with Rehoboam (1 Ki. 12:1-23). Confronted by the people with his excesses, he accepted the counsel of foolish young men rather than wise older ones. That counsel brought disaster into his life. We should not expect to receive good counsel from people who are only going to tell us what we want to hear.

In some churches, people are told never to make a major decision without asking their pastor for counsel. When they go to their pastor for counsel, he listens to them describe their choices. He then pronounces God’s will for their lives. A very high percentage of the time, God’s will turns out to be the decision that is best for his ministry or even for him personally.

Still, the principle is a sound one. If a pastor knows his people, his God, and his Bible, he ought to be in a position to offer sound counsel. Pastoral counsel, however, rarely involves telling people what they ought to do. The only appropriate time for that is when a clear biblical requirement is at stake. Otherwise, a pastor’s main responsibility is to help people think through the decisions that they must make. He will guide them through the various considerations (including biblical principles) that ought to inform their decision. He will point out any circumstances that should affect their choice. He will help people to understand any personal giftedness, abilities, and proclivities that might shape the decision. In short, he will play a supporting role, assisting people to exercise wisely their prerogatives as believer-priests before the Lord.

What is true of pastoral counsel should be true of other counsel as well. Counsel does not usually consist in telling other people what to do. Only very immature people need or want to have decisions handed to them. Mature people should choose for themselves, and they should exercise sound judgment in their choices. Offering counsel is a matter of helping them to be sure that they have weighed every necessary consideration before making their choice.

For married people, husbands or wives are often best equipped to offer this kind of counsel. Our spouses know us like no one else does. Usually, they also understand our choices in greater detail than any other. Here I can speak from experience: my wife is my wisest counselor. Her insights have spared me from trouble on many occasions. I would not dream of making a major decision without discussing it with her first. Furthermore, I would not make a decision that she was convinced was wrong. When it comes to the home-shaping choices of our household, I take the responsibility for the final choice, but the process of making that decision is shared.

For a wife to share in making household decisions is no violation of marital submission (Eph. 5:22-24, 33). Rather, it is the implementation of that love which husbands owe to their wives (Eph. 5:25-33). Even a very deferential wife needs to be involved in the decisions that affect her future, and a loving husband will see to it that she is. A husband who fails to solicit his wife’s counsel, or who neglects or ignores it when it is offered, is simply a fool.

Besides spouses, parents are often among the best counselors. Even unbelieving parents can sometimes offer surprising insight into the decisions that their grown children must make. Parents who know the Lord and the Bible are some of the best counselors in the world. In any event, seeking parental counsel is part of honoring one’s father and mother (Eph. 6:2-3). At more than sixty years of age, I still seek parental counsel before making most major decisions. My parents are wise people, and I want to take advantage of their insight as long as I can.

True friends also make wonderful counselors. A true friend is one who will be willing to wound you when necessary (Prov. 27:5). Like pastors, spouses, and parents, friends cannot counsel by making decisions for you. What they can do is to make sure you’ve examined every legitimate factor that ought to affect your decision. They can point out any considerations that you may have neglected. They can talk with you, pray for you, and help you to weigh the various elements that affect your decision.

On rare occasions we may be confronted with decisions that must be made in isolation. Under normal circumstances, however, we ought to surround ourselves with as many wise counselors as we can. We should talk to them freely, hear them fully, and weigh their counsel carefully. Our counselors cannot take responsibility for our decisions, but they can help us to find God’s leading.

This essay is by Kevin T. Bauder, Research Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Central Baptist Theological Seminary. Not every one of the professors, students, or alumni of Central Seminary necessarily agrees with every opinion that it expresses.

Shall I, For Fear of Feeble Man

Johann Joseph Winkler (1670–1722); tr. John Wesley (1703–1791)

Shall I, for fear of feeble man,
The Spirit’s course in me restrain?
Or undismayed in deed and word,
Be a true witness for the Lord?

Awed by a mortal’s frown, shall I
Conceal the Word of God Most High?
How then before Thee shall I dare
To stand, or how Thy anger bear?

Shall I, to soothe th’unholy throng,
Soften Thy truths and smooth my tongue?
To gain earth’s gilded toys, or flee
The cross endured, my God, by Thee?

The love of Christ doth me constrain
To seek the wandering souls of men;
With cries, entreaties, tears, to save,
To snatch them from the fiery wave.

My life, my blood, I here present,
If for Thy truth they may be spent:
Fulfill Thy sovereign counsel, Lord!
Thy will be done, Thy name adored!

Give of Thy strength, O God of pow’r!
Then let winds blow, or thunders roar,
Thy faithful witness will I be:
‘Tis fixed! I can do all through Thee!

A few months ago I received a phone call from a colleague, a former student who went on to serve in pastoral ministry for a decade. He told me that he was trying to decide whether to remain with his current pastorate or whether to go back to school. He thought that he might like to teach in a Bible college or seminary someday. He asked for my counsel as he weighed his choices.

His request reflects a number of important considerations in seeking God’s will. First, he was choosing deliberately, refusing to allow momentary emotions to determine his direction. Second, he was seeking counsel—a matter I’ll have more to say about in a future essay. Third, and perhaps most importantly, he was looking for information. He wanted to know what he could expect if he were to pursue an academic doctorate, and he wanted to know about teaching opportunities once he had the degree.

I’m afraid that I wasn’t overly encouraging. I explained that few people can anticipate the kind of labor and sacrifice that goes into earning a Ph.D. or Th.D. Fewer still understand that the pressures must be borne by both the students and their families. Yet this price must be paid: an earned doctorate is the union card for teaching in higher education. I said all of this because I wanted my friend to know what demands and pressures he would face if he left his pastorate for further education.

That wasn’t the end of the bad news. Doctors of Philosophy now saturate the academy. Even large universities are shifting toward using adjunct rather than full-time teachers. Within mainstream fundamentalism this situation is exacerbated by the fact that nearly half our schools have closed over the past decade or two, and most of those that remain are only half the size they once were. Every man who leaves the pastorate for doctoral study needs to think seriously about what he will do for a living once he has earned the degree. He could go back into the pastorate, of course, but no one needs a Ph.D. to pastor effectively.

What is the right decision for my colleague? I really don’t know. In any event, he did not want to know what my will might be, but what God’s leading was. For discerning God’s leading, he was doing the right thing by gaining as much information as he could.

The Bible is full of both examples and principles that merge God’s will with adequate informed judgment. God’s will was for Joshua to conquer the land, but Joshua still sent investigators to gather information from Jericho (Josh. 2). Those who hope to pass wise judgments are obligated to gain information from multiple witnesses (Deut. 19:15; 2 Cor. 13:1). Acting without knowledge is not good (Prov. 19:2). A person who makes a pronouncement without listening to the facts is a fool (Prov. 18:13).

Ignorance is not a virtue in discovering God’s direction. To be sure, circumstances sometimes force us to make decisions about which we are poorly informed. Furthermore, we often wish that we had more information than we do. We can never become omniscient, and something that we don’t know might be the one thing that would have changed our minds. That is no excuse, however, for not learning all we can.

Informing one’s self and seeking God’s will are not mutually exclusive categories. God does not usually lead in a vacuum. He uses several factors to create in us an impression of what His direction might be. The more attention we pay to these factors, the more likely we are to understand what God wishes us to do. One of the most important factors is information. By learning all we can about our decision, we are giving God something to work with as He leads.

Consider a man who is offered a promotion that will require him to move his family to a distant city. He ought to know exactly what his responsibilities will entail and who he will be working with. He ought to learn all he can about the city, both its opportunities and its problems. He ought to search in advance for churches in that city, and, if possible, he ought to visit some of them and talk to their pastors.

He should also inform himself about the subjective responses of the people who will be affected by his decision. How will his new co-workers perceive him? How does his wife feel about the move? How do his children feel about it? On the other hand, how will his employers respond if he declines? While these matters are outside his control, he still needs to take them into account. How people feel is part of the information that should go into his decision.

Every kind of decision requires different information. No single rule can specify exactly what kind of information is necessary in every circumstance. The only rule is to gain as much relevant information as possible before the choice has to be made. Informing one’s self is necessary if one is to exercise due diligence when making decisions.

I have heard Christian leaders dismiss the exercise of due diligence by denouncing it as “human wisdom.” They are half right. It is wisdom—but it is not merely human. It is the care that God expects His people to exercise before committing themselves to a course of action. Even Jesus thought that a man who was going to build a tower should know how much it would cost before he began (Lk. 14:28). Too many Christian leaders have wrecked ministries—and people’s lives—because they did not bother to inform themselves before announcing some course of action and proclaiming it to be “God’s will.”

Ignorance is not faith. Ignorance does not foster faith. Ignorance is not a substitute for faith. Ignorance is never a virtue. Instead, information is a tool that the faithful employ whenever possible while seeking God’s direction. David trusted God to deliver him from Saul; he also trusted the information that Jonathan brought him (1 Sam. 20).

God places us in positions in which we have to make choices. In those choices He certainly knows what direction is best for us, but He also uses those decisions as opportunities to grow us in maturity and wisdom. Maturity and wisdom revolve around the capacity for sound judgment. For that reason, seeking God’s leading entails the exercise of sound judgment. The simple truth is that informed judgments are usually sounder than uninformed ones.

Do you want God’s will? If you are already yielded to Him, obeying Him, and fulfilling your duties to the best of your ability, then the next thing you need to do is to inform yourself. The information you gain may be exactly the instrument that God uses to disclose His direction for your life.

This essay is by Kevin T. Bauder, Research Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Central Baptist Theological Seminary. Not every one of the professors, students, or alumni of Central Seminary necessarily agrees with every opinion that it expresses.

Almighty God, In Humble Prayer

James Montgomery (1771–1854)

Almighty God, in humble prayer,
To Thee our souls we lift,
Do Thou our waiting minds prepare
For Thy most needful gift.

We ask not golden streams of wealth,
Along our path to flow,
We ask not undecaying health,
Nor length of years below.

We ask not honours which an hour
May bring or take away;
We ask not pleasure, pomp, or power,
Lest we should go astray.

We ask for wisdom:—Lord, impart
The knowledge how to live;
A wise and understanding heart
To all before Thee give.

For we, like children, born in sin
Know not till Thou hast taught,
How to go out, or how come in,
By word, or deed, or thought.

The young remember Thee in youth,
Before the evil days;
The old be guided by Thy truth
In Wisdom’s pleasant ways.

Throughout this discussion I have assumed that God has an individual will for each Christian and that His will can be discerned. To this point, I have described criteria for determining God’s will that are straightforward and objective. God’s leading never contradicts Scripture rightly understood. The person who wishes to know God’s will must be willing to do God’s will, and this willingness is characterized by actual obedience to as much of God’s will as is already known. God’s will is always for Christians to fulfill their duties.

The remaining criteria are less straightforward and more subjective, though they may be as important as the objective criteria. Employing these criteria requires wisdom and a sense of balance. Consequently, those who wish to seek God’s leading need to fulfill at least one prerequisite.

That prerequisite is prayer. To receive wisdom from God we have to ask for it, but if we ask, we receive it generously (Jas. 1:5). Since wisdom is necessary to discern God’s will, the process of seeking God’s direction must be bathed in prayer.

You may wonder why I have waited until this point to mention prayer. If it is so important, then does it not take priority over all other considerations? Should it not have been discussed first?

Remember, however, that the first considerations are objective. We know them because God has spoken. God reveals a good bit of His will in the Bible. God’s leading never contradicts what God has revealed. When we seek God’s will, we begin by obeying His revealed will. Even our duties are plain because they are revealed in Scripture.

In other words, we do not have to ask God what His will is in any of those matters. His will is already settled, stated for us in black and white. We determine God’s revealed will, not by praying about it, but by reading the Bible. We do not have to ask God whether His will for us is to embezzle from our employer. We do not have to pray about the decision to abandon a spouse. We have no need to seek God’s face about using methamphetamine for amusement. We need not question whether we ought to covenant with a local church, to testify of God’s grace, or to give money toward God’s work. In all of these matters, God has already told us what His will is, either in so many words or by good and necessary consequence.

For us to pray about these matters is to confess that we have not been paying attention to what God has already said. If we had paid attention, we would already have our answers. These are not matters that require discernment. Deciding whether to view pornography (for example) requires no special spiritual insight. It just requires obedience. We don’t need to pray about God’s will, we just need to obey it. If we pray about things like this, we reduce piety to a game and Christianity to a show. In effect, we are mocking God—and God is not mocked (Gal. 6:7).

The time to pray for God’s direction is when Scripture by itself does not give us clear guidance. That is when we must come to our Father and humbly ask Him for wisdom that we do not possess in ourselves. It is the time to ask Him to make clear to us the best way forward.

Of course, we do not pray specifically for the small, every-day choices. We do not pause at the medicine cabinet to seek divine guidance concerning Crest versus Colgate. We do not prayerfully ponder whether we ought to eat the green beans or the Brussels sprouts (or both). Each day we ask God to direct our paths, and we prayerfully commit the keeping of our ways to Him. As the normal decisions of life come our way, we roll along with them and simply make the choice that seems best at the moment, trusting God to oversee our determinations.

Sometimes, however, we are confronted with choices that obviously carry serious consequences. We do not wish to make a bad decision. Instead, we want to make the best choice possible, and it may not be obvious to us. Those are the times when we need real wisdom; those are the times when we absolutely must seek God’s guidance. In fact, we really ought to seek wisdom and guidance even when the choice does seem obvious to us. God just might know something that we do not.

We might spend days or even weeks in prayer over a serious decision. If it is a decision that affects our families, then we might very well ask our spouses and perhaps other family members to pray with us. We might solicit the prayers of our Christian brothers and sisters. We might even commit ourselves to fasting so as to give ourselves more fully to prayer. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working (Jas. 5:16, ESV).

Nevertheless, prayer is not a magic formula to secure a personal revelation. We should not expect the answer to be written in the sky or to become audible to the ears of the soul. We should expect no signs and we should trust no sudden overwhelming convictions. Such things are too easily counterfeited. The prayer for guidance will be answered through the exercise of wisdom, judgment, and discretion.

That is where the subjective criteria come in. Exercising wisdom requires us to appeal to several sources and to weigh several considerations. Just what these sources are will be the subject of future essays.

This essay is by Kevin T. Bauder, Research Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Central Baptist Theological Seminary. Not every one of the professors, students, or alumni of Central Seminary necessarily agrees with every opinion that it expresses.

Lord, I Cannot Let Thee Go

John Newton (1725–1807)

Lord, I cannot let thee go,
‘Till a blessing thou bestow;
Do not turn away thy face,
Mine’s an urgent, pressing case.

Dost thou ask me who I am?
Ah, my Lord, thou know’st my name!
Yet a question gives a plea,
To support my suit with thee.

Thou didst once a wretch behold,
In rebellion blindly bold,
Scorn thy grace, thy power defy,
That poor rebel, Lord was I.

Once a sinner near despair,
Sought thy mercy seat by pray’r;
Mercy heard and set him free,
Lord, that mercy came to me.

Many days have passed since then,
Many changes I have seen;
Yet have been upheld till now,
Who could hold me up but thou?

Thou hast helped in every need,
This emboldens me to plead;
After so much mercy past,
Can’st thou let me sink at last?

No—I must maintain my hold;
‘Tis thy goodness makes me bold,
I can no denial take,
When I plead for Jesus’ sake.

John Buck is a manager for a national corporation where he has been advancing through the ranks. One day his boss stops by to offer John a new position as manager of a plant in a distant part of the country. The job comes with a pay increase of $15,000 per year. John has one week to give his boss an answer.

Both John and his wife, Anne, believe that he is ready to take on the responsibility. If he rejects the promotion he might not be given another chance. They are concerned, however, about their three teenage children, all of whom would be pulled out of their schools in the middle of the year. Their concerns increase when, after investigating the city where they would be living, they cannot find a rightly-ordered New Testament church with a pastor who actually preaches the Bible.

Their present church is small, but its members are committed to the Lord and its pastor expounds the Scriptures accurately, applies them well, and is deeply interested in the congregation’s lives. John has served this church as a deacon for ten years. Anne is the church’s only accompanist. Many of the other members are retirees. They support the church, but the Bucks’ giving makes a significant difference.

John and Anne believe that God has a specific direction for them in this choice. They genuinely want to follow the Lord’s leading. They are already trying to obey as much of the Bible’s teaching as they understand. What considerations will help them to determine how God might direct in their present circumstances?

One question they might ask is this: “What are my duties?” Every duty is an obligation, a responsibility that people owe to themselves or others. All people have duties. They owe responsibilities to God, nation, family, church, and calling. Some duties are intrinsic and inescapable. Others are freely assumed but binding once accepted. For example, vows are not normally obligatory, but once sworn become compulsory (Num. 30).

What duties do the Bucks owe? How should those duties affect John’s choice about the new job?

Clearly John and Anne owe a duty to their three teenage children. As parents they are responsible to rear their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4). While the text of Scripture does not specify every method by which that is done, John and Anne can easily foresee the disruption that will follow if they pull their children away from their school and established home in the middle of the school year.

Furthermore, the responsibility to make disciples does not belong to parents alone (Mt. 28:19-20). Making disciples is the business of local churches, and without a good church discipleship almost always suffers. If John and Anne cannot find (or plant) a good church, then they and their children will lose an important center of spiritual nourishment, encouragement, warning, instruction, shared labor, and corporate worship. This deficiency will certainly affect the entire family.

The Bucks also owe something to their present congregation. Joining a church is not like joining a club. One becomes a member of a New Testament church by covenant. A covenant is an oath or vow that the members swear to one another. It affirms their intention together to be a church and defines what their relationship as members will look like. While a church covenant is not a lifelong obligation, it is not a casual obligation and it should not be easily abandoned. If John and Anne move away, they will leave a void that cannot be easily filled.

On the other hand, John does not have a duty to make more money or to advance in the company. Of course, he does owe some level of loyalty and cooperation to his employers. Unless he is bound in some way (such as a contract), this obligation is lesser and more relative than the others. Sometimes, however, a duty to an employer may become completely inflexible, such as when the National Guard deploys its soldiers. Those circumstances eliminate the dilemma because they eliminate the choice. As the quip goes, “No choice, no problem.”

Sometimes circumstances simply do away with all choices. When that happens, believers can be sure that God is providentially directing their lives, even if the circumstances are terrible. Now they are no longer seeking God’s direction, but seeking ways to glorify Him under the circumstances into which He has directed them. They must do the best they can with a bad situation for as long as they have to, but when they are once again free to choose for themselves they should make the choice that enables them to fulfill the greatest number of duties in the best way possible.

Occasionally the difficult circumstances may be the result of previous bad choices. For example, a seminarian who goes into debt will be less free to follow the Lord’s leading into a small pastorate or onto the mission field. Borrowers are enslaved to lenders (Prov. 22:7). A person who owes money will be working for the creditor until the debt is paid. God’s will for an indebted person is to repay all that is owed as quickly as possible. Until that step has been taken, debtors lack freedom to choose. Their duty is to pay what they owe.

Any effort to discern God’s leading for particular choices should begin with the question, “What are my duties?” God does not lead His people to neglect their duties, and duties are manifold. Christians cannot rightly plead God’s will as an excuse to escape from the obligations that they owe.

Everyone has duties. Finding God’s direction must begin by acknowledging those duties and seeking to fulfill them. Christians who develop a keen sense of duty and a determination to fulfill all duties often find that many seemingly-difficult choices are simply eliminated. Discovering God’s leading will become a much simpler process.

This essay is by Kevin T. Bauder, Research Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Central Baptist Theological Seminary. Not every one of the professors, students, or alumni of Central Seminary necessarily agrees with every opinion that it expresses.

On Christ Salvation Rests Secure

Samuel Medley (1738–1799)

On Christ salvation rests secure;
the Rock of Ages must endure;
nor can that faith be overthrown
which rests upon the “Living Stone.”

No other hope shall intervene;
to Him we look, on Him we lean;
other foundations we disown
and build on Christ the “Living Stone.”

In Him, it is ordained to raise
a temple to Jehovah’s praise
composed of all the saints, who own
no Savior but the “Living Stone.”

View the vast building, see it rise;
the work how great! the plan how wise!
O wondrous fabric, pow’r unknown
that rests it on the “Living Stone.”

But most adore His precious name;
His glory and His grace proclaim;
for us, condemned, despised, undone,
He gave Himself, the “Living Stone.”

If God is not giving further revelation, then how can believers know His will for their lives? Some theologians have denied that God has an individual will for each believer, but their objections are not convincing. More often than not, their case against an individual will of God is really an objection to ongoing revelation. They overlook the possibility that God might have an individual will for each believer and that His will can be known (at least approximately) without sacrificing either the finality or the sufficiency of Scripture.

I have already given reasons for believing this to be the case. Along with those reasons comes a responsibility to explain just how believers can discern God’s will for their lives. I have said that several components are involved in this process. The first component is that God’s will always accords with Scripture rightly understood. God never leads any of His children contrary to what the Bible teaches.

The second element in discerning God’s will is closely related. It is simply that believers who want to know God’s will must be committed to doing God’s will. Submission precedes knowledge.

This principle should surprise no one. It follows the pattern established in the book of Proverbs. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge (1:7). God refuses to answer those who call upon Him without first seeking Him; the fact that they do not fear the Lord shows that they really hate knowledge (1:28-29). The one who understands the fear of the Lord is the one who finds knowledge (2:5). This fear of the Lord involves hating pride, arrogance, and the evil way (8:13). It is the beginning of wisdom (9:10), and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. The fear of the Lord gives His people strong confidence and is a fountain of life (14:26-27). This fear precedes instruction in wisdom, just as humility precedes true honor (15:33). It leads people to depart from evil (16:6). It tends toward life, results in settled satisfaction, and spares one from calamity (19:23).

These and similar verses imply that God’s will is not known in the abstract. We do not have the privilege of placing God’s will under scrutiny or of sitting in judgment over it. We are not permitted to find out what God’s will is so that we can subsequently make up our minds about doing it. God has no reason to help anyone discover His will who has no real interest in doing His will. God leads those who are willing to obey.

Who is willing to obey? Certainly not everyone who professes to be willing. While it may not be quite apposite, Jesus’ parable of the two sons (Matt. 21:28-32) certainly teaches that not everyone who professes willingness really is willing. It also implies that not everyone who resists obedience is ultimately unwilling.

So how do we know whether we are really willing to obey God’s will? The answer is clear in the parable. The one who is willing is not the one who professes obedience, but the one who actually obeys. Our willingness to do God’s will becomes evident only by our actual obedience. We are willing to do God’s will if and only if we are obeying God’s will.

How can we obey God’s will before He makes it known? The answer to this question is painfully simple. God has already disclosed His will, or most of it, in a clear and objective manner. The text of Scripture is written to make God’s will known. At minimum, the teachings of the epistles apply directly to Church saints. While we may niggle at some points of interpretation and application, God has certainly made His will clear enough for any believer to follow.

Of course, the Bible does not give us direct, personal guidance for every possible decision. Still, professing that we want God’s leading for unique circumstances while avoiding His revealed will in Scripture is merely pretending. If we are knowingly disobeying God’s revealed will, then agonizing over His individual leading is flat hypocrisy.

Believe me, professing Christians play this game. When I was a pastor I once had a woman come to my study to ask whether God could lead her to marry a divorced man. I told her that Christians take different views of divorce and remarriage, and I tried to give her the categories for making a wise and biblical choice. She was quite upset with even the most relaxed understanding of the biblical text; she saw it as impossibly narrow. Later on I learned that she was already sleeping with someone else’s husband, laying plans to destroy his marriage so that she could capture the man for herself. She never had any interest in doing God’s will, even though she initially pretended to.

Granted, that is an extreme example—but it clarifies the point. God is only interested in leading those who want to do His will. We demonstrate our intention to do God’s will by obeying that part of His will that we already know. The part that we know is revealed in the text of Scripture. If we refuse to obey what we know the Bible teaches, then all talk of doing God’s will rings false.

On the other hand, habitual obedience actually clears up an amazing number of perplexities in the believer’s life. If we are committed to doing God’s will, and if we are actually obeying that part of His will that we already know (because it is revealed in Scripture), we do not worry about what we ought to do under most circumstances. We simply entrust our paths to the God who providentially oversees our lives. We do not agonize in prayer, for instance, before deciding whether to breakfast on Kellogg’s Corn Flakes or Post Toasties.

The principle here is really rather simple. If you want to know God’s will, then you must begin by doing God’s will. Your obedience to what you already know is the outward exhibition of a heart that genuinely wishes to follow God’s leading.

This essay is by Kevin T. Bauder, Research Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Central Baptist Theological Seminary. Not every one of the professors, students, or alumni of Central Seminary necessarily agrees with every opinion that it expresses.

Jesus, Still Lead Ond

Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700–1760); tr. Jane Borthwick (1813–1897)

Jesus, still lead on till our rest be won.
And, although the way be cheerless,
We will follow, calm and fearless;
Guide us by Your hand to our Fatherland.

If the way be drear, if the foe be near,
Let not faithless fears o’ertake us,
Let not faith and hope forsake us;
For, through many a woe, to our home we go.

When we seek relief from a long-felt grief—
When oppressed by new temptations,
Lord, increase and perfect patience.
Show us that bright shore where we weep no more.

Jesus, still lead on till our rest be won;
Heav’nly Leader, still direct us,
Still support, console, protect us,
Till we safely stand in our Fatherland.