Learn how to receive God’s daily guidance. By faith in the Spirit’s direction, we can know whether to turn right or to turn left spiritually. We’ll know how to live daily.
Welcome to the Two Journeys podcast. This is Sanctification Monday, and my name is Andy Davis. In this podcast, we seek to answer the question, what is spiritual maturity? We believe that spiritual maturity can be broken into four main sections, knowledge, faith, character, and action. Now today, we’re going to complete our focus on the section of faith, and we’re going to specifically talk about reception of spiritual guidance. Now, when we think about guidance, we think about a journey that has to be traveled, and that’s the general kind of image we’re giving in our Two Journeys ministry. There are two journeys in the Christian life, the internal journey of sanctification: of growth and grace and the knowledge of Christ, personal holiness. And Sanctification Monday is focused on that internal journey. The external journey is gospel advanced through evangelism and missions.
Now the journey language is supported richly in scripture. Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). So, Christianity in the early days was called the Way. So, there’s a journey to be traveled. We even get this sense of, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and last, the beginning and the end” (Revelation 22:13). There’s a journey to be traveled here. Now as with any journey, we need to know the way. How can we know the way? How can we know direction? Now in my adult lifetime, one of the greatest inventions that’s come along, and it’s been very refined now to the point where it’s just wrapped up in any smartphone. But originally, I had a Garmin, a GPS, global positioning system, directional device that I stuck with a suction cup to my windshield. Now we just have it on the smartphones, and some cars even have a GPS locator built into the dashboard.
And by means of this, we no longer need to get directions from friends anywhere. You used to have to call and get directions. You’d know how to give directions to your home. I remember stopping at gas stations when I was younger, when I was a kid, we’re going on a long trip, and we’d have to get folding maps of the states we were going to. When my friend and I, after I graduated from MIT, we went cross country to LA where he was beginning a job in the aerospace industry, we got something called a trip tick, it was a trip ticket, in which I think AAA planned out our whole trip for us. Interstate-90, basically across the northern part of the country, stopped at all kinds of sites along the way, made it to Seattle and down the coast. It was a beautiful trip. But we wouldn’t have known where to go if it wasn’t for that. But now with these smartphones, you’ve got a GPS system or with cars, and that GPS enables us to have guidance physically along the roads.
when we die or the second coming of Christ, then our time here in this world will end and our need for faith will end.
Well, think about that now when it comes to the journey that we’re talking about here. The journey from when we are converted in Christ to when we are no longer alive in this world, when we die or the second coming of Christ, then our time here in this world will end and our need for faith will end. Faith is temporary. We’ll not need faith in heaven. Faith has to do with things hoped for and things not seen. And we’re going to see Christ face-to-face in heaven, and we’re not going to be hoping for anything. We’ll be there. We’ll have already all the promises of God. So, faith is temporary, but we need it while we’re here. And that faith operates as a GPS, a guidance system for us in life.
Now, we need this guidance in the internal journey. We need to know how to make it from point to point. And we’re talking about a spiritual journey. So, we’re talking about mortification of sin, putting sin to death. We’re also talking about specific good works that God wants us to do. There are all kinds of things. And we don’t necessarily know which way to go. But beautifully, in the book of Isaiah, it says, “A highway will be there, it will be called the way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it. It will be for those who walk in that way. Wicked fools will not go about on it.” Isaiah 35:8, and it says in Isaiah 30:21, “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it.'” Now that is so powerful, isn’t it?
That voice inside us is the Holy Spirit. By faith in the Spirit’s direction, we will know whether to turn right or to turn left, spiritually. We’ll know what to do and where to go. Now, my wife, when she uses her GPS system, she likes to have a British woman voice that’s connected with her smartphone. I don’t like listening to the actual statement, “In one mile, turn left.” But we’ve got that kind of an internal voice in us that guides us in the internal journey of holiness. And this is so vital for us because Jesus said in John 10:27, “My sheep listen to my voice. I know them, and they follow me.” We believe that Jesus speaks to us by the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us. As it says in Romans 8:9, “The Spirit of Christ in us testifies with our spirits that we are children of God.”
Now, this kind of spiritual guidance is talked about throughout the Bible, sometimes in even some of the most famous passages of scripture. Maybe you never thought about it before, but think about the 23rd Psalm, “The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” So that internal journey of holiness is a guidance for the name’s sake of the Lord in paths of righteousness. We need this guidance because the world is full of all kinds of pitfalls and traps that Satan has set up for us. And we can’t see them. We’re not aware of them. We’re really born yesterday and know nothing, it seems. But Satan’s been at this for millennia.
And Paul says, “We’re not unaware of his schemes,” 2 Corinthians 2:11. How is it, then, that we are so aware of the devil’s schemes? Well, it’s because the Lord guides us. He directs us. He shows us which way to walk in. He says, “This is the way, walk in it.” Do not go that way. Don’t turn to the right or to the left here but walk in the straight and the narrow way. Think about temptation that happens to us. The apostle Paul said, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. But God is faithful, and he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear, but with the temptation will make a way of escape so that you can bear up under it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). So that’s very practical. You’re in the midst of an actual tempting situation, and the Lord shows you how to get out of it without having sinned. He’ll show you a way of escape.
Like when Joseph left his garment in Potiphar’s wife’s hand and ran for his spiritual life (Genesis 39:12). That was the way of escape. We need that kind of internal guidance system for our holiness. That’s the internal journey guidance system. In terms of the external journey, of missions, of evangelism. We need guidance for that too. And the Lord has promised to guide us. He gives us spiritual guidance on strategy and specific ministries and mission opportunities that we should take. He guides us in this, and it’s vital for us. Again and again, we should seek the Lord. We should ask God, what is your will for us? Think about David before he became king. Again and again, he had the habit of asking, should I do this? Should I do that? Even militarily, should I go up to this city or if I go there, will they hand me over to Saul?
And the Lord spoke to him and said, “They will hand you over, so don’t go into that city.” And so, he pulled out of it. Should I attack? Should I follow them? Will we be successful in getting our wives back and all of the loot that the raiding party has taken? “You should pursue, you will be successful.” So, he did, and he won. So, David continually sought the Lord’s face, sought guidance.
Conversely, in 1 Chronicles 10, we have the tragic account of the death of wicked King Saul who did not consult the Lord, did not ask him for guidance, did not ask him what should I do? But actually, he inquired of a medium for guidance, a witch, and went to the occult for guidance. And it says, tragically, Saul died, 1 Chronicles 10:13-14, “Saul died because he was unfaithful to the Lord. He did not keep the word of the Lord and even consulted a medium for guidance and did not inquire of the Lord. So, the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David, son of Jesse.”
That stuck with me the first time I noticed that. It’s even more striking when you realize Saul actually committed suicide, fell on his own sword in the midst of a lost battle when he was seriously injured. And yet 1 Chronicles 10 says the Lord put him to death. Fascinating. But beyond that, it says, why? Because he didn’t inquire of the Lord. So, I said, “Oh God, may I never be that independent. May I always ask you what do you want me to do. Give me wisdom, give me guidance. How can I serve you?” We see the same thing in the New Testament, after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the day of Pentecost, Jesus said in Acts 1:8, “You’ll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes in you, and you’ll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” So that’s the external journey. That’s what we’re called on to do, to take the name of Christ to lost people across the street and across oceans.
The question is, what am I supposed to do? What’s my part of that great glorious work? What do you want me to do? And so, we see not only will we receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on us, but we’ll receive wisdom, we’ll receive guidance. And so, in the Book of Acts, again and again, we see the Holy Spirit giving specific points of guidance for missions, for evangelism. Clear example happens with Philip, one of the seven sometimes called the first deacons, but he was a godly man who did a great preaching ministry, sometimes called Philip the Evangelist. And in Acts 8, the Holy Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot of the Ethiopian eunuch, go and stay near it. Go down to the desert road.” He went to the desert road, along comes an Ethiopian eunuch. Go stay near that chariot. And he had a phenomenal opportunity to lead this Ethiopian to faith in Christ. He was reading Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah 53. The Holy Spirit orchestrated the whole thing.
We see the same thing again in Acts 13:2 when the Holy Spirit said at the church in Antioch, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Paul’s first missionary journey. And he went over to Cyprus, and he and Barnabas started planting churches. And then up to Asia minor, modern day Turkey, and they planted churches there. And the Holy Spirit was consistently guiding them. And then on the second missionary journey, which Paul made with Silas, they got to a certain point in Acts 16 when they didn’t know where to go. It says,
Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. And when they came to the border of Mycenae, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Holy Spirit would not allow them to. So they passed by Mycenae and went down to Troas.
And during the night, Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave from Macedonia concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. Acts 16:6-10.
It’s a clear example of the guidance I’m talking about here, how the Holy Spirit blocked them in one place, blocked them in another, rendered them pretty much motionless. They’re praying, they’re seeking God’s direction. Don’t go east, don’t go north, go west. Go to Greece. Go to Macedonia. And so, God led them into the Greek peninsula there, eventually down to Athens and Corinth, and he was guiding them. He was guiding Paul on his missionary journey. And so, we see this again and again, the Lord speaking and directing.
So how does God guide us in both the internal journey and the external journey? Well, let’s talk about first some common forms of guidance. It’s not always going to be the case that there’ll be dramatic interventions and spectacular forms of supernatural visions, dreams, angelic visitations. We’re not actually expecting, it’s not the norm. It does happen from time to time in the Bible. We shouldn’t expect it. More commonly, I think we find that the Lord speaks to us in what is described in 1 Kings 19:12 in the KJV as a still small voice. A quiet voice inside our hearts after we’ve prayed. We’re seeking the voice. Lines up with scripture, lines up with our interests, lines up with wisdom we’re getting from other Christians. So, it’s not on its own, but we have a sense of the Lord guiding us, a sense of the Lord leading us.
Such impressions must always be tested by the word of God because most cults have started from this kind of private impressions, but we can’t discount them. We can’t say they’re not biblical. We can’t say this kind of reception of spiritual guidance is dangerous. Therefore, we shouldn’t think that this is part of the Christian life because there’ve been so many excesses and aberrations and cult leaders that have followed the internal voices. We understand all that, but still, the still small voice is a reality. And even more significant is James 1:5-8, which says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt. Because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind that man should not think he’ll receive anything from the Lord. He’s a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.”
if you lack wisdom, you should ask God, and you have to believe he will guide you.
In other words, if you lack wisdom, you should ask God, and you have to believe he will guide you. That’s why I have this reception of spiritual guidance in the faith section. It is a matter of faith to know what direction God wants you to go in. So, let’s see how practical this is. This might relate to who you should marry. Maybe you’re in a relationship with somebody, they meet the criteria. It’s a believer, so could be that this person will be your spouse. There are some other factors, but it’s a big decision. Other than following Christ, maybe the most important decision you’ll ever make in your life. How can you know whether this person’s the right one or not? And so therefore, we should ask God. We should pray. Definitely we should ask advice from Christian parents, good friends that have known us our whole lives, pastors, we should get input. But we should definitely inquire of the Lord. Shouldn’t be like Saul who didn’t inquire of the Lord. We should ask God for wisdom.
Same thing with getting a job maybe in another city, going on a mission trip, different aspects of our Christian lives. I remember a number of years ago when I was still working as an engineer. I wasn’t in vocational ministry yet. I was taking classes at Gordon-Conwell at night. And there was a young woman in our church, her name was Kim. And a number of members of our church, it was a small church plant near Gordon-Conwell Seminary up there in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. And they were going on a ten-week mission trip to Kenya. And I was certainly aware of that trip, but Kim came up. I didn’t know her that well, we weren’t close, but she was a member of the church.
She said, “Andy, we’re going on a mission trip this summer to Kenya.” It was the summer of 1986. I said, “I know Kim, I’ll be praying for you.” She said, “Have you thought about going?” I said, “No.” She said, “Why not?” I said, “Because it’s for 10 weeks. I’d have to quit my job. I only get two weeks of vacation a year.” She said, “Have you prayed about it?” I said, “No.” And then she looked at me with this look on her face, and I’ll never forget what she said. “You shouldn’t act like you know. It’s not your life, you know? And the scripture says, ‘You’re not your own. You’re bought at a price.’ You should ask God.” I said, “All right, Kim. I will pray about quitting my job and going on a short-term mission trip.” I thought it was ridiculous, but I was trying not to, I was just trying to be kind to her. I knew what the answer was, or at least so I thought.
A week passed; I didn’t even think about it. I basically made a false promise to her. But suddenly get up for church, Sunday morning, I was having my quiet time before church. And the Holy Spirit, I believe spoke in my heart and said, “You told Kim you would pray about that mission trip.” I said, “All right.” So, I was on my knees. I said, “Lord, do you want me to quit my job as an engineer and go to Kenya?” And I had an overwhelming sense that that’s exactly what he wanted me to do. There’s no doubt in my mind. It was just a strong sense from the Lord. I said, “Well, Lord, what do you want me to do when I get back? I’ll be unemployed.” And then a strong sense, “Part two is I want you to go to Gordon-Conwell full time and get your Master of Divinity and go into vocational ministry.”
That was a major fork in my road, and it was because a church member had challenged me to pray about something. It was a biblical thing to pray about, and I followed the still small voice of the Lord. And I’ve never looked back. That was a major watershed in my life. So, there’s going to be aspects, there’s going to be ways that the Lord will guide you. He may give you a burden from the Lord. Where Paul said (Romans 15:20), it’s always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ wasn’t named so I wouldn’t be building on someone else’s foundation. Paul wanted to go to frontier places and plant churches. Not everybody’s going to be called to do that. Other people are going to be called on to be an overseer in our local church. Or to stay put in your own hometown and work hard with your own hands so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders. There are different callings in life.
Beyond this, he’s going to give you spiritual gifts that will line up to your calling. He’s going to show you by means of your gifts, what you’re supposed to do. Romans 12:1-8 talks about presenting your body as a living sacrifice and don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, and then you’ll be able to test and approve what God’s will is for you. There’s guidance in that. You look at your gifts, you look at what you love doing, and then that dictates a lot of the ways that you serve the Lord. Also along with it, he’s going to give you providential signs. Things are going to line up. I remember when I went on that mission trip to Kenya, there were so many things that were happening, not just Kim and that prayer time, but I decided I didn’t want to raise support. My real reason is I was a coward. I didn’t want to make phone calls to raise support for the mission trip. And I’d saved a lot of money as a mechanical engineer, so I thought I’ll just pay for it.
But the Lord strongly convicted me that that was not what I should do. I wasn’t any better than any other people, the other college students that were raising support. That I should do it too, and that I should actually use money I would’ve used for myself and use it for other people. I remember that. It was amazing. So, I contacted the church. It was a very missions-minded church in Lexington, Massachusetts, Grace Chapel. Told them what I was doing. The missions pastor there, Paul Borthwick, godly man, said that they would see if the Lord led them to support me. And I’ll never forget, there was one individual who was raising support and having a lot of trouble raising support. And so, I prayed, and the Lord guided me to give a cashier’s check in a certain amount, it was a very strange amount. It was not divisible by 5 or 10. It was just an odd number. I’ll never forget that, a prime number.
So, I did what the Lord led me to do. And about three days later, I got a phone call from Paul Borthwick, and he said that Grace Chapel was going to support me. And I thought it was going to be a certain amount. It was way more than I ever thought they’d support me for. A very healthy percentage of the full amount I was raising. But when he told me the amount, I couldn’t believe it. It was the exact same amount I had just done on the cashier’s check for the other guy. It was one of the holiest moments in my life. It was just a confirmation, providentially. I didn’t tell Paul anything about the cashier’s check for the other guy. I said, “How did you come to that number?” He just laughed and he said, “We have a certain amount we give to short-term missions. We look at need and we pray about it and the Lord leads us. And so, that’s the number.” It’s like, wow. It was such a confirmation that I was doing what the Lord wanted me to do.
So, there’s going to be this kind of guidance, but by far the most certain guidance we will ever have comes directly from scripture. The more you saturate your mind in scripture, the more you follow what the scripture says to do, the more clearly we will have a sense day-to-day and big picture what the Lord’s calling us to do. We just know it by saturating our minds in scripture.
we memorize scripture, as we read scripture now, we’re actually preparing right now for a key decision we’ll make 10 years from now.
So, I think as we memorize scripture, as we read scripture now, we’re actually preparing right now for a key decision we’ll make 10 years from now. We’re just saturating our minds in scripture. And more and more we will develop a scriptural mindset, a mature mindset based on scripture. Beyond that, the more we sacrificially obey the Lord, the more we will know his will, the more he will open up his will to us and disclose his mind to us. Jesus said in John 14:21, whoever has my commands and obeys them, he’s the one who loves me, and whoever loves me will be loved by my father, and I too will love him and manifest myself to him or disclose myself. I will open myself up to the obedient Christian. So, the more sacrificially you obey, the more you’re just going to know what God wants you to do.
I want to close with a great illustration of this. One of the godliest, most courageous servants in the 19th century was George Muller, who was a Prussian man who came to live in England. He was a pastor in England, and he felt led by the Lord to start caring for orphans and got more and more into orphan care. And in the end, when his career was done, when his life was over, he had cared for more than 10,000 orphans. He was incredible. Well, this was a man that had cataloged, written down in disciplined Prussian style, 50,000 specific answers to prayer. Again and again, trusted God specifically for things in prayer. He was a man that was just so far beyond any Christian I know today in terms of receiving spiritual guidance, knowing what God’s will is, just knowing what God’s doing. Well, anyway, in 1877, he was crossing the Atlantic on the steamship Sardinian.
He was getting to North America. He was going to go to Canada first, and then he was going to go down and meet the American President. Everybody knew about George Muller; he was a very famous man. Well, about halfway across the ocean there was a thick fog, and rather than decades later what the Titanic did was churning full speed ahead, but because of icebergs, the captain shut everything down. Well, George Muller went to see the captain. The captain knew who he was. Then George Muller said, “Captain, I must tell you, I have to be in Quebec by next Tuesday.” And the captain said, “That’s impossible because of the thickness of the fog.” And Muller said to the captain, “My eye is not on the fog, but on God who controls and orchestrates every detail of my life. Let’s go down to the chart room and pray.”
The captain must have thought this guy was out of his mind. What does prayer have to do with fog? So, he went down to the chart room. There were no windows down there. They just started to pray. And George Muller prayed a typical, simple, childlike prayer concerning the fog. The captain dutifully began to pray like any Christian man would, and Muller stopped him, said, “Stop.” He said, “First of all, you don’t believe that God will. Second of all, I believe God already has moved the fog. And so, there’s absolutely no need for you to pray. You may go up and look, the fog has lifted.” How in the world did he know that? They were still down in the chart room. Because God communicated his plan and purpose to Mueller. Now, did Mueller move the fog? No. Did Mueller’s prayer move the fog? Yes and no. God moved the fog, but he did it in answer to prayer.
So, it says in James 5:17-18, “Elijah was a man just like us, just normal like us. But he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it didn’t rain. Again he prayed, and the earth rained.” Now the heavens rain, and the earth produces crops. James 5. Here’s the thing. The more obedient we are, the more God’s going to disclose his purpose and his intentions to you, and you’ll have a higher and higher level of certainty in your Christian life. So today we have talked about reception of spiritual guidance as part of faith. The more mature in faith you are, the more certain you will know what God wants you to do. And as we conclude today, I want you to go into your week knowing that God has gone ahead of you and will be using everything you experience this week to sanctify you and bring you more and more into conformity to Christ.
Welcome to the Two Journeys podcast. This is Sanctification Monday, and my name is Andy Davis. In this podcast, we seek to answer the question, what is spiritual maturity? We believe that spiritual maturity can be broken into four main sections, knowledge, faith, character, and action. Now today, we’re going to complete our focus on the section of faith, and we’re going to specifically talk about reception of spiritual guidance. Now, when we think about guidance, we think about a journey that has to be traveled, and that’s the general kind of image we’re giving in our Two Journeys ministry. There are two journeys in the Christian life, the internal journey of sanctification: of growth and grace and the knowledge of Christ, personal holiness. And Sanctification Monday is focused on that internal journey. The external journey is gospel advanced through evangelism and missions.
Now the journey language is supported richly in scripture. Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). So, Christianity in the early days was called the Way. So, there’s a journey to be traveled. We even get this sense of, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and last, the beginning and the end” (Revelation 22:13). There’s a journey to be traveled here. Now as with any journey, we need to know the way. How can we know the way? How can we know direction? Now in my adult lifetime, one of the greatest inventions that’s come along, and it’s been very refined now to the point where it’s just wrapped up in any smartphone. But originally, I had a Garmin, a GPS, global positioning system, directional device that I stuck with a suction cup to my windshield. Now we just have it on the smartphones, and some cars even have a GPS locator built into the dashboard.
And by means of this, we no longer need to get directions from friends anywhere. You used to have to call and get directions. You’d know how to give directions to your home. I remember stopping at gas stations when I was younger, when I was a kid, we’re going on a long trip, and we’d have to get folding maps of the states we were going to. When my friend and I, after I graduated from MIT, we went cross country to LA where he was beginning a job in the aerospace industry, we got something called a trip tick, it was a trip ticket, in which I think AAA planned out our whole trip for us. Interstate-90, basically across the northern part of the country, stopped at all kinds of sites along the way, made it to Seattle and down the coast. It was a beautiful trip. But we wouldn’t have known where to go if it wasn’t for that. But now with these smartphones, you’ve got a GPS system or with cars, and that GPS enables us to have guidance physically along the roads.
when we die or the second coming of Christ, then our time here in this world will end and our need for faith will end.
Well, think about that now when it comes to the journey that we’re talking about here. The journey from when we are converted in Christ to when we are no longer alive in this world, when we die or the second coming of Christ, then our time here in this world will end and our need for faith will end. Faith is temporary. We’ll not need faith in heaven. Faith has to do with things hoped for and things not seen. And we’re going to see Christ face-to-face in heaven, and we’re not going to be hoping for anything. We’ll be there. We’ll have already all the promises of God. So, faith is temporary, but we need it while we’re here. And that faith operates as a GPS, a guidance system for us in life.
Now, we need this guidance in the internal journey. We need to know how to make it from point to point. And we’re talking about a spiritual journey. So, we’re talking about mortification of sin, putting sin to death. We’re also talking about specific good works that God wants us to do. There are all kinds of things. And we don’t necessarily know which way to go. But beautifully, in the book of Isaiah, it says, “A highway will be there, it will be called the way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it. It will be for those who walk in that way. Wicked fools will not go about on it.” Isaiah 35:8, and it says in Isaiah 30:21, “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it.'” Now that is so powerful, isn’t it?
That voice inside us is the Holy Spirit. By faith in the Spirit’s direction, we will know whether to turn right or to turn left, spiritually. We’ll know what to do and where to go. Now, my wife, when she uses her GPS system, she likes to have a British woman voice that’s connected with her smartphone. I don’t like listening to the actual statement, “In one mile, turn left.” But we’ve got that kind of an internal voice in us that guides us in the internal journey of holiness. And this is so vital for us because Jesus said in John 10:27, “My sheep listen to my voice. I know them, and they follow me.” We believe that Jesus speaks to us by the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us. As it says in Romans 8:9, “The Spirit of Christ in us testifies with our spirits that we are children of God.”
Now, this kind of spiritual guidance is talked about throughout the Bible, sometimes in even some of the most famous passages of scripture. Maybe you never thought about it before, but think about the 23rd Psalm, “The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” So that internal journey of holiness is a guidance for the name’s sake of the Lord in paths of righteousness. We need this guidance because the world is full of all kinds of pitfalls and traps that Satan has set up for us. And we can’t see them. We’re not aware of them. We’re really born yesterday and know nothing, it seems. But Satan’s been at this for millennia.
And Paul says, “We’re not unaware of his schemes,” 2 Corinthians 2:11. How is it, then, that we are so aware of the devil’s schemes? Well, it’s because the Lord guides us. He directs us. He shows us which way to walk in. He says, “This is the way, walk in it.” Do not go that way. Don’t turn to the right or to the left here but walk in the straight and the narrow way. Think about temptation that happens to us. The apostle Paul said, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. But God is faithful, and he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear, but with the temptation will make a way of escape so that you can bear up under it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). So that’s very practical. You’re in the midst of an actual tempting situation, and the Lord shows you how to get out of it without having sinned. He’ll show you a way of escape.
Like when Joseph left his garment in Potiphar’s wife’s hand and ran for his spiritual life (Genesis 39:12). That was the way of escape. We need that kind of internal guidance system for our holiness. That’s the internal journey guidance system. In terms of the external journey, of missions, of evangelism. We need guidance for that too. And the Lord has promised to guide us. He gives us spiritual guidance on strategy and specific ministries and mission opportunities that we should take. He guides us in this, and it’s vital for us. Again and again, we should seek the Lord. We should ask God, what is your will for us? Think about David before he became king. Again and again, he had the habit of asking, should I do this? Should I do that? Even militarily, should I go up to this city or if I go there, will they hand me over to Saul?
And the Lord spoke to him and said, “They will hand you over, so don’t go into that city.” And so, he pulled out of it. Should I attack? Should I follow them? Will we be successful in getting our wives back and all of the loot that the raiding party has taken? “You should pursue, you will be successful.” So, he did, and he won. So, David continually sought the Lord’s face, sought guidance.
Conversely, in 1 Chronicles 10, we have the tragic account of the death of wicked King Saul who did not consult the Lord, did not ask him for guidance, did not ask him what should I do? But actually, he inquired of a medium for guidance, a witch, and went to the occult for guidance. And it says, tragically, Saul died, 1 Chronicles 10:13-14, “Saul died because he was unfaithful to the Lord. He did not keep the word of the Lord and even consulted a medium for guidance and did not inquire of the Lord. So, the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David, son of Jesse.”
That stuck with me the first time I noticed that. It’s even more striking when you realize Saul actually committed suicide, fell on his own sword in the midst of a lost battle when he was seriously injured. And yet 1 Chronicles 10 says the Lord put him to death. Fascinating. But beyond that, it says, why? Because he didn’t inquire of the Lord. So, I said, “Oh God, may I never be that independent. May I always ask you what do you want me to do. Give me wisdom, give me guidance. How can I serve you?” We see the same thing in the New Testament, after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the day of Pentecost, Jesus said in Acts 1:8, “You’ll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes in you, and you’ll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” So that’s the external journey. That’s what we’re called on to do, to take the name of Christ to lost people across the street and across oceans.
The question is, what am I supposed to do? What’s my part of that great glorious work? What do you want me to do? And so, we see not only will we receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on us, but we’ll receive wisdom, we’ll receive guidance. And so, in the Book of Acts, again and again, we see the Holy Spirit giving specific points of guidance for missions, for evangelism. Clear example happens with Philip, one of the seven sometimes called the first deacons, but he was a godly man who did a great preaching ministry, sometimes called Philip the Evangelist. And in Acts 8, the Holy Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot of the Ethiopian eunuch, go and stay near it. Go down to the desert road.” He went to the desert road, along comes an Ethiopian eunuch. Go stay near that chariot. And he had a phenomenal opportunity to lead this Ethiopian to faith in Christ. He was reading Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah 53. The Holy Spirit orchestrated the whole thing.
We see the same thing again in Acts 13:2 when the Holy Spirit said at the church in Antioch, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Paul’s first missionary journey. And he went over to Cyprus, and he and Barnabas started planting churches. And then up to Asia minor, modern day Turkey, and they planted churches there. And the Holy Spirit was consistently guiding them. And then on the second missionary journey, which Paul made with Silas, they got to a certain point in Acts 16 when they didn’t know where to go. It says,
Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. And when they came to the border of Mycenae, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Holy Spirit would not allow them to. So they passed by Mycenae and went down to Troas.
And during the night, Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave from Macedonia concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. Acts 16:6-10.
It’s a clear example of the guidance I’m talking about here, how the Holy Spirit blocked them in one place, blocked them in another, rendered them pretty much motionless. They’re praying, they’re seeking God’s direction. Don’t go east, don’t go north, go west. Go to Greece. Go to Macedonia. And so, God led them into the Greek peninsula there, eventually down to Athens and Corinth, and he was guiding them. He was guiding Paul on his missionary journey. And so, we see this again and again, the Lord speaking and directing.
So how does God guide us in both the internal journey and the external journey? Well, let’s talk about first some common forms of guidance. It’s not always going to be the case that there’ll be dramatic interventions and spectacular forms of supernatural visions, dreams, angelic visitations. We’re not actually expecting, it’s not the norm. It does happen from time to time in the Bible. We shouldn’t expect it. More commonly, I think we find that the Lord speaks to us in what is described in 1 Kings 19:12 in the KJV as a still small voice. A quiet voice inside our hearts after we’ve prayed. We’re seeking the voice. Lines up with scripture, lines up with our interests, lines up with wisdom we’re getting from other Christians. So, it’s not on its own, but we have a sense of the Lord guiding us, a sense of the Lord leading us.
Such impressions must always be tested by the word of God because most cults have started from this kind of private impressions, but we can’t discount them. We can’t say they’re not biblical. We can’t say this kind of reception of spiritual guidance is dangerous. Therefore, we shouldn’t think that this is part of the Christian life because there’ve been so many excesses and aberrations and cult leaders that have followed the internal voices. We understand all that, but still, the still small voice is a reality. And even more significant is James 1:5-8, which says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt. Because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind that man should not think he’ll receive anything from the Lord. He’s a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.”
if you lack wisdom, you should ask God, and you have to believe he will guide you.
In other words, if you lack wisdom, you should ask God, and you have to believe he will guide you. That’s why I have this reception of spiritual guidance in the faith section. It is a matter of faith to know what direction God wants you to go in. So, let’s see how practical this is. This might relate to who you should marry. Maybe you’re in a relationship with somebody, they meet the criteria. It’s a believer, so could be that this person will be your spouse. There are some other factors, but it’s a big decision. Other than following Christ, maybe the most important decision you’ll ever make in your life. How can you know whether this person’s the right one or not? And so therefore, we should ask God. We should pray. Definitely we should ask advice from Christian parents, good friends that have known us our whole lives, pastors, we should get input. But we should definitely inquire of the Lord. Shouldn’t be like Saul who didn’t inquire of the Lord. We should ask God for wisdom.
Same thing with getting a job maybe in another city, going on a mission trip, different aspects of our Christian lives. I remember a number of years ago when I was still working as an engineer. I wasn’t in vocational ministry yet. I was taking classes at Gordon-Conwell at night. And there was a young woman in our church, her name was Kim. And a number of members of our church, it was a small church plant near Gordon-Conwell Seminary up there in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. And they were going on a ten-week mission trip to Kenya. And I was certainly aware of that trip, but Kim came up. I didn’t know her that well, we weren’t close, but she was a member of the church.
She said, “Andy, we’re going on a mission trip this summer to Kenya.” It was the summer of 1986. I said, “I know Kim, I’ll be praying for you.” She said, “Have you thought about going?” I said, “No.” She said, “Why not?” I said, “Because it’s for 10 weeks. I’d have to quit my job. I only get two weeks of vacation a year.” She said, “Have you prayed about it?” I said, “No.” And then she looked at me with this look on her face, and I’ll never forget what she said. “You shouldn’t act like you know. It’s not your life, you know? And the scripture says, ‘You’re not your own. You’re bought at a price.’ You should ask God.” I said, “All right, Kim. I will pray about quitting my job and going on a short-term mission trip.” I thought it was ridiculous, but I was trying not to, I was just trying to be kind to her. I knew what the answer was, or at least so I thought.
A week passed; I didn’t even think about it. I basically made a false promise to her. But suddenly get up for church, Sunday morning, I was having my quiet time before church. And the Holy Spirit, I believe spoke in my heart and said, “You told Kim you would pray about that mission trip.” I said, “All right.” So, I was on my knees. I said, “Lord, do you want me to quit my job as an engineer and go to Kenya?” And I had an overwhelming sense that that’s exactly what he wanted me to do. There’s no doubt in my mind. It was just a strong sense from the Lord. I said, “Well, Lord, what do you want me to do when I get back? I’ll be unemployed.” And then a strong sense, “Part two is I want you to go to Gordon-Conwell full time and get your Master of Divinity and go into vocational ministry.”
That was a major fork in my road, and it was because a church member had challenged me to pray about something. It was a biblical thing to pray about, and I followed the still small voice of the Lord. And I’ve never looked back. That was a major watershed in my life. So, there’s going to be aspects, there’s going to be ways that the Lord will guide you. He may give you a burden from the Lord. Where Paul said (Romans 15:20), it’s always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ wasn’t named so I wouldn’t be building on someone else’s foundation. Paul wanted to go to frontier places and plant churches. Not everybody’s going to be called to do that. Other people are going to be called on to be an overseer in our local church. Or to stay put in your own hometown and work hard with your own hands so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders. There are different callings in life.
Beyond this, he’s going to give you spiritual gifts that will line up to your calling. He’s going to show you by means of your gifts, what you’re supposed to do. Romans 12:1-8 talks about presenting your body as a living sacrifice and don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, and then you’ll be able to test and approve what God’s will is for you. There’s guidance in that. You look at your gifts, you look at what you love doing, and then that dictates a lot of the ways that you serve the Lord. Also along with it, he’s going to give you providential signs. Things are going to line up. I remember when I went on that mission trip to Kenya, there were so many things that were happening, not just Kim and that prayer time, but I decided I didn’t want to raise support. My real reason is I was a coward. I didn’t want to make phone calls to raise support for the mission trip. And I’d saved a lot of money as a mechanical engineer, so I thought I’ll just pay for it.
But the Lord strongly convicted me that that was not what I should do. I wasn’t any better than any other people, the other college students that were raising support. That I should do it too, and that I should actually use money I would’ve used for myself and use it for other people. I remember that. It was amazing. So, I contacted the church. It was a very missions-minded church in Lexington, Massachusetts, Grace Chapel. Told them what I was doing. The missions pastor there, Paul Borthwick, godly man, said that they would see if the Lord led them to support me. And I’ll never forget, there was one individual who was raising support and having a lot of trouble raising support. And so, I prayed, and the Lord guided me to give a cashier’s check in a certain amount, it was a very strange amount. It was not divisible by 5 or 10. It was just an odd number. I’ll never forget that, a prime number.
So, I did what the Lord led me to do. And about three days later, I got a phone call from Paul Borthwick, and he said that Grace Chapel was going to support me. And I thought it was going to be a certain amount. It was way more than I ever thought they’d support me for. A very healthy percentage of the full amount I was raising. But when he told me the amount, I couldn’t believe it. It was the exact same amount I had just done on the cashier’s check for the other guy. It was one of the holiest moments in my life. It was just a confirmation, providentially. I didn’t tell Paul anything about the cashier’s check for the other guy. I said, “How did you come to that number?” He just laughed and he said, “We have a certain amount we give to short-term missions. We look at need and we pray about it and the Lord leads us. And so, that’s the number.” It’s like, wow. It was such a confirmation that I was doing what the Lord wanted me to do.
So, there’s going to be this kind of guidance, but by far the most certain guidance we will ever have comes directly from scripture. The more you saturate your mind in scripture, the more you follow what the scripture says to do, the more clearly we will have a sense day-to-day and big picture what the Lord’s calling us to do. We just know it by saturating our minds in scripture.
we memorize scripture, as we read scripture now, we’re actually preparing right now for a key decision we’ll make 10 years from now.
So, I think as we memorize scripture, as we read scripture now, we’re actually preparing right now for a key decision we’ll make 10 years from now. We’re just saturating our minds in scripture. And more and more we will develop a scriptural mindset, a mature mindset based on scripture. Beyond that, the more we sacrificially obey the Lord, the more we will know his will, the more he will open up his will to us and disclose his mind to us. Jesus said in John 14:21, whoever has my commands and obeys them, he’s the one who loves me, and whoever loves me will be loved by my father, and I too will love him and manifest myself to him or disclose myself. I will open myself up to the obedient Christian. So, the more sacrificially you obey, the more you’re just going to know what God wants you to do.
I want to close with a great illustration of this. One of the godliest, most courageous servants in the 19th century was George Muller, who was a Prussian man who came to live in England. He was a pastor in England, and he felt led by the Lord to start caring for orphans and got more and more into orphan care. And in the end, when his career was done, when his life was over, he had cared for more than 10,000 orphans. He was incredible. Well, this was a man that had cataloged, written down in disciplined Prussian style, 50,000 specific answers to prayer. Again and again, trusted God specifically for things in prayer. He was a man that was just so far beyond any Christian I know today in terms of receiving spiritual guidance, knowing what God’s will is, just knowing what God’s doing. Well, anyway, in 1877, he was crossing the Atlantic on the steamship Sardinian.
He was getting to North America. He was going to go to Canada first, and then he was going to go down and meet the American President. Everybody knew about George Muller; he was a very famous man. Well, about halfway across the ocean there was a thick fog, and rather than decades later what the Titanic did was churning full speed ahead, but because of icebergs, the captain shut everything down. Well, George Muller went to see the captain. The captain knew who he was. Then George Muller said, “Captain, I must tell you, I have to be in Quebec by next Tuesday.” And the captain said, “That’s impossible because of the thickness of the fog.” And Muller said to the captain, “My eye is not on the fog, but on God who controls and orchestrates every detail of my life. Let’s go down to the chart room and pray.”
The captain must have thought this guy was out of his mind. What does prayer have to do with fog? So, he went down to the chart room. There were no windows down there. They just started to pray. And George Muller prayed a typical, simple, childlike prayer concerning the fog. The captain dutifully began to pray like any Christian man would, and Muller stopped him, said, “Stop.” He said, “First of all, you don’t believe that God will. Second of all, I believe God already has moved the fog. And so, there’s absolutely no need for you to pray. You may go up and look, the fog has lifted.” How in the world did he know that? They were still down in the chart room. Because God communicated his plan and purpose to Mueller. Now, did Mueller move the fog? No. Did Mueller’s prayer move the fog? Yes and no. God moved the fog, but he did it in answer to prayer.
So, it says in James 5:17-18, “Elijah was a man just like us, just normal like us. But he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it didn’t rain. Again he prayed, and the earth rained.” Now the heavens rain, and the earth produces crops. James 5. Here’s the thing. The more obedient we are, the more God’s going to disclose his purpose and his intentions to you, and you’ll have a higher and higher level of certainty in your Christian life. So today we have talked about reception of spiritual guidance as part of faith. The more mature in faith you are, the more certain you will know what God wants you to do. And as we conclude today, I want you to go into your week knowing that God has gone ahead of you and will be using everything you experience this week to sanctify you and bring you more and more into conformity to Christ.
